The Gods and the Builders

by Brandon Hale

  “Respectfully, Jerry,” Theo said, “this isn’t some new concept. I mean, isn‘t that kind of the running philosophy behind every military organization on the planet?”

  “I guess,” was Jerry’s only reply.

  “Look,” Theo said. “We don’t like this any more than you. We don’t enjoy asking civilians to risk their lives. Especially people that have already been through a terrible ordeal. Now that I know it really happened, I can’t imagine the horror of abduction. But we’re running out of ideas. If you can think of a better idea, we have agents across the street. We’re perfectly willing to listen.”

  He looked at Lauren. “Thanks for the coffee, ma’am.” Turning to Alice, he said, “Thanks for getting my Ghostbusters reference.”

  “No problem,” Alice said with a smirk that Jerry instantly recognized as attraction.

  Apparently, Arthur recognized the smirk as well. “I’m sure you have other people to interview.”

  “I certainly do,” Theo said, still smiling and still looking at Alice. “It’s been a pleasure, folks. Thanks again.”

  As Theo walked back to his own car, Alice said, “I like him.”

  For reasons he couldn’t explain, this made Jerry laugh out loud.

  Arthur, however, was silent.

  Chapter 4

  Breaking the Communication Barrier

  The President sat in the Oval Office, looking into the camera. This was the first time since the aliens’ arrival that a speech was given from the Oval Office and not in front of a dozen or more members of the press. It was obvious that this wasn’t a press conference.

  It was an announcement.

  “Normally,” the President said, “I would begin this speech with ‘My fellow Americans.’ Today, however, that introduction is inappropriate. Perhaps that introduction will never be appropriate again. Today, I am addressing a much larger family. I’m not just speaking to Americans. I’m speaking to the human race.

  “It has been decided that this message will go out to every country on Earth. Every television on the planet that is receiving a signal will be airing this speech. We wanted it to be one message, just so the citizens of the world can know that we--the world leaders--stand together. We can no longer look at ourselves as Americans, or Germans, or Iranians, or any other nation of this world. We are humanity. And from this day forward, we all stand together.

  “My friends, we are communicating with the aliens. More importantly, I’m very relieved to inform you that they are, in fact, our friends.”

  Alice began to cry as relief flooded her entire body. Arthur, sitting on the couch beside her, placed his hand on hers and squeezed it tightly. Lauren sat beside them, her tear-filled eyes watching the television intently.

  Jerry was on the recliner, leaning forward, staring at the screen.

  “I don’t buy it,” he whispered, but nobody in the room believed him. Everyone in the room knew that he was trying to deny the feeling that was welling up inside him. And they all knew that his attempts to quell that emotion were failing. The room was saturated with a single emotion, and he couldn’t deny it, no matter how much he tried. He felt it too.

  Hope.

  “This news is worth celebrating,” the President continued, “but I’m afraid we don’t have that luxury.

  “They have not come to simply say hello.

  “Before I go into the details of the information they bring us, I’ll explain how we broke down the barrier that was preventing communication. Up until yesterday, every attempt to communicate with them ended in disaster. It always ended with no information and a person in a coma.

  “Essentially, we had two breakthroughs yesterday. One was expected, one was not. The unexpected breakthrough happened because of an accidental glance. Since the aliens arrived, we’ve had a team of the best scientists from around the world working around the clock to communicate with these visitors. Our failures were great, and the cost was heavy.

  “At first, we wondered if the visitors were even trying to communicate. Soon, we realized they were. They wouldn’t look at us until we gave a clear signal that we were attempting communication. We can only assume they thought we had developed a means to communicate, so at those times, they would look at us. Invariably, the result was disastrous. So they waited.

  “Eventually, they decided to attempt communication directly with the people of the world. This ended in disaster as well. We now know why they took this drastic measure, and we understand why it was necessary. And it did, as you will learn, succeed.

  “Yesterday morning, one of our leading scientists was walking by one of the aliens. Without thinking, he glanced up and looked the visitor in the eyes. The exchange lasted a split second, but it was enough to cause him to drop to the floor.

  “At first, we thought we had lost another researcher. However, after a few minutes, he surprised us all by waking up. Then he described what he saw, and everything became clear.

  “In the split second he had looked into the eyes of the alien, a million thoughts burst into his mind. Thousands of images he didn’t understand. Thousands of words in every language on our planet. In less than a second, his mind was completely overwhelmed by the information it had received. He described the sensation as a nervous breakdown of apocalyptic proportions.

  “We understood then that the failures weren’t because of the aliens’ thoughts. It was because of the amount of thoughts they were sending. We now understand why that is, and I’ll explain that later. Until then, it just hadn’t occurred to us that the amount of time in front of them was a factor. Every attempt at communicating had involved looking them directly in the eyes. We hypothesized that it was a matter of focus. We now know that was only partially true.”

  “Ha!” Arthur yelled. “That’s my theory!”

  “We know,” Alice said.

  “I said that yesterday!” Arthur continued. “Or was it two days ago?”

  “We get it,” Lauren said. “You’re smarter than the world’s greatest scientists. Now be quiet.”

