Читать книгу Overturned - Rothilda von Rotortod - Страница 5

When the rejuvenation pill was launched on the planet Kadohan, it was foreseeable that resources would no longer be sufficient for everyone in the near future. Admittedly, a law regulating reproduction was passed immediately and procreation was completely switched over to artificial insemination. Nevertheless, it was clear that in the years to come – if reproduction was not to be completely abolished – a replacement planet for the coming generations would have to be found.

As a result of extensive cosmic explorations, the choice finally fell on the planet Earth. Firstly, it was relatively easy to reach for the Kadohanian spaceships. And secondly, the planet had interesting raw material deposits and also offered ideal conditions for permanent settlement.

The only problem was: Planet Earth was already populated. If the Kadohanians wanted to use it for their own population, they either had to reach an agreement with the dominant species or displace them.

As a result of a reconnaissance mission that was conducted undercover on Earth, the first alternative was classified as unrealistic. The Earthlings, the members of the exploration team unanimously reported, were an extremely aggressive species that would rather destroy their own planet than share it with others. In addition, the Earthlings themselves were said to be quickly-multiplying and to overstress the colonisation capacities of their planet, too.

So for the Kadohanians exactly that became a problem what made the earth attractive for them. Just because the planet offered ideal living conditions for them, the dominant species there was very similar to them in constitution and temperament. Living together and sharing resources proved to be difficult or even impossible.

In the end, therefore, only the second, invasive approach remained. This, however, was associated with logistical problems that could not easily be solved either. As the fact-finding mission had shown, the Earthlings had an extremely effective arsenal of destructive weapons at their disposal. Even if the Kadohanians' own protective shield was supposed to neutralise this deadly potential, there was still the danger that the Earthlings would be driven to the extreme by the attack and make the planet permanently unusable with their weapons.

The only way to stop the Earthlings from this self-destructive act was to prepare the invasion long in advance and then implement it so quickly and effectively that the attacked would have no time to fight back. However, the Kadohanian fleet of spacecraft could hardly pass unnoticed through the radar screen that the exploratory mission had detected around Earth. The stealth mode, which worked tolerably for a single small space glider, reached its limits here. At the latest during the landing approach, the existence of the spaceships could no longer be concealed – and would then provoke the feared counterattack.

To make matters worse, the spaceships had to land in very specific, strategically favourable places to nip the Earthlings' resistance in the bud – namely in the vicinity of the more densely populated areas where the landing manoeuvre was particularly difficult to manage. Therefore the landing sites had to be marked accordingly. Thus towers with an altitude of at least 100 meters were needed, in order to indicate the landing sites by strong flashing signals.

The reconnaissance mission had also revealed that the engines of the large transport spaceships would heat up excessively on entering the Earth's atmosphere. In order to minimise the risk of explosion during the landing process, it was decided to cool the engines beforehand. For this purpose, giant propellers should rotate at the top of the towers. They were also expected to have an antiiconographic function, so that the spaceships would look like a swarm of meteorites from Earth.