by Richard Sosa
“Ouch. Damn you. Getaway. You Korpe bastard,” she struggled to get out of his grasp, “I am going to kill you.” Rik held on. She punched at him. They struggled and tumbled to the floor laughing and Iris pushed him off. She made the motion to punch his face but stopped.
Rik put up his hands, “Abusing the spaceman visitor does not reflect well on you. I am telling everyone that you’re more advanced and not total brutes.”
“I’ll give you something to ‘reflect’ on. You’re a jerk,” Iris groused. They sat side by side on the floor or a moment. Iris stared at the recorder. “How do I erase that?”
“Can’t it’s a permanent record forever.”
She turned off the unit and sat down hard in the chair. “Someday I am going to clock you. You’ll have it coming. What’s the HAAH condition?”
“He’s an ‘ass hole’.”
Iris cradled her head in her palm and looked at the recorder. “Damn you,” she began to assess allies, “doctor Megs is O.K. but you’re right about Dask. I believe he wants you dead. I don’t blame him if I thought you brought the Orbs here; I’d want to kill you as well.”
“I think our only hope is to get in front of this Council group,” Rik said biting his lip, “and tell the story. Megs supports doing that and I don’t give a damn what that pompous Dask thinks.” Rik smiled at her when she let her shocked expression show.
“Are you serious? You want to go over there and let them make a fool of you? No thank you, count me out,” Iris said as she punched the pillows before putting them back on the sofa.
Rik pleaded. “Kidding aside, I have to speak to your council whatever they call themselves. No matter what happens to me Megs is right. I can change things. For once I can do something worthwhile. If I can be blamed for the Orbs finding us here, then I must speak up now,” Rik was lost in thought and said softly, “I want to do something here.” He stared at Iris and smiled. “I’ve been working on a speech, but the words don’t come out right for me. Can you help me?”
“A speech? Are you kidding me?”
“Stop saying that, I am serious. I am going to do this. The problem is I don’t know the legislative protocol of this world.”
Iris moved off the chair and joined Rik on the floor again. “O.K. How can I help then?”
“If you were going to speak to this group, do you have a speech format to the Council in mind maybe I can copy it? Megs said you could show them the images and I can speak.”
Iris nodded her head ‘no’. “Is your translator thing messed up? What part of ‘count me out’ did you not hear? It’s no use, this is pointless.”
Her words hit Rik like a punch to the stomach. “Pointless? No. It's important and nothing in this matter is pointless. Not anymore. I must try. My mother died in vain if this is all pointless.” Rik watched Iris and she shifted her gaze to the floor. Rik continued to look at her and thought, you, dumb shit you shouldn’t have said that.
Iris chastised was resigned. “O.K. of course,” she breathed out and collected her thoughts and then became very serious. She folded her hands in preparation. “My speech would go like this,” she cleared her throat, adjusted her body position, “Honorable council members and gracious leader of the Burstak Party and Senators from Tramjec and the Grizath Province—”
“So that’s how I should address them also?” Rik tapped notes quickly into his Laptop.
She ignored him and continued, “Thank you—”
“So…I should thank them right away? First thing.” Rik typed additional notes in his Laptop.
Iris ignored him and continued. “It is truly not an honor to be here in this hollowed site because I need to be home cleaning my closet. Not sorry to take you away from your partisan mundane council infighting. I only ask that you wake the hell up. We're all going to die. We will die while you sit on your butts arguing and FYI we're doomed, ask Mr. Rik spaceman F-up here,” she gestures to him graciously, “all we want is funding to save our world. We don’t want to vote for you. We're all going to die. If you don’t act, we die. Please allow me to demonstrate.” She crumpled dramatically to the floor and lay stiff and silent arms bent in front of her like a possum.
Rik was stunned as he looked at her on the floor. “It's too long and your point is what?”
“I am planning to jump up and scream,” she laughed, “then run out of the building. The speech gets me the hell out of there and you can take over the presentation. Be sure to pick me up at the cafe after you get done being reamed with stupid questions. It’s going to be difficult.”
“I can handle myself in front of a committee.”
“Are you sure? It’s going to be harsh.”
“How so?”
Iris mimics the dull monotone voice of a senator. “Mister Rik spaceman, Korpe or
Korpe man, can you tell the committee where you come from? Are you an alien? Where are your credits to pay us off? Mister Rik F-up, can you confirm for me and remember you’re under oath, do I have two dicks or just one? I am going to get to the bottom of this even if I must call in a special partisan camera-ready commission. Answer the question Mister Rik or I’ll parade you in front of cameras for my re-election materials. It’s a simple question, one or two.”
Rik looked at her. “You must have been put in the corner a lot as a child. You’re a total brat.”
Iris handed him her IARI. “You should do some homework before you go over there and make a complete fool of yourself.”
