by Vincent Pet
“I see you have made great technological strides during your last century. I’m also certain that the technology you have been able to harness from the captured ship has greatly influenced this technological evolution. We regret this. Of course, we will take this ship back along with the corpses. They do not belong to you and we are not obligated to bargain for this.”
It seemed to Brad a harsh way to start what could become a historic meeting between the two races. Humanity was on the verge of reaching the stars and Brad would have expected a much gentler if not more respectful approach, even if they were, to all regards, at a more advanced stage of evolution than man. Brad turned wanting to say something to Height who was standing next to him, but he was unable to. To his surprise and dismay, he was neither able to speak or move. More frightening, there was not a sound from one of the two hundred or so men and military personnel present at the encounter. Brad felt his heart racing and was starting to wonder if the aliens had truly come in peace. Had they understood the message that had been relayed to them that he had helped draft? Then it helplessly dawned on him that humanity had no hope of winning a war against these aliens. Not now, maybe never. They were by far too advanced.
“Do not panic. We have no wish of destroying you. We have simply taken precautions that should have been taken in 1947. These measures are temporary in order to eliminate any risk of hostility against us. Rest assured that we can hear your questions even if you are all rendered mute and immobile at this moment. We will answer as many as we can during this brief encounter. Your full bodily functions will return after we’ve left.”
Brad was not at all assured that the aliens were able to “listen” to their questions! So they did have telepathy…the full realization of how unprepared they were hit Brad square in the stomach.
“This meeting will be the last ever contact between our two species. We will explain who we are since all that will be revealed will soon become irrelevant. You are right. We are not only space travelers but time travelers as well. Our society is composed of both the future and the past and we move freely from one time to another as you move from one country to another on your Earth. Every citizen in our society interacts with his past and with his future. For example, I have a partner living over five hundred million of your years in the past, I have a son living nine hundred thousand years in the future and my parents live not long after what you refer to as the big bang.”
The alien paused before continuing, as if to make sure that they had understood this concept.
“We five in front of you represent a private company, TAD, which has mining rights in this solar system. We were though, not the first mining company on this planet. Far in your future, our competitor, SLRY, was the first to sign a mining contract on Earth. TAD was able to get what at that time we thought were minor rights; a very small window that started from the birth of mankind up to a certain period of your future. When SLYR and the future inhabitants of Earth though, came to realize the riches this planet had to offer in the past, they wanted to import them to their own time. We refused access to SLRY. Although the inhabitants had already signed a lifetime contract with our competitors they tried to work out a deal with us at the detriment of SLYR. We thought we finally had a loophole enabling us to do commerce between the past and future but our competitors questioned the agreement and brought their case in front of our juridical system. They argued they had the rights for their time period and we were interfering by trying to bypass them. Our juridical council upheld their protest. We tried negotiating but we were unable to work out our differences. We arrived at an impasse. TAD did not want to leave them an opening to put their foot in Earth’s past and SLYR did not wish us to become involved in Earth’s future.”
The alien paused again. Brad was mesmerized. There seemed to be a war between two giant enterprises and humanity was caught in the middle of it. Somehow he had expected the whole process of humanity meeting aliens much more…romantic? Adventurous? Philosophical? The words escaped him but this legal entanglement between these two enterprises left him somewhat disconcerted and feeling impoverished. Was this what humanity meant to these aliens? Were they simply a money making means to them? If that was the case, we might as well just stay home on Earth and damn the rest, thought Brad.
“Despite this impasse, we eventually decided to ignore the court’s decision and go ahead with a secret deal with the future Earth as defined by the limits set by our laws. You see, planets containing intelligent species have what are known as forbidden zones where no mining company is allowed to perform any operation. A habitable planet usually has one or more of these zones to prevent anyone from contaminating the natural course of a planet’s history which could hinder the development of intelligent species. We also have what are called limited mining zones where we are obliged to seek the consent of the inhabitants before proceeding to mine the planet’s resources. If the species, as is your case, is not yet a space faring society, we are limited to whom we can contact. Considering these constraints, our legal advisers recommended that we established some of our first contracts at Stonehenge, with the Egyptians, Babylon and other leading societies of their time; each one the most dominating of its region or period. We usually traded knowledge in return for resources. Early societies were mostly interested in astrology, prophecies, and mathematics. Your society was chosen in the 1930s since it would become the most powerful presence in the actual period of this world. Your culture and artifacts have provoked a great deal of curiosity in the future and they sell at a very good price. Unfortunately, we did get caught, but not by the law, but by our competitors.”
The alien continued, rushing as if anxious to get to the end.
