Despite a tightening in his chest, Dan tried to focus on the point that the beings he considered the smartest in the universe, if not quite omniscient, seemed adamant that he was the man to help. He was a human with alien powers; seen as an alien by his fellow humans just minutes earlier and surely a human to be viewed as decidedly alien by the struggling residents of New Kerguelen.
“Terry,” he called, speaking out loud for the first time in several minutes. “Time to go.”
As Terry complained about having just got there and not having seen much, Dan’s mind fell silent.
The invitation to help was as humbling as the stakes were intimidating, but Dan McCarthy’s mind was made up: the Messengers had come all this way to ask for his help, and the least he could do was give it a shot.
V minus 3
Stevenson Farm
Eastview, Colorado
With a clear next move in mind at last, Dan McCarthy stepped out of the cornfield and returned to the view of the gathered crowd. No others had crossed the scorched line of the circular forcefield he had generated and removed, likely due to how prominent that line remained, but all eyes turned to Dan and Terry as they emerged with a Messenger walking just a few paces behind them.
The other Messenger remained with Clark, who was firmly enforcing a more remedial exclusion zone of his own with help from his colleagues in the police force. This Messenger had the benefit of being able to gauge the thoughts and intentions of those around it and was thus relatively relaxed, sensing that their curiosity and interest came with no negativity attached. It seemed to feel particularly comfortable next to Clark, gladly sticking by his side due to the protective aura he exuded.
“They want us to go with them,” Dan whispered, reaching Emma and Tara at the edge of his circle. He raised a hand, non-threateningly, to encourage everyone else to give him some space. “Just the two of us. The Elders are dead, and New Kerguelen is in trouble… there’s some kind of problem with their atmosphere and there’s a total power vacuum without the Elders there to make the big decisions. The Messengers want to use our arrival on New Kerguelen to bring everyone together if that ends up being necessary, just like all the early alien revelations kind of brought everyone on Earth together for a while."
“Jesus,” Tara said. Emma didn’t say anything out loud, but Dan heard a similar reaction in her thoughts.
“But here’s the thing,” he went on, “the Squadron came here to get help, too. They actively distrust the Messengers because of what happened with the Elders, those Elders aren’t there to keep the Squadron in line like they used to, and the Squadron think their enemy’s enemy is their friend. They used the triangles to bring our divisions into sharp focus, and they saw Jack as the antithesis of me — the Messengers’ conduit — so that’s why they’re talking to him. We’re back to the old thing of trying to understand alien psychology while they’re acting on their own limited understanding of ours, but this is the gist of it. I’ll explain everything later, or they will, but right now I’m worried about the Squadron having access to weaponry we can’t imagine and Jack Neal offering to help them if they do what he wants. It’s what he might want them to do that bothers me, because you said it best: that man is a virus.”
“We need to get the police or ELF security guys to stop Jack from talking to the Squadron any more than he already has,” Tara said, interjecting with a very valid point.
“We do need to stop him from talking to them before he gives them any dangerous suggestions or before they take him to New Kerguelen,” Emma replied, “but not like that. He could just tell them the police are hostile, the security forces are hostile, and that anyone else who tries to interrupt is hostile. We need him to be willing to hang back, and the only way to do that is via Cole. If Cole can convince him it’s more beneficial to play a long game and see what happens with us before they commit to anything, at least that would give us an opening. The Squadron’s ships are casting long shadows and people are worried, which gives Jack power as their conduit. And let’s be real… he’s a coward and the last thing he’s going to care about is helping them, so he’s probably not about to give up his new-found spotlight and power on Earth to get in a spaceship and blast off to a world he knows nothing about. Again, though, he has to be the one deciding this… all we can do is get Cole to push him in that direction to make sure. So that’s all I can think of right now; if Cole manages to frame it in a way that makes Jack think it’s better to wait here while we go to New Kerguelen, we have a chance of avoiding any flashpoints. I’ll tell Cole there’s a way for everyone except Jack to save face at the end of this, and we’ll work that part out later.”
Dan gulped, struggling to even follow Emma’s plan let alone evaluate it. The one great positive, which he had never really questioned but was still glad to hear, was that she was absolutely on board with the idea of travelling an unknown distance to an unknown world for the greater good.
Just like it was for him, Emma’s urge to help the Messengers on New Kerguelen and simultaneously diffuse the powder-keg situation on Earth was sufficiently compelling to drown out all fears about the risks of such a mission.
“Don’t worry — I’m overwhelmed, too,” she said, reading Dan’s expression and still talking aloud so that Tara would hear, too. “I didn’t explain it right, but I’ll only tell Cole what he has to know. I’ll deal with that, you deal with this…”
Emma looked over at the crowd and the cameras, prompting Dan to do the same.
“Say they need our help,” she went on, “but don’t mention anything about the Squadron or their motives, okay? If in doubt, it’s better to say too little. That’s what I’ll be doing; we can always add to it, but we can’t take words back if we say too many.”
