Footfall by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

without. I have been a good manager, and I have earned my place. A good place, with my son safely established in the Ministry of Trade, and my daughters well married, one grandchild in Moscow’s Institute of International Relations…
    And now this.
    At least I shall be the first to inform the Chairman. Marina, Marina, I did not approve your choice of a husband, but I see I was wrong. It was a good day when you met Pavel Aleksandrovich Bondarev. A very good day.
    He pushed back his chair and stood, and feeling very weary, went down the ornate hall to the office of the Chairman.
    The biggest story in history, and David Coffey was president when it happened. Aliens, coming here!
    He sat at the center of the big table in the Cabinet Room. The others had stood when he entered, and didn’t take their seats until he was settled. It upset David, but he’d become used to it. They didn’t stand for David Coffey, but for the President of the United States.
    Coffey was aware that at least half the people in the room thought they could do the job better than he could, and one or two might be right. They’d never get the chance. Not even Henry Morton. The political writers all like to talk about Henry being ‘a heartbeat away from the Presidency,’ but I never felt better in my life. The Party wanted Morton as Vice President, but he’ll never have a clear shot at this chair.
    David was a little in awe of the Secretary of State. Dr. Arthur Hart had written a best-seller on diplomacy, made a fortune trading in overseas commodities, and was a favorite guest on the TV talk shows. Hart’s face was probably better known to the average citizen than the President’s. But he’ll never sit here either. Hasn’t enough fire in his belly. He’d like to be President, but he hasn’t the killer instinct it takes to get high elective office.
    David looked around the table at the others. Certainly Hart was the most distinguished man in the room. It wasn’t an overwhelmingly distinguished cabinet.
    “I don’t think I have it in me to be a great president,” David had told his wife the night he was elected. When Jeanne protested, David shook his head. “But then I don’t think the country wants a great president just now. The nation’s about worn out with great this and great that. I can’t be a great president, so I’ll just have to settle for being a damned good one — and that I can manage.”
    And so far I have. It’s not a great cabinet, but it’s a damned good one.
    “Gentlemen. And ladies,” he added for the benefit of the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior. “In place of our regular agenda, there is a somewhat pressing item which the Chief of Staff will explain to you. Jim, if you will …”
    “It’s just plain damned crazy,” Peter McCleve said. “Mr. President, I will not believe it.” He turned toward the President in his place at the center of the big conference table. “I simply do not believe it.”
    “You can believe it,” Ted Griffin said. The Secretary of Defense spoke directly to the Attorney General, but he talked mostly for the President’s benefit. “Peter, I heard it just before I came over.”
    “Sure, from the same people who told Dawson,” McCleve said.
    “They do seem to have checked it thoroughly.” Ted Griffin was a big man, tall and beefy and built like the football player he’d been. He looked as if he might shout a lot, but in fact he almost never did.
    “You accept the story, then?” the Secretary of State asked.
    “Yes.”
    “I see.” Arthur Hart put the tips of his fingers together in a gesture he’d made famous on Meet the Press. Constitutionally, the Secretary of State was the senior Cabinet officer. In fact he was the fourth most important man in the room, counting the President as top. Numbers two and three (the order was uncertain) were Hap Aylesworth, Special Assistant to the President for Political Affairs, and Admiral Thorwald Carrell.
    “Assume