I think that the quarantine on the 34th and 26th FIST and Kingdom is unrealistic and frankly stupid. The high enchelon leaders inteh Confederation are doing the people of the universe wrong. Since no one knows how to find skinks or evidence of their passing, they might get slaughtered. Stepping up manpower on the outer worlds wont do anything. there is only a certain area the military can investigate on a planet. i think such a quarantine is unrealistic. eventually more people will find about the Skinks. the Confederation cant quarantine whole worlds.
I cant wait to see where this web of coverups all comes tumbling down. it should make for an excellent story. until next time, enjoy reading starfist, i know i will.
Goodnight
Unrealistic? Maybe. But what would happen if a US military outfit had an unforeseen episode of contact (and combat) with an actual UFO, and the higher ups realized what had happened? You think they wouldn't do something similar? I know of no such situation, but I do know that my USAF brother was involved in some very highly classified activities while stationed in the eastern Med, which he was not allowed to talk about -- until the fall of the Soviet Union. If he had talked about it, and the higher ups had discovered it, you can bet he would have been arrested and might still be in Leavenworth to this day. The US does not have Darkside, nor the draconian laws that permit a sentence by a summary "court" to life-without-parole, but the strictures on revealing classified information are still there.
I do believe you are right about the coverup coming back to seriously bite the Confederation government in the butt.
The interesting thing is that the skinks appear to be not too interested in making themselves all too obvious. With their superious stardrive they are perfectly capable of hitting Earth or any other planet of the Confederation. In fact, a multiple stike with well-placed nukes could do a great deal of damage to the organizational infrastructure (the government) of the Confederation. Even without a planetary assault behind it. This would result in widespread panic and the danger of the government collapsing, even if the attacks were not recognized as alien in origin. One wonders what the dear old skinks are trying to do -- what is their ultimate goal? And their motivations -- most worlds populated by humans are not swamp-worlds, which would seem to be the most desirable to them.
Mike
As a reply to mclark's first point, yes, it would be realistic to quarantine an outfit if the had alien contact. But, the Skinks are appearing on mulitiple worlds. It isn't just one place they have been spotted, they have been seen in mulitple places. I think it is unrealistic to quarantine multiple places. Whatr are you gonna do if they spread towards the center of the Confederation planets, draw the NO CROSSING tape across dozens of worlds? And that goes for the military forces defending people. Are they going to quarantine the whole military? this what I see as unrealistic. Not a military outfit who dealt with aliens only once twice.
you also make a good point when you say the Skinks could strike at the heart of the Confederation at any time.
Anyways...... it should make for a great book ;-)