“Relying on John Cole,” Dan mused, almost but not quite a question. He didn’t know what else to say, and neither did Emma or Tara.
Emma stepped inside the car for some privacy and picked up her phone to tell Cole what she wanted him to do, counting on the hope that the level of betrayal he felt towards Jack would carry him through. She thought that Jack’s concealed working relationship with the GeoSovs was bound to sting Cole, a man with a famously short temper and one whose hatred of the GeoSovs was not just for show, to the extent that the risk of him telling Jack about this plan — which would have been catastrophic — felt truly minimal.
Tara stayed beside the car while Emma called Cole, but Dan stepped away to address the anticipatory crowd who had been waiting patiently for the last minute or so.
Terry was already talking to news reporters about what he’d seen inside the craft — or more to the point what he hadn’t seen, which was to say anything but near-total whiteness — and the two Messengers were now reunited in silent discussion next to Clark.
A glance in any direction presented one surreal sight or another, but all eyes focused once again on Dan.
“The Messengers need our help,” he began, booming out the words due to the size of the crowd when in reality their silence made doing so unnecessary. “They want to take me to New Kerguelen to help with a problem. The other aliens could be asking Jack the same thing, and despite all of our differences I hope he goes, too. We owe this to the Messengers.”
This part came to Dan only as he said it, but he didn’t regret it. His gut said that Emma probably wouldn’t have approved, but for all he knew she might have; for now, her position inside the car from which she was reaching out to John Cole meant that she wasn’t even aware he’d said it.
Despite being content with these words, however, Dan endeavoured to be more careful. No one had to know too much, and he considered that prettifying the truth to reduce tension probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.
“The Messengers and their misguided friends have come here in their time of need,” he continued, prettifying more than a little with his use of the term ‘misguided friends’, “and we have a positive duty to do all we can to help. I don’t know exactly what they want me to do, but
the only thought in my mind is that they came here on Contact Day when I called them in Earth’s hour of need. They saved us from a problem that had nothing to do with them, and they asked nothing in return. Now, we have an opportunity and a duty to pay them back. They only want two of us to go, so there is no option for broad or international representation. To Ding Ziyang and John Cole I want to make it as clear as possible that we will not step into that spacecraft as representatives of the United States or the GCC. We are human beings first, second, and third: representatives of our species, our planet, and nothing else.
“There have been some misunderstandings of late,” Dan went on, “both between and within our two species, but today we put that right. To William Godfrey and Valerie Slater I want to say thank you for supporting my efforts to build a bridge to the ELF before these complications burned it down, and to the people of this planet I want to say stay calm and remember that our only threat comes from ourselves. These aliens are not our enemies… and once we’ve assisted them with the problem they’re facing, our two species — moving past our temporary factional disagreements — will step forward together into a brave new future as the best of friends.”
Clark took it upon himself to applaud, not reactively but rather in the hope others would follow.
They did.
“Clap,” Dan said without speaking, sending the suggestion to the Messengers.
They did.
The sight of the two alien beings awkwardly mimicking this decidedly human action was perhaps the most surreal of the day, particularly since their hands lacked multiple recognisable fingers.
The imagery was strong, however; and as Emma stepped out of the car, already looking sufficiently relaxed to suggest that she’d gotten through to Cole and that he’d been receptive of her message, she smiled broadly at the scene before her.
“The medical tests the Messengers promised to undergo are going to have to wait,” Dan said, not overly disappointing anyone, “because it’s time for us to go.”
Some of the gathered crowd cheered now, perhaps enlivened and excited more at the prospect of the growing problems on Earth being solved by Dan’s mission rather than at the prospect of the aliens’ problems being solved. Most saw how fully the two were interconnected, though, and were simply glad that there appeared to be something Dan could do.
No one was more glad of this than Dan himself, having loathed the feelings of helplessness that had circled like vultures in his gut until the Messengers’ belated return. He called the Messengers forward and they came without hesitation.
“How long is this going to take?” Clark asked, walking with them. He directed the question at Dan, knowing he would be the one to get the answer back from the Messengers.
Dan took several seconds listening to their answer and clarifying with some follow-up questions before turning back to Clark. By now, Emma was well within earshot, too. “Whatever happens, you guys won’t feel like we’re gone for more than a few days at most,” he said, confident that this was true even if he didn’t fully understand it yet.
Emma turned to face Clark and Tara. “You two are going to need to follow your gut when we’re gone. Talk to Timo before doing anything if something comes up, okay? He’s always on our side and he’s probably on the way out here now, stuck in the traffic that’ll be backed up right into the city.”
They both nodded, listening attentively.
“I’ve told Cole you both know everything and are in a position to advise him if he needs help,” she continued. “He picked up this time so I actually spoke to him… he’s fixing to rip Jack’s head off for working with the GeoSovs behind his back, but he’s going to play dumb and make sure Jack doesn’t tell the Squadron to do anything stupid. Oh yeah… if you do feel like you have to make any public comments, don’t talk about ‘the Squadron’. That’s not a word we want to be out there.”
