It was my first time entering the emergency operations center. They filled it with important national security advisers and important heads of executive departments. So why am I even here in the first place?

As I was thinking this, the president entered the room and sat at the head of the table.

"Okay everyone, what do we have so far?"

The secretary of defense stood up.

"For now, we have not run into any hostiles. Our scanners and sensors have not picked up any aircraft above any U.S. territory or state. For now, all military installations are on high alert, including state and local coast guards. And with your permission, we would also like to lock down the country so that only allowed personnel can leave and enter the country."

"You mean to restrict public boat and air travel?"

"We would prevent international travel. Domestic flights would still occur, but I will prevent international boat travel."

"Will this be enforceable?"

"If we really want to, then yes."

"I will give the okay on that. However, what of our military bases?"

"No word yet Mr President, we can only assume they vanished like all the other countries. If this is true, we can only assume that nearly 200,000 service members have gone missing. However, this happened right when a significant portion of our service members were rotating out, so it might be less. But we are still figuring out the exact numbers."

The president was silent in contemplation and spoke in a solemn voice.

"First, make sure we have tried all of our options. Our number one priority is to get those men and women safe at home. If we truly cannot contact them, then we must prepare for the largest casualty count since the Vietnam war."

"Yes, Mr President. We will do all we can to see if we can make any contact."

"Good, now what's next on the list."

"Mr President, after a few hours, we could finally put together a rough map based on photographs."

He prompts a map onto the screen in the emergency operations center.

"As you can all see, similar to the documents you each received about an hour ago, the world is significantly different. We have further discovered that to our south, instead of a continent, we now have identified a chain of islands. They are quite big, but it does not connect them to the continental U.S."

"Do people live on those islands?"

"For now, we have identified some inhabitants, however they don't seem to have any capabilities to communicate via telecommunications. But for now, we are keeping tabs on them."

"What of the north?"

"To our north is a vast forest uninhabited. However, our military has set up a rough preliminary border in the north.”

"Why is that?"

"We have identified some hostile animals which look sort of like bears, but not really."

"What?"

"What I mean to say is that they are unlike anything we have seen before. But these, "bear" like creatures are hostile to people and can be quite dangerous. I suggest we set up a hard border to prevent them from spilling over."

"Secretary of the interior, what is your opinion on this issue?"

"Mr president, so far there has been no reports of these bears in the U.S. except limited reports in the state of Montana. If we set up this hard border, it will prevent an invasive and hostile species from entering. However, it appears these animals are quite problematic."

"How so?"

"We see them in herds and attacks everything it sees. Its beyond just a normal animal. It seems as if it lives to only kill. It would be very dangerous to let these animals into the U.S. for now."

"What is your proposed solution?"

"For now, Mr. President, we are proposing a fence which stretches from the Pacific and Atlantic ocean.”

"Will this solution work? You just said that these creatures are vicious?"

"These animals do not seem to attack the fences, they merely move away. Its different if it sees another person behind it, though. We would have to enforce an exclusion zone from the fence."

"Then do it. Secretary of energy, how is the surveying going up north?"

"Mr president, fortunately we have found some oil up north, but it is lower than we expected. With the amount of oil, I could only see it fueling our economy for another decade. Plus, with these aggressive creatures harassing the excavation, it is increasingly difficult to extract the oil."

"So what you are saying is that we need to find another source?"

"Yes, Mr President. If we leave things as is, this country won't survive to see the next decade. Unless we want to build nuclear power plants every week starting now."

"What about the ocean?"

"We are still surveying the ocean. It will take time. But for now, the economy is going to take a hard hit."

"Not like finding oil is the major problem right now." The secretary of commerce stood up.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Mr President, right now the markets are haywire. No one will invest or buy in these uncertain times. We can only expect job loss to grow and an impending recession to follow."

"What is the federal reserve doing?"

"They are going to start extensive open market operations to lower interest rates. They are planning to buy up trillions of dollars in U.S. treasury bonds and some billions of dollars of ETFs, corporate bonds, and mortgage-backed securities to throw money into the economy."

"What is the fed setting the reserve interest rate?"

"Near 0% Mr President. Although they don't really want to enter negative interest rate territory. We are also working to set up a loan system to loan out free money to groups who are hit the hardest by the trade shock. But even with these measures, we could enter a recession."

"Is there any recommendation?"

"Setting up trading relations with other countries will get us into the right direction. If we cannot export or import necessary goods, then our gross domestic product is likely to stagnate or decrease.”

"Are there any major industries to worry about?"

"The most obvious ones are farmers. Exports and imports of agricultural products add up to around 85 billion dollars in trade. Exports being around 48 billion and imports being around 38 billion dollars. The major reason they are heavily affected is because of inter-industry trade."

"And that means?"

