The New World

by Toby Neighbors

  They reached a door that swished open and Norixum announced that this was Scott’s shuttle back to Washington.

  Scott turned and faced his friends. “I’m sorry I can’t come,” he began.

  Daniel cut him off, “No, don’t be. You are doing the right thing. Take care of things. We’ll be home before you know it.”

  Scott embraced Daniel and whispered in his ear, “Don’t do anything foolish.”

  Daniel merely smiled; he wasn’t a hero, but he didn’t plan to let any opportunities pass without taking advantage of them.

  Scott embraced Jason then entered the decompression chamber. The doors closed and they heard the large fans as they proceeded down the tube. They entered Norixum’s shuttle and found their seats. There were no safety belts or harnesses so they sat with hands on their knees. They couldn’t feel the shuttle move, but the view screen was still showing the view outside. They watched as the space station slowly moved away. Daniel couldn’t help but hear the theme song to Star Trek playing in his mind. He must have been humming unconsciously, and before long Jason picked up the tune. They hummed together, the only sound in the small cabin, until Norixum spoke.

  “I recognize that song, but how are you making that sound?” the alien asked.

  “We’re humming,” Jason said.

  “Humming?”

  “It’s sort of like singing, only you make the sound in your throat, not with your mouth,” Daniel explained.

  The alien hunched over in his chair and there was a static sound that made Jason and Daniel stare, but then Norixum sat up and pronounced, “The translator unit is unable to hum.”

  “I guess not,” Daniel said, smiling.

  When they neared the transporter, Daniel and Jason leaned closer to the window. There were lights shining now inside the metal tubes. They raced around the large circle, which reminded Daniel of a lighting truss he had seen once at a concert. The lights inside ran faster and faster, like Christmas tree lights gone mad, until the entire structure seemed to glow. Then, the stars on the other side of the transporter seemed to tremble and shake and finally fade away. Space was as black as any night sky. With no clouds to reflect the light, stars seemed to be mere pinpricks in the vast, black canopy that now surrounded them. Inside the transporter, with the glowing framework all around it, the space beyond now seemed darker somehow, more like a black hole as Daniel had imagined them as a child. The shuttle moved closer and closer, the darkness looming bigger, and Daniel’s heart rate increased. He wondered briefly what it would be like to travel through space and time, and then they crossed the threshold. It felt as though their bodies were being squeezed from every direction at once. He felt himself shrinking, the ship and his companions were all growing smaller, diminishing. And when he thought he might disappear completely, the process reversed and he felt his body being pushed back out to fuller proportions. It was an incredibly uncomfortable process, not entirely painful, but certainly not painless.

  “Are we through?” Jason asked, taking a deep breath.

  “Yes, we are in the Tolligark System, some 400 of your light years from Earth,” said Norixum.

  “That was quite an experience,” Daniel said, not sure what to say.

  “It takes some getting used to,” the alien admitted. “Traveling through space is much more extreme than across the planet, but that is to be expected. Oh, you can see my world now.”

  Daniel had forgotten the view screen. He turned to it now and was amazed at what he saw. Ships of every shape were hovering between them and a planet that glowed in the light of a distant sun. The Earth, from outer space, was a glowing sphere of blue and white and green. Tolligark had the same atmospheric reflection of light, but the colors were violet and crimson. Daniel got the distinct impression of Mars as he looked at Tolligark, as if this were what Mars might look like with atmosphere and oceans and foliage.

  “Wow,” said Jason, his voice soft.

  “It is a planet unlike any other we have found across the galaxy,” said Norixum. “This is where my people call home, but it is also the home of many races now. It is the central planet of the Free People.”

  “So,” Daniel asked, “there are beings from other worlds here?”

  “Yes, some that have made Tolligark their home for business or political reasons, others are refugees from worlds that were destroyed in the war.”

  “You mean entire worlds have been destroyed?” Jason asked.

  “Yes and no,” answered the alien. “They have not been blown apart like in your space dramas, but they have been damaged, forever ruined, and now are uninhabitable.”

  Fear once again blew its icy breath down Daniel’s neck. For over a century, man had held the power to destroy Earth, to ravage the planet with nuclear weapons of mass destruction. And for most of that time, man had forged diplomatic channels and written treaties to ensure that Earth remained safe from mankind’s worst inventions. There were chemical threats, some of which were blamed for the plague, which would have ended all life on the globe. And while the fear of planet killers had been around all Daniel’s life, to speak to someone who had seen the devastation of entire worlds, and who could talk about it as casually as a man might speak of swatting a mosquito, was nauseating. Daniel was once again struck by the utter foreignness of Norixum, his bulbous eye coverings and strangely shaped head. He wanted to attack the alien; it was a basic impulse, to destroy something that was so completely different that it seemed unnatural, almost perverse. He forced himself to look away, to study the view screen.

  He watched as their shuttle passed a rather large spaceship, the gray metal hull reflecting light from the planet below. There were guns visible on this ship, large cannons that were recognizable, even though Daniel had never seen anything like them. The spaceship was shaped much like a cannon, with a large, rounded end that glowed with thrusters, tapering toward a menacing opposite end that bristled with guns of every size.

