Transmission

by Morgan Rice

  Kevin nodded, starting to go back to the Jeep. He saw Professor Brewster along the way, and was going to run around him, but to Kevin’s surprise, the NASA institute’s head actually looked happy. He was practically dancing in place with excitement.

  “We found it,” Professor Brewster said. “We actually found it. This is… I know I’ve been hard on you, Kevin, but it was only because I wanted to be certain of this. Ever since I was… well, since I was your age.”

  Kevin could hardly believe it; he had never expected Professor Brewster, of all people, to have a childlike optimism.

  He ran back to the Jeep where Ted and his mom waited. For possibly the first time since this had begun, his mother had the kind of wonder on her face that told Kevin she finally understood this, that she wasn’t just doing it for Kevin’s sake. Ted seemed a bit less obviously happy. If Ted was worried about something, that couldn’t be good. After all, he’d faced down a caiman with no problems.

  It couldn’t dent Kevin’s happiness, though. All the scientists had come in with their testing machines, and he’d been the one to pick out the spot where the alien capsule sat. It felt as though it was his somehow because of that, even while it sat in a truck twenty yards away, guarded by a mixture of scientists and soldiers of different nations. It felt as though whatever happened from now on, it would be down to him.

  “What do you think will be inside the capsule once we open it up?” Kevin asked.

  Ted thought about it for a few seconds

  “They could have sent a time capsule full of information. Maybe they’re hoping that someone out there has the technology to bring them back from what happened to them. You’d have to ask the scientists. They’d know more.”

  Maybe they would. At the very least, most of them seemed to be talking about it, so that the convoy’s radios seemed alive with speculation in different languages. Kevin hadn’t heard them as excited as that since the messages began. Maybe it was the part where they had something more than a signal translated by a thirteen-year-old boy. Maybe they liked having something solid to prove what was happening.

  Kevin couldn’t blame them for that. Even though he’d known that what he was seeing was real, finding the rock had been a kind of relief. It had been proof of just how much all this meant.

  “How long until we’re at the UN compound?” Kevin asked. He just wanted to get there now, so that they could get on with looking.

  “That depends,” Ted said. “We’ve already seen how tricky the roads can—damn it.”

  For a moment, Kevin thought there must be another blockage across the road. Then he saw the ribbon of uniformed figures there holding guns.

  He stared at them in shock. Kevin could hear the chatter of the others on the radio as they saw what was happening. Even Ted seemed tense. Although not surprised. He looked, if anything, as though he’d been expecting this.

  “Too late to reverse,” Ted said, slowing the Jeep. “There’s too many people behind us. Looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way.”

  He brought the vehicle to a halt, turning to Kevin. “They look like Colombian military rather than one of the cartels, so this should be okay, but if it isn’t, stay here and keep your heads down. Understood?”

  “Yes,” Kevin’s mother said.

  Ted looked to Kevin. “Understood?”

  “Okay,” Kevin said. What did the former soldier think he was going to do? “Um… they aren’t going to shoot us, are they?”

  “Probably not,” Ted said.

  “Probably not?” That didn’t sound very reassuring. Kevin would have preferred “definitely not” or even “don’t worry about it.”

  Ted nodded to where Professor Brewster was already making his way to the front of the convoy. “I suspect it depends on who we let do the talking.”

  He jumped down, and Kevin could see a bunch of other figures moving past too, either eager to help, or wanting to show that they had some kind of authority there, or maybe just wanting to see what was happening.

  That was certainly the reason he started to get out of the Jeep.

  “Kevin,” his mother said. “Ted told us to stay in the vehicle.”

  “I know, Mom,” he said, “but I don’t think it will make a lot of difference if there’s some kind of fight.”

  “Kevin!” his mother said again, as Kevin hopped down from the Jeep and started forward. He heard his mother following after him, but he kept going. He wasn’t going to miss this.

  By the time he reached the group of armed figures, they were already discussing things in a tone that sounded dangerously close to violence. Kevin had seen kids at school when they’d gone past insulting one another, and they didn’t want to back down because they thought it would make them look stupid. They always had that sense that they didn’t want to fight, that they were scared and the whole thing was stupid, but they were going to anyway. Kevin had never expected to hear adults sounding like that, but at least some of them did.

  “…And I am telling you, Professor, that this is Colombia’s sovereign territory,” an older man was saying to Professor Brewster. “If this artifact had fallen on US territory, are you telling me that you would permit us to take it away as you are trying to?”

  “No, of course not, General,” Professor Brewster snapped back. “Because we have the finest scientific facilities in the world.”

  “Are you impugning the quality of Colombia’s scientific program?” the general asked.

  “I’m saying that it doesn’t have a tenth of the resources that we do,” Professor Brewster replied.

  That didn’t seem to impress the other man. If anything, it only seemed to annoy him.

  “So that’s it, is it? The USA is the biggest and richest, and so we must all bow to what it wants?” Kevin saw him shake his head. “We’ve had enough of that in the past. You think I don’t recognize some of the men here from the past?”

