The Final Call

by Craig A. Falconer

  That was déjà vu he didn’t want but couldn’t avoid, he figured, but it suddenly occurred to him that none of that had to happen quite yet.

  “Can you take us home?” he asked, his eyes lighting up as the idea struck. “Like, just put us inside so no one knows? Then we can see Emma and Clark, talk about everything, see where can go from here… all before anyone else knows we’re back. Obviously if there are any problems out there and I need to show up right away I will, and it’ll be better because I’ll know what I’m stepping into and Emma can help out.”

  “Definitely that,” Tara seconded. “Can we do that?”

  The Messenger closest to their seats gave its now familiar nod.

  Tara stood up. “But first, can you put my brain back to normal like you said you would?”

  “Me too,” Dan requested without missing a beat, taking both Tara and the Messengers by surprise. “You guys are cool, but I want to be human again.”

  The Messenger nearest Dan looked intently into his eyes. “Are you sure? We cannot guarantee that we would be able to perform the process again should you change your mind.”

  “I won’t,” he said. “I want to be human. But with active cooperation and diplomatic relations in place, we’ll be able to develop external translators by working together, anyway. Soon, language won’t be a barrier at all.”

  With no further attempt to dissuade Dan and no attempt at all to dissuade Tara, the Messengers gave each of them the same apparatus that had been used to deliver their mental upgrades in the first place.

  “I didn’t even test my telekinesis,” Tara said, suddenly realising.

  Her Messenger stopped.

  “No, keep going,” she smiled. “I don’t want to test it, I was just thinking. I want to be human, too.”

  Dan nodded in support of her decision. He hadn’t liked the feeling of generating the forcefield or even catching Emma’s falling drink on the plane… in every way, it felt like the wrong kind of power.

  After enduring some painful but manageable sensations in their necks and fingers while their upgrades were deactivated, for lack of more appropriate terminology, Dan and Tara sat back down at the Messengers’ request.

  “This next part is gonna be so cool,” Tara said, positively beaming with excitement.

  Dan looked over at her and smiled. She had helped enormously — crucially — but primarily he was just glad to see her looking so happy. She had been through far more than anyone ever should and had come out of the other side not only still standing, but standing proud and standing victorious.

  “It sure is,” Dan replied. “It sure is.”

  V plus 7

  Ford Residence

  Birchwood, Colorado

  After a sudden flash they seemed to feel as well as see, Dan and Tara found themselves sitting on Tara’s bed.

  “Hooooome,” she sighed, sounding more joyous than relieved as she threw her head back onto what struck Dan as far too many pillows.

  The next thing either of them heard was Rooster barking on the other side of the door.

  “We should wait,” Dan said. “He might get a fright if we open up. Emma or Clark are bound to hear him and be here any second.”

  While he waited, Dan lifted his phone from his pocket. The battery wasn’t even half depleted, which confirmed the Messenger’s answer about them only having been gone for less than a day even before he saw the date and time.

  He then loaded up the ACN app to take a look at the news headlines for an insight into what had happened in their absence and how everything was being reported, but the door swung suddenly open before he learned anything.

  Rather than Emma, they saw Clark. His expression transformed in two distinct steps: first from fear to surprise, and then from surprise to relieved amusement. “Planning on coming outta there anytime soon?” he laughed from the doorway.

  Emma was at his side within a few seconds, and then inside the room within a few more. “I don’t know what you did, but it worked!” she told them, grabbing both at once for a reunion group hug.

  Clark was crouched in the doorway, comforting Rooster even though his fear had this time faded as soon as he saw who was behind the door; the old dog’s knack for sensing alien interventions was as strong as ever, but he seemed to be less distressed each time and now apparently reacted primarily to alert his human friends rather than to express his own discomfort.

  “So what’s the story?” Clark asked. “Are the Messengers gone?”

  Dan explained the situation as succinctly as he could, starting with the last part about the Messengers currently hovering safely out of sight above the cornfield and having agreed to send Dan and Tara home until they felt ready to return to the craft for a more public arrival.

  “That is perfect,” Emma said. “In fact that is so perfect I couldn’t have picked anything any better! I had an idea and this makes it better… this makes it so much more impactful.”

  “What is it?” Tara asked.

  Clark interjected: “Forget that, what happened on New Kerguelen? The Squadron just up and left all of a sudden and no one knows why. Jack is in custody in Havana and none of the big guns have made any public comments except to say they’re eagerly anticipating your return. Godfrey and Ding issued a joint statement saying that, because I think they’ve realised that no one can come out of this with any credibility unless they eat humble pie together — that way they don’t lose face relative to each other, you know? Yesterday is going to live forever in everyone’s memory but people don’t want chaos and division like that ever again… people in China, people here, people in Vanuatu and wherever the hell else you want to mention. You can check out the statement and everything, but first you need to tell us: what happened out there?”

