The Camper_First Contact and the Planet Tamer

by Richard C Holmes

  That surprised him. Why was he a problem?

  "Sir, please consider this," with which she held her hand out flat, palm up as she concentrated for a few seconds.

  Then high above her hand, almost a yard above, a 'snap' occurred and as a sun-bright pin prick of light blazed.

  He stood with his mouth open. “No,” he whispered. “No, it cannot be.”

  The light from the small spark was harsh as it hissed slightly, capturing him. It was a demonstration that he thought he’d never see, a demonstration of something that made his heart race madly.

  He saw her relax, then with a pop, the spark extinguished.

  "Sir do you know what that was?" she asked.

  He stood there with his mouth open and his eyes wide. "I suspect!" His mind struggled with the enormity of it all.

  She nodded slowly. "If you wish I can show you how to do this then you can publish the information for all. You will be able to build a mechanism to create exactly what I did to almost any scale. It will bring free unlimited power to all. Would you like me to show you sir. Right now. In an hour you will have it all!"

  He was shaking his head violently now. "You cannot do this in an hour, you cannot do what you have done!"

  She smiled. "Sir please look at me and I shall give you something few others have. I expect you to keep this secret between yourself and me."

  He looked at her then suddenly she was gone. He heard, "Behind you sir," and he turned, his heart beating faster than he thought it would ever outside of a heart attack.

  "Sir, it is all rolled into one. Space, time, matter and energy. I cannot claim mastery but I can certainly claim much. Imagine the release of energy from a few grams of matter transformed into energy by that process. The demonstration I gave you was difficult and draining in its need to limit escalation."

  He was shaking his head emphatically "No, no, not possible," was all he could repeat as he shook his head.

  As he watched, she disappeared again and when he turned she was sitting down where she had been previously. "I can assure you sir that what I have shown you is exactly and precisely what it appears to be. I can also show you the precise equations that you seek, the actual and fundamental equations that link everything and would make all this possible. I also and absolutely promise you that I have a working fusion energy device that is capable of supplying vast amounts of energy for years. It is cheap to make and frighteningly dangerous. I have made one and one only. If you require me to, I shall build another then demonstrate it to you only on the basis that I destroy it when you are satisfied."

  She sat in the chair looking at him closely.

  He walked with his mind in a whirl to the seating, and sat. He bent over slightly to put his head into his hands and sat thinking.

  How was this possible? She showed a capability that was awe inspiring, truly beyond awe inspiring; God like he felt. That was the phrase, 'God Like' and he looked at her as he thought it.

  "No sir," she said shaking her had, "NO I am not a God, or a demon or some kind of alien. I am an American, of American parents and absolutely not anything else. What I have is something that others will have in thousands of years. I am a new development of the human race."

  Still shaking his head. "No, no, it is not possible what you say. Why should I believe you?"

  She smiled slightly. "Because sir, my first demonstration to you of the drawing for fission bomb enhancement was trivially easy for me and I used that to show what can be achieved quite easily, given away and would cause immense harm.”

  “Yes,” was all he could say. It promised destruction.

  “My second demonstration would destroy our planet if we are lucky. If we are unlucky worse would happen. You must believe me because I believe we will destroy ourselves when you achieve your life’s dream.

  He nodded. He saw where she was going with this. Free energy release like that in the wrong hands would end only one way.

  She looked in his eyes. “If you achieve that, and I believe you will, it is probable we will be extinct within five years."

  It confirmed his thoughts. He had not stopped shaking his head. "So why are you telling me this?"

  She nodded slowly. "Sir. Photons. Light. Matter. All energy. Please consider this," with which she looked straight ahead and flicked her hand out palm up again.

  The light was gone instantly, gone into total darkness to be replaced with a canopy of stars where the ceiling had been.

  Her voice came from beside him, eerie in the darkness. "Professor, let’s go where other humans haven’t been." The stars changed and moved. Quickly they were over a planet.

  "Sir, this is Mars. This is in real time," and then the scene changed and what had to be Mercury swam into view, taking up the full overhead. He sat there with an open mouth.

  Seconds later the sun swam into view, then the image changed and went inside the sun. "Sir this is the macro-cosmic view of the sun." The view then changed and he was looking at the atomic reactions taking place. They looked for minutes as his mind was trying to make sense of it.

  The viewpoint flickered. Suddenly the viewpoint showed men in suits standing outside the lecture theater they were in.

  "Sir, I am kept under constant watch by many agencies. I tell them exactly what I want and they do as I wish. As you can see."

  The viewpoint then moved through them, through the walls so he could see himself and the woman. He moved his hand, his arm, his head and saw it all moving.

  "Sir, I can also promise that no place is exempt from this from of inspection unless it is blocked by certain means."

  As he sat there the lights came up as the images faded.

  He was sitting in the lecture theater with the woman again and he just sat looking at her. She was petite, blond, 'precise' as she sat and watched him.