Rik frowned as he quickly read the materials on the common net about Aoife’s political process. “It says that the ruling council is composed of men and women who proved themselves to be leaders in many areas and over time gained support and trust for a political post. They win a popular vote to represent the views of constituents as well as the opposing party views during their tenure.” Rik pondered, “Humm, that’s unusual, after three suns annual cycles, they change their platform affiliation and inherit, implement or modify, what they might not have supported when they entered their post in the prior three annual cycles. The governance model requires a compromise because the problems are multifaceted and require diverse solutions that a party system cannot solve. That’s very different,” Rik contemplated what he learned about Aoifeian politics, “so party affiliations don’t exist here?”
Iris frowned. “Let me put a finer point on that. Politicians are not above having one mindset or enriching themselves and representing only their benefactors but generally, the system relies on net zero-sum gains and compromises. Lots of compromises. Multiple politicians who are smart can get wealthy by representing a large constituency, while one greedy politician may lose out. It never has been perfect. Remember the goal is complex problem solving and that takes an open mindset, in the middle of partisan positions.”
Rik continued to read from his unit and said. “It says that the concept of ‘political parties of any merit dissolved when the first survivors arrived on Aoife five hundred annual cycles ago and established ‘the rule of law, entrusted to the care of all’, an active utilitarian form of government.’”
Iris brought Rik back to reality. “That sounds nice. Even with that level of enlightenment there still is pompousness and preaching occurring in the hallowed halls. The legislation is based on a higher needs tier that is achieved by defining our universal governance imperatives that have as its tenant to support the furtherance of the species. This is reviewed at the beginning of each legislative session. Again, it’s not perfect. Nothing is perfect when you are dealing with humanoids.”
Rik rubbed his neck with one hand. “I think this is going to be a difficult group.”
Iris stared at him and gave a frustrated ‘humph’ sound. “I told you, but you don’t listen. You can’t back out now.”
Chapter Eighteen
Four sun cycles passed, and Rik and Iris prepared in silence for the presentation. Iris with her hair braided sporting Sarah’s ivory comb said, “you ready?”
“I am scared now,”
Rik admitted.
“It’s going to be fine. They’re going to like you, I promise.”
“I don’t know the answer to the ‘two dicks’ question.”
“That’s O.K. nobody does.”
As they arrived a troop transport glider passed over the tall domed ivory building and made a lazy circle above it. They followed the flight of the troop carrier regarding it suspiciously while shielding their eyes from the suns. The day was bright with a purplish haze higher in the atmosphere and it painted a light purple hue on the white stone buildings. Some legislative staffers raced into the building in front of them. A few drones flew overhead.
Rik and Iris walked into the building rotunda and scanned around the large space. A dirty, slightly built man walked by Rik and bumped into him hard, “dead man,” and rushed toward the door.
“What did you say asshole?” Rik ran after him.
Right before he could push through the door and chase the man outside, Iris held his arm firmly. “Settle down, let him go. I’ll report it so facial recognition can identify him.” She led Rik away and pointed to a large meeting room with a sign on the door, ‘ALL PLANET COUNCIL CHAMBERS’, “There it is. We have a job to do. Let’s focus.”
They pushed the large gold doors open and scanned the room. It was still filling with staff, recording engineers, and legislators who paraded themselves by talking and handshaking their way to assigned seats. There were more than a hundred seats with desks for the Council members and a balcony for spectators. The room had long windows curving high above to the ceiling and filtered God-light streamed inside. Rik and Iris stood looking lost. A legislative aide who was directing the crowds approached and said, “We have your place over here, please follow me.” He pointed to a console unit with an information panel and Iris immediately went to work confirming the presentation materials.
She looked up at Rik from her work. “O.K. this is set. Are you ready babe?”
“Babe? No, I am really scared now,” Rik scanned the large space with wide eyes like a lost child, “whose idea was this?”
“I told you. When are you going to start listening to me? Remember I go first so I can run out screaming,” she smiled, “just be yourself but don’t pee your pants. They want to like you,” Iris paused remembering, “Rik, next time someone bates you to chase them, think snipper.”
Rik clamped his teeth, closed his eyes hard and made a humming noise for a long moment. Iris watched him curiously. Then he opened them. “Nope, reset doesn’t work for me. I am not able to ‘reset’ like you. What the hell? I don’t know what am doing.”
A chime rang and echoed in the large room. Everyone moved to find seats and the lights dimmed slightly. The Speaker of the Chamber addressed the Council. “Good day to all. This is unit appropriations request for emergency services 4789 and continuing debate. This presentation has a common net sponsor 568-9. This session is called to order.”
He sat down and instantly a large wall monitor came online. The invasion Images from Rik’s recorder begin displaying. The images loomed over the chamber. The planetary battles streamed without breaks, most of the images were blurry and the voices muted but there was no doubt of the population’s terror. There were images edited to focus on the defense as if the defenders were effectively repelling the invasion and were not showing any panic. The images were a silent movie version of Rik’s recordings and sanitized with parts cropped. People in the room shifted uncomfortably from the flashed light at the end of the presentation. The presentation ended with images of smoke and tornados of fire but the Orbs above them were edited out.
A long moment passed while the room was silent and then the domed ceiling echoed with shouting and taunting. The chair rang a timid bell. “I am calling for order.” The voices rose into sideline arguments and bitter accusations were thrown about. Rik and Iris quietly waited on the speaker's platform watching the orchestrated and theatrical chaos unfold.