  “That is Supreme Commander Huxley’s ship,” said Norixum. “He returns to Tolligark regularly.”

  “Will we meet him there?” Daniel asked.

  “No, he will be on planet,” the alien said. “There are diplomatic channels that we must pass through. The supreme commander is extremely busy, his schedule is tightly controlled.”

  Daniel was nodding his understanding when Jason spoke, his voice bewildered.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  Daniel turned and looked where Jason was pointing at the view screen. Rising from the far side of the planet was what appeared to be a constructed ship of immense proportions. The ship was shaped much like a king’s crown, with a solid, circular base and glittering towers rising high above. The towers were all unique, differing in size and shape.

  “That is one of the twin space stations,” said Norixum. “Tolligark could not possibly support the numbers of beings who wish to call the Grand World home. Only the elite are allowed to live on planet. The majority of beings make their homes in one of the two space stations that circle the planet. Each station is unique, each a large, metropolitan city in its own right. There are all the basic necessities, along with manufacturing and processing facilities.”

  “People work and live there,” Daniel asked, “not on the planet?”

  “For the most part,” Norixum said. “To maintain the homeworld we have limited the population and preserved our unique world in its natural state. Tolligark was once much like your Earth, full of cities and people, all stripping the planet of its natural resources. When our technology began to allow us the means to preserve our world, we took advantage of them. Now, Tolligark is the shinning gem in the Federation of Free People. Just think of what Earth could be like,” Norixum continued, his strange, clipped voice almost taking on a dreamy quality. “No more smog, or landfills, or forests destroyed. Your world could heal from centuries of misguided abuse. In fact, Earth could leap past even Tolligark since the technologies would be provided for you rather than learned through centuries of
development.”

  Daniel leaned back in his chair, focusing on the alien rather than the view screen once more.

  “But it wouldn’t be Earth as we’ve known it,” said Daniel, his hands folded in his lap as he studied the alien’s body language. “You’ve already introduced alien species onto our world. Who knows what Earth will become?”

  “Those species are merely an addition,” said Tolligark. “They will not influence the natural habitat.”

  “We’ll see,” said Daniel. He turned back to the view screen, glad that he had once again established the fact that he was not going to blindly accept the Tolligarkian party line, but also frustrated that he could not see any visible sign that his ploy was having an effect. He had never thought much about body language or how much he learned from the way a person looked until he met the strange, little alien who apparently had no nonverbal communication. It was like watching professional gamblers who sat stone still, their faces a mask as they looked at their cards. Norixum gave nothing away; it was yet another disadvantage Daniel faced.

  The view of the ships and space station was lost once they entered the atmosphere of the planet. Traveling up from Earth’s surface, the ride had been smooth, almost as if they weren’t moving at all; traveling through the atmosphere from space was a different matter. Clouds of what appeared to be smoke billowed up and blocked the view from the screen. The ship vibrated, and creaked. It was less than the sounds an airplane would make, but it made Daniel nervous just the same.

  Once they had passed through the highest levels of atmosphere, the ship seemed to revert to its stable flight. The smoke cleared and they could see what looked like an ocean far below. The water was pink and beautiful, stretching as far as they could see to meet the horizon, which was clear with only a slightly pink hue as opposed to Earth’s blue sky.

  Daniel had the odd sensation that he was not in Kansas anymore. The strange colors seemed much like the transition from dull, black and white newspaper photos, to glossy, full color magazine pictures. Below them, a city, half on the ocean and half on the reddish landscape that bordered it, appeared.

  “That is the capital city of Tolligark, and the central headquarters of the Federation of Free People,” said Norixum. “We are almost there.”

  Chapter 36

  Daniel sat fixed in his seat as the details of the capital city came into view. It was as amazing as it was complex. The city seemed to be neatly confined to a set space, not sprawling like cities on Earth. The capital was built up, not out, and they were soon descending between towers and glass enclosed crosswalks. There were no streets, no other traffic besides the shuttle in which they rode. The buildings glistened with brightly polished glass, some transparent, some opaque or even mirrored. The buildings were architectural wonders, with almost no straight lines. There were waves and arches, buildings that seemed to defy the laws of gravity as they twisted and turned in midair. In some ways it reminded Daniel of a children’s movie where the landscape was contorted on purpose, giving the illusion of a magical realm. But this was reality, alien perhaps, but real all the same. Occasionally Daniel saw figures moving within the buildings, but the shuttle continued to descend, lower and lower among the wonderful towers.

  “This is amazing,” Jason said.

  Daniel nodded, his mind buzzing with the sights that seemed too incredible to be true.

  “The capital is the result of our greatest minds building the perfect city,” said Norixum. “Our year is roughly three times longer than your own, and the capital is over three hundred years old.”

  “It looks brand new,” said Jason.

  “It is well maintained as the jewel of our empire.”

  Daniel forced himself to look away from the view screen. As much as he wanted to soak in the wonders of this alien world, he knew his purpose for coming. He could not allow himself to be swayed by the grandeur of this place, not when the fate of his own world hung in the balance.

