by Brandon Hale
“I don’t think so,” Lauren said.
“It’s a little cold out here,” Theo said.
“Then go back to your car,” Lauren said.
“I have nothing that’ll help you,” Jerry said, a look of horror in his eyes.
“Respectfully, sir,” Theo said, “you don’t know that.”
“I’m not coming with you,” Jerry said. “There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind.”
Theo rubbed his own temples. “Jerry,” he said, “this is my very first assignment with this new department. Do you have to make it a pain in the ass? Just let me in, or come with me. I don’t care which. I promise you, I’m not part of some secret organization to cover up aliens. I’m not a man in black, although I loved that movie. When that movie came out, I went to all my superiors, trying to find out if anything like that existed. Sadly, if it did exist, they didn’t trust me enough to let me know.”
“That’s a nice story,” Lauren said.
“Yeah,” Theo said. “Mr. Simmons, may I please just get a preliminary interview with you. It won’t take long.”
“No,” Jerry said. “Go away.”
“Actually,” Alice said, “we have information that you might find much more valuable than anything Jerry could provide.”
“Really?” Theo said. “That’s interesting. As soon as my interview with Jerry is over, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it.”
“No,” Jerry said. “Go away.”
Theo sighed. “Respectfully, sir,” he said, “I’m not going away. The safety of the entire world could hinge on information that comes from an interview with you. I’m not going to walk away from that because it makes you uncomfortable.”
“Come back with a warrant,” Lauren said.
“A warrant for what?” Theo said. “He’s not in trouble, ma’am. He just might have information that could save the world.”
“Children,” Alice blurted. “They’re the key. These things can communicate with children.”
“Impressive,” Theo said.
“You know?” Arthur asked.
“We just discovered it this morning,” Theo said. “We’re exploring it now, but we’d rather not use little kids if we can get away with it.”
“But if the fate of the world is at stake,” Jerry said.
Theo laughed. “I see what you did there. You used my little speech against me. That’s good.” He turned to Lauren. “Ma’am, if you’ll just let me come in for a few minutes, I’ll be on my way. I’m not here to be scary. I just want to talk to Mr. Simmons to see if he has any information that might help us, and maybe bum a cup of coffee.”
Lauren looked at Jerry. Her eyes were clearly asking for his permission.
“Please,” Theo said. “It’s really getting cold out here. I think my nipples could cut a diamond.”
Jerry nodded.
“You have fifteen minutes,” Lauren said. “Do you want cream or sugar?”
“Tons of both,” Theo said as he stepped inside. “Thank you,” he added to Jerry. “I’m sure you folks are very curious about what we know and are doing. How about as payment for your time, I’ll answer any questions you might have.”
“Are you allowed?” Alice asked.
“The order is from the President himself,” Theo said. “All agents in the Department of E.T.R.C. are to be as open as possible. Obviously, I’m not going to say anything that betrays someone else’s privacy, and I’m not going to tell you the secret location of the time machine we use to change history, but I’ll be as open as possible. It’s very important to the President that we do not give the impression that we’re trying to hide vital information from the public.” He looked at Alice and winked. “I was kidding about that second part. We don‘t really have a time machine.”
“I guessed,” Alice said.
Lauren returned from the kitchen with a cup of coffee. Theo took the coffee, walked to the couch, and sat down. “I’m going to get this over with as quickly as possible.”
“Thank you,” Jerry said.
“Why did it try to touch you?” Theo asked.
“I don’t know,” Jerry said.
“Do you have a working theory?”
“No,” Jerry said.
“Okay,” Theo said. “Let me start over. Do you think it has anything to do with your abduction?”
“I wasn’t abducted,” Jerry said.
Theo sighed. “Mr. Simmons, you recently attended a support group for abductees. You were abducted.”
Jerry glared at Alice.
“I promise I don’t have a secret agenda here,” Theo said. “I’m just here to do a short interview. Mostly, it’s to confirm what we already know. When I said the world’s fate might rest in your answers, I was exaggerating to get you to agree to the interview. We think we’ve figured out what’s going on already. I‘m here to get some things confirmed, and I‘m here to ask you to volunteer to help, should the need arise.”
“That won’t happen,” Jerry said.
“That’s fine,” Theo said. “We’re interviewing every person that the aliens tried to touch. We’re getting some basic information from them, and we’re asking them to volunteer to participate in further attempts to communicate. I’m very sure that plenty of folks will volunteer to help us, so it’s incredibly doubtful that we’ll need you at all. I just need your official word on it.”
“Is that the connection?” Arthur asked. “The aliens reached out to abductees.”
“We think so,” Theo said. “Our hope is that the aliens were preparing them for the arrival. We’re hoping some of these people might remember something that can help us talk to them. We’re also hoping that some of them will volunteer to try to communicate with them directly. Because of the obvious dangers involved, we’re not forcing anyone to do this.”
“Yet,” Jerry said.
“Yet,” Theo conceded. “I’m not going to lie to you, Jerry. If it came right down to it, and we had no other alternatives, we’d probably draft some of these people into service. But that’s not going to happen. So far, the aliens have reached out to hundreds of folks around the world. We’ll get volunteers.”