A Council member stood up. “I am shocked, I tell you, just shocked that someone used non-appropriated funds to fix the large monitor.” Megs was on the speaker's platform on the opposite side engrossed in her notes. The voices and arguments subsided but there was an untamed murmur from a group of Council members at the back of the room.
Councilmember Anbar from the group at the back stood and received a nod from the Chair to represent his supporters. “That’s a pretty good show. It’s all lies. Tell me, if these creatures are so advanced, don’t you think they will come in peace? We should be prepared to welcome them, not attack them.”
The Chair looked at Rik. “Respond.”
Rik was caught off guard by the informality. He stood and pointed to the presentation. “Someone has intentionally altered this presentation. But you can still see that, yes, they are advanced. They travel great distances in space to do this kind of destruction. There is never a peaceful interaction between an advanced society and a backward primitive one. These images are records taken and maintained over many sun cycles in many star systems. They all have the same experience. You are food and energy sources nothing more,” Rik pointed to the large screen, “This particular presentation has been altered significantly.”
Iris was working frantically on the presentation code to change how the data
streamed in the presentation platform and disabled the security code preventing the real one from opening and then said quietly to Rik. “Someone tried to suppress the audio and most of the images, but Ra and I think we have the code disabled. I added more information. Here we go. Eat this you council chair warmers. In your face.”
Rik waved over at the screen and said. “As we saw—” The large wall monitor came back to life with clearer images that flashed the destruction then buzzing distorted sounds and foreign, strange voices shouted out into the room. The populations were in terror, they cried and screamed, there were loud explosions, panicked cries, a burning humanoid, like a torch, ran at the screen, all the images were no longer blurred movements. Segmented bodied creatures with round domes on their ‘head’, hopped and leaped with quick movements. The detailed images showed the black steel blue shine from the creature’s exoskeleton and saliva dripping from their mouths. The spike-like barbed appendages located where a ‘nose’ would be if they were human, were stained with blood. They scrambled out of the ship’s pores and dispersed in many directions. Moving rapidly, they swarmed like roaches over the fleeing humans. They tore at human flesh and ate them in piles like a buffet. The green, orange or black soil, depending on the planet, was red with blood. Suddenly, a ‘blast’ sound made everyone jump as an ancient jet-like flying machine in the presentation slammed into an Orb with no damaging effects to the Orb. Soldiers were shooting weapons wildly in a futile panicked effort to protect citizens and there were uncontrolled bursts of fire as they ran. The sound of flesh being pounded by the lasers echoed in the chamber. Soldiers turned their weapons on women and children who were being eaten alive. The fission explosion with a blinding white light filled the room making everyone block their faces. The nuclear explosions mushroomed in multiple locations directly over the Orbs. The invaders were not halted. Rik peered at the ceiling imagining the building shaking.
The Chair rang a chime many times and stood up. “Who did this? We debated all week there should be no audio this is not becoming. This is leading the conclusion.” The sound was muted again as the power to the presentation was cut.
Iris sneered at the Council and stood up, not formally recognized to speak. “I re-mastered this for our technology. For verification, the source links, key tracking sequences, and data parameters were sent to your presentation packets. These are the images you should see for yourself. If you mute the sound and blur these images then you’re lying to yourselves, citizens have already viewed the actual visual data and record. I realize you only care about your large donors, but if you get stuck in a town hall, you probably should be prepared with the truth.”
Councilman AnBar, glared at Iris, “Who are you
?”
“I am a messenger. These worlds were invaded before they could evolve sufficiently to defend themselves and as a result, they do not exist anymore. It's not a question of—”
“Shut up.” AnBar dramatically slammed his fist on the table.
Iris flipped her hair. “of truce. Wake the hell up. I imagine you’re thinking about how to profit from this or how to blame the other parties for any mishap. I am confident that you have used considerable resources examining this situation, so you come out of it politically unhurt. Let me make this as simple as possible. Politics be damned, if we can't change, we will all die.”
Rik stood up and challenged Councilman Anbar directly. “If you send a welcoming party, at least have the courage to include yourself. Don’t let innocent people die just to prove a talking point. If you think they will be peaceful, then go out there and meet them, but please get on a ship and fly out into space before they get here.”
Councilman Rehoa-Ra from the Grizath Provence pointed at Iris. “Lies. Look at these two, they’re profiting from this. This should never have been put on the common net. This is a crime perpetrated by this woman. Those of us who believe in God know that he will not allow the destruction of his chosen creation. He will not allow our destruction until he wills it. All of this is fakery.”
Councilwomen Hember-jec was recognized and stood glancing at each political group in turn. “With the evidence in front of your eyes do open them.”
Rik kept his gaze forward but whispered to Iris. “I should have realized you weren’t joking about the ‘we’re all going to die’ part of your presentation.”
Iris scanned the room. “We have no allies here and by the way, good job insulting Anbar. He’s on the fund appropriations committee. I think you single-handedly killed our chances.”
