by Rob Mclean
Chapter 13
John and Jarred watched the live telecast from Beijing along with billions around the world.
Tiananmen Square had been pre-arranged as the meeting place and it was packed with thousands of well-behaved Chinese citizens crammed between the National Museum, the Great Hall of the People, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Wumen entrance to the Forbidden City.
No one crossed the roped off areas that were lined with troops. The crowd was orderly and well controlled, keeping a well-defined space for the alien vessel.
The now familiar lander had appeared from an aperture in the mother-ship. With their backs to the crowd, the soldiers watched the alien vessel descend with inscrutable expressions. Against the backdrop of the Forbidden Palace, the alien shuttle vessel touched down to the synchronised applause of the people.
The surface of the lander bled and steps materialised as before. The emissary had appeared in a similar fashion as he had in Egypt, except this time he was in a traditional Chinese silk jacket.
He descended the stairs from his vessel and was met by a hoard of dignitaries, headed by the President of the People’s Republic. Following him, the commentators announced, were the fifty or so members of the State Council, then there were the military leaders after that.
To John and Jarred, the list of formal introductions seemed to take forever. John was hungry after his swim that morning, so he took the opportunity and went to fix a snack. Jarred kept scrolling through his laptop, only occasionally looking up to see if anything important had happened.
“The R.N.G.s are maxing out,” Jarred called out without looking up. “The one in Beijing’s got the gold though.”
“Yeah but that’s what you expected, isn’t it?”
“Sure.” Jarred kept tapping on his keyboard. John could tell he was not entirely in the present. Jarred then looked up and out the window. “If only there was some way of harnessing all this… energy.” Jarred scratched his head, “or potential, or whatever you call this…stuff.” He indicated the graphs on his laptop.
“Maybe they are.” John often liked to take a contrary position when Jarred got all theoretical. He figured it kept his brother from getting too carried away with his own postulating. “Maybe they are soaking up all this energy and using it to power their technology.”
John could see from the fleeting frown that crossed his brother’s face that at least he gave his idea a nanosecond of consideration. “Nah, there’s only enough to move a virtual dice, nothing physical.”
“But,” John pointed the bread knife at his brother, “maybe they have some way of collecting the energy, you know, properly, that we don’t know about and like, storing it?”
“Cosmic attention whores?” Jarred shrugged. “Who knows? It would sure be the best time. The viewings of this event are easily the highest ever.” With that, Jarred dismissed the topic and John went back to his sandwich.
On the screen, the emissary greeted each dignitary with the same warm friendliness. Although he gave most a perfunctory greeting, there were some that for no apparent reason, he would stop to chat with. He mostly spoke in Mandarin, but occasionally he would converse with some minister in their local Wu, Yue or Min dialects, switching effortlessly and displaying an apparently inexhaustible knowledge of human languages.
After what seemed to John to be almost endless group-photos and posing for the camera crews, the emissary was shepherded to a podium to front a selection of the world’s media that had arrived earlier.
The Chairperson of the New United Nations greeted the alien visitor. A diminutive Chinese man with flawless English had been elected to speak for the new world order. As an organization, the new U.N. had grown as the number of nations and regions seeking the technology that the aliens had offered had signed up. Currently, the new U.N. represented just under third of humanity, but with China and large regions of Europe and Russia declaring allegiance, it held considerable military might.
“To the emissaries of the Galactic Community, we extend our most warm welcome. I can say, on behalf of the members of the new United Nations that we most humbly apologise for the unprovoked attack on your vessel. A motion has been passed amongst our member states that will henceforth ban religious nations from possessing weapons of mass destruction.” The crowd responded to his announcement with vigorous applause and cheering.
“Whoa man,” Jarred threw his hands up in the air. “Can they do that? I mean, is that even legal? Where does that leave us?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll bet they’re shitting themselves over at the Pentagon.” John tried to remember which states had declared their support for the alien and which had come out against it already. It looked like his country as well as many of its traditional allies were divided over this issue. “The referendum should sort things out,” he added, but Jarred waved him down as the alien envoy had taken the stage.
“Citizens of Planet Earth,” the emissary said in Mandarin. A dubbed over delayed English translation, from some official Chinese interpreter, gave him an Asian accent. “We come in peace,” a smile spread across his face, “again.”
The envoy waited while the applause carried through to its end before continuing. “To begin with, we must express our profound sorrow over the needless loss of lives at our last encounter site.” The emissary bowed his head and took a moment to pause. The crowd followed his lead and politely paid their respects to the dead. Shenyang J-20 fighter jets streaking high overhead were the only sounds to be heard.
The emissary broke his silence after a few moments. “We believe the rescue operations are continuing. We wish the many nations involved success in their heroic endeavours.” A timely round of applause followed and the coverage cut to show footage of the devastated city as seen from a rescue helicopter’s vantage point.
The footage continued as the emissary spoke. “Some may have been needlessly concerned for our relationship after these recent events. You will all be pleased to know that no-one on our vessel was harmed. We are here today to assure you, the people of Earth, that we harbour no animosity and that we only desire peace and to help your species realise your potential and to bring your planet into the Galactic community.”
