by Peter Ponzo
He leaned over and gave Zemira a kiss on the cheek. She pushed him away.
"Easy big boy," she said in mock astonishment. "People may be watching."
Together they left the room, arm in arm. They had been engaged for over a month now, and everybody in the lab knew it.
It was in the evening that James got the phone call. He had expected it and was ready. He was back in the lab by 10 pm, ready for the first phase of the recovery.
"Thanks, Tom," he said. "We now have a one hour window to get things started. Have the boys contacted MOV?"
"You bet," Tom said. "Communication is clear and solid."
"Great. Let's get started."
James sat before the control panel and began the command sequence. A display which showed MOV's location on a 3-dimensional grid indicated that the Mobile Orbit Vehicle was responding. The MOV was coloured red, the satellite they hoped to guide into Earth orbit was pale grey. It would take almost two days for the guidance to Earth to be completed, but it needed to start now. All eyes were on the two coloured dots.
Zemira stood behind James, her hands on his shoulders. They had met three years earlier at a science conference in Dallas. He had given a speech on the problems associated with Netcape, the vessel that could capture objects in low orbit. The audience was suitably impressed. So was Zemira. She spoke to him after the speech, he said he was starved, they had dinner at a steakhouse, they both had sirloin blue. In fact, their likes and dislikes matched almost perfectly, from food to drink to music to sports. They both spent the night in the Ramada Inn near the airport ... in the same bed.
Zemira was working on satellite imagery and when James offered her a job at SpaceLab she said she had to think about it ... which she did for about three seconds. Since she joined the company, they had been inseparable. Although they lived apart, they spent most evening together and took holidays together. James had a tendency to be easily frustrated and she kept him in line, calm and relaxed. Their marriage was arranged for the following Summer, some warm time, some cozy place, some thing quiet–no guests.
Now, with the problems of MOV and Netcape and the satellite before him, James couldn't think of marriage. In fact, he could think of nothing but the rituals they had practised for months. He sat back and watched the moving dots.
"It looks good," Zemira whispered.
"Yes, it does," James said. "We will know in an hour whether the satellite is responding properly, whether MOV has made the correct trajectory evaluations and whether our satellite will come home or become another piece of space junk."
"I'd say junk," Zemira whispered, poking James playfully on the shoulder.
"Then you're out of a job," James said.
"And so are you," she replied, and she kissed him on his ear.
Chapter Two
SEE-01 had been guided flawlessly to within two hundred kilometres of Earth and the crew at SpaceLab were maneuvering Netcape to eject its mantle, designed to ensnare a sufficiently small orbiting object. The so-called "cape" was made of a carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer and each thread could withstand a hundred kilogram force. The trick was to eject the cape, snare the object then guide it back to Earth. James had picked Tom to do the honours. Tom had been practising for weeks and felt comfortable with the task. Netcape was visible on highdef cameras and Tom's training showed: the snaring of the satellite was perfect and everyone in the lab cheered.
The landing location was in the desert near the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, a spot not too far from SpaceLab. It was a small desert region so required careful guidance, but it went without a hitch. James was delighted and left for the landing location immediately. Zemira joined him as well as half the members of the lab. That was the last that anyone saw the recovery team alive.
The news was headlined in the Vancouver Gazette. The area where the satellite had landed had been carefully sealed from the public. Forensic teams wearing specially designed antimicrobial garb had descended on the place, medical personnel had investigated and the satellite itself was enclosed in a plastic hut, just large enough to accommodate four people. Jacob Gagnon was one of the four. He was head of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
"That fuzzy purple coating is animate," he said. "It's doubled in size in the past four hours. It seems to be some kind of organism, clearly alien. The head of SpaceLab, James Default, was a good friend. He couldn't have known the danger."
The only other person in the hut was his assistant, Jake.
"What was the danger, if I may ask?" Jake asked.
"That organism dissolves tissue, human tissue. It actually consumes cellular matter. There were apparently six people from SpaceLab, here to recover the satellite. They were eager to take it back to the lab, but that's a five hour drive, so they all camped here for the night. There were also two who had been here days before the satellite landed, getting the site ready. Camping equipment, tents and cots, had been set up. They all handled the satellite, not knowing of the danger involved. Then ..."
Jacob paused and gazed at the satellite. The fuzzy coating now covered the entire device.
"What happened to the SpaceLab people?" Jake asked.
"They were found, seven of them, partially dissolved. Their clothes had been liquified by the organism and their bodies had been almost entirely consumed. The eighth person had decided to go into a nearby town, to stay for the night and bring back supplies the following morning. He's the one who found the bodies."
"So what will you do with the satellite ... especially with that organism?"
"We will destroy it. Although it'd be a wonderful investigation, to discover its properties, it's just too dangerous. Killing it requires only that it be sprayed with any weak acid, carbolic, for example. We will do that in the morning."
As Jacob spoke, the purple organism shuddered ... then expanded ... then changed colour to red ...