  “It was amazing,” Tara gushed. “At the end we saw all of the little aliens at school, and we had to talk to the planetary council to convince them that the Messengers were trustworthy and that humanity can help them. Their problem is this big thing they call the Great Shelter… it keeps them safe from the environment outside, which has been getting worse, and the Shelter is falling apart but they don’t know how to fix it. They were totally dependent on the Elders because all of their decisions have been— and oh my god the Elders were machines!” she shrieked, interrupting herself. “Supercomputers, built forever ago by their ancient ancestors. What was it you said, Dan, technocratic? It was crazy.”

  The overwhelmed expressions on Clark and Emma’s faces reflected this craziness, which was even harder to handle when it all came at once rather than one revelation at a time as it had for the visiting duo.

  “So you had a fun trip?” Emma laughed, unsure where to start. “I’ll tell you what though, Tara… why don’t you fill Clark in on that right now, and I’ll talk to Dan about this idea I have. Because we don’t have all that much time, and if this is going to have any chance of working I have to start putting it together pretty much right now.”

  Clark sat down on Tara’s bed, indicating his agreement with the plan. Their interaction immediately before her departure had changed the way he saw things between them, and the look in Tara’s eyes suggested that he wasn’t alone in that regard.

  “So the main thing to know about the Messengers and all the other groups — which I’ll get to — is that they were totally dependent on the Elders for everything,” Tara said.

  Dan listened to the first part of her excited rundown as he very briefly scrolled through news headlines on his phone. He took delight in seeing an image of Jack Neal in handcuffs; no one had ever deserved it more.

  “Like, think about if someone’s phone stops working,” Tara went on. Dan headed out of the bedroom, but still heard her talking as he walked. “Suddenly they can’t use the maps and the calculator and everything else they’ve always relied on, right? But even if just their contact list froze, they wouldn’t be able to call anyone because they don’t actually know anyone’s number! It was like that… they can’t fix their roof be
cause no one has had to do it for hundreds of generations and the knowledge was only inside the computers that don’t work anymore!”

  “They can’t fix a roof?” Clark asked, chortling in disbelief. “I can fix a damn roof!”

  Dan and Emma both shook their heads and smiled as they reached the kitchen and closed the door to both drown out the incoming sound and give themselves some privacy.

  “Before I get into this, do we have anything to worry about?” Emma asked.

  “Like what?”

  She shrugged. “Disagreements on New Kerguelen, grievance from the Squadron, anything like that?”

  “Not at all,” Dan said. “They don’t hold grudges in the same way we do, and the Squadron were basically trying to do a good thing in a really bad way. They wanted help to save their planet just like the Messengers did, but they distrusted them so much that they distrusted us by extension. It’s all water under the bridge, though.”

  “And speaking of water under the bridge…” Emma replied. “You heard what Clark said about the joint statement, right? Ding and Godfrey know that the split just won’t stand anymore, not after the chaos of yesterday. We know Godfrey is a political survivor that would outlast the cockroaches if a nuke ever went off, but Ding has the same instincts. They’re willing to work together to protect themselves, and things are in motion behind the scenes for a single agency with two offices: East and West. It’s going to be a UN body specifically created to handle future contact-related issues, and they’re going to ask you to be the figurehead.”

  Dan’s eyes widened.

  “Godfrey and Ding both know they can’t credibly lead anything without you — not now — and they know there’s no public appetite for any more competition over who’s in charge. If you say yes, you won’t have to live in New York or anything like that, you’ll just have to show up every now and then. Your role is mainly for show, which doesn’t mean it’s not important. They basically need you for this to work because the public won’t buy into it if you’re not there, and neither will the Messengers… they just handpicked you for contact, again, and everyone knows that.”

  “I’m glad of that, because I’m not going to say no,” Dan said, surprised by the news of this incredible invitation and also slightly surprised that he didn’t feel overawed by it. “We’re way past that. I can’t go back to normal after what’s happened in the past week, so if they want me to help out by giving it credibility or stability or anything else then I’ll do what I can. I’ll say no if you think I should, with everything we have ahead of us, but I think this is like what you said when I was leaving: doing this and eliminating the stupid tension we’ve all had to deal with recently could be the best way of making sure we bring this kid into a world worth living in. There’s no parapet big enough to cover me now, anyway, so I think it’s pretty clear cut. If you think this is a good idea, I’m all the way in.”

  “I remember when I used to have to twist your arm to get you to do a magazine interview in a hair salon,” she replied, “and now you’re volunteering to be Earth’s official point of interplanetary contact.”

  Dan shook his head several times. “I hated that damn salon. But about this plan you have…”

  Emma stood up and opened the kitchen door. “Tara,” she called. “You used to want to be an events planner… how about you start rounding up everyone on this guest list I’m working on? So far we’ve got Slater, Godfrey, Cole, Ding and Timo.”

  “Timo I can do,” Tara yelled in reply, drawing laughter all round.

  “You’re fired,” Dan chuckled.

  Tara emerged at her bedroom door, feigning sadness. “But I’m still planning your wedding, right? Or are we shotgunning that now?”

  “Ha-ha,” Emma said, returning to the kitchen table. “We’ve been engaged since the day that damn comet passed by and the date has been set for months, smart ass. But… you are gonna need to figure something out for my dress. The design and measurements you were working with aren’t exactly going to work in another three months…”

  “It’s going to be some year,” Dan mused. “Three months until the wedding, five more after that until the baby.”