More applause and cheering followed. The envoy surveyed the crowd while he waited for quiet again.
“While your resolution to disarm the non-member states is admirable, it is not recommended that it be enforced. We do not wish to see any more humans die. We can only hope that, over time, those who currently cling to their old ways will come to see the benefits of change. It will be for you to set an example.” The envoy swept his arms wide to encompass the crowd and they took it as their cue to applaud.
"Some of you wish to assign blame to one nation or another, but we are here to tell you that if anyone is to shoulder the blame for that unfortunate incident, then it should be us.” He raised his arm to indicate the enormous space-ship that hovered silently above the city, mirroring the hush that fell across the crowd below.
“We knew there was a possibility that our arrival and our subsequent offer would incite some members of your species to violence, but we did not anticipate the magnitude of this reaction, nor the incomprehensible disregard for the innocent.” He paused again to let his admonishment linger.
“Although we have encountered many hostile, barbaric and primitive civilizations in our travels across the galaxy, we did not anticipate the scale of this response. We, as the more experienced, feel responsible for this failing and for this, we are most apologetic.” The crowd stood silently in mute acknowledgement of the envoy’s admission.
“Wonder what happened to all the other barbaric worlds?” Jarred asked. “Bet we don’t get to see those.”
John nodded, but he wondered if this weren’t some ‘stick and carrot’ type of diplomatic ploy. The threat was clearly there and he was certain that not many of the billions watching around the world would miss it, but where was the inducement?
“There will be a full investigati
on in due course.” The emissary raised a hand to placate the worried murmurings from the otherwise disciplined crowd. “Not to assign blame to any Earthly nation, but simply to review our first contact procedures. We must ensure that a similar tragedy does not reoccur on other planets.”
To John and undoubtedly most of the rest of the audience, the incredible scale of the emissary’s operation became apparent. With his words, Earth was reduced to just another struggling, semi-barbaric world amid many others. If they messed up here and this world was plunged into an escalating paranoid nuclear frenzy, then the aliens would just write a report and move on to the next emerging world, hopefully a little wiser. Too bad for the incinerated planet left behind.
“As a small measure of compensation to the people of the area affected, we would like to offer the fourth planet in a quintuple star system you have named Xi Scorpii C, for resettlement.”
A collective outburst of murmuring interrupted the emissary. He waited while the crowd digested his words.
‘There it is,’ thought John. ‘The carrot.’
On the television screen, a web address appeared beneath the serene features of the emissary. John heard Jarred furiously clacking the keys of his laptop.
“The planet is now currently undergoing alterations to make it habitable for your bodies. We are told it will be ready for the first colonists in less than a thousand of your Earth years.”
“Whoa man, check it out,” Jarred leaned back to take in the image on his laptop. John hurried over to see what he assumed was an animated display of the star system the envoy had been talking about. He watched as Jarred zoomed in to the fourth planet. It showed a fleet of spaceships of various sizes and shapes in orbit above a brownish yellow planet that was partly shrouded in swirling white clouds that merged with the white of the polar areas. A pair of smaller than ‘normal’ moons and a two pairs of sun-like yellow stars, marked it as foreign.
“Survivors from the affected area will be given priority, but all members of the new United Nations will be eligible for emigration, if they so wish,” the emissary continued. The image on the screen was from the same website. John surmised that the whole thing must have been arranged with the Chinese government beforehand. Despite their history of internet censorship, they didn’t dare thwart the alien’s internet access.
“Did he say a thousand years?” John asked. It would be small comfort to the survivors of the Iranian nukes if their distant descendants were given some distant planet in the far distant future.
“Yeah, lucky them eh?” Jarred’s voice was heavy with sarcasm. “It looks like its 92.5 light years away, if their star-charts are to be believed.”
John thought for a moment. “We’d have no way of proving what’s really there, do we?”
“All our knowledge of exo-planets comes from the wobble the parent star gets from the orbiting planets gravitational mass. That and the spectral analysis and elemental composition of the parent star, or transit studies. There’s no way we can tell if the planet has moons or not, especially at that distance.” Jarred opened up more windows on his laptop as he spoke. “Man! Just like that, all this information they’re giving us here…” He scratched the back of his head, “if it’s true… well, it would be like if we gave some Bronze Age Vikings a Google map of Borneo.”
“If it’s true,” John said as the Chinese crowds on the television screen cheered.
Jarred scratched his head again and frowned. “Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just do Mars?”
Chapter 14
Eloise had called John on his way to the Fortitude Valley training grounds. He was glad to escape the training exercises and he was confident that Grace would be able to run the classes without him, but he would have preferred to avoid his boss and her obsequious assistant Samuel.
The view from the third floor window had not changed much since his last visit. The contracted gardeners were busy with blowers, cleaning up after trimming the geometric greenery.
In the reflection of the window, John caught Samuel watching him. Judging by the tilt of his head and the look on his face, Samuel clearly didn’t know that John could see him watching. He wondered if this was how Angela and other women might feel when sleazy men gawked at them. Some of them might appreciate the interest, but he felt uncomfortable.