  “Empire?” Daniel said. “I thought you said this was a free people.”

  “Of course it is,” said Norixum. “That was merely a translation error. There are no worlds within the Federation that have not willingly joined our grand society.”

  “And how are the free people governed?” Daniel asked.

  “The Tolligark culture has been adopted by all the allied planets. Earth, too, will join our system and follow the direction of the supreme commander. You cannot deny that our way of life is vastly superior to your own.”

  The alien sounded smug even though his voice and posture never changed. Daniel resisted the urge to lash out and turned back to the view screen as he spoke.

  “Technological superiority does not constitute a greater culture,” he said carefully. “There are still many unanswered questions that need to be resolved before I can lead my people to join your federation.”

  “I am sure that you will find all the assurance you need here,” said Norixum.

  The shuttle landed on a platform as smoothly as any swan every settled onto water, and Norixum’s seat cushion rose into the air. Daniel and Jason stood and followed their alien guide out of the ship. The landing platform was still several hundred feet above the reddish ground which Daniel could see as he leaned over a railing as they moved away from the shuttle. The buildings overhead seemed like the branches of an incredible tree, woven together with only small portions of the pinkish sky visible between their glass and steel canopy. Daniel remembered the feeling of looking up at the towering skyscrapers of New York as a young boy and feeling scared and small, as if he would fall over trying to see the tops of them. But the massive buildings around him now, although many times taller and grander, gave him a sense of security, the way a blanket feels on cold mornings.

  “I shall show you to your quarters,” said Norixum. “Then I shall arrange for you to meet the supreme commander.”

  “Thank you,” Daniel managed to say, he was once again caught up in the wonder of the capital city.

  The building they entered was bright with pink light, as if the sky had been somehow carried down the walls and was now pouring into the building. The walls, which had seemed to be glass from the outside, were covered in what looked like rich wallpaper or tapestries. There were exotic plants springing up from the floor and growing through the walls. Water flowed in an artificial river which wound around the large room. Daniel guessed that they were in the lobby of a hotel, but he couldn’t be sure. There was no sign of other beings, and Norixum moved forward confidently. They approached an elevator, which opened for them. There were no buttons inside the shiny interior, which looked like metal, but which was so polished it was possible to see through it. They watched in awe as the elevator rose steadily back up the building, not in a straight line, but spiraling around the structure, which was bent and curved as it rose higher in the air.

  After a while the elevator stopped, with only the slightest pull at Daniel’s stomach. The doors slid open, and the room beyond was like a meadow. The ceiling arched like a dome and was colored exactly like the sky. The floor was covered with a rust colored grass, and it rose and fell just like the terrain of a field. There was no furniture and the walls appeared to blend into the sky ceiling.

  “I hope you find this comfortable,” said Norixum. “Please feel free to explore, the diplomatic suite is quite well prepared and you can learn much about Tolligark from its exacting reproductions.”

  “Ah…thanks,” said Daniel, moving past Norixum into the strange room.

  Once he and Jason had stepped out of the elevator, the doors slid shut behind them. Daniel looked around the room and noticed there was no furniture or windows. The room was large, but felt very strange.

  “If the point is to intimidate people,” Daniel said. “They’re doing a good job.”

  “Yeah,” Jason said, “this is the weirdest place I think I’ve ever been in my life, and I’ve been in some strange places.”

  “I guess we should look around.”

 
They walked forward together and the floor rose slightly; just ahead, in a small depression, was what appeared to be a gathering area. It reminded Daniel of a campsite. There were several moss covered boulders and what looked like a fire ring. They walked to the fire pit and Jason raised his eyebrows.

  “Remember the protocol,” Jason said.

  Daniel nodded then said, “Let’s see if there are other rooms.”

  There were no obvious doors to other rooms, or anything that looked like a thermostat mounted on the walls. There were no view screens or computers that Daniel could find. He walked around the room’s walls, which were master works of art. Even standing close enough to touch them, the walls looked like a pink horizon miles away. After searching the perimeter of their room, they returned to the gathering area at the center.

  “I hope you don’t have to use the bathroom,” Daniel said jokingly.

  “I don’t know,” Jason replied. “Growing up I would go outside all the time.”

  Daniel smiled and tried not to think about the growing sense of claustrophobia he was feeling. The room seemed light and airy, but there was a strange sense of enclosure that seemed to be hovering just behind the elegant design.

  “I guess we might as well sit and wait,” Daniel said. He lowered himself down with his back against one of the rocks. The floor was soft, the strange grass felt cool and organic to his hands, not like silk flowers. Jason knelt by another boulder and began running his hands all over it.

  “What are you doing?” Daniel asked.

  “I dated this girl once in high school,” the soldier said. “She lived in this big house and they had a pool in the backyard that looked like a beach lagoon. There were palm trees and hammocks. The concrete around the pool looked like sand, and there were big rocks, kind of like these, that were actually stereo speakers. I just thought maybe these rocks were like that, too.”