“And if you don’t?” Jerry asked.
“If we don’t,” Theo said, “we’re going to explore the possibility of using the children. They appear to be perfectly safe after communicating. That, in our mind, is the next-to-last resort. The last resort obviously would be forcing abductees to try to communicate.”
“Reasonable,” Arthur said.
Jerry looked at him sharply. “Not from where I’m sitting.”
“Mr. Simmons,” Theo said, “I’m not trying to scare you here. I’m just trying to hold to the President’s rule on complete honesty. And I’m still holding to that rule by telling you the forced communication attempts are not going to happen. They simply are not.”
“Why aren’t you letting children communicate?” Alice asked. “To me, that seems to be the fastest way to success. And you said they don’t appear to be in any danger from it.”
“Appear being the key word,” Theo said. “But their safety isn’t our biggest concern, although it’s certainly up there.”
“Wow,” Arthur said. “That’s not very humanitarian.”
“Actually,” Theo said, “it is. Our greatest concern is for humanity as a whole. We’re afraid of miscommunications. The age limit for communication seems to be around six years old. Using a six year old as a translator runs the risk of some major misunderstandings.”
“Reasonable,” Arthur said again.
Theo looked at Jerry and said, “Let me wrap this up. I don’t think the rest of my questions are really necessary. I just need your confirmation on this summary of the interview. You were touched by an alien. You were abducted at some point in the past. And you are not willing to volunteer to help with the communications. Is all that correct?”
Jerry hesitated for a few seconds, then quietly nodded.
“Okay, then,” Theo
said. “I’m going to leave a form with you. It asks about the details of your abduction. Fill out everything you can remember.” He handed a packet of papers to Jerry.
“You seem like a genuine guy,” Jerry said. “I hope you’re not full of shit.”
“Oh, I’m full of shit,” Theo said. “Just not about this. President’s orders.”
“Are we done?” Jerry asked.
“Almost,” Theo said. “I have one more question. Are you, in fact, menstruating right now?”
“What?” Arthur asked.
Theo looked at Arthur and said, “I’m a scientist man, back off.”
“I thought you were federal agent,” Arthur said.
“That was a Ghostbusters reference,” Theo said. “My obviously failed attempt at humor.”
“I got the reference,” Alice said. Despite every effort to prevent it, she was smiling.
“She’s a keeper,” Theo said. “Now, it’s my turn to keep my promise. Do you have any questions for me?”
“Is Area 51 real?” Alice asked.
“Wow,” Theo said. “You don’t fool around.”
“Sorry,” Alice said. “It was the first thing that shot into my head.”
“Yes,” Theo said. “It was real. It’s actually incredibly neat. I was just given full disclosure on this yesterday. They crashed, the government recovered the craft. A very naïve military officer released the information to the press, but it was denied shortly thereafter. The craft had four aliens. Three died in the crash. The fourth died a few days later. The ship was more or less destroyed, and what was recovered really didn’t teach us anything.”
“I find that difficult to believe,” Arthur said. “How can you have a spacecraft in your possession and not learn from it?”
“I found it hard to believe myself,” Theo said. “But apparently, the ship was nothing but a shell. They found nothing like an engine. Nothing that even resembled anything mechanical. Inside, there were no controls. No view screens. No equipment. Nothing. Just several empty, round rooms.”
“I know there was equipment,” Jerry said. “I know it for a fact.”
“Not on this ship,” Theo said. “The ultimate conclusion was that it was simply a scout vessel of some kind. The only other working theory is that the equipment and all mechanical aspects were somehow destroyed in the crash.”
“You would have found the pieces at least,” Lauren said.
“Yeah,” Theo said. “If they were destroyed, they would have to have somehow been completely disintegrated. Maybe it’s a security precaution they have on their ships. The bottom line is, the ships taught us nothing.”
“What about the material of the hull?” Arthur asked.
“Fascinating stuff,” Theo said. “I got to actually hold a piece in my hand yesterday. It’s metallic, but extremely light. Almost weightless. If it is what makes up the ships out there now, a person could easily lift an entire vessel above his head. And it is extremely flexible. I crunched up the piece in my hand, then watched as it gradually straightened itself out, going back to its original shape. We’ve never been able to replicate the material. They couldn’t even properly identify the basic elements that make it up.”
“What about the men in black,” Alice said. “I don’t mean the funny little movie characters. I mean the men that showed up at people’s homes, threatening to take them into the desert and kill them if they told anyone about these ships.”
“They weren’t in the reports I read,” Theo said. “But keep in mind, this was a long time ago. I’m not going to presume they didn’t exist. Matter of fact, I think they probably did. Just remember, that government isn’t this government. We really have evolved.”
“Why the secrets?” Lauren asked.
“I think you know the answer to that,” Theo said. “Think of the implications. Think of the terror it would have caused. War of the Worlds and all that jazz. But the events of the past week have changed all that. There’s simply no reason to keep secrets now.”
“Okay,” Arthur said. “Back to the present. Do you have a timeframe on when you plan to use volunteer abductees? What about the children?”
