Liberty

by Niall Teasdale

  27th March.

  Cygnus lay in bed half-covered by a sheet and looking up at the ceiling. On her left, June was snuggled against Cygnus’s side, a contented smile on her face. The smile was at least partially because Madvedant was snuggled up against Cygnus’s right arm, also wearing a contented smile.

  ‘How did that happen?’ Cygnus asked softly.

  ‘I got a bit drunk,’ Madvedant replied, her voice sleepy. ‘I always get… Your word would be “horny.” I always get horny when I drink.’

  ‘And we ended up talking about human sexual culture,’ June said. ‘Maddy didn’t understand what a homosexual is because they don’t have the concept.’ That was another thing: Madvedant was now Maddy to those in the house. Andrea had come up with it; Madvedant liked it.

  ‘Because all recreational sex is between members of the same gender,’ the alien said. ‘We’re too fertile for mixed-gender sex to be for anything other than reproduction.’

  ‘And when Andrea and Jacob went to bed,’ June went on, ‘Maddy started asking about the practical side and, well, if it wasn’t obvious to you, I knew she wanted to try out some human booty. Plus, I think being the first humans to have sex with an alien counts as special circumstances.’

  ‘Not arguing,’ Cygnus replied. ‘I was just checking to see whether I had the logical sequence right in my head.’

  ‘Now, sleep,’ Madvedant said. ‘It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.’

  Cygnus closed her eyes. ‘It certainly is.’

  United Nations HQ, Antarctica.

  They were starting with the United Nations General Assembly. The Antarctic headquarters of the UN was a couple of hours ahead of the eastern side of America, so Madvedant was addressing the assembled international representatives before visiting the US President for lunch.

  The meeting room, the General Assembly Hall, had been modelled after the same room in the old headquarters in New York. There had been some modernisation, but fundamentally it was a big auditorium with banks of seats facing a stage from which speeches were made. Madvedant stepped up onto the stage with Cygnus at her side while the current UNGA president made the announcement, and then the alien woman stepped forward, her gaze sweeping over the room.

