by Craig Gaydas
“Your presence aboard this ship is accidental, but I am afraid that gloop bargle gurglity goo—”
I held up my hand to stop him. “Whoa, slow down. I can't understand you.”
A confused look came across his face but he continued to talk. “Gloop garble.”
I pointed to my headset and spoke methodically, emphasizing each word. “I…do…not…understand…you.”
His confusion turned to frustration before he took the headset off and slapped it briskly against his leg before returning it to his head.
“Sorry about that! I wish the Consortium would process my requisition and upgrade the antiquated equipment we have aboard this ship. Such a long and tedious process to upgrade the simplest of our equipment!”
I chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I hate when that happens.”
“What I was trying to say was that I brought you aboard in a blind panic, I am embarrassed to say.” The bluish hue of his face brightened as he looked at the floor and I realized that he blushed. “Our activities on Earth have gone virtually undetected for generations, and I would have preferred to keep it that way.”
Suddenly fear crept into my heart as I became concerned for my personal safety. From Satou's tone, it sounded like he issued a death sentence. Dead kids can't tell their friends about the big bad alien. Then I thought of Sam and became concerned over the whereabouts of my lost spelunking partner.
“What did you do to Sam?” I asked, anger creeping into my voice. He recognized my unease and he waved his hands frantically.
“No, no, remain calm. I assure you that your companion on Earth is safe. He ran into the cave not long after we returned to the ship, lost his balance in the darkness and slammed his head on a rock.”
My heart skipped a beat. “I thought you said he was safe!”
Satou offered a weak smile. “Yes, fortunately for him, Madoc was able to slip into the cave unseen and administer aid. He carried your unconscious friend out of the cave and left him outside, safe from harm. Madoc monitored him from the dark recesses of the cave as he regained consciousness and was last seen running off toward your closest town. He has a nasty cut on his head but he will be fine.”
“What's a Madoc?”
A melodic beeping came from the door that reminded me of a cell phone ringtone.
“Come in,” Satou shouted.
The metal door squealed as it swung inward. I expected another octopus-like being to walk through the door. Instead a six foot tall cross between a man and a fish walked in. His entire body was covered in scales with small fins extending from his arms and legs. I immediately thought about a time when my science teacher, Mr. Yasinakas, taught us about angler fish, a mysterious species found within the deep oceans of the world. The alien that entered the room had a head similar to that very fish. Two bulbous eyes protruded from each side of its skull and several sharp teeth broke through his scaly lips. A stalk protruded from the middle of his forehead and dangled between his eyes. The end of the stalk glowed with a soft yellow light, like a built-in flashlight.
“Ah, Madoc, just in time. We were just talking about you,” Satou beamed.
Madoc gurgled in a similar language as Satou. He didn't come in equipped with a translator, so I had no idea what was said. Satou gurgled several words back and after a few animated gestures, Madoc left the room and I found myself alone again with Satou.
“Madoc assures me that your friend made it home safely.” Despite the good news, Satou looked grim.
“Is something wrong?” I asked gingerly.
“I apologize for his demeanor but we had a little bit of a…disagreement,” he responded with downcast eyes.
Once again, fear for my personal safety bubbled to the surface. “Oh yeah?”
“Madoc believes that we need to return you to the planet.” He paused and folded his hands in front of him.
“And you believe I need to stay?” I completed the sentence.
He inhaled deeply and let it out in one giant gust. “Make no mistake, I do not wish to keep you here against your will, but I fear the consequences of returning you to the planet.”
“And what would that be?” I asked, puzzled.
“For generations the Consortium visited your planet discreetly, nothing more than a shadow in the moonlight,” he explained. “I am afraid that our secret is one that you would not be able to keep.”
I disagreed and went to voice my opinion, but stopped when I realized that the words had a ring of truth. The more I thought about it, the more I believed he was right. I was abducted by aliens, how the heck could I keep that from my friends and family? I would be the coolest kid in town, rich and famous beyond my wildest dreams, maybe even the star of my own reality show. But the thought of staying with the aliens appealed to me and I found myself wondering what it would be like jetting around the universe with them, investigating strange, new worlds, going boldly where no human had gone before.
“I could be the next Captain Kirk,” I mumbled.
Satou cocked his head. “I do not understand.”
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud.”
His features softened. “I am sorry, I did not mean to air out our grievances and create undue stress. If you are up to it, I would like to conduct a tour around the Cirrus, getting you acclimated to your surroundings.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Cirrus?”
Satou held out his hand and helped me off the bed. The cold, clammy feel of his hands did not surprise me, with him being a fish and all, but I was glad to see that I still wore my clothes and was not physically violated like some of the alien abduction horror stories penned in most tabloid magazines.
“Cirrus is our ship,” Satou replied. “It is an Interplanetary Class starship used by the Explorer's League during exploration missions, but more on that later. Let me show you around our facilities.”
He led me into the hallway where I stopped to admire the cavernous hallway. It ran almost thirty feet from floor to ceiling and about half of that in width. The rounded ceiling gave the impression that I stood inside of a train tunnel. I was dismayed to see the same dull gray color as the room I just exited. I was hoping for something a bit more vibrant—a bit more alien. My alien captors had no fashion sense I lamented, as I continued along the hallway. Many of the doors along the hall had no door handles but came equipped with small computer screens, no bigger than a cell phone, embedded in the wall next to them.
