The New World

by Toby Neighbors

  “Daniel Brickman,” came the amplified voice of Norixum. The translator unit was much improved, his voice was still deep and articulate, but the strange, clipped diction was gone, replaced with perfect English.

  Daniel was stunned, and sat motionless, staring at the little alien. He could see the scars where he had ripped out the implanted neuro transmitters so long ago. He couldn’t tell what the alien might be feeling—his body, as always, sat rigidly upright. But he knew what he felt, anger, a furious resentment at the unfairness of it all. It couldn’t possibly be right that the tiny Tolligarkian had lived happily here on Earth all this time. Of course the twisted understanding of history President Reynolds had implied made much more sense now. He sat staring icily at the alien, who, for all Daniel could tell, was staring right back.

  Chapter 47

  “I’ve been waiting for you to return,” Norixum said. “I didn’t think you’d stay, not with the Tridarians at any rate.”

  “You knew?” Daniel couldn’t help but ask.

  “No, but after we returned to Earth there was no reason not to tell me. Of course, I doubt if your comrades knew that our life span far surpassed their own. But it’s of no real consequence now.”

  “I guess you’re responsible for the twisted version of what happened?”

  “I have given many firsthand accounts of what happened, but I was always truthful. We came in peace, we offered the hand of friendship, you claimed to be the president, and then you sabotaged our efforts. I left nothing out, but I’m sure my point of view was quite different from your own.”

  “Did you tell them how you dispersed your bio-weapon to incapacitate us? How you unleashed animals to eat the bodies?”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about, Daniel Brickman,” Norixum said calmly. “But all that is in the past, and I am sure we can begin the process of restoration.”

  Daniel turned to Warkoski, “We need to prepare, the Tolligarkians will be here soon.”

  The soldier merely looked at Daniel with a blank stare.

  “Didn’t you hear what I said?” Daniel shouted. “The Tolligarkians are coming.”

  “The Tolligarkians have been here for over 400 years,” Warkoski said. “They shared their technology and helped us save the planet.”

  “They’re going to enslave us,” Daniel said.

  “That is not true,” Norixum said. “Slavery was never part of our culture.”

  “Tell that to the Tridarians forced into military service,” Daniel shouted at the little alien. He turned back to Warkoski, “You’ve got to get the president back in here. They need to know the truth. The Tolligarkians will strip Earth of her resources and leave us living in space stations.”

  Warkoski sneered, “I’ve lived on this space station,” he said this last word with cynicism, “all my life, at least until I took up my duty station on the patrol ship. I welcome the Tolligarkians. When they rebuild the transporter you destroyed, perhaps I’ll be able to live on a world again.”

  Daniel looked at him with uncomprehending horror. He couldn’t fathom what had happened to his world.

  “You mean you want to be part of the Tolligarkian Federation?”

  “The Federation of Free People,” Norixum corrected. “It’s no wonder that the lieutenant wants to fight against tyranny, for his life to make a difference to the Federation.”

  “You’ve got them all fooled,” Daniel sighed. “I should have known.”

  “There’s no sense standing around here,” Norixum said and Daniel noticed a hint of excitement in the modulated voice. “We have a pass to visit Earth, and we shouldn’t waste it.”

  Daniel felt betrayed. He followed the floating alien back out to the long passageway. As they walked along, he felt as if a giant hand were pushing down on him. Not physically, the gravity was standard, but his breathing was difficult and his heart seemed to struggle in its rhythm. He hadn’t expected to be treated like this, he realized. He had wondered if he would be remembered, if his valiant sacrifice would be honored. If he was honest, he had to admit he had expected a warm welcome, if not a hero’s return. But he also had to admit that if Jason and Scott had been successful in waking up the plague victims, that they would not have known the danger. Once people were back, they could hardly imagine a world where almost everyone was dead. That one factor alone made the Tolligarkians seem ruthlessly cruel, but without it, the danger seemed only in one’s mind.

  When they came to the transporter room again, Daniel watched as the view through the portal changed. The room on the other side seemed quieter, more peaceful somehow, and he suddenly felt an irresistible urge to be in that other room, as if in that place his world would return to normal. At a signal from the man at the transporter station, they approached the transporter.

  “Is this your first trip to your homeworld?” Norixum asked Warkoski, who was breathing rapidly as they approached the portal. His face was red, his hands flexing at his sides.

  “Yes,” he managed to say.

  And with that word, a horrid sadness came over Daniel. In a way, it had all been for nothing. He had given up everything to ensure that Earth survived, and yet, standing beside him was a man who had never walked through a park, or along the seashore. He was human, but not from Earth, he was a stranger to the world that Daniel had tried to save. He felt grief over what had been lost. Surely it would have been better to have returned, to have sought out Lana, to have tried to build a life. Instead, he stood on the brink of a world that was lost to him forever. He could never go home.

  They stepped through the transporter and found themselves standing in a room that was made of large stone blocks. The seams of the masonry were almost invisible, and the absence of technology was like a breath of fresh air. There were large windows and through them Daniel could see grass and trees, white puffy clouds and a brilliant blue sky.

  “This way,” said Norixum, who floated toward the door.