  ‘Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,’ she began, ‘representatives of the Nations of Earth, and fellow citizens of the galaxy. I am… not someone who is accustomed to speaking in public. By profession, I am a biologist. By an accident of fate, I am the Guardian of the asharem as Cygnus is the Guardian of humanity. But what I primarily am, and what my people are, is a refugee, driven from our own world by war. I have heard it said that the people of Earth are worried that the asharem represent a threat. We offer no threat to you. Quite the opposite. I am here to offer the hand of friendship. I hope that you will accept it.’

  ~~~

  There was not really much for Madvedant to say to the assembled diplomats, so she kept her speech short. She told them that her people were focused on building houses and infrastructure, but they would be happy to normalise diplomatic relations as soon as they had somewhere to call home. She also told them that there would be opportunities for scientific, cultural, and economic exchange at some point in the future.

  Then there was a meet-and-greet where the diplomats could talk to Madvedant directly, and that was where the danger lay, of course. The alien was escorted around by Cygnus, Adamantium, and Brightstar. The two Union heroes had wanted to meet the alien Guardian anyway, Adamantium’s presence tended to make smaller men uncomfortable, and Brightstar knew all the pitfalls.

  The biggest trap was Anisim Lospatin, the ambassador from the Soviet Union. That was both a figurative and literal estimation: Lospatin was a big man, a little taller than Adamantium and with a significantly larger stomach. He was bald and had rather rough, slab-like features. His suit was expensive and custom-tailored. He smiled like a tiger which had just spotted a particularly juicy steak.

  As he approached the foursome, he was followed by a small, mousy woman with brown hair and pinched features. Her suit was considerably less expensive, but it fit well over a relatively shapely body which appeared to have more muscle than one might have expected.

  ‘Zdravstvuyte, Miss Mareko,’ Lospatin said. ‘It is a great pleasure for me to make your acquaintance. I am Anisim Lospatin, ambassador for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.’ His English was excellent and there was barely a hint of an accent to it.

  Madvedant smiled. ‘Hello, Mister Lospatin.’ She took his hand to shake it. ‘I understand that your country is one of the largest on Earth.’

  ‘And yet, you are visiting the President of the United States, but not our Premier.’

  ‘I have only so much time to spare, Ambassador. I am staying with my human counterpart’ – Madvedant indicated Cygnus – ‘in her home in America. Paying a short visit to President Hart seems appropriate. There is no intention to exclude anyone.’

  ‘Then perhaps you could speak to President Hart concerning the spaceship she wishes you to consult on. The Americans have refused to give our scientists access to–’

  ‘Ambassador,’ Brightstar said, ‘Guardian Mareko is not part of the United States Government and has no say in the matter. The Union is now involved in analysing that vessel and we’ve only agreed to it so long as we can disseminate the knowledge gained around the world. Besides, I don’t recall the Soviet Union offering anyone access to the ship they shot down over Moscow…’

  Lospatin did not seem to like being fact-checked. His gaze flicked to his assistant. Her features seemed to be even more pinched than before.

  ‘You should see to your assistant, Ambassador,’ Cygnus said. ‘I think she has a headache.’

  ‘I am fine,’ the woman said, not looking at Cygnus.

  ‘Sure? I’m running my psionic jamming field, and I know it gives Delphine a headache.’ Madvedant gave Cygnus a curious look, but the Russian ambassador just seemed annoyed.

  ‘Miss Sivakova is not–’

  ‘Oh, Anisim, everyone knows,’ Brightstar said. ‘All the nations who can afford them have psionic shield devices. I’m surprised you even bother these days.’

  Lospatin frowned. ‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mareko,’ he said, and then he set off away from them again.

  ‘The word “psionics” does not appear to translate,’ Madvedant said.

  ‘Then you’re lucky,’ Cygnus replied. ‘I’ll teach you how to shield your mind from it later.’

  ‘It seems that humans do have many things they can teach the asharem.’

  Andrews Field, MD.

  President Hart was waiting outside the White Houses with the usual array of Secret Service guardians. Delphine was there and Cygnus saw her wince as the jamming field enveloped her. Cygnus and Madvedant touched down about ten feet from the president, and Hart took a couple of steps forward to greet them.

  ‘President Francesca Hart,’ Cygnus said, ‘let me present Madvedant Mareko, Guardian of the asharem.’

  Hart surprised Cygnus a little by raising her right hand in greeting. ‘Welcome to what passes for our nation’s capital, Guardian Mareko,’ Hart said.

  If Madvedant was impressed by the alien form of greeting, she did not show it. She raised her hand to meet Hart’s as she said, ‘Thank you for allowing me the honour of meeting you, Madame President. I am… not really a head of state.’

  Hart waved that away. ‘As I understand it, you’re as close to one as we’ll get until your colony is established. Come on inside. After talking to the General Assembly, I’m sure you’re at least thirsty.’