“We menaced to reveal some of our competitor’s shady dealings that they had been hiding from our government on other worlds. Feeling threatened, they didn’t denounce us but they did send two ships to try to persuade your people to sign a contract with them in the mid 1940s. Of course, your people in the past were very confused. They did not realize they were dealing with two distinct mining companies. Whereas TAD was very careful in establishing relations with you, SLRY was rather intimidating and threatening. They were the ones who supplied you with the missing technology for your first atomic bomb, in clear violation of collective agreements. Eventually, they underestimated your capacities to defend your interests. In that brief encounter in 1947, one of their ships fell to Earth while the other crippled ship’s trajectory brought it past their cargo ship stationed behind the moon. It did manage, somehow to make it to Mars where the only survivor became stranded. When we found out what they had attempted to do, we physically barred them from returning to Mars to rescue their survivor by putting up time damper fields around this solar system during this time frame. At this very moment we speak, the survivor of that 1947 encounter is still stranded on Mars. We regret that he killed your astronauts, but evolved species share many of the same sentiments throughout the universe, and one of the strongest one is revenge.”
Brad’s heart suddenly felt heavy. What he had always feared was finally confirmed. Bobby had met a ghastly end.
“All these covert operations among our two companies finally spurred us to discuss seriously about cooperating together on this world. I am here to announce that we have finally reached a historic agreement with our competitors which has been sanctioned by our juridical system. Your planet has been deemed a particular case and the law has made a special provision allowing the future inhabitants of Earth to legally buy your rights for this period; meaning that we are no longer obliged to deal with your societies. We will legally mine in Earth’s past while our competitors will distribute to the future the goods we supply them. We will now withdraw our former rival’s ships and corpses you have in your possession and proceed to rescue their survivor on Mars.”
That was the first and last time Brad ever saw an alien again.
***
When they finally were able to speak, the aliens had left. There
were a few minutes of stunned confusion before most recovered from their shock. In those few minutes whatever optimism they had with regards to their capability to confront the aliens and defend themselves was dead.
Dora took Brad to rest in her quarters but he was unable to sleep. She lingered a few minutes with him and although they both had much to think about the just happened recent events, Brad could not help but feel his heart ache and his memories flood open. Was it possible that he had eagerly jumped on this occasion to come to Area 51 just to be with Dora? No, he told himself. He couldn’t afford to think like that. He managed a weak smile as he turned around from her melancholic gaze and took a few steps to her cot. She told him that he was welcomed to the small fridge at the side of the bed if he felt hungry and then left.
A few hours later, to his relief, he was sent for and asked to write a report detailing his observations and opinions on what had just transpired. Not an hour had gone by before he was escorted to a briefing with Height and Barker. The tension was slowly starting to dissipate even if barker had a scowl on his face. They were beginning to realize that they had probably seen the last of the aliens at least for a long while. More importantly, they were all very relieved that they would not have to defend humanity against the aliens in the immediate future. Everyone had recognized that they would not have been able to offer any resistance had the aliens attacked.
Height leaned back in his chair and glanced at the ceiling above him.
“Gentlemen, the information we gathered in those few minutes is staggering. All of a sudden, we know that time travel really does exist. We know that there is a far future where humanity does commerce with other races. In brief, it could have been much worse. I don’t see many negatives here.”
Barker had an ironic expression on his face, clearly irritated at the turn of events during the last few hours.
“Other than the fact that we were completely at their mercy, I guess you’re right.”
Barker continued.
“I, for instance, don’t trust them at all. They don’t seem to have any scruples. If there is one advice I would give to the President it would be to increase our military spending drastically in the eventuality that we will need to defend ourselves…or get rid of them; because sooner or later we’ll go out there and when we do, we’ll meet them again.”
Brad finally interjected, trying to turn the conversation away from Barker’s solution. He had apparently not understood, or ignored, that the aliens were already in commerce with the future Earth and their relationship seemed amicable.
“Their competitive ruthlessness is not surprising though. Why should they be different from us? When two big companies are competing against each other, they search for any legal and sometimes illegal loopholes to gain an advantage.”
Brad crossed his hands on the table, slightly frowning while continuing his discourse.
“What worries me most though, is the fact that our future is replenishing itself from our past. If there is such an economic profit to be made that it’s worth fighting over by aliens, it must mean that our descendants are buying tremendous amounts of goods. I don’t like the sound of that. This must mean that the world must not be a pretty sight in the future. Resources must be scarce.”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise,” Height observed. “With all the pollution, toxic waste we produce and with the amount of primary resources we consume, there will eventually be problems.”
Brad agreed.
“For example, the Amazon forest is shrinking at this very moment. Animal species are becoming extinct. The fresh water supply is dwindling. How can we continue to support all this humanity? I wouldn’t be surprised if in the far future, the world is a scarcely populated planet with only a few megacities scattered here and there. The fact also that they bought our rights…it just doesn’t sound right. What kind of people would have so little consideration for their ancestors?”
