Grant got to the Situation Room and made his way to his reserved chair at the end of the long table. The Joint Chiefs are there, as are the heads of the CIA, FBI and Homeland Security. The most intimidating by far is five-star Admiral Porter. William is one of a group seated in chairs against the wall, taking notes on his clipboard.
"Mr President, we told the press that it was an advanced weapons test that misfired. So there's no mass panic yet." The Press Secretary said.
"Good, then let's solve this thing before there is," Grant said and as soon as he sat down, it seemed like everyone started talking at once.
"Mr President, clearly Pakistani's drone technology has far surpassed ours—"
"There's no way we could have missed that. This has Moscow's fingerprints all over it—"
"Nonsense! I suspect a North Korean black ops sideshow."
Grant sighed as they continued ranting about what could been attacking the base. "I have a theory." Grant started and everyone immediately shut up. "I think, based on analysis of the footage, that preliminary indications are that we were attacked by..." Grant trailed off, not wanting actually embarrass himself.
"By who, Mr President?" The CIA Chief asked.
"Galaga," Grant mumbled under his breath. Suddenly, there's intimidating silence for a beat. William stops taking notes. Then...
"Well then let's blow Galaga to hell. Who's Galaga?" Admiral Porter asked. A young blonde guy, a junior aide then speaks up.
"Um, it's an old-timey video game 80s kinda folks like my dad used to play." The junior aide said. Grant gestured to the junior to continue explaining about the game. As the junior fumbles through an answer, the Secretary of the Navy is talking a little too loud to the President's Assistant.
"Well, it's like, alien ships swarms in a symmetrical manner and rain light on, like, your guy——"
"Just turkey, plain turkey... Do they have chipotle mayo?... Is it fat free? Can I get it on the side then?"
"Hold on a second. Joe, are you really ordering a sandwich in the middle of a national security meeting? Our base in Guam literally attacked by someone might be not a human at all just tonight!" Grant shouts angrily. Joe immediately look down out of embarrassment as everyone in the room have eyes on them.
"I'm sorry, Mr President. Your assistant just asked what we wanted. I figured we were gonna be here for awhile." Joe said. Grant sighed, groaned and turned to his assistant with annoyance.
"Just get us a bunch of turkey sandwiches, okay? Exception for Joe, also go get what he just asked for." Grant said.
Eddie still in the Oval Office on Grant's chair, watching the footage of the attack again and again to confirm his suspicion. Then he sees something and pauses the footage. He studies closely.
Back at the Situation Room, William make his turn to speaks. "Mr' President, there's no nation on earth that has the military technology to simply... pixelate entire buildings——" Both Admiral Porter and Joe decided to cut in.
"Except North Korea!"
"Forget North Korea! I think we're looking at a cutting edge multinational enterprise- an NGO, a think tank, even corporation. We're thinking North Korea when we should be thinking Google."
"So we should blow up Google!" Everyone stops talking when he hear a knocking on the door of the room and opened just to reveal Eddie shyly entering the room. Grant sighed in relief when he saw Eddie while William just confused to see the same guy that set up his gaming station at his house.
"Are you guys already figuring out the attack?" Eddie asked as he fully walked into the room still wearing his orange jumpsuit. The admiral asked who Eddie is while Joe taught it was the sandwich guy.
"Um... this is my childhood bestfriend who is an expertise with arcade games when we were kids and he's also works in the tech sector."
"So, he's a system expert?" Joe asked.
"Sounds systems actually." Eddie corrected him.
"Caltech? MIT?" The junior asked.
"Yeah, I did go there but it was the Mississippi Institute of Technology. You give me two beer cans, some duct tape and a nine-volt battery, I swear I'll make you a working blow dryer." Eddie said, now feel a bit comfortable in a room that is almost filled with intimidating men.
"More to the current point, Mr Saucedo was the National Galaga World Champion. He knows everything there is to know about this game. So Eddie, did you got something that might help up about the attack in Guam?" Grant asked.
"Well, the Galaga that attacked us actually doesn't exist anymore."
"But you can still download it on your phone for a buck or two." The junior interrupted and everyone looked at Eddie right now. Eddie take a few deep breaths as he realized he was in a lion's den now.
"Well, not this version of Galaga, jocky. The Galaga that exists now, which you can download off the internet, came out in 1986. But this, is from the original 1982 arcade version. Those machines were recalled and reprogrammed because of glitches in the original code, You can tell by the way the giant space swoop in." Eddie explained as he pointed at the footage on the big screen in the room.
"So someone designed these 'space bugs' after an old out-of-print version of a video game from 30-40 years ago that no one today would know? But how and why?" William asked and Eddie was about to reply but Admiral Porter cut in.
"I'm sorry, is this a National Security Council meeting or a dorm room drug party? Our nation has been attacked by an unknown military force and we must respond swiftly and decisively. If it got out to the press that we were pinning the blame on an old counter game, they wouldn't just lose faith in you, Mr President, they'd impeach you! So I suggest the man in the orange jumpsuit leave the room immediately, so those of us with proper attire and government positions can discuss our options!" The Admiral Porter yelled and everyone turned to Grant.
"Um... Yeah, you're right. Sorry, buddy and thanks for the help. You can go home, Ed." Grant said with a melancholic smile. Eddie nods and salutes the various people and backs out.
"Honoured to be your service, Mr President and everyone else," Eddie said as he stepped out of the room and walked down the hallway, heading to the parking lot. He then got to his van 10 minutes later since he had quite a struggle since the place was quite big. He takes out his key and about to unlock his car when his phone rings.
Instinctively, he takes out his phone from his pocket and picks up the call. "Nerd Patrol for your service. What can I do for you?"
"Eddie, it's me." A woman's voice said. Eddie looked back at his phone to see it was Gabby.
"Gabby! What's up, mami? Need anything?" Eddie asked to his now-fiancé.
"Nothing. Just want to check on you. You promised to come for dinner and it's late." Gabby said from the call. Eddie glanced outside of the parking lot to see there was a red sun.
"Oh yeah. I know but Grant called me to the White House. I'll tell you when I get home. Okay?"
"Okay. I'll wait. See you soon then."
"Okay. Te amo. Bye-bye." Eddie said, making a kiss sound and then hanging up the call before got on his van.
Eddie slid into the driver's seat of his van and started the van before he drove out of the property. As he drives down the road heading home, he doesn't notice that there is someone else in the van. It's Gaege Gibson, looking as odd as he did when he was a kid but also gained a little bit of glow-up.
"Hey, Eddie," Eddie screams and instinctively gives Gaege a backhand punch in the face. Gaege falls back but then tumbles forward, hit his head on the handle as Eddie slams on the brakes, almost driving off the road. Eddie grabs Gaege by his shirt, about to drag him out but then he recognises him.