"The agriculture sector does not export corn and import corn, it only exports corn and imports like coffee or something."

"So I guess we will have many angry farmers who cannot sell their corn."

"And soybeans, and many other crops. They might end up just sitting somewhere to rot. But we could always buy them later if we really need to. However, manufacturing is different."

"How so?"

"Since manufacturing does intra industry trade, its harder to target firms who are suffering from the trade shock. This is mainly because while the U.S. did import nearly 178 billion dollars worth of cars, we also exported nearly 51 billion dollars worth of cars. We would have to look at how profit was made in certain companies to get just how much they lost due to the trade shock."

"Mr president, I suggest we just apply aid to all major exporters and importers."

"Do it, we cannot be reserved about this. But make it mostly cheap loans. They were lobbying for a free market, let's give it to them."

"Yes, Mr president."

The secretary of state stood.

"Mr president, I advise that we start diplomatic relations with other countries in this "new" world. If we stay isolated like this, our economy is only going to sour."

"Your right, do you have any foreign policy in mind?"

"We are going to put economic security above national security at the moment. Our economic security is too compromised to simply brush aside at the moment."

"So who are our options right now?"

"So our intelligence has gathered that there might be some countries to the west of Guam."

A map appeared which showed the various settlements.

"I assume we haven't discovered the other countries’ borders yet?"

"We haven't, we can only identify them by their settlements. And that is, if they even identify themselves as a country. But, we have identified one place of interest.”

He points to the large landmass to the west of Guam.

"We recommend this island point of contact. The first is that having a foreign power close to Guam can cause some security concerns. However, it also serves as a good jumping off point for diplomatic relations."

"When can we begin the diplomatic mission?"

"If we move soon, we can do it in two to three days, Mr. President."

"Do we have any measures for language barriers?"

"We have prepared to ship out a variety of translators to Guam for the diplomatic mission. I am prepared to go as the head of the state department to make first contact."

"Secretary of Defense, do we have any security concerns for our diplomatic envoy?"

"Although we only have preliminary results from our intelligence gathering, we have guessed that these inhabitants seem to have a technological gap between us. However, it's possible they have hidden weapons of destruction somewhere. For safety, we will launch an aircraft carrier strike group nearby. Hopefully, out of sight."

"Hmm, be sure not to provoke them though. We do not want to be seen as aggressors and start a war we cannot do right now.”

"Of course Mr President."

"Now, secretary of state, how will we get you to that island near Guam?"

"For now, boating from Guam seems to be our best option. From images taken of the island, we could not identify any landing strips to get there. Our best bet is to fly a convoy of armored cars to Guam and to load them onto a boat."

"Sounds like a plan. Are you planning on taking any trading products with you?"

"Yes, since this is a new world, we are assuming the crops may also be different. Considering this, we will bring along an assortment of goods and services to show off. If we can convince them to trade, then we are off to a good start. It will be problematic if they don't though."

"Set up relations so that the two of our countries can start trading."

"Yes, Mr president."

Finally, I stood up.

"Mr president, I also have some interesting news to report."

"And you are?"

"I am the new head of the new world research agency which was established nearly a day ago."

"Ah yes, tell me what have you got."

"Mr President, the animals up north seem to possess some supernatural powers unlike anything we have seen up to this point."

"How so?"

"Their bodies don't seem to rot away. Instead, they just vanish."

"What? How is that possible?"

"We view it as a possible new characteristic of this world. Since we have contacted no peoples from this world, it still keeps us in the dark. I recommend that we include this as a topic in the negotiations."

"Yes, I also think this is important. Secretary of state, be sure to include that in your negotiations. We need to know as much as possible about this unknown world.”

"Of course."

"Secretary of Health and human services, you look like you want to say something."

"Yes, I do, Mr President." He stood up quickly while ruffling a bunch of documents on the table.

"Mr president, we need to be careful about spreading or contracting diseases with this new world. It's possible that there are unknown contagions which could decimate the country and of the country we are starting contact. As much as possible, we need to take this slowly and carefully so we do not spread a disease or contagion."

"So what you are telling me is that while we need to contact other nations as fast as possible, we also need to somehow prevent diseases from spreading?"

"Yes, Mr President."

The President contemplated.

"Take all precautions as necessary. Secretary of state, do not conduct more diplomatic missions unless its approved by me and the secretary of health and human services. We don't need a disease to worsen our already perilous situation."

"Of course."

"Thank you, Mr President."

"Now then, do we have any more concerns with the diplomatic mission to the island northwest of Guam?"

No one protested.

"Then it seems like we have a plan. We will contact all of you when we receive news of the diplomatic mission then."

The president left the room and everyone talked while the state secretary was making some phone calls. Everyone was moving to get the bureaucracies moving.

Finally, a first step into this "new world". I wonder if everything will go smoothly.