Satou studied my reaction as we traveled down the hall and smiled. “Not what you expected?”
I shook my head silently as we passed a door with a red cross etched into the wall next to it. I stopped and passed my hand over the symbol, which didn't seem painted on the wall but rather fused into it, as if someone punched it with a giant cross-shaped branding iron. I rubbed the symbol mindlessly, amazed at the similarities.
“Is something wrong?” Satou inquired.
My chuckle caused him to lift a scaly eyebrow.
I noticed his face and nervously cleared my throat. “No… Well, not really. It's just that this symbol was used a lot on Earth. It was used to show people where hospitals were and stuff like that.”
“Well, you will be happy to know that it represents the same thing on Caelum as well.”
“Caelum?” I repeated.
Satou placed his hand on his chest. “Our planet.”
A man approached us from the far end of the hall and when he got closer I couldn't help but notice his flowing red hair. It was so bright it gave off an impression that his head was on fire. Its length extended beyond his shoulders and covered a portion of his angular facial features. He wasn't much taller than me and wore a black business suit with a black button down dress shirt, accentuated with a red tie. Everything about him seemed human except his eyes, which were bright yellow pupils surrounded by blood-red irises.
He reached us and smiled, his teeth sparkling white in stark contrast to his onyx suit. It was like watching an alien mortician at work.
I placed my hand inside of his and shook it in disbelief. “Nathan Chambers,” I responded.
“Pleased to meet you, Nathan Chambers.”
I shook off my initial shock and let go of his hand. “I didn't realize other humans were aboard.”
Calypso glanced at Satou and let out a hearty laugh. It was deep, throaty and reminded me of Santa Claus.
“Oh, Nathan Chambers, you have a wonderful sense of humor. I am not human, however.”
Things weren't adding up in my new found reality. I always thought aliens were supposed to be a race of little green men who beamed us up to their spaceships, prodded us for information, drained our blood, stole our organs and ate our young, or whatever else tabloids usually reported? This didn't seem to be the case aboard this vessel because I came across three aliens so far who differed from each other. My fear of being an organ donor was quickly replaced with curiosity.
“Why don't any of you look alike?” I blurted out.
Calypso's smile faded and Satou stiffened beside me. They exchanged glances and I got the feeling they silently debated whether or not to answer the question.
After stealing glances with Satou, Calypso's smile returned. “Well, Nathan Chambers, that is because we are not from the same planet.” He ran a hand through his hair and I realized he wasn't wearing a translator.
“First off, stop calling me by my full name. You can just call me Nathan. Second, I noticed you don't have one of those translator thingies, which means you speak my language.”
Calypso pointed his finger at me. “You are correct, Nathan!”
“How can that be?”
Calypso's smile widened. “Ah, there is a lot in the universe that you are unaware of, young man.” As if he read my mind, he added, “Not all aliens are little green men jetting across the galaxies in flying saucers.”
I went to ask another question but he interrupted me.
“How about I take you on a tour of the ship? I am positive that a lot of your questions will be answered.”
A beeping sound interrupted my response. Satou looked down at a bracelet strapped across his wrist. “Sorry, but I need to make my exit.” Calypso glanced at him and he shrugged. “It appears my work in engineering is never done.”
He lumbered his way down the hall, leaving me alone with Calypso. He rubbed his hands together and turned toward me. “Shall we go?”
I followed him down the hall until we came to a set of double doors. He opened a panel next to the door, revealing a small computer screen. He touched several strange symbols on the screen before I heard a metallic sliding sound, like a deadbolt sliding back.
“I will need you to keep an open mind,” he said over his shoulder. “Once we step through these doors, a lot of the preconceived notions you might have about the universe will change.”
I shrugged. “So, I guess I will discover that humans didn't evolve from apes? Or perhaps God didn't create man before taking a Sunday off?”
Calypso put his hand on the door and pushed it open. “Nathan, you will learn that humans are not even from Earth.”
Deconstructing History
Calypso stood before the door with one hand in his pocket and the other on the door. I stopped—my mind unable to comprehend what he just told me. He met my gaze and frowned.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
I nodded slowly, unable to answer.
He offered a warm smile and placed a hand on my shoulder. “There will be a lot of information to process at first, but I promise you will be OK.”
He pushed the door open and guided me inside. As we entered the room, iridescent bars mounted on the walls lit the way which guided us up three stairs toward a cavernous room complete with a domed ceiling. Several similar light fixtures affixed to the ceiling illuminated the center of the room, revealing two curved rows of ten seats. It reminded me of a small movie theater. Calypso moved to the front of the room and motioned me toward one of the chairs.
“Have a seat, Nathan, and I will explain things further.”
I sat down and the seat cushion moved beneath me, molding to my lower body, creating a comfort level I haven't seen since a trip to the mattress store where I came across a bed made of memory foam. I recall losing myself in that mattress and almost falling asleep because it was so comfortable.