  Arthur sank back into the couch. “Well, I am smarter,” he mumbled.

  “After the incident with the researcher, we changed our tactics,” the President explained. “We would have two people participate in every attempt at communication. At first, they both would walk up to the alien. The first person would look into their eyes. The second person would then immediately push the first person away. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it got results. The first person would pass out for a few minutes, then wake up with new images in their heads.

  “The problem came with filtering out the background noise. We couldn’t tell if the millions of thoughts they were having were memories, or hopes, or direct communication. After several attempts, we discovered that certain words and images were common to everyone’s experience.

  “The images were most often of giants rocks, floating through space. Asteroids. Other common images appeared to just be memories. But they were spectacular memories. There were images of human natives, looking to the sky, dancing wildly. There were images of what appeared to be Neanderthal. There were many images of pyramids. It appears the aliens have been associated with us for a very long time.

  “The words came in many languages. We think they came in every human language, at once. The most common words were variations of the words God, builders, rock, help, and danger.

  “When we compared the words to the images, a working theory began to form. We began to suspect that they referred to themselves as God. We don’t think it’s because they believe themselves to be gods. We think it’s because they believe that is the word we use to describe any higher beings that come from the sky. We think it’s a mistranslation on their part, based on their experiences with mankind throughout the centuries.

  “We also deduced that they referred to us as the Builders. If you match the words rock, help, and danger with the images of asteroids, the implication begins to get obvious. However obvious it may have seemed, though, we under
stood that it was nothing more than a hypothesis.

  “Last night, the hypothesis was proven true.” The President took a deep breath, then said, “And it was our children that verified it.

  “A child’s mind is different than an adult’s mind. A child’s mind hasn’t been sculpted yet. It hasn’t been molded by years of life. It is completely open to everything it sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels. A child’s mind is closed to nothing. It is during those years of early childhood that we learn most of what we know for the rest of our lives.

  “As I’m sure you’ve seen from various reports around the world, it turns out the children can talk to them. Their minds aren’t busy trying to digest every nugget of thought. If something has no meaning to a child, it’s something their minds can accept. If you’ve ever watched a child playing with toys, or drawing, or coloring, you know that a child’s ability to focus is unparalleled. We don’t know for certain, of course, but we think that is why they can talk to the aliens.

  “When we learned this to be the case, we tried very hard to avoid using the children as translators. The difficulties are great, the kids are innocent, and the risks are many. Eventually, we decided that we had no choice.

  “My son, Timothy, is almost six years old.” The President smiled. “If you ask him, he’ll tell you he’s five point seven years old. Every month, he asks his mother if it’s time to raise the point. Soon, he’ll be five point eight. The idea of using my own child for something like this is simply too horrifying to imagine. I immediately decided that Timothy would not be put in that position. He was not an option.

  “Then my wife looked at me and said, ‘Then who shall we ask?’ That was the most important question I have ever faced. It was the moment I realized that we could ask no one. My wife‘s simple question forced us to face the fact that it was Timothy‘s destiny to do this. I knew that, as a leader, I had no choice. My son was close to this. He was surrounded by the world’s best experts. And he was the perfect age to do it. If I pulled rank… If I decided that his life was more important than the lives of your own children… If I did those things, it would mean that everything I believe myself to be is a lie.”

  The President wiped the tears from his cheeks, and took several breaths. He cleared his throat and continued. “The child in the video you’re about to watch is my brave little boy, Timothy.”

  The little boy sat in the chair, looking at the camera. He had curly brown hair. The only furniture in the room was the chair upon which the he sat.

  “Are you ready, Tim?” a voice said from behind the camera. Although the voice spoke perfect English, it had a clear French accent.

  Tim nodded.

  A balding man in his fifties walked out from behind the camera, carrying a metal fold-out chair. He sat the chair beside Tim and sat down. “Remember, Tim,” he said, “we can quit whenever you want.”

  “I know,” Tim said.

  “Okay, then.” The man looked off camera and said, “See if it will come in.”

  There was the sound of a door opening. Soon, a distinctly inhuman shadow appeared on the wall behind them. They both looked at the source of the shadow, which was standing just outside the camera’s view.

  Timothy smiled. “Hello.”

  “Can you introduce us, Tim?” the man said. “Can you tell it my name is Dr. Jean-Pierre Verdier?”

  “He knows your name,” Tim said. “He just doesn’t understand names too good.”

  “Can you tell him I’m the lead researcher on the international team devoted to communicating with them?”

  “I’m five point seven,” Tim said with an annoyed look on his face.

  Dr. Verdier looked confused by Tim‘s statement. Someone off camera said something that wasn’t audible on the video, and the doctor smiled. “Oh,” he said to Tim. “Quite. I’m sorry, Tim.”

  “He says we’re Builders,” Tim said.

  “Can you ask him what a builder is?”

  “I know,” Tim said.

  “Oh,” the doctor replied. “What is a builder, Tim?”

  “It’s us,” Tim said. “I think because we build stuff.”

