by P P Corcoran
“I don’t think that’s possible anymore,” Ramirez said, carefully. He had to assume they’d been listening to the landing party the entire time, and there had been conversation about colonization. The truth was, with the world inhabited by a sentient species, there was no way the GU would ever even consider sending a colony. An embassy, maybe, but never a colony.
“Not anymore,” he said. “We might have, but now that we know you are sentient, such a thing could never happen.”
Agreed. Never happen, it said. The words were firm but not angry or even meant as an ultimatum. Somehow, he knew that.
Ross 128 b was now off-limits to any future human colony.
“We would like to learn more about you. About your world,” Ramirez said.
You welcome to learn. We learn too, it replied We learn together, it added.
“We don’t have much time here,” Ramirez said. “We will be returning home in about twelve days.”
Twelve days good, it said. Learn what you can. I will stay here and we learn together.
“I would like that,” Ramirez said. “Will it be okay for some of us to move about the city while the rest of us stay here and learn from you?”
Yes. It is okay.
“Thank you,” Ramirez said. “I look forward to learning more about you and your people.” He was astonished. The whole thing seemed utterly surreal, and he could only hope he didn’t botch what was now the most pivotal mission of exploration humankind had ever undertaken.
#
Part 3 – Invitation
January 25th, 2098 – Ross 128 b
For six days, Ramirez, Cohen, and Richards sat around a small folding table they’d set up just in front of the rover. The rest of the team was exploring the city. They were gathering botanical samples, doing their best to capture at least some of the elusive insect life that inhabited the world, and collecting a broad range of archeological artifacts for later study. The other landing party also continued gathering data and specimens. They’d found a diverse ecosystem of flora but little fauna, excepting the preponderance of the beasties and nothing like T.
They’d given their new friend the name T and decided to call the other members of its race “tardis.” They’d asked if they could refer to it that way, and it said that it liked the idea, although its species didn’t have distinct names like humans. It differentiated between others of its kind by a sort of mental signature. It had all been Akashi’s idea, actually, but the names stuck.
T had acquiesced to Cohen taking a skin sample on the second day, and they’d discovered that the DNA of the tardis made them distant cousin of the tardigrades on Earth. That revelation alone had made the trip worth it. It proved a number of theories and disproved others. It also alleviated some of their concerns about dealing with an alien species that wasn’t so alien after all.
All the while, Abimbola and the rest of the Patrocles crew listened in, posed questions through Ramirez, and recorded all of it for posterity. This was the greatest moment in human exploration, and it was taking place over, basically, a picnic table.
They learned about the tardis’ life cycle—virtually identical to tardigrades—as well as their social interactions, such as they were. And T learned a good deal about human civilization. It seemed curious about humans, but not overly concerned about their existence.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Ramirez said carefully. He kept his thoughts as neutral as possible for fear that it might be a touchy subject. And the answer might impact how the landing party treated with the tardis that, thus far, had been as docile as caterpillars and as friendly as puppies.
The builders, it said. It had taken some getting used to, but Ramirez was finally accustomed to it knowing what he was thinking.
“Yes,” he replied. “The civilization that built these cities—we believe they were at about the same level of technology as humans, maybe a little farther ahead, and we’re reasonably certain they had at least begun exploring the stars. Out scans found several launch installations that are very similar to our own. What happened to them?”
Our memory is long, it said from where it perched on the hood of the rover, basking in the sun. But there is nothing in it that includes those who lived here before. It lowered its head to the hood and chewed upon a clump of leaves Richard’s had collected for it and left in a pile. The two had become fast, if not odd, friends. He had gone out every morning and collected large leaves from a nearby tree that T had said was its favorite.
“Do you have any sense of time?” Ramirez asked. Their scans of the buildings, vehicles, and tools of the civilization indicated they’d been built and abandoned a little over twenty-five hundred years earlier, when mankind was deep into the age of bronze, iron, and conquest of neighboring lands.
Neither time nor generation holds any meaning to us, it said. As individuals, we come and go over countless rotations of our world, what you call days, but we do not keep track of such things. We eat, we breed, we listen to the sky, and we sing to one another. It is enough, it said simply.
Ramirez nodded his head. T’s people were not unlike many of the indigenous peoples of his own world before technology instilled within them a desire to advance even further. Every discovery had let to another. And another. Humans, as a species, seemed to possess a drive that T’s people did not. There was even a part of him that envied their way of life. He’d often read about several of the South American tribes who still lived in that manner, isolated and protected by the GU so that their way of life remained uninterrupted.
Were T’s people so different?
“I can certainly appreciate that,” Ramirez said.
“Me too,” Richards agreed. “Hell, I’ve spent a few summers in the back country of Alaska, just surviving and enjoying that connection to the natural world. There’s nothing like it.”
“It’s too bad we can’t take one of you with us back to Earth and show you more of our way of life,” Cohen said. “I’m sure it would be very interesting to you, although, perhaps it would be more appalling than anything else.”
The three humans chuckled at that.