  When they stepped out into the sunshine and fresh air, Daniel closed his eyes, leaned his head back, breathed deeply. He wanted to cry, to bend down and kiss the ground under his feet, to roll in the grass and laugh and shout for joy. He noticed Warkoski looking around at their surroundings like a child, his face full of wonder and hope. It crossed Daniel’s mind then that he could run away, flee from the solider and alien and trek out across an Earth that was as foreign as it was familiar. But he dismissed the idea. As much as he would have loved to be alone, beginning life again, he knew that if he stayed, there was still a chance he could make a difference. And if he gave up now, then he would have truly wasted his life.

  He looked around and was surprised to see the Washington Monument and the dome of the Capital Building in the distance.

  “Are we in Washington?” he asked.

  “Yes,” answered Norixum. “Near a private cemetery, one of the few remaining burial places that have been preserved.”

  They walked on a curving path made of small stones. The lawn was well maintained, and Daniel wondered who the lucky groundskeeper was, until he saw a robotic mower, moving unmanned among some nearby trees. There was a short, metal fence around the cemetery, and the gate opened automatically as they approached.

  “The states where your parents lived have been preserved and access is not allowed,” explained Norixum. “Their resting place, along with your home, has long since been removed. I’m afraid this is the only burial place with anyone you know.”

  Daniel moved silently among the graves, looking at the highly polished markers, which were small plaques on the ground, not the large tombstones he was used to. He read the names, none of which he remembered, until he came to one that read, “Jason Blane McPherson, General,” and beside it, “Dakota Humphreys-McPherson.” Daniel knelt down. There were dates on the stones; Jason had passed away at the age of 62. Dakota had out lived him by 27 years. It was heart wrenching to see their names on the small markers, and as he looked, his vision blurred with tears. He felt the grief inside welli
ng up and he stopped trying to hide it. He cried quietly for his friend, remembering Jason’s confidence. How he had found the soldier cleaning weapons in the bunker, and how he had punched him in the elevator. It seemed like another lifetime that they had walked the halls of the Pentagon and sat in the Oval Office together. It was another lifetime, Daniel reminded himself. Finally, he spoke to the alien floating nearby.

  “Tell me what happened when he got back.”

  “He locked me and my pilot in a room for several weeks. It took them that long to make the counteragent and wake your people up from suspended animation. Once that had happened, I was interrogated by soldiers and kept in a military compound for many years. The people were angry that their homes and possessions had been lost. Many people all over the world had been killed, buried alive or burned. But once your race overcame the trauma of it all, they came to their senses and founded a colony for my people. We lived there in peace, there were nearly forty of us in all, for many years.

  “Your friend Jason came to visit me shortly before he died. He had been promoted for helping to save the people, and then ostracized for his part in your escapades. When he began to speak out in opposition to those who felt your actions were terroristic, he was forced out of the military. He told me that he regretted not staying with you and feared what you would find when you returned. He also told me of a woman, I forget her name, that he had spend years tracking down, someone apparently close to you. What was her name?”

  Daniel had leapt to his feet and was now facing Norixum so closely he could have reached out and shaken the little alien—in fact, he had to control himself to keep from doing it.

  “Lana? Was he talking about Lana?” Daniel asked frantically.

  “Yes, I believe that was her name,” Norixum said. “He said he had a letter that she had written to you. She never married, had no children or family. There wasn’t much more to tell. He was bitter, a lonely old man, full of spite.”

  “He was only 62,” Daniel said.

  “Oh, but he was much older than his age. The world had passed him by and he resented it.”

  “What about Scott?”

  “Your Secretary of State?” Norixum asked, and Daniel thought he heard a note of mockery in the alien’s voice. “I never knew what happened to him.”

  Daniel looked down at the ground, a void opening up inside of him like a dark abyss. There wasn’t much left to do now. He wanted to know what had happened in the last 400 years, but he didn’t want to hear it from Norixum.

  “Is there a library, or someplace I might look for records and that kind of thing?” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Norixum. “Are you ready to go then?”

  “In a moment,” Daniel said. He turned back to Jason’s marker and knelt once more.

  “I miss you,” he said softly. “It seems that we failed after all. My biggest regret, besides letting Lana go, is that we never had a chance to really talk about what we were doing. I’m sorry things turned out so bad, but at least you had Dakota. You wouldn’t recognize things now, I’m afraid, or maybe you would. It seems Earth has become a lot like Tolligark. Rest in peace, my friend, you’ve earned it.”

  Daniel stood up and followed the Tolligarkian back along the path. Lieutenant Warkoski followed behind them. They walked for nearly an hour, the sun shining warm on Daniel and the breeze blowing cool and refreshing as they strolled. When they entered the city, they found that the homes were gone, only official buildings remained. There were no shops or hotels, just empty buildings, like recreations of historic places, manned by park historians. They entered a large building lined with row upon row of books. There was a large central information booth with actual people working there. They all had on the strange glasses, and when they approached the people looked up and smiled.

  “Hello, patron,” the worker said. “How can I help you today?”