  “When we were invited,” Ted said, moving up to them. “General Marquez, I didn’t hear you complaining when we were here helping your country against the cartels.”

  “And now you are helping yourselves,” the other man said.

  “We made contact through diplomatic channels,” Professor Brewster said. “We told you that we would be coming.”

  “But you did not wait for permission,” General Marquez said. Kevin had the feeling all of this was heading downhill fast, and he was caught in the middle of it with adults arguing around him. Adults who definitely wouldn’t listen to someone like him, and who seemed to be determined to argue and shout until it all turned into violence.

  “If you’ll give me a minute, sir,” Ted said, “I’m sure I can get our president on the phone for you, and yours.”

  “So that they can agree that we should do what you want in return for some minor concession, some empty promise?” the general demanded. “Our president is a good man, but this is a military matter.”

  “It’s looking like it might become one,” Ted said. The strange thing to Kevin was that he didn’t raise his voice, even in the middle of a dangerous situation like that. Professor Brewster was sweating, and Kevin could feel his own nerves rising, but it seemed that the former soldier was just… calm.

  It was a dangerous kind of calm, though, and it worried Kevin almost as much as the rest of it.

  “I will make this simple,” General Marquez said. “The artifact you are transporting belongs to the Colombian people. We will be taking possession of it. If you attempt to stop us from doing so, you will be arrested and imprisoned. Now, step back.”

  He made a move toward the first of the trucks in the convoy, obviously intending to check it for signs of anything alien.

  “I can’t allow you to touch that truck, sir,” Ted said, and now, somehow, there was a weapon in his hand, pointed directly at the Colombian general.

  Instantly, there were more guns pointing than Kevin had seen in his life.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Kevin tried his best not to
look scared as dozens of weapons pointed his way. It wasn’t easy. Most of the Colombian ones seemed to be pointed at Ted, but since Kevin wasn’t standing that far away, the distinction didn’t make much difference to him. Soldiers on their side, meanwhile, had taken the opportunity to level their own weapons at the Colombians. What had been a one-sided thing had turned into a dangerous standoff in a matter of seconds.

  “You’re still outgunned,” General Marquez said. “If you fire, you would all die.”

  Ted shrugged. “With respect, sir, you would die first.”

  He moved so that the general was between him and the other Colombians.

  “You think I care about that?” General Marquez demanded. “Something like this is more important than you, more important than me, and I still have superior firepower.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I called in air support,” Ted said.

  “You’re bluffing,”

  But Kevin could hear the sound of rotor blades in the distance, and it seemed that so could everyone else. It should have made him feel safe, but as far as he could see, it made the whole situation more dangerous. It just increased the number of people who might decide to open fire at the wrong moment.

  Sure enough, a helicopter came up over the trees, looking angular and spiked with weapons. Kevin found himself thinking of the phone call Ted had put in earlier. He’d expected this to happen, or at least something like this. He looked up at it, then around at all the men with guns pointed at one another. Another few seconds, and there might be bullets flying everywhere.

  So Kevin did the only thing he could do, and stepped between Ted and the general.

  “Get out of the way, Kevin,” Ted said.

  “You should move,” General Marquez agreed.

  Kevin shook his head. “No.”

  “Kevin!” his mother yelled from further back, but a couple of the researchers caught her arms as she started forward. “Get away from there!”

  Kevin didn’t move. He looked from Ted to the Colombian general, staying between the two of them while above, the helicopter hovered in a constant threat.

  “You’re both being idiots,” Kevin said. It wasn’t how you were supposed to speak to adults, certainly not ones who were that heavily armed, but as far as Kevin could see, it was only the truth.

  “You don’t understand what’s going on here, Kevin,” Ted said.

  “He is right,” General Marquez agreed. “You do not understand the implications of this.”

  Why did adults always think that they were the only ones who understood things? Why did they think that kids like Kevin were stupid?

  “You don’t want a bunch of people from outside Colombia coming in to take what’s yours, or to tell you what to do,” Kevin said, “because you think it’s like them saying that they’re better than you. And Ted doesn’t want to give up the capsule partly because he thinks that we’ve done most of the work of finding it, partly because he thinks it will make us look weak if we let it go, and partly because he has orders and he’s the kind of person who will follow them no matter what. It’s all stupid.”

  Ted cocked his head to one side. “Kevin’s not entirely wrong. I do have orders.”

  “And I don’t want to see Colombia insulted by having this artifact taken by the Americans,” General Marquez said. “You have already interfered in our country too much.”

  “So you’re both just being stubborn,” Kevin said. It felt wrong, talking to the two adults like this, but it was just the truth, and anyway, if he didn’t, they were probably all going to be shot. It seemed like a good reason to keep going, so he gestured to the scientists. “Look at all the different countries here working together. If they can do it, why don’t you?”

  “What do you suggest?” General Marquez asked.

  Kevin had an answer for that, at least. “We were going to take the capsule to some UN place…”

  “The WHO center there,” Ted supplied.