It crossed Dan’s mind to suggest that Emma should perhaps stay behind to deal with all of the things she was making sound a lot simpler than they would be for anyone else, but he stopped himself upon considering how important she would doubtless prove in his own exceptionally intimidating task.
But as Emma took a step forward towards the cornfield, ready to leave and get to New Kerguelen and back as quickly as possible, one of the Messengers placed a firm hand on her shoulder to stop her.
“Huh?” Dan asked, instinctively reacting out loud to a statement from the Messenger that took him completely by surprise. “What are you talking about? Emma’s older than me!”
“Thanks…” she said, briefly glancing at Dan then back to the Messenger who was now holding rather than merely touching her shoulder.
“I’m talking about what they said,” Dan explained. “One of them said ‘no, not her,’ and the other one said ‘the child will not survive’. I don’t even know what…”
Dan trailed off at precisely the same moment it hit everyone else.
Tara’s gasp was the loudest by far.
“I’m pregnant?” Emma asked, quietly but firmly seeking absolute confirmation of something that was far too important to leave to assumption.
Dan turned to the Messenger for the two seconds this took, then faced Emma once more. “We’re having a baby!” he gleefully announced.
They shared an emotional embrace, with the vast majority of the crowd utterly oblivious to what was going on.
Emma wiped away a tear as they separated and the warm smile slowly faded from her face. “But I guess that means you’re going without me.”
V minus 2
United Nations Headquarters
Manhattan, New York
“It was once imagined that these streets would be abuzz with activity in any contact scenario,” an aspiring student journalist spoke into her phone’s camera as it captured the otherwise deserted area outside the UN building in New York.
“The original Global Shield Commission was born in the building behind me, when a perceived alien threat brought the governments of the world together like never before. Today, events in China, in Cuba and in Colorado tell the story of a planet divided to an extent few would have believed back then.
“Our visitors, who so famously stepped in during our own time of need, are in trouble. The first visitors to depart in the opposite direction will carry a responsibility and burden unmatched in human history, bearing the weight of not one world but two.
“Dan McCarthy would surely be the emissary of choice for anyone but the most rabid contrarian, but his decisive Messenger-beckoning intervention on Contact Day seems to pale in comparison to the scale and complexity of this mission.
“Together with the Messengers, Dan McCarthy achieved the seemingly impossible in saving Earth from the relentless and fatal path of Il Diavolo. A year later, the world today holds its breath as they depart in the hope of preventing disaster on New Kerguelen. Their success now appears to present our only hope of cooling down a tempestuous showdown between East and West that threatened to break out into a costly military conflict even before an imposing alien squadron made its presence known above conspicuously chosen sites.
“It may be reckless to speculate that the Messengers have experienced bitter political division like our own, but with the recent arrival of physically similar beings adorning different uniforms — not unlike the contrast between the human security forces who surround them in each location — that does appear to be the case.
“Whatever comes next, however, one thing is certain: as the streets behind me lie empty, the nations of the world stand united in hope.”
V minus 1
Stevenson Farm
Eastview, Colorado
“I can’t leave you,” Dan said, holding Emma’s hand. “Not now. Not when I know—”
“You have to,” she interrupted. “If we want a future at all, you have to fix this. I know you want to help them but that’s not the main thing… helping them is how we help ourselves. Helping them is how we get rid of the Squadron before someone l
oses their nerve and smashes the button to start a nuclear war. Helping them is how we deal with Jack once and for all, and helping them is how we make sure this child has a world to grow up in.”
Dan exhaled deeply; he knew she was right, and that was the worst part.
“I’ll come with you,” Tara chimed in, surprising everyone. “Clark, you have to stay with Emma — and I mean with her, at all times — in case anyone tries to do anything like they did to me. But I want to do this. I need to do this. I’m not some helpless victim; I can help and I want to. I want to help pay them back for saving us on Contact Day, and you can bet your ass I want to pay Jack back for what he did to me. When this is finished, so is he… so let’s get started.”
Emma and Clark shared a long, thoughtful look.
“I want her to come,” Dan said. “Tara is way better at reading social cues and stuff like that than I am, and I trust her like I trust myself.”
Tara smiled beside him. “Thanks.”
“Will they even let you go?” Clark asked. “They’ve never spoken to you. And are you definitely sure that you’re not, you know…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Tara said, her chuckle introducing a much-needed moment of levity. “That’s the one kind of test I have a one hundred percent record of passing!”
“And she is allowed,” Dan added, having already silently asked the Messengers. “They’re glad to have her on board.”
Tara looked into the cornfield. “On board…” she mused, an innocent expression of wonder breaking through the tension and pressure of the moment. “On board an alien spaceship…”
“They’re telling me it’s time,” Dan relayed to the others. He turned to Emma and they took a few steps to the side to talk privately.
The Final Call Page 34