  “I see,” Dr. Verdier said. “Can you ask him--”

  “They don’t talk that way, Mr. Birdie,” Tim said. There was some muffled laughter off camera. “They don’t talk like we talk. They talk like dreams. And they never, ever stop. If they want you to know something they just make you know it.”

  “I see,” Dr. Verdier said. “You keep saying ‘they.’ Are you talking to more than one of them?”

  “Yes,” Tim said.

  “How many of them are here right now, Tim?”

  “Just one,” Tim said.

  The doctor mumbled something to himself in French, then said, “I don’t mean in this room. How many are you talking to right now, Tim?”

  “All of them,” Tim said.

  “Are they all one person?”

  “No,” Tim said. “They just know each other.”

  “Tim,” the doctor said, smiling, “you’re doing a very good job.” He pointed toward the source of the shadow. “Does this one have a name?”

  Tim nodded. “His name’s God.”

  “I see,” Dr. Verdier said. “What about the others? Do they have names?”

  Tim nodded.

  “Do you know any of the other names, Tim?”

  “God,” Tim said.

  “They’re all named God?”

  “Uh huh,” Tim said.

  “But Tim,” Dr. Verdier said, “if they’re all named God, how do they tell each other apart?”

  “Because,” Tim said, “they look different inside. They don‘t need different names like we do. They don‘t understand our names.”

  “They don’t?” Dr. Verdier said.

  “It makes them confused,” Tim said. “When you call me Tim, it makes them think I’m different. They don’t know why you call me Tim instead of Builder. They don’t know why we have so many words for Builder.”

  “You mean other words that mean builder? Like maker or something like that?” Dr. Verdier asked.

  “No,” Tim said. “I mean words like Tim or John or David.”

  “I think I understand,” Dr. Verdier said. He looked off camera. “It’s telepathy. They don’t have names because they don’t need them. They always know the differences between each other, because they feel the differences. And they’ve been that way for so long, they don’t understand communication that isn’t telepathic.”

  “They do too,” Tim said.

  The doctor turned back to Tim. “They do?”

  “Yeah,” Tim said. “But we aren’t supposed to talk that way. We’re supposed to know. So they think we’re wrong.”

  “Wrong, Tim?”

  “Yeah,” Tim said. “We’re supposed to know by now, but we don’t. We’re not dogs and tigers and stuff, but we’re not God either. We’re Builders, so they think they did it wrong.”

  Dr. Verdier raised an index finger and said, “Wait. They did what wrong?”

  “Us,” Tim said. “They waited for us to know. They tried to help us know stuff, but it didn’t work. But now it’s too late. The rocks are coming and we have to leave. So they can’t wait anymore.”

  “When you say they did us wrong--” the doctor began, but someone said something from off camera, causing him to pause and look in the direction of the voice. “Je pense que cela est très important,” he said with excited eyes. The voice said something else, then the doctor said, “Do you want the mic? You can take over the interview if you like. But as long as I‘m doing this, I‘m going to find out--”

  The person off camera spoke again. The doctor sighed, then looked back at Tim. “Okay, Tim,” he said. “Let’s talk about these rocks.”

  “They’re coming from space and they’re going to break the world,” he said.

  The doctor was silent for a moment, processing the boy’s words. Again, someone from off camera said something that sounded like “See?”
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br />   The doctor looked off-camera, said, “Ne pas être un connard,” then looked back at Tim. “When?” he asked. “When are the rocks going to break the world?”

  “Soon,” Tim said.

  “When, Tim?”

  “I don’t know,” Tim said, a hint of frustration in his voice. “Just soon.”

  “Tim,” Dr. Verdier said, “we need to know the exact date.”

  “They don’t know dates,” Tim said. “But it doesn’t matter, because they’re taking us away before it happens.”

  The doctor’s breathing was getting faster. “Are they making us go?”

  “No,” Tim said. “We can stay if we want. They don’t make people do stuff.”

  “But if we want to go, they’ll take us.”

  “Yes,” Tim said.

  “Where will they take us, Tim?”

  “It’s pretty,” Tim said. “Big houses and stuff, like on Spiderman.”

  The voice spoke from off camera again.

  “I gathered that,” The doctor said, then turned back to Tim. “So who else lives at this pretty place with the big houses?”

  “Nobody,” Tim said. “God said it’s for us to go to.”

  The doctor looked off camera again. “They built cities for us,” he said, almost whispering. “That explains the abductions. Maybe they were trying to match us with a new planet?”

  “Some of them don‘t want to take us there,” Tim added. “They think we should have to stay here. But most of them think they should take us. So they‘re letting us decide.”

  Dr. Verdier and the people behind the camera were silent. Finally, the doctor said, “I don’t know what to ask him now.”

  “I want to go,” Tim said. “It looks neat.”

  The off camera voice said something.

  “Yes,” Dr. Verdier said. “Of course. Tim, tell them thank you.”

  “They don’t know what that means,” Tim said. “And I have to pee.”

  “What?” the doctor asked, momentarily confused. “Oh, yes. Of course.” He looked at the other people off camera. “We have many things to discuss.”