  Delphine accompanied them inside, waiting until they were in the building before sidling up to Cygnus. ‘Could you kill that field of yours? I promise I won’t peek.’

  Cygnus flashed her a smile, part smirk, and shut off the field. ‘I think I’ll trust you. Just this once, of course.’

  ‘Oh, of course.’

  ‘Well, Lospatin was trying to get his pet telepath inside Mad
dy’s head. I’m not being entirely paranoid.’

  ‘Sivakova? I have no idea why she’s still there. All the minds worth reading have some form of protection.’

  ‘That’s what Brightstar said.’

  ‘Now,’ Hart said as she settled down on one of the seats in her office, ‘as I’ve said before to Cygnus, you’ll call me Francesca, Guardian Mareko.’

  ‘Then you must call me Maddy,’ Madvedant replied. ‘It is a new nickname, but I like it.’

  ‘Twilight came up with it,’ Cygnus supplied, sitting down opposite Hart and beside Madvedant.

  ‘Mm,’ Hart said. ‘I really must meet your mysterious colleague at some point. I think it’s appropriate for a president to get a feel for all the most powerful people in the country. Well, that and the whole Avatar of Shadows thing is fascinating.’

  ‘I’m sure she’d be happy to drop by. It’ll give your security detail collective heart failure, but I’m sure she’d like to meet you. She missed the election.’

  ‘I’ll arrange something. Well, Maddy, I asked Cygnus what your intentions were when she came back from her first visit to Mars. Personally, I’m satisfied with her explanation of your situation. There are a few politicians and not a few citizens who are not so happy. The “alien menace” was talked to death during the election and it was not entirely put to rest by my victory. One or two are now saying that we’re harbouring refugees who will bring the other kind of Guardians back to this solar system.’

  ‘It is true that they may follow us here,’ Madvedant said, ‘but it is by no means certain. They have what they wanted: our worlds.’

  ‘And they’ll be coming back at some point anyway,’ Cygnus added. ‘We killed one of them. That’s supposed to be impossible, so they aren’t going to leave us alone. It might take them a while to get around to it, or maybe to find a counter, but they’ll be back. Wouldn’t it be better to have the support of asharem technology when they do?’

  ‘I’m not the one who needs convincing,’ Hart countered. ‘However, since we’re headed that way anyway, my main reason for asking you to drop by was to seek your help understanding some asharem technology which… fell into our lap.’

  Madvedant smiled. ‘We don’t begrudge you the salvage. Without Cygnus and Astraea, Quillant Vedro would have died and another ashar would have been lost. I would like to propose an exchange of information between our scientists, but I need to speak to Doctor Hugh Last before I can produce any sort of realistic plan.’

  ‘Yes, he would be the person to talk to.’

  ‘As for helping with the ship… Well, I am a scientist, but xenobiology does not lend itself to explanations of antigravity technology. I know it was derived from our own ability to fly, but not how, or how the physics works.’

  Hart nodded. ‘I know this will all take time. A lot of people expect results yesterday. I only decided to take this away from the military scientists who were working on it because their reports indicated they had made no progress. We know FTI and Doctor Last have done impressive work on alien technology before. Someone got paranoid when they decided what to do with that ship.’

  ‘The Russians have been pretty secretive about what they recovered in Moscow,’ Cygnus said. ‘The Chinese… Well, they’re not in much of a position to say anything. I could imagine people here started talking about national security a lot.’

  ‘Our national security is best served by actually getting our hands on that technology. Hell, even Kilmer’s damn stupid space prison idea might be just about viable if we had commercial antigravity technology.’

  Cygnus looked Hart straight in the eyes. ‘Madame President, don’t ever say that in public. Not even as a joke.’

  Hart looked back for a second and then nodded. ‘Fair point.’

  San Francisco, CA.

  ‘We have a suite for you up on the top floor,’ Bianca said as she escorted Cygnus and Madvedant through the Bayview Grand Hotel’s lobby. ‘I assume you’d prefer to stay in the same suite? There are separate bedrooms.’

  ‘That will be quite acceptable,’ Madvedant replied, smiling.

  ‘How’s Damian?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘Oh, overworked,’ Bianca replied. ‘He’s supposed to have next weekend off, so we’re hoping nothing major comes up. Uh, Damian’s my boyfriend.’ The last was added for Madvedant’s benefit. ‘He’s a detective.’

  ‘A demanding vocation,’ Madvedant said.

  ‘Yes. Very. If we’re lucky, you’ll meet him tonight. We’re going to sit down and chat over dinner. I’ve got Hugh and Elaine coming. We can socialise before we really get into the technical stuff tomorrow.’

  ‘I would enjoy that. I realise that, for you, meeting someone from another world is fascinating, among other things, but the same is true for me. Prior to leaving my home planet, I had no interaction with people of other species. Animals of various forms from other worlds, yes, but not people.’

  ‘She’s a xenobiologist,’ Cygnus said.

  ‘Huh,’ Bianca responded. ‘Hugh is going to love you.’

  ‘So I’m told,’ Madvedant replied.