They looked at each other in silence. Barker slapped his palms on the table in front of him as if to clear their minds of these negative thoughts.
“So this begs the question. What do we do now?”
Brad’s tired eyes shot back at Barker as he spoke.
“In the bleakest of hypothesis, the future will be so desolate that in order to survive humanity will feel constrained to make a pact with these ruthless aliens to plunder the past. Even in the most desperate circumstances, I don’t think humanity would ever give an alien race complete autonomy of our planet’s past to do as they wish. Therefore, I don’t think they had a choice.”
Brad could see that Barker was impatient. He could see that Barker had still not digested the fact that his will along with those of his men had been totally dominated by the aliens a few hours back. Barker wanted to get back at the aliens. Brad didn’t blame him. He felt the same way. He didn’t like the fact that these aliens were moving through their time, even if they seemed to have a legal contract from the future.
“So how do we change that?”
Brad was thinking fast as he grappled with Barker’s question.
“Two things. We have to change the course of how we manage our planet.”
Barker made a sour face as he responded.
“You know that’s impossible. How can we change our habits on the spot?”
Brad nodded as he reluctantly agreed.
“Not now, but maybe in time. Anyway, we have to start somewhere and we might as well establish a long term plan and slowly phase it in. It doesn’t have to be abrupt. It could happen over a century.”
“Noted. The second thing?”
Brad sighed as he glanced from one to the other.
“We have to come up with time travel. At the very least, it will level the playing field with the aliens and give us the power to manage our own planet.”
A big smile finally illuminated Barker’s face as he shook his head up and down vigorously.
“Exactly what I wanted to hear!”
“But…”
Brad looked over at Height who was not as exuberant as Barker was. He knew, thought Brad as he continued with his thought.
“But…it seems that we have failed.”
Barker’s smile was instantly replaced by a puzzling look.
“What do you mean, Walsh?”
“The aliens come from our future. For them, this is the past. They already know what we will attempt to do. They would never have revealed such details of themselves to us if there was one minimal doubt that the future could change course. Meaning, we will try to change things, but we will not succeed. The fact that they came to us means that our descendants still need our resources in spite of everything we will attempt now. They will not jeopardize their commerce by allowing us to fix the planet.”
Height nodded as Barker came to realize what Brad had said made sense.
“So nothing will change?”
“Nothing.”
They remained in silence for what appeared to be a very long time as they tried to come up with something to contradict what seemed obvious. Barker finally spoke.
“Nevertheless, we can’t sit here and let the future happen. We have to believe that we will make a difference.”
The next few years went by uneventfully. Every now and then Brad was invited to the base for advice. With the ship behind the moon out of the way, Height had told him that the President had not opened talks with his Chinese counterpart on the matter and it was definitely archived in favor of keeping secret the US knowledge of their communication codes. Some components of the crashed ship and cell cultures of the victims had been overlooked or considered insignificant and had remained on the base enabling further research to be conducted. This research, though, had become of minor interest. Whereas most of the research had once been concentrated on weapons, flight, and exobiology, the new research that was being done on Area 51 centered on time travel.
As the years passed, Brad was consulted less and less. Eventually he came to know little of what was happening
on the base. It had been now five years since he had last heard from Area 51…or from Dora. He very well thought that it was finally all over for him. He felt no regret, not as far as area 51 was concerned. He had been part of a great adventure and mystery, much more than he ever thought possible. He had come to know and work with many solid people who he would always consider as friends even if they were prohibited to ever talk with each other again outside the base. He also felt privileged that life had given him some of the answers he had desperately searched for when he was younger. He had made his peace with Area 51 when one day his doorbell rang, and to his astonishment, it was Height.
“Well, don’t just stand there gaping at me! Let me in!”
A little stunned, Brad moved aside.
“Nice place you have here. Your salary must have topped mine!”
They clasped each other’s arms as they shared an enduring smile. Height should not have been there, but it was good to see him. Brad led him to his study and poured a scotch for himself and his guest.
“You’re alone?”
Brad assured him that no one else was in the house and that they would be alone for the rest of the afternoon. Height took a sip from his glass and settled down in a cozy leather chair.
“So how’s the wife and kids?”
“They’re doing fine. But I’m sure you didn’t come all the way here to ask me that!”
Height’s voice grew serious as he stared intensely at the glass he held in his hand.
“I know I am taking an enormous risk by coming here. If anybody finds out you could face the death penalty, but, after all that we went through at the base, I figured at least….”
Height’s voice trailed off as he stared up at Brad. There was an anguished look on his face. Something was bothering him deeply, thought Brad. Height had always been very decisive when speaking. Brad was not used to seeing him pause and grope with his thoughts.