Why not? T said.
The question hit all three of them like a shot.
Would it even be possible?
There was no way they could build a suit for T, although they could fabricate a large enough cargo pod to carry it, and they had equipment to modify a cryo-chamber.
“Cohen,” Richards said, “do they even respirate?”
“The ones back home don’t,” Cohen replied, looking thoughtful. “I’d have to do some thorough scans of T, and we could set up another module and see if it could exist in our atmosphere. I’d also want to take a good deal of samples of its body and excretions to see if there was bacteria, viruses, or anything else that might be harmful to humans. From the work I’ve done thus far, I’m inclined to say that they are harmless to us. But I’d also want both of the other doctors as well all of the biologists and biochemists involved.”
“Agreed,” Ramirez said. “We’d have to be absolutely certain.” Ramirez looked at T. “Are you sure about this?”
You once mentioned an Earth ambassador here on this world. Would you consider an ambassador of my people coming to your world?
T had a point.
They wouldn’t be able to leave an ambassador behind—not yet at least. Future missions, however, could come equipped to set up a permanent research station with an ambassadorial presence. It could be the first step towards an interstellar alliance.
“You have to understand, T,” Ramirez said slowly, “for this to happen, we’d have to find a way to get you back to Earth. The journey takes three years. That’s over a thousand rotations of your world. And we go back in a sort of frozen sleep. You’re related to our tardigrades, so I don’t think there’d be a problem, but in all honestly, it might kill you, and that’s a terrible risk. Three years to get home, and I don’t even know when another mission might come back to Ross
128. It could be a decade or more before you would be able to return home, if at all”
I live a long time, and knowing what I know of your people know, I would think your curiosity would bring more of your missions back to our world sooner rather than later. And if I never returned, I could accept that. I have my songs, and you said yourself that there are some of my kind on your world. Perhaps I could learn to sing with them.
Ramirez thought about it ... about the discovery and what this would mean to the people of Earth. It was the next big step for human exploration, and if T was willing and Abimbola approved it, then humanity would be changed even further ... and forever.
He glanced upwards. “Patrocles, have you been listening in?”
“Affirmative, commander,” Abimbola’s voice broke in on the comms. “We’ve been discussing the matter.”
“T says he’s willing to accept the risks. Are we even authorized to bring back an alien? Ambassador or not?”
“I presented this very scenario to the ESRA administrator five years ago, and protocols were created that make it possible.” There was a pause. “For the time being, have Cohen begin preparations. We’re sending down the third lander with a medical module that can be used to do the work at your location. Doctor Cohen?” Abimbola asked.
“Yes, Captain?”
“I want you to pull up a data file entitled ‘Dinner Guest.’ Use decryption key Tango Bravo Delta Five Seven Niner. I’m sending that information to your tablet now. You’ve got lead on the research effort, and I’ll have both of the other doctors to you within a few hours.”
“Understood, Captain,” Cohen replied.
“I’m authorizing a full mission revision,” Abimbola said. “All crew are hereby reassigned to support the effort to bring Ambassador T with us back to Earth.” She paused for a moment. “Ramirez?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Please inform the ambassador that upon our return, there will be a two-to-six-month decon process on Luna with a team of our specialists. They will insure that it is safe for both him and the people of Earth to walk around freely among our people. He is hereby granted full Ambassadorial status and is to be treated as such. For our purposes, I want you and Richards to just keep doing what you’re doing.”
Ramirez was almost disappointed, but not quite. He enjoyed talking with T, and where initially it had been almost scientific discovery, he was now finding they were sharing philosophies. Not much just yet, but it was growing. He had a unique opportunity before him. A sentient race with awareness of the stars and space travel, but which had no interest in it. Did they have laws? Crime? Politics? Were such things even possible with a hive mind? And if it was truly a hive mind, how would the whole react when the one had been removed from it. And vice versa.
He had a strange feeling that he and T would be friends for a very long time, and he found himself wanting the Captain, ESRA, and even the GU to permanently assign him as T’s liaison upon returning home.
I would like that too, T said.
#
Part 4 - Revelation
June 18th, 2101 – Sol 3 (Earth)
Are you sure you’re ready for this? Ramirez asked as the shuttle made its final approach to the spaceport. They’d come a long way together, and their friendship had grown into a comradery unlike anything he’d ever known. He’d even learned how to converse with T by thought alone. He’d discovered, purely by accident, that by only thinking his words, they were able to make their conversations private. Ramirez called it their private mode, and he’d discovered quickly that they could exchange information more quickly that way. T could still broadcast and have conversations with multiple people simultaneously, but there were times when Ramirez preferred the private mode. In it, he actually received sensory impressions, emotions, and even visual images from within T’s vast memory. It was always a heady experience, and he was coming to understand the peace and tranquility of a hive mentality.
I am ready to meet your people, T said. I am experiencing a strange sensation, though. I believe you would call it nervousness. It is new.