  “We would like to view historical records,” said Norixum. The woman behind the counter was dressed in a bland suit that hung on her skeletal frame as if she had lost a significant amount of weight. Her hair was pulled up tightly into a bun on top of her head. She smiled with straight, white teeth as she held up three pairs of the clear glasses that Daniel took to be neuro amplifiers. Daniel took his pair and followed Norixum, who floated down the central aisle. They came at last to a row of computer stations, and Daniel sat down. The screen was a light blue and there were no controls. Daniel saw Warkoski put the glasses on and his screen flickered to life. Daniel did the same and pushed out the name Jason McPherson. There were numerous records, some recounting his life, others criticizing his stance on Tolligarkian rights. It was odd, like reading a fantastic novel of the future, only it was actually historical records of the past.

  There was an option beside each record that allowed Daniel to queue his findings to study at length later. He selected several, then pushed out Lana’s name. No records were found. Daniel searched for concise records of recent history. Several book titles were available, and Daniel queued most of them. Next he looked for accounts of the plague and the events that followed, hundreds of titles popped up. There were historical accounts, books and articles from sociological and anthropological scholars. There were records from military journals and texts, even civil rights groups had spoken out. Several religious records were available, but Daniel selected only historical accounts and one labeled, Alternate Views of the World Plague Era.

  When they were finished, the woman at the counter gave them each a data chip that had the articles and book texts they had queued. They would be able to view the information at their leisure using a standard data reader. It was handy, Daniel thought, but much too familiar for his taste. He would have liked leafing through books with pages much better, but of course that would have been a much longer process.

  Next they traveled to a transporter station which took them to New York City. New York had been cleaned, or perhaps sanitized would be a better description. What had once been a metropolis teeming with life and surrounded by miles and miles of industrial and residential areas was now a city much like the capital on Tolligark. There were towering skyscrapers, all built around the old Central Park, but the streets were clean and painted white. There was none of the traffic that once ran day and night in the Big Apple; in fact, much like on Tolligark, the city seemed strangely empty. Surrounding Manhattan were beautiful botanical gardens and miles of protected nature preserves. Daniel had visited New York once, he remembered the smog and the noise and the constant flow of life. Now, as he stepped from the transporter building, he felt lonely.

  They were checked into a beautiful hotel room high in one of the strange skyscrapers and given time to freshen up before dinner. Norixum had informed Daniel that tomorrow they would take an aerial tour before returning to the space station. Daniel took a long, hot shower and, when he was done, found clothes laid out on his bed. He picked up the neuro amplifier glasses that were next to the video screen which was built into the wall and focused his mind on news. Several channels came up in small squares with their names below. Daniel selected one and watched as the news anchor talked. Then, before long, the picture switched to a live feed that looked to be on the space station near the president. The reporter was talking about rumors that a ship intercepted recently might have been from the Federation of Free People, home of the Tolligarkian race. Some were claiming that contact had already been made, others were reporting the return of the only human to have left the solar system, Daniel Brickman. The scene changed to people in a large, indoor space, protesting. Daniel was squinting, trying to read the signs, when the reporter’s voice told him what the rally was for. The people, exercising their free speech, were calling for the arrest of Daniel Brickman for crimes against intelligent life.

  He sat frozen with disbelief, his hair air drying, the damp towel he had wrapped around him soaking through the bed covering. He couldn’t believe his ears—crimes? People really thought he had committed crimes? He rushed over to look for a data r
eader, surely there was some way to look at the information he had found in the library. Before long there was a knock on his door. Daniel walked over and peeked through the viewing device, expecting to see Norixum waiting to take him to dinner. Instead, a hotel bellman stood holding a data reader. Daniel opened the door.

  “You requested a data reader,” said the hotel employee.

  “Yes,” Daniel said, remembering he was wearing the neuro amplifier. “Thanks,” he said as he took the device and stepped back to close the door.

  “Oh, if you could please sign for the reader, sir,” said the bellman.

  “Yeah, sure,” Daniel said. He scribbled his name on the pad the man held out to him.

  “Is that Brickman?” the man asked.

  “Yes, Daniel Brickman.”

  “Thank you, sir, enjoy your stay.”

  The man backed away and Daniel closed his door. He pulled the towel off and pulled on the clothes laid out on his bed. He was anxious to look over the material on the data card, but he wanted to be ready when Norixum did turn up.

  Once he was dressed, and had run a comb through his hair, he sat at the small table and to his surprise found a built-in data reader. Odd, he thought, but he was too focused on his task of finding information to give it much thought. He popped the data chip into the reader and began perusing the articles. To his chagrin, he found that the events surrounding Jason’s return to Earth and the disappearance of the Tolligarkian space station and transporter had first been challenged by the council he himself had once led. Soon after the cure for the plague was synthesized, the events were investigated by congress, which had been reinstated, although many of the members had not survived the purging, as it had come to be called.

  The official inquiry lasted three years and ended just as the president’s term was completed. It officially exonerated Daniel and the council of any wrong doing. But, a decade later, with political sentiment shifting and new technology constantly changing, the issue was reexamined. The Tolligarkians began telling their side of the story: that they had come in peace and were trying to share their technology and knowledge with humanity, but had been attacked by the same bio-weapon that struck the rest of the world.