  “So why not do that?” Kevin asked. “It would look as though it was all happening because you allowed it, and you could be there when we opened it up. Everyone would see it.”

  “Including the cameras,” Ted said. He lowered his weapon. “I hear you’re thinking of making a move into politics, General.”

  The general was quiet for several seconds while he considered it, and Kevin thought he understood some of it now.

  “It wouldn’t make you look weak,” he said. “It would make it look as though you were responsible for giving this to the world. This was sent to Earth, not to one specific country. It’s for everyone. It’s not something that anyone can own.”

  General Marquez thought a little more, and then nodded. “Very well.” He called out to his men in Spanish, and they lowered their weapons. “We will accompany you to the UN compound, and we will watch this artifact opened up there. You have been very brave, young man.”

  Kevin felt a flush of pride at that, although one glance back at his mother’s face told him just how much trouble he was in for putting himself in harm’s way. Ted put an arm around his shoulders, leading him back toward the Jeep.

  “Well done,” he said, “but don’t ever do anything that stupid again. We could have all been killed.”

  They could have, but they weren’t. Better than that, as the trucks started to roll on again in their convoy, they were going toward a place where they might finally find out what it was that the aliens had sent to Earth from their world.

  “We’re going to get to open the capsule,” Kevin said. He couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice.

  “We are,” Ted agreed, and for once he sounded almost as excited as Kevin. “We’re going to see what the aliens sent us.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Kevin kept his eyes on the truck that held the capsule all the way back to Bogota. He felt almost like, if he took his eyes off it for a moment, one of the different groups that had spent so much time arguing over it would try to take it.

  “It’s not going to disappear,” Ted said. “You did a good job convincing everyone to work together on this, Kevin.”

  Kevin wanted to believe it, but the capsule had almost come out of nowhere, hadn’t it? Why wouldn’t it find a way to disappear the same way? Why wouldn’t they be left staring at an empty space, just as they hoped for all the secrets that the aliens had prepared for them?

  “It will be okay, Kevin,” his mother said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve already done the hard part.”

  Kevin understood that, but even so, he watched the truck. It wasn’t just about wanting to make sure nothing happened. It was more the promise of it, and the need to wait. It felt like waiting for Christmas morning and a trip to the doctor’s office, all rolled into one. He didn’t take his eyes from it until he could see Bogota up ahead.

  “The UN facility is just a little further,” Ted said, pointing.

  The building ahead of them looked about fifty years more modern than most of the buildings around it, built of glass and steel, while the houses that surrounded it seemed kind of quaint and old-fashioned. There was a compound around it, complete with soldiers in blue helmets. They made no move to stop the convoy as it rolled toward the compound, and Kevin guessed that the people in it must have called ahead to let them know what was coming.

  That meant that there was no chance of bringing it there quietly. Already, UN staff were standing there, looking at the convoy as it pulled in, while Kevin could see what looked like reporters stuck behind a barrier, barely being kept back by the presence of the soldiers. They pointed cameras, and flashes went off as the convoy ground to a halt. Kevin dared to breathe a sigh of relief. They’d made it here. They had the capsule.

  He watched as a group of strong-looking researchers carried it inside, covered with a blanket so that the cameras wouldn’t see too much of it.

  “I wish they didn’t have to hide it away,” Kevin said.

  Ted looked from the capsule to the cameras. “Something tells me that
they won’t be able to do it for long. Come on, let’s go inside.”

  Kevin hopped down from the Jeep and then set off with Ted, his mother, and all the others into the UN compound. He wasn’t surprised to find more reporters, who had obviously decided to give up the chance for a first picture to be in a better position to shout questions once everyone got inside.

  “Is it true?” one shouted. “Have you found an alien spaceship?”

  Professor Brewster seemed to think it was obvious that he should answer, stepping forward to do it. “Hello, I’m Professor David Brewster of NASA. We have found something out in the rainforest, but for the moment, we’re not able to say exactly what it is. My people won’t be answering any questions about it at the moment, but there will be a press conference shortly, where we will be publicly examining the artifact that we found.”

  The press continued to fire questions his way, but Professor Brewster ignored them, walking toward the compound’s main building. Kevin and the others hurried to keep up with him.

  “We’re really going straight into a press conference?” Dr. Levin asked. She didn’t sound unhappy about it to Kevin, just surprised.

  “Things have progressed quite quickly,” Professor Brewster said. “Arguments about who got to work on the rock were becoming quite… vocal.”

  Kevin had hoped that after everything on the road, the scientists might be able to get along better than that.

  “It was decided that the only way to prevent further issues is to deal with the situation here. There will be a press conference to announce it, and, since so many of my colleagues are pushing for it, we will be seeking to cut into the rock to discern the contents.”

  “You’re actually going to open it?” Kevin asked. He hadn’t been sure if they would or not.

  “Under strictly controlled conditions,” Professor Brewster said. “We can’t risk potential contamination, either of the rock or the surrounding environment. The room in which we perform the opening will be a sealed space.”