I can feel it, Ramirez replied, I wouldn’t worry. They’re all here to see you. He looked out the window at the Mediterranean as the coastline of Athens raced by beneath them. Athens had become the center of planetary and interplanetary travel. There were other spaceports, of course, but Athens was the jewel in the crown of the GU, which is why the celebration was being held there. Get ready for a jolt, he added.
I am ready, T said, but the feelings coming through were far from calm.
The shuttle touched down with a single, gentle bump, and then the breaking pushed them forward slightly. T swayed with the deceleration, but he didn’t tumble.
An interesting sensation, he said, and there was a sense of delight in his thoughts.
I’ll see if there’s a way to get you onto a roller coaster, my friend, Ramirez said. He visualized one, remembering his sensations as a youth at an amusement park near where he’d grown up in North Carolina.
!! T’s surprise at the imagery and emotions was palpable. You do this on purpose? he asked.
I used to. People still do it... for fun. Ramirez would make it a point to ask their GU contact if it would be possible to get T onto one during his visit. He thought it likely.
He wanted T to experience as much of what it was like to be human as was possible. He’d spent almost every waking moment with the Ambassador for nearly seven, waking months. He’d accompanied it up to the Patrocles back on Ross 128 b and helped get it situated in a modified cryo-chamber the crew had prepared for it. They had a week of wake-time heading out of the system, three years of cryo-sleep, and then a week of wake time as they entered Sol’s system.
When they finally contacted ESRA command in Berlin and reported what was going on, the news spread like wildfire across the entire system. Humans had not only made first contact with an alien race, the first alien ambassador was going to visit Earth ... eventually.
Ramirez was no longer a commander, although he was still a member of the ESRA. At his request and Captain Abimbola’s recommendation, he’d been permanently reassigned as T’s liaison. From that moment on, Ramirez went everywhere with Ambassador T.
Ramirez traveled with it to the isolated Luna Research Complex over-looking the Sea of Tranquility. He worked with a wide assortment of scientists there and assisted in the laborious process of making sure that Earth was safe for T and T was safe for Earth. Atmosphere turned out to be a non issue. Like its microscopic cousins, it could withstand extreme temperatures, pressures, and even the vacuum of space without any ill effects. And its tissues, taken at the request of T, were impervious to every pathogen humanity had stored at the LRC. It was also devoid of such pathogens.
They took the full six months to everyone’s safety, and a massive amount of data was accumulated about T’s genetic structure and biological makeup. They’d also discovered that it could consume just about any organic matter as a source of nutrition. It didn’t seem to matter what it was, so long as it had been alive at one time. It endured every test and exercise the scientists wanted to perform, and over the course of those six months, T had become quite a celebrity. Nearly the whole of the human race wanted to meet T and learn more about his people on Ross 128 b, eleven light-years away.
There were protests here and there about alien invasions, the dangers of exposure, and even several demonstrations from the more extreme religions claiming that it was all a hoax, because some still believed humans were the only life in the universe. For the most part, however, Terrans—Ramirez had forced himself to think in those terms—were excited to meet or at least see the ambassador from another world.
And here they were, finally reaching Earth.
The two of them had traveled on the shuttle alone, and when they walked down the jetway and entered the terminal, there was a crowd of GU dignitaries as well as a large assemblage of media teams who were quick to grab as much video footage as they could. They were k
ept back a discreet distance, but there was no mistaking the excitement they had at seeing their first alien.
As the two of them approached the crowd, Ramirez walking and T undulating forward with is caterpillar-like gait, a petite man of Indian descent stepped up to them.
“Ambassador T!” he said in a faint Indian accent. “It is a sincere pleasure to finally meet you.” He made a formal bow and then smiled. “I am Chancellor Prassad of the Global Union, and on behalf of the GU and all Terrans everywhere, it is my honor and privilege to welcome you to our world.”
Thank you, Chancellor Prassad, Ambassador T replied. I am very happy to meet you.
A collective gasp rolled through the group, including the Chancellor, as everyone in the vicinity received their first telepathic message. Chancellor Prassad’s eyes went wide, and then he grinned like a child.
“Remarkable,” he said.
Ramirez smiled. This was going to be one more for the history books.
“I believe you have a vehicle ready to take us to the amphitheater?” Ramirez asked.
“Indeed!” Prassad said, motioning towards a red carpet leading up to an electric airport cart. It had been modified with a single seat for Ramirez on one side and a long platform for Ambassador T on the other. They even had a small ramp for the ambassador so that he could simply crawl up into place. “This will take you to a vehicle outside, and it will take you to the amphitheater. I will give an introduction speech and then you can take all the time you want to introduce yourself to the people gathered there as well as much of the rest of humanity. We are broadcasting your speech across the entire system. Once you give your speech, I am hoping you will have time to meet with me and the rest of the GU council for a casual gathering we’ve prepared in your honor.”
I believe I will enjoy that, T said, nodding his head.
Ramirez smiled again. During their time together, T had picked up quite a number of human mannerisms, including nodding and shaking his head whenever he communicated, although he sometimes got it wrong.