“It’ll be fast,” Theo said. “Very fast. We can’t afford to wait. People are getting antsy, and humans are infamous for doing bad things when they’re antsy. I’d say we’ll be using the abductees at some point tonight. If that doesn’t work, we’ll be moving to the kids by tomorrow.”
“And if that doesn’t work?” Jerry asked.
Theo smiled darkly. “If you don’t see news of a breakthrough by tomorrow night…”
“It’s time to go into hiding,” Jerry said.
“Again,” Theo said, “it won’t come to that, Jerry.”
“Any estimate on how many ships there are?” Arthur asked.
“Neat,” Theo said, pointing to the television. “They’re talking about me.”
They all turned to the television to see a reporter announcing the creation of a new government entity that was devoted to researching and communicating with the aliens.
“That’s just cool,” Theo said.
“Yeah,” Arthur said. “So how many ships are there?”
“Oh,” Theo said. “Yeah. Well, there’s no way to get an accurate count, but the ships are everywhere. You can’t go five miles anywhere on Earth without bumping into one. At least in the populated regions. There were even ships that landed in Antarctica. If there are people, there’s a ship nearby. And they seem to be proportionate to population.”
“More people in an area,” Arthur said, “means more ships in that area?”
“Yeah,” Theo said. “Pretty disturbing, huh.”
“Yeah,” Arthur said.
“Their reasons for coming,” Theo said, “have to do with people. That’s pretty much a certainty.”
“What about war zones?” Lauren asked. “What about the places in the world that are in the middle of war?”
“There are ships there,” Theo said. “Luckily, there hasn’t been any major news coverage on those areas. When people have spaceships landing in their backyards, they tend to not worry so much about the spaceships on the other side of the planet.”
“Why is that lucky?” Lauren asked.
“Because the scariest aspect of these visitors is happening there,” Theo answered. “The President touched onto it in one of his press conferences, but he never really went into detail. All weapons have stopped functioning within two miles of these ships. Guns don’t fire. Military vehicles lose power when they enter the area surrounding these ships. We don’t know how they’re doing it, but it shows that we pretty much have no defense against them. If they’re here to kill us, we can’t stop them.”
“They’re not here to kill us,” Alice said. “They wouldn’t be attempting communication. We’d be dead already.”
“That’s the common belief,” Theo said. “Hopefully, when we break the communication barrier, we’ll see that they’re trying to help us in some way.” He stood up. “I’m sure you have more questions, but I really should be going.”
“You promised you’d answer all of our questions,” Alice said.
“I know,” Theo said. “I probably shouldn’t have said that. I realized about two minutes in that I could be here for three days straight and still answering your questions.” As he walked to the door, he said, “Jerry, if you get the feeling that you’re being followed, it’s because you are.”
“Great,” Jerry said.
“I’m telling you up front so you’ll know it’s not part of some sinister plot,” Theo explained. “I think the reason we’re keeping an eye on you is obvious.”
“In case he tries to run away,” Alice said.
Theo smiled. “No. We really aren’t concerned about that. Again, the scary ‘we’ll force you to talk to them’ scenario just isn’t going to happen. Too many other options.”
“It’s in case they come for me,” Jerry said.
“Bingo,” Theo said. “That tho
ught must be keeping you up at night.”
Jerry nodded.
“I don’t envy you, brother,” Theo said. He opened the door and pointed to a house across the street. “See that house over there, with the van in the driveway?”
“Frank’s house,” Arthur said. “Yeah.”
“Well, that’s where our agents will be. I won’t be there personally, as I’m more of a public relations guy. But our agents are camped in that house. If you really need them for anything, feel free to go right over.”
“If they’re here to watch Jerry, why not just stay here?” Lauren asked. “I mean, since you’re telling us they’re here anyway.”
“I don’t want them here,” Jerry said.
“That’s one reason they’re not staying here,” Theo said.
“And you don’t want them in the same house,” Arthur said.
“Right,” Theo said. “We’re worried it might keep the aliens from coming. And if they do come, we want people close, but not in the thick of it.”
“I can’t believe Frank sold us out like that,” Arthur said, looking at his neighbor’s house.
“Oh, he didn’t,” Theo said. “Frank’s not home. He left town within hours of the attempted contact. We were notified because of the young man that tried to communicate with them. The mention of Jerry was accidental and off-handed. They didn’t know they were ratting you out for anything. We just kind of took over Frank‘s house when we found out he was gone.”
“How is Hank?” Lauren asked.
“He’s in a coma,” Theo said. “No change to his condition. Or any of the others.”
“And you want me to try to talk to them,” Jerry said. “Yeah. That’s not going to happen.”
“We only want you to talk to them if you want to talk to them,” Theo said. “Not everyone that was abducted is like you. None of them have warm and fuzzy emotions toward these guys, but some of them are desperate for closure. So desperate, they’re willing to risk their lives to get it. And we just need one. One volunteer will be enough to teach us everything we need to know.”
Jerry shook his head. “So you’re willing to let some innocent person sacrifice his or her life on the off chance it might help us communicate with them.”