  Emma kissed him before she sat back down.

  “Sure is,” she said. “There’s just this one tiny little other thing to get out of the way first…”

  THREE DAYS LATER

  V plus 8

  United Nations Headquarters

  Manhattan, New York

  On a sunny Monday afternoon in New York, leaders from both sides of the previously chasmic GCC-ELF divide emerged from the UN building to deliver a very meaningful announcement to the world’s media.

  The famous backdrop hadn’t been the focus of so much attention since the muddy days in the aftermath of the IDA leak, when an emergency summit led to the creation of a Global Shield Commission with William Godfrey as its inaugural Chairman.

  Godfrey was one of many leaders present again today, this time in his position as Chairman of the Global Contact Commission, and his expression gave little away. Those close to him knew that he was frustrated at having to share a second-tier position alongside the ELF’s Ding Ziyang within the new UN body that was about to be formally announced, but they also knew that he was overwhelmingly glad to have saved face after things looked to have swung so decisively Ding’s way mere days earlier before everything was flipped by Jack Neal’s remarkable arrival in Havana.

  John Cole was present too, and had already received unlikely words of thanks from both Godfrey and President Slater for his role in discreetly keeping Jack from doing anything irreversibly damaging before the ill-thinking Squadron returned to New Kerguelen. No one except Slater knew why the Squadron had retreated as suddenly as they had, and she knew it only because Emma Ford had seen no way of ensuring the emergency summit began so quickly without looping Slater in on the surprise that was in store and having her do the leg work of bringing everyone together.

  Everyone had taken the Squadron’s departure as a welcome sign that Dan McCarthy’s journey to New Kerguelen was setting things right, with all now eagerly awaiting his return from the distant world and none understanding how important Tara Ford had been in ensuring everything went smoothly.

  President Slater took to a podium with Godfrey and Ding each standing at one of her shoulders, and John Cole standing in turn beyond Ding. By any standard, this was quite the quartet. Astute observers recognised that all four had been present in China for the ill-fated launch of DS-1, which had of course come about as a result of the original New York Agreement, and this added just one more layer of significance.

  The presence of Cole, whose very recent redemption in the eyes of other Western leaders was as unexpected to him as to anyone, meanwhile suggested that the new UN body would be a forward-looking one unimpeded by the squabbles of the past.

  “By an enormous margin,” Slater began, “the nations of our world have today voted to establish a new United Nations body which will unify the ELF and GCC under a common banner. This new body will be known as the UN Interspace Contact Agency.”

  Among the press pack, some reporters couldn’t help but titter. The allusion to the late Richard Walker’s Interspace Defense Agency was so overt that it was unquestionably intentional.

  “The ICA will continue to make use of the excellent infrastructure currently in place in both Beijing and Buenos Aires, with Ding Ziyang and William Godfrey responsible for overseeing the operations of our two regional divisions from the current ELF and GCC headquarters. Our aim is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater in discarding the good work that has been done since Contact Day, but rather to work together to ensure that all future work is cooperative and collaborative rather than inefficiently competitive.”

  Godfrey nodded several times. Ding, a man who everyone knew could understand and speak English perfectly but who very rarely let it show, likewise expressed his support with a few simple nods.

  “And albeit in his absence,” Slater continued
, “Dan McCarthy has been proposed without objection as the ICA’s inaugural Chief Planetary Liaison. Dan has in essence been carrying out this role on an unofficial and unselfish basis for more than a year, and his committed impartiality has made him not only a popular choice, but quite simply the popular choice. If Dan—

  “Look!” someone yelled, organically but right on cue. Only Slater knew what was coming next, but even she didn’t have to pretend to look shocked.

  The blockbuster movie-worthy sight of an alien mothership descending over New York sent some reporters fleeing in instinctive terror, but those who stayed beyond the first few frightening seconds quickly saw which mothership it was. Without doubt, this was the Messengers’; not the one last seen casting an ominous shadow over central Beijing, but the one last seen departing Colorado with Dan McCarthy and Tara Ford en route to New Kerguelen.

  The uncloaked craft stopped at a significant altitude, perhaps to avoid casting too great a shadow, and a much smaller saucer-shaped craft emerged from its hull to come the rest of the way down.

  Ding Ziyang leaned over to Godfrey and said something that no cameras or microphones could pick up, but it led to both men smiling a few seconds later. A photograph of this very human moment would go on to define this momentous day of union almost as much as the incredible sight in the sky.

  The craft landed without any pretence — straight down, no messing around — and its ramp extended to the ground just as straightforwardly. Dan and Tara emerged at the top within seconds of the ramp’s appearance, and they walked down towards a thousand cameras like two models on a catwalk.

  “What’s going on?” Dan asked, pretending to have no clue in a way that had taken two full days of practice to master. He had spent those days at home while Emma and President Slater put the whole thing together; and, after some initial misgivings about the deceit of pretending to only be arriving back on Earth now, he had come to see that this moment would bring joy to a lot of people and ensure peace on a planet that desperately needed it.