29 AD
I awoke and walked from the cave into the bright sun. My silver skin held dust from a thousand years of isolation. I sat on a rock, leaned forward, placed my elbows upon my knees and my fingers upon my brow. I could feel the transmogrification take place, the cellular structure of skin seeping through my pores, the growth of hair ... I was ready within the hour, indistinguishable for a human male. I arose and walked to my cave, hoisted the jets upon my back and donned the visual deception cloak. This was the first of the new millennia and I would engage with society early in each millenium. I would visit Galilee. I would hear Jesus of Nazareth.
He stood on the hill, robed in a white garment and he spoke to his disciples and the gathered crowd.
"But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery ..."
I looked upon the woman who stood by my side.
"Is that your understanding?" I said in a whisper.
She did not speak. The prophet continued.
"... anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."
I asked once more: "Is that your understanding?"
Again I was ignored.
"If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well."
The woman turned to me and murmured: "That is my understanding for He is the son of God."
I walked away and the woman followed me. I went to a nearby well and drew water for I had thirst. I offered water to the woman and she drank deeply.
"Do you follow the prophet?" she said.
"No, I do not," I said. "I come this way once in a great while–a thousand years betwixt visits. I do this to observe, to collect images, to store data."
She seemed wary and asked how that was possible. I rolled back my eyes, revealing a black interior with flashing vacuole. She fell back then ran, and I followed her for I did not wish to leave an unsavory mark upon this millenium.
"Please," I said, "I did not mean to offend you. I am not of this world but of another and I come
only to observe and chronicle the period for my masters."
The woman fell to her knees and began to weep.
"Are you Messiah?" she asked. "Are you a divinity?"
"No, I am not. I am android. For millenia have I been given the task of recording human history. Though I am automaton, I am human."
The woman clung to my leg and I raised her up and caressed her cheek and we made love on the sands of the desert and Jesus of Nazareth said to the crowd:
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged ..."
I roamed Galilee from Chorazin to Nain, from Tiberius to Sepphoris and I observed. There was little water, a soil without fertility, sickness and disease. I saw the Pharisees and their commitment to the Torah. I saw Sadduccees and their wealth and their compromise with the Roman presence. I observed the contempt of Pontius Pilate for Jewish custom. I saw that he infuriated the Jews by building an aqueduct with Temple taxes. I noted leather works and smiths, bakers and butchers, stone masons and miners, artists and money changers. I wondered what would become of this land in the next millenium.
Surely the words of Jesus of Nazareth bode well for future society.
I returned to my cave. I waited.
1009 AD
I awoke and made my way to the rock and the transformation, again a man human. The sexual conduct of the Middle Ages would engage my attention. I made my way to the England of Aethelread the Unready, the king who presented himself as the overlord of the Scottish and Welsh kings. I observed his attacks on the Viking presence in the Irish Sea. I saw the kings of Denmark exploit the weakness of the North. The population was rural, working the land, climate was warm and dry, infection and plague a recurrent scourge. I watched as the English fleet invaded the Isle of man. I travelled from Durham to Canterbury, from Norwich to Chester and recorded the events, noted the making of beer, spinning of yarn and the practice of midwifery by women. The Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, was still years away.
In the country I observed a certain lack of sexual morals, erotic dalliance and wife swapping. The Church described approved sex positions, deviant orientation during the sex act were sinful and deserved three years penance. I met a woman in Westminster, London and we talked in the afternoon. She was the proprietor of a brothel near London Bridge. Her clients were members of government and even clergy. She noted that prostitution was necessary to subvert sexual tendencies of male youth. As St. Augustine had said: "The removal of the institution would bring lust into all aspects of the world." And, as the friar Thomas Acquinas would say: " If prostitution were to be suppressed, careless lusts would overthrow society."
I followed this woman to her home in Bankside. She served me warm beer and sweetmeats with honey and we made love that evening. In the morning, before she awoke, I left.
I returned to my cave and I waited.
2007 AD
I awoke and made my way to the rock and the transformation, this time a human female so as to provide a novel perspective. I flew, wrapped in the visual deception cloak, to a large metropolis in North America, now a dominant global component of human society. I believed that a thousand years would surely have resulted in social betterment, respect for values and each other and unfettered love between individuals. I believed that time enough had passed since the Sermon on the Mount. I walked into the city and discovered quite a startling philosophy: respect oneself, distrust others, ignore the pleas of the poor, gather personal wealth and engage in battle with those of different beliefs.
On the very first day I was robbed, raped and arrested as a prostitute. I record these most recent events while in a jail cell. Human society has progressed very little, if at all, in two thousand years since Jesus of Nazareth. When I am released I shall return to my cave and wait five thousand years before my next egress.
Tiddley had been busy this Summer. She collected laughter and she had filled many, many bottles which she stored in the Mushroom House, the one in the Golden Forest. She had many houses, but this was her favourite. The door was small but inside it was very large with lots of room for bottles of laughter. She enjoyed collecting laughter. She would sneak about in the Golden Forest and, when she heard people laughing, she would open her bottle and let the laughter in. Then she would quickly put the cork back in so the laughter could not escape.
