... "Something of ours? What's he-"

... The Aide is shrugging his shoulders when the President stops himself and motions for the phone. The Aide hands the President the phone. "Hello Sir, this is The President of the United States speaking. What can I do for you?"

... (Woman's voice) "Well sir, its not so much what you can do for me as it is what I can do for you."

... "Uhm, well that's very kind of you. Just what is it that you can do for us?"

... "Well, I thought we'd return your capsule."

... "I'm afraid I don't understand."

... "I'm sure your Air Force has informed you of the object from space that was hurtling at us. Well it washed up here and it clearly says that it belongs to an American research group, The Nelson Institute of Marine Research. Now I realize that this pod, capsule, what ever, didn't come back to Earth as planned but it would have been polite to at least have notified us that we were in the path. Fortunately nobody was hurt but it could, just as easily, struck a building. I thought-"

... The President puts his hand over the receiver. "What the fuck is this girl talking about?"

... "Sir?" It was the NSA on the other cordless phone.

... "Yes?"

... "My information here says that the Nelson Institute of Marine Research is the group run by admiral Nelson of the Seaview submarine and I believe CNN has a live feed of what she is calling "the capsule" right now."

... They turned to the TV monitors and saw the same video that Bob Christleman would in a few minutes in California.

... "What the ..." The President uncovered the receiver and brought it back to his mouth. "Thank you very much Governor. We'd very much appreciate the return of our .. capsule. If you don't mind we'd like to land a C131 and pick it up ourselves if that would be convenient?"

... "Very."

... "I'd also like to assure you that the Falklands were not expected to be in the flight path. As you may have noted this .. vehicle came, returned, at an unexpected speed and we really had no idea that it would threaten any inhabited area. I hope you will accept my apologies and we will make more complete public disclosure when all of the facts are in."

... "I understand and accept your apology sir. I hope we can speak again under better circumstances."

... "I can assure you we will. Thank you Governor." The President turned off the phone and dropped it on his desk.

... The Chief of Staff spoke up. "I'll arrange something for the Governor. Perhaps a visit or trade delegation?"

... The President was nodding, not really listening. "She was right. People are going to assume this thing is ours and they're going to want to know why it landed so close to a population center."

... The Secretary of Defense was on the phone with her assistant but was also listening to the President. She turned towards him. "I don't think the Falkland Islands can be called a population center. In fact if we had an uncontrolled capsule returning from space the South Atlantic is the least populated area on the planet and exactly where I would want to drop it."

... The President nodded and turned to Dick (his Chief of Staff). "Let's play it that way then. Contact the Vice President. Have him handle the NASA people but I want a full explanation ... soonest. I'd like to have a statement to release in three hours if possible."

... "I'll make sure Scott has something to say to the media by press time." And Dick picked up a phone.

... "Rene?"

... "Yes sir?"

... "When are you going to be here?"

... "I'm almost there now sir."

... "Fine. So far we're just doing damage control. I want to know what this thing is. Why it has our name on it and who that idiot is who just came out of it. That's not one of our Astronauts is it?"

... "No sir, I don't believe so. I'm sure NASA knows not so send any Arabs on missions."

... "That's not the man Tomas sent either is it?"

... "I'm not, no sir. That's not the man Tomas sent."

... "Then who the falk is he?"

... "I don't know sir but we certainly will find out. I'm going to make sure we have some of our people on that C131. We'll take him into .. protective custody."

... "Good. This makes us look like idiots. And find out what the hell he meant by "them." We can beat who?"

... "Well sir, considering the trajectory. I'd say "who" is clear."

... There was a long period of silence. Barbara and Dick looked up at the President as they realized he'd stopped speaking and wasn't listening to Rene either.