A chime of Samuel’s phone broke the impasse. After a short conversation, Samuel asked John how he’d like his coffee. “Ms Gant would like to know,” he added.
“White with one, thanks Sammy,” John put on a brashly impersonal face and gave the PA a feigned smile.
If Samuel was rankled by John’s false familiarity, he hid it well. “Ms Gant will see you now,” he said, indicating her door.
Eloise was busy with reams of paperwork. She looked up at John as he walked in. She put her pen down and opened her laptop lid, “Sit, please,” she said, then pointed to a chair on his side of her desk as she typed.
John made sure that the door was left open and took the seat across from her desk. As he sat, her forehead creased with a frown. It spoiled an otherwise flawless beauty.
“I have received a report alleging that you took a drugged, semi-conscious woman back to your residence. Is this correct?” Eloise gave him a level stare.
“I did. It was the night the alien arrived,” John stated, wondering who had put in such a report. It had to be one of his team that were on duty that night.
“Well, I’m glad that you didn’t try to deny it. We have surveillance video of you leaving the nightclub with her and of you and another male, your flatmate presumably, carrying her up to your apartment.” She spun her laptop around so John could see a slightly blurred frozen still image of himself, a dishevelled Jarred and an unconscious Angela flopped between them in the lift of his apartment block.
“That’s my brother,” John said trying to keep the worry from his voice. “Like I said, it was the night the alien visitor arrived and things were kinda crazy.”
“Crazy? As in, ‘let’s take a drugged girl home and molest her,’ kind of crazy?”
“No one touched her. I took her home to make sure of that.” John spoke with as much authority he could muster. “I know it’s not text-book, but with all the rioting going on across town, I took it upon myself to ensure her safety. Her parents were very grateful for my actions. Would you like a written statement from them?”
Eloise ignored his question with a deeper frown. “The standard operating procedure says quite clearly that you, as the most senior operative were to ensure the victim received adequate medical attention. She could have stopped breathing or gone into cardiac arrest. You weren’t to know what drug or how much she had been given or what she had been drinking beforehand. Their effects compound each other.”
That was all true, but knowing Angela as he did now, he doubted she had had any alcohol at all that night, or it was her first drink. “As I said, it was my call, based on all the options available.”
“Under normal circumstances, this breach of protocol would be a disciplinary offence,” she took a deep breath and leaned back in her leather armchair. She cast her eyes over his frame, but the calculating expression she wore gave John a clue as to what she was thinking.
Did she think that by being lenient with him now, she might persuade him to ‘help’ her? He didn’t like to think that sort of bargain could be made. “No you’re right,’ he said, staring at the wall behind her. “I made a bad decision and the consequences could have been severe liability for the company.”
“No, on the contrary, I think you did the best you could.” John saw her pick up her pen and hold it lengthways between her hands. She played with it distractedly as she spoke. “In many ways, it is much easier for people like me, in management. We sit and make decisions, like investing in night-club security, but people, like you, are the ones who have to carry out our plans. And a good plan is always the first casualty in battle, isn’t it?”
John nodded in agreement, but the suspicion that she
was only being so conciliatory so she could get what she wanted from him wouldn’t go away.
“And this was the same night as you allegedly assaulted that, what’s his name?” Eloise flipped a few pages of the folder in front of her. John realised that it must be his personnel file that she was studying. “Ah, that’s right- Ezekiel Campbell.”
“It was a busy night,” John said trying to inconspicuously see what was in his file. Did she know that Angela was Zeke’s girlfriend?
“It says in your report, that you confiscated a bag of Rohypnol pills.”
John nodded and tried to remember where he had put them.
“Do you still have them? They may be needed as evidence.”
“I’ll send them in tomorrow.”
“No, you’ll drop them in yourself. They’re too important to lose in the internal mail.”
John nodded his assent.
“You understand, of course, that if you were to be dismissed, as a result of your mishandling of the drugged girl, you may well lose the benefits that the company’s legal department provide?” She wore a concerned look as she played her fingers along the length of her pen.
John doubted that was entirely true, as he would have been an employee at the time. He did find it disturbing to see how Eloise was trying to use it as leverage on him. The dream image of Eloise riding him with her pearl tear-drop ear-rings swinging back and forth with her blouse open sprang into his mind. Her machinations now only made him more determined to not allow that to ever happen.
“Que sera,” John said, trying to give the impression that he didn’t care, but all the time he was thinking of the payments he gave to his mother and how Jarred’s studies would be affected if he were to be fired.
Samuel announced his arrival with a timid knock on the open door. He brought in the coffees and set them down on the desk. John watched as the PA fussed about with biscuits on side plates.
“Your judgement is respected, under the circumstances, even if it was unconventional.” Eloise stood as she spoke. She accepted the black coffee that Samuel offered. “It is your ability to make those kind of decisions on the fly and have the confidence and honesty to back them up that makes you a valuable employee for this type of work.” She gave him a smile from behind her coffee cup. “And for that other job I had in mind.”