Suddenly the ceiling slid open, like elevator doors, revealing the vastness of outer space. I gasped and my instinct was to grab the armrest to prevent me from floating into outer space. Millions of twinkling stars created a panoramic backdrop for Earth, a blue-green marble in the sky that took my breath away.
“It's OK, Nathan. I assure you that you won't float off into space,” he laughed.
Calypso touched a panel on the wall and it slid aside, revealing a large flat screen monitor. “This room is our observatory,” he said and swept his arm around the room. “Before we begin, I want to let you know that what you are viewing is a real-time view of your planet and not any type of pre-recorded footage.”
“How far are we?” I asked.
“Well, Nathan, using Earth standards of measurement we are about 150,000 miles from your planet…give or take a few thousand,” he chuckled.
A typhoon of emotions assaulted my mind. While I sat hundreds of thousands of miles above my home planet, I found it difficult to focus on what lay ahead. How many kids would get the chance to see Earth from the bowels of a spaceship? I haven't taken a poll lately, but I bet the number wouldn't be very high.
Calypso, satisfied that my brain hadn't fried, continued. “Your sun takes about 225 million years to go around the galaxy once. To put that in perspectives you can better understand, I will break that down into a 24 hour clock. So, for example, let us say one rotation of the galaxy equals one hour. This makes the Earth about 20 hours old, which means your species has been on Earth for about 48 seconds.”
“I'm missing your point,” I said, perplexed.
Calypso touched the monitor and it sprang to life. Several large dinosaurs swarmed across the screen and rumbled across lush wooded landscape. They flanked a smaller version of themselves, clearly the baby of the pack, as they continued following the banks of a river. Our science class covered dinosaurs last year, and I struggled to recall the name of the lumbering beasts.
“Brontosaurus,” I shouted triumphantly, a smirk playing at the corners of my mouth.
Calypso smiled and handed me a pair of glasses. One lens was red and the other was blue while smaller, tinted screens were embedded along the temples. I put them on and watched the video. The dinosaurs continued their trek along the river, but the glasses allowed me to see a more panoramic view of the scene. From the left and right, out of my peripheral vision, I saw something moving, hidden among the trees. Five smaller figures emerged from the trees carrying something that resembled a flamethrower strapped to their backs. They moved slowly and methodically, tailing the animals and gesturing toward each other. As the camera panned in for a closer look, I couldn't make out whether the figures were human because they wore biohazard suits and motorcycle helmets, with several antennae covering their faces.
“What the hell?” I muttered but Calypso ignored my outburst. His focus was on the screen.
I watched while they flanked the dinosaurs and drew their weapons. The herd continued, unaware of the strangers behind them. The lead person fired but instead of a hail of bullets, a bright flash of light emitted from the barrel of the weapon and struck the trailing beast in the haunch but the animal continued on, unperturbed by the intruders.
“It didn't do anything,” I took the glasses off and looked at Calypso. “Is this for real?”
“Keep watching, Nathan,” he replied.
I replaced the glasses and fixed my gaze on the screen. The dinosaurs turned from the river and began feeding on some nearby trees. Suddenly the tra
iling dinosaur, the one who had been hit by the light, fell to the ground. The other dinosaurs let out a cry of alarm and galloped away from the fallen beast, leaving it in a cloud of dust. The person who shot it walked up to the corpse, held up a small square object and waved it over the body before the screen went black.
I threw off the glasses and glared at Calypso suspiciously. “What is this, some kind of science fiction movie? Everyone knows that dinosaurs and people never lived together.”
Calypso fixed me with a glance and I ceased my protests. “The true history of your planet has been lost through the ages. Inferior science and uninformed conclusions do not help your cause. What you just saw was the first Explorer League scouting party to ever set foot on the Earth. When we discovered your planet generations ago we were on a repopulation mission.”
“Repopulation mission?” I interjected.
Calypso drew in a deep breath. “Perhaps I should back up a bit, in an effort to explain who we are and what we do” He leaned against the wall and folded his arms. “We are the Consortium, a collection of races from various planets across the universe headquartered on the planet Caelum located within galaxy GX-100, about 125,000 light years from Earth.”
I found myself grasping the sides of my chair anxiously. The impact of Calypso's words sank in and I felt myself losing grip on reality. For a brief moment I thought I imagined everything that had happened. I fell down in the cave and bumped my head on a rock and was now in a coma induced dream. The alternative was too much for my brain to handle.
I wiped a thin sheet of sweat off of my forehead and Calypso stopped talking.
“Are you OK?”
My throat felt like I swallowed a bag of sand and washed it down with a cup of broken glass. I swallowed hard and tried to muster an ounce of saliva in my mouth. I croaked out a yes and he continued.
Calypso continued, his hard eyes drilling into my soul. “I am a member of the Council of Five who are ruled by the Consortium High Prince, Meta. The Council of Five is made up of the five leaders of our principal organizations such as myself, Embeth, the Orgellian leader of the Defense Fleet, Varooq, who is the head of the Universal College, Hark-Kalech who leads our Science Unit and last is Kale, our head ambassador. The Consortium's mission is to explore the universe, gather information on inhabited planets, protect indigenous species and repopulate if necessary.”