  "Do you know what you are doing to me?" he said, because he was in sheer heaven and absolute hell. To be shown this, now, was to belittle his life’s work, to reduce his lifetime of struggle to something she could do as a sideshow trick, like a conjurer, and it was devastating.

  He was not a man prone to depression, to suicidal or even to murderous thoughts but he had them all now.

  She sat there and looked at him. "Sir yes I do. I have one goal. Do you know what it is?"

  He looked at her. She was not doing this for any simple reason. Just revealing this, what she could do, that would change everything. It was so huge he struggled to understand why she would have exposed herself to him.

  She was extraordinarily intelligent so she had done this for a reason.

  "Two actually," she said looking at him intensely.

  Two reasons? He replayed her words in his mind, what she had said. 'Destroy the planet or worse' and he wondered what could be worse than that? What would be worse. Then she said about two reasons. One was the destruction of the planet. What was the other?

  "Doctor Smith, I am not following you."

  She looked into his eyes, held his gaze firmly. "Destroying ourselves would be bad enough, but please consider what would happen if we gave these abilities to all the peoples of our planet. What would be the result? How safe would the rest of our galaxy, the universe be and please imagine the wars, the terrible loss of life that would surely happen when old scores were settled once and for all. The reign of terror would last the lifetime of man."

  She put her head down. "You do not need me to tell you more about that. You know."

  He did. The thousand and one grievances, small or large, it would not matter. If a harsh word was spoken, in a moment of lapsed control a planet would be destroyed, a race lost, a genocide of tragic proportions.

  "And the other reason?"

  She’d not relaxed her gaze for a moment. "I would do anything to prevent this from being discovered now," she said as she looked at him.

  He replayed the words, they echoed in his mind.

  She would do anything and he looked at her studying him.

  Suddenly he realized
what she meant; she would prevent him from proceeding, most likely at any cost.

  "I have seen the impact of this information. If you wish, I shall show you the effect of two matter release explosions in the multi-ton range and how they combine to form a super heated plasma of whatever was between them."

  He sat and looked at her then down at the carpet.

  He knew the answer but he had to ask. “What would you have me do? Stop? Change my line of research?" He would never have considered it before.

  She looked at him blankly then held her hand out flat and flicked it again and the front of the lecture theater disappeared to be replaced by a view from a distance of some form of fortified buildings. He could see gunfire erupting from it and it was obviously inhabited.

  "This took a few milliseconds, I shall play it slowed down. It is real, it happened."

  He watched. Above the buildings a spark grew and grew. At the same time he could see the earth moving upward and suddenly there were two large spheres of light brighter than the sun till they merged for a moment then faded.

  What had been between them glowed for just a moment then it too faded. Gone.

  He saw the ground shudder and move from the expanding concussion wave-front as it passed the viewpoint, then after a few moments the magnitude of the explosion was revealed by a crater where the structure had been.

  "That was actual. It would not be unique. This time in real time," and the scene changed and repeated, but it was over like a flash of a camera. Quick as a photo flash, the structures were gone leaving a hole.

  He looked at her. "That was real?"

  She nodded slowly. "Do you even begin to understand my burden?" and she looked at him with sadness. "I can feel everything that happened and it is with me always. What is the equation that makes this necessary? What is the alternative? What you see can be an everyday event with just one discovery. With just one special insight that is easily possible."

  There was only one question and it impacted him if he was reading this right. "Would you kill for this?"

  She looked at him strangely. "An interesting moral dilemma. Means and ends. Perhaps a comparison of cost? One person versus a planet?" She looked at him some more, “Every person had an identity matrix, all the things that make them what and who there are. Normally we live within that matrix and it governs our interaction and our lives. When someone has a life changing crisis, they get pushed outside that matrix and it changes them, it changes the matrix and they are changed. Follow me?” she asked.

  He nodded, “Yes, it is a different way of looking at a person, but I can follow that.” He’d never thought of it that way but he could imagine it. People were the sums of many things, complex, made up of vastly different parts.

  “Well,” she said slowly, “it describes me fairly well but I’m more three dimensional, with various parts of me with a different identity matrix for each. Right now you see one. If I’m attacked a vastly different one emerges as a result.”

  He nodded, “Yes, I understand. I am like I am now in the lecture theater, but different at home with my wife and children.”

  “Precisely,” she said. “Now you are rightly concerned that I may take direct action against you if you continue your research,” she was looking deep into his eyes and he could feel the tension and strength in her. “However,” she stopped with that.

  There was silence, dead silence. Deadly silence. She was only little but he knew from her demonstration she would, she must be lethal if she wanted.

  “I can’t break my identity matrix unless provoked. If you attacked me with a weapon I could choose to retaliate in any way and depending on the attack, the result changes. So, the real answer to your question is ‘No’, I won’t hurt or damage you if you continue. I would however take steps to make you fully aware of the consequences, to make you understand that it would be very bad and I can put obstacles in your way.”

  He nodded slowly. “I was concerned for my safety and for my family. Thank you.”