  ~~~

  ‘What is most extraordinary,’ Doctor Ultimate said, ‘most unexpected, were the obvious similarities between the species we’ve encountered. Your own species, Maddy, shares many chromosomes with ours. That… Well, we may need to rewrite a number of textbooks, I can assure you.’

  ‘We call it the interstellar biogenesis theory,’ Madvedant replied, nodding. ‘It is more or less as certain now as what you call evolution by natural selection. There are cases of species arising through pure abiogenesis, but those are spectacularly rare. Almost every known species derives from one of two known lines of genetic material.’

  ‘Thean and Koran,’ Cygnus supplied.

  ‘I’ve heard them called that, yes. I think your Guardian essence is older than mine. Anyway, Theans tend to be bipedal, upright, for want of a better term, humanoid. Their most distinctive feature is the ability to manifest certain abilities which, frankly, defy most of the known laws of physics.’

  ‘I’m going to guess that humans are a Thean species,’ Damian said. He had made it, but he was sitting there listening with a somewhat bemused expression on his face. The science was largely passing over his head. ‘I find it difficult to believe we originated on another world, but–’

  ‘No,’ Madvedant interrupted. ‘You originated here. Elements of your DNA originated somewhere else, but the ultimate construction of each Thean species is unique. Many morphological elements are consistent, but not always. Humans evolved on Earth, to meet the requirements of life on Earth. They just got a kickstart from space.’

  ‘Panspermia,’ Ultimate said. ‘It’s been put forward as a hypothesis for the beginnings of life for some time.’

  ‘I thought evolution explained how life began,’ Damian said.

  ‘A common misconception. Evolution by Natural Selection explains how species diversify. How one original form of life can become many forms. But it needs there to be a living thing, able to reproduce, for it to operate. Hence, evolution says nothing about the beginnings of life.’

  ‘This is great,’ Elaine said, grinning a little maniacally. ‘I’m not even a biologist and this is great. What about the other line? The Korans?’

  ‘Less inclined to be humanoid,’ Madvedant replied, ‘but the two I’ve seen are. They’re smarter and longer-lived, in general, than the Thean species. A Koran species created the Guardians to be their guardians, but they used a Thean lineage to do it.’

  ‘The palacines and the shalean, if memory serves,’ Ultimate said. ‘Cygnus explained that to us. I assume you have the same ability to recall memories from your past hosts?’

  The alien nodded. ‘It’s a Guardian thing. As I remember it, I was one of the last Guardians to be made. I was sort of young, impressionable, and several of the older Guardians persuaded me that the palacines had become decadent and unworthy. So, I fought against our creators. I switched sides when my
shalean host was killed on a scouting mission. New host species with new ideas and priorities.’

  ‘You’re right then,’ Cygnus said. ‘About me being older. I think I was one of the first. Not that that means much because the first generation was huge.’

  ‘How many Guardians are there?’ Bianca asked.

  ‘I’m not sure anyone knows now.’ Cygnus glanced at Madvedant but got a shake of her head in reply. ‘Tens of thousands? Something like that.’

  ‘That’s a lot of potential problems out there who might be looking our way.’

  ‘Yes. I guess it is, but we’ll be ready for them when they come. We have to be.’

  28th March.

  Madvedant had been able to identify most of the components the engineering team was working on. Doctor Ultimate had apologised for the mess which had been made of the ship but Madvedant had waved that away. ‘Scrap,’ she had said, ‘is scrap.’ The important thing was the pilot, and he had been saved. Discussion had turned to how the asharem on Mars could actually help the Earth scientists to understand what they were looking at. Madvedant had suggested that some humans could go to Mars, with some help from Cygnus, and there could be an exchange of knowledge there.

  ‘It’s not going to be as easy as most people would expect,’ Doctor Ultimate said. ‘The first step will be to get our mathematicians talking to yours.’

  ‘Mathematicians?’ Bianca asked. ‘I thought mathematics was the universal language. We need to relearn our math?’

  ‘Mathematics is a universal language, my dear,’ Ultimate replied with a smile. ‘The notation is an entirely different matter.’ He turned to a whiteboard no one appeared to be using, picked up a pen, and wrote up the most basic equation he could.

  z = x + y

  Madvedant grimaced. ‘Hugh is right. I understand that because Cygnus does, but we would not write that the same way.’ She picked up a pen and wrote up her own version.

  x y + z =

  ‘Fascinating,’ Ultimate said. ‘A form of Reverse Polish notation. Yes, there will be much work to get the two groups working with the same notation system.’