Hearing people laughing was the best part of Tiddley's day. She could listen for hours, hidden from sight. If anyone saw her, they would be amazed or maybe surprised or maybe even afraid, but Tiddley was a Gwelf and, as everyone knows, Gwelfs are happy elfs and get along with every living thing. They loved the Forest and spoke to the flowers and played with the bunnies and frolicked with other Gwelfs. Tiddley, especially, was one of the happiest Dwelfs and that was because her job was to collect laughter. How could any Gwelf be unhappy when they spent the day collecting laughter?
Perhaps you don't know about Gwelfs, so I should explain. Gwelfs are tiny elfs with wings. Some say the name means good winged elfs, but I don't think so. I think Gwelf just means Gwelf. They live in Mushroom Houses and they all have duties such as cleaning up twigs, feeding squirrels, watering flowers and picking weeds. They are invisible to people unless they really want to be seen. If they really want to be seen, they must be careful to fly away before the people can catch them. I have personally seen people with a Gwelf in their hand. Yes, Gwelfs are tiny and you could hold one in your hand, but it will fly away so you must talk sweetly.
One day, I think it was a Saturday, Tiddley woke up and drank some flower nectar and ate some beet chocolate and walked about Golden Forest listening for laughter. It was very cold which was unusual because it should be warm. In fact, it was never cold in the Golden Forest.
Tiddley walked all morning, but she heard nothing. That had never happened before. Tiddley did see people, sitting and eating and drinking and having a picnic in the Forest, but they did not laugh. Many wore blankets to keep warm and they all seemed sad and Tiddley was sad that there was no laughter ... so she decided to show herself and ask what was wrong.
One particular family seemed so very sad. There was a mother and a father and a little girl. Tiddley walked up close and heard them talking, but they were not laughing, so Tiddley decided to ask them why they were so sad. When Tiddley showed herself, the little girl was so excited.
"Look Mama!" she said. "There's a fairy!"
The mother and father looked, but could not see Tiddley.
"Oh Daisy," mother said, "You are seeing things. There is no fairy there."
Little Daisy insisted that she could see a fairy, but her mother and father ignored her, so Tiddley decided to talk to the little girl.
"Hello, Daisy," Tiddley said. "You have a very pretty name. I talk to daisies in the Golden Forest and now I talk to you and your name is daisy. That is so nice."
"What is your name?" Daisy asked.
"My name is Tiddley and I am a Gwelf. I am not a fairy, but I do know some fairies, but I am a Gwelf and we have wings as you can see."
"Oh how nice," Daisy said. "I didn't know that flowers can talk."
"Oh yes, flowers are full of jokes and funny stories and I laugh when I hear a flower talk. But I do not hear any laughter here. Why do you not laugh? Why do your father and mother not laugh? I often hear people laughing in the Golden Forest, but not today. Why is that?"
"Oh, we are sad today," Daisy said. "It is cold and it should be warm. My father thinks that the weather is changing and that we will have Winter here in the forest."
"Oh, no," Tiddley said. "Tomorrow it will be warm, so let us laugh at the weather today." And Tiddley started to laugh, but Daisy was sad and went back to talk to her mother and father. Tiddley heard Daisy say that tomorrow would be warm, but nobody believed her, so Tiddley decided to see about the weather.
Deep in the Golden Forest lived a very old Gwelf named Ezra. Tiddley went to Ezra's Mushroom House and knocked on the door. E
zra was sleeping and Tiddley could hear the old Gwelf snoring so she quietly went inside and saw Ezra on the couch. She poked Ezra in the side and the old Gwelf woke up.
"Huh! Huh!" he grunted. "Who poked me? Oh, it's you, Tiddley. Can't you let an old Gwelf sleep?"
"But this is important," Tiddley said. "People think that Winter is coming to the Golden Forest. Is that true?"
Old Ezra sat up and grunted again.
"Yes, Old Man Winter is coming to the Golden Forest and there is nothing I can do about it."
The Old Ezra fell back asleep, but Tiddle poked him again and he woke up again.
"Huh! Huh!" he grunted. "Who poked me? Oh, it's you, Tiddley. What is it now?"
"Why is Winter coming?" Tiddley asked.
"Old Man Winter goes where he pleases," Ezra said. "He loves to make people unhappy. He loves to see people cold and miserable. He told me that Golden Forest is too happy and that is bad, so he will make it cold and people will be sad."
"But what can we do?" Tiddley asked.
But the old Gwelf had fallen asleep again, so Tiddley went back to her Mushroom House to think. She spent two days thinking and thinking. Then she knew what she had to do. She would make Old Man Winter go away.
The very next day it was even colder than before, but Tiddley was ready. She had brought out from her Mushroom House all the bottles of laughter that she had collected for so many years. One by one she opened them and the laughter spilled out and filled the Golden Forest with giggling and chuckling and great sounds of joy. She did this all day and the next day and the next day as the weather got colder and colder.
Then, one day, the weather was warm again and Tiddley could hear people laughing. Old Man Winter had given up. He couldn't stop people from laughing so he just stopped making the cold weather. The first person that Tiddley saw was Daisy and her family. They were all laughing and Tiddley showed herself to Daisy and Daisy giggled and snorted and laughed.