  He knew what he must do but he remembered her words, “You said in five years? That means I am working correctly, I will succeed, I would if I continued?”

  She nodded slowly looking into his eyes, “Yes. There are a few small errors and omissions in your work to date. When you find them, they will lead you eventually to the solutions. Five is my estimate on what you have done so far and what you need. If you publish, every scientist would follow your research then a year later we will be extinct.”

  He felt better at that, it gave him something, an ‘almost’ in the research.

  “I must stop? If I do not publish?” He didn’t want to, it was a life’s work.

  She shook her head slowly, “One hint, one mistake, one is all it takes.”

  He bowed his head, then, “What of professor Harrison? He seeks the unified theory, what of him?”

  She smiled slightly, “No, he won’t get there. We’ve had arguments over that and he knows I can see it.”

  --oOo---

  She didn’t much like this.

  She’d bullied a man pursuing his life’s dream and made him change is path. Sure, she’d misled him about how close he was and the mistakes in his work she claimed, but she had to slow him down. The best thing she could do was give him the feeling that he’s succeeded. That was essential.

  Sometimes life wasn’t fair but could she take the risk without diverting him?

  This led to her next problem. How to keep watch on him? Would he really stop?

  And then there was the real question, if he didn’t stop, what would she do? He had been right, there was an awful moral dilemma in that.

  That led to even more questions; how many more of him were there in the scientific community? How close were they? What would it take to push them over the edge to a breakthrough?

  It was tempting to feel overwhelmed, to say it was too hard but the price of failure was much too high.

  She sighed. Ongoing effort really wasn’t her thing therefore she needed to expand ‘The Team’ to include investigators. She thought about that for a moment, and then she knew she had just the people in mind, just the agency. The only problem was how to manipulate and motivate them.

  --oOo---

  Retirement

  Mike watched world events as time passed. He saw the joining of countries into a loose fraternity called ‘Unity’ and like many, he thought it impossible it would last.

  Like many he was surprised when more countries joined then it prospered. He didn’t give it much chance to last yet every year it did against what looked like insurmountable odds.

  Against history, the war on drugs took a turn for the better. Suddenly illicit drugs were harder to find and treatment improved. No one was saying ‘solved’ but everyone was thinking it. Countries that were traditionally massive exporters of drugs dried up.

  It was hard to pin down but it was a general and gradual trend.

  Finally it was time to retire, to relax and spend more time doing what he wanted without the need to rush back to work or worry how he was spending his leave.

  He went camping more often, he took up new hobbies briefly, and he relaxed.

  One thing he noticed was that his body was betraying him. What should have been a time of pleasure and enjoyment was more and more eaten into by aches and pains that increased as the years passed.

  ---oOo---

  The Camper. Part 3

  Timeline AK+10

  Regrettably, the years had fled by, 'where did they go' Mike wondered, regularly.

  He knew this would be his last trip into the bush which didn't help his state of mind. He was not normally susceptible, but the thought of not being able to return because he was too frail brought him close to depression.

  Nearing a dozen years previous he had made first acquaintance with 'Resident' and 'Companion' and during that time his age had finally found the wrong side of seventy. Retirement had been a pleasure he’d been waiting for but now in his old age it wasn’t living u
p to the advertisement. The thought of endless time to do as he wished and not be focused on work had sounded idyllic.

  The aches were the thing that upset him most. His legs, feet, bones; they all conspired to make his life difficult. When he woke it took him a full ten minutes to get out of bed then the aches lasted for half the morning and he now dreaded winter with its promise of even more bone deep aches.

  Strength was also not his closest friend having deserted him far too early he thought. It would have been nice to have a little more strength and stamina to see him through each day.

  The worst thing was the expectation, the knowledge, this was the best he would ever be.

  Next week, next month, next year he would more than likely feel worse. The truly horrid thought was that he might have to succumb to a 'retirement village'. For a man so totally used to his independence, to living in the bush camping as often as he could, the thought of being cramped into cookie-cutter neatness in close proximity to a bunch of old fogies chilled his heart sending him into a depression if he thought about it.

  Nights were the worst now, and just before sleep his mind did him no favors when he thought about where he was headed, his inevitable decline. Sometimes on the darkest nights he thought he should polish the rifle one last time. It wasn’t the end of his life that worried him, it was the time before the eventual end that was his biggest fear.

  It seemed that suddenly he felt the end of his life was looming in a number of days which instead of once being in the hopefully multiple thousands was now possibly only one or two thousand at most and maybe only in the hundreds if an illness took hold. Then he thought, that number would only be so high if he was lucky and so far he thought he had been extraordinarily lucky.

  That his blood pressure hadn’t killed him was the most amazing thing. Then the sad thing, the thing that brought it all home so profoundly to him was the loss of his friends as they fell to the ravages of time. Being the last man standing was not something he had expected and now, not something he wanted. Each friend lost, each relative passing, each had sliced off a small piece from his will to live.