The Invitation-kindle

by Michael McKinney

  “That is now impossible. What has begun must run its course. There’s no need to be concerned. I assure you. If you want to remain then sit down. If not, then leave, but you will do one or the other.”

  With this, the President walks over to his chair and sits down beside his wife, Carol, still not having given as much as a casual glance to what almost everyone around him are intently staring at in amazement. Carol looks at her husband, and asks, “What’s happening, Ken?”

  “It’s all right, Carol. Nothing’s going to happen that shouldn’t happen. It’s all for the good. Trust me.”

  By now, millions of people have gotten out of their homes to see with their own eyes something so stunning that for most their only response is a muted, stupefying silence. Some who watch it on television initially think it might be some sort of special effect produced for the mass consumption of television audiences, but it slowly becomes clear that it’s something very different. What should have been immediately apparent was only now beginning to be understood. What they are seeing did not originate from anywhere on this planet. When data begins coming in about its size, and distance, the general reaction is disbelief. There has to be a mistake. It seems unimaginable. After checking, rechecking, and checking again, the numbers don’t change. The impossible conclusion is inescapable. An object of apparently extraterrestrial origin, approximately ten thousand miles across, larger than our own planet, is now in a stationary orbit two and a half thousand miles above the surface of the Earth. By now, more than one out of six human beings on Earth, over one billion people, were simultaneously looking at the same astonishing image.

  In Miami, as elsewhere, throngs of people stand in amazement as they see the object begin to change its appearance. New patterns, shapes, and colors become discernible on its pulsing surface, the same vibrant colors seen in our flower gardens, but in forms and shapes of unthinkable complexity. Undulating patterns of fractal geometry spiraling in, and out of existence, in colors of every conceivable hue produce a visually hypnotic effect that is mesmerizing. Many find it so enthralling they have difficulty turning away. This incredible display continues for over an hour, and has a strangely calming effect on most who watch it. Then it stops. The collective gaze of more than a billion human beings suddenly hangs breathlessly in universal anticipation.

  Then, in the center of the object, a tiny black dot appears. It gets closer, and closer, and begins to assume a definable shape as it approaches. A craft of some type, much smaller than the enormous object it emerged from, is coming in at high speed, and within a few seconds is in the air space over southern Florida. Moments later it hovers several hundred feet above Amelia Earhart Park and the Olympic Stadium. In its appearance, the circular craft is a dark shade of grey. It looks to be metallic, and is completely silent. This incredible sight leaves no doubt about what’s going to happen next.

  The thousands gathered in Miami, and the countless millions around the world watching live images on television, all realize that this day, this moment, will be forever known as the point in human history when humans and beings from another world made initial contact with each other. Not measuring more than one hundred feet in diameter, the craft gradually moves to where the President is located, and slowly descends to the ground directly in front of him. As people move away, surprisingly little panic, if any, accompanies the remarkable event. Finally it stops, coming to rest no more than a hundred feet from where the President of the United States is standing. For a few minutes all who are closest to it, pull back, and stand aloof from what they are seeing. One man, perhaps knowing his place in history will be certain, or just out of basic human curiosity, tentatively starts walking toward the craft. Despite admonishments from people chaotically shouting their warnings to go no further, he continues his cautious approach. Seconds later he is less than ten feet from the craft. There he stops. With his heart in his throat he summons the courage to be the first human to physically touch an object produced by an alien, nonhuman intelligence. As he gets closer, shouts from the surrounding voices subside, until an absolute silence comes over the crowd.

  Time itself seems to stop as his extended hand, now only inches from the objects surface, begins to tremble. Then, with his eyes closed, like a sky diver plunging for the first time, he commits himself. Opening his eyes, he feels a surface that is neither cold nor hot to his touch, but more surprisingly seems not to have a hard, solid surface. Touching it with some pressure, it yields, reacting similarly to tightly stretched cellophane, or an inflated balloon. Pulling back, he sees the imprint of his hand for a few seconds before the surface resumes its original shape. Then he touches again with the same result. More emboldened, he taps with his knuckles, and sees the surface shimmer slightly like Jell-O. He taps a little harder. It shimmers again. The surface appears to be extremely thin. Now, he touches it again, and with his open hand pushes harder, and harder, with all his strength, but the surface yields only very slightly. Then with no warning, it begins to change shape. Part of it seems to melt and reform, acting like a liquid, shaping itself at will, while at the same time having the structural rigidity of solid matter. It begins to form a frame-like structure looking like a large, square aquarium tank. This strange object resembles a large cube, around eight feet in height, width, and length. Connected to the craft by a thin beam of energy it rests on the ground, completely transparent. Then a strange clear liquid begins to fill the receptacle from the bottom, rising to a height of about five feet before it stops.

  People witnessing these incredible events are so preoccupied, they stop looking at the enormous object still parked stupendously above them. Those who glanced upward are surprised to see that the dramatic scene transpiring on the ground before them is now visible in vivid detail stretched across one quarter of the night sky. What people see unfolding on the ground in Olympic Stadium in Miami, is also being seen by uncounted multitudes throughout the world. All are spellbound as they watch the fantastic scene unfold before them, all except one.

  The President of the United States seems serenely detached through all of this. His wife, Carol, is not looking at the incredible events taking place no more than a hundred feet away. She is looking at her husband, and in a hushed, apprehensive tone asks him, “How did you know this was going to happen? Tell me Ken. I deserve to know.”

  “I will tell you, Carol. I promise you. But first, I need to do something.”

  “Tell me what’s happening.”

  “Don’t worry, love, everything will be all right. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  Seeing Congressman Kearns and his wife, the President walks over to them, and asks the triple amputee a question.

  “Steve?”

  “Yes, Sir?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Uh, yes, Sir, of course.”

  Then turning to Steve’s wife, he asks, “Rebecca, will you trust me?”

  “Yes, I trust you.”

  “I want both of you to come with me. I want to show you something. It won’t take long.”

  “Whatever you say Mr. President,” Steve says.

  Pushing Steve’s wheelchair from behind, and with Rebecca following, Ken Myers starts walking toward the odd-looking structure, and the peculiar liquid it contains. Having cowed his Secret Service agents, the President calmly walks the distance to the strange, transparent receptacle, coming within a few feet from it, and turns to Congressman Kearns.

  “You’re not afraid are you, Steve?”

  “No, I’m not afraid.”

  “Good, I want you to watch this.”

  Steve does watch. Rebecca watches as well, and also over two thousand million human beings seeing these events unfold on what is in effect a ten thousand mile wide movie screen several thousand miles above the Earth relaying images as vivid, and clear as the living reality it mirrors. The President moves in front of Steve, only inches away from the mysterious liquid, and extends his arm unhesitatingly into the breach, and then walks in, and out of the
receptacle, and the liquid it holds with no ill effects, not even getting his garments wet. Getting behind the wheelchair, the President pushes Steve to the very edge of the enclosed liquid, and at that point Rebecca’s protective instinct pierces through her straining outward reserve.

  “Wait! Steve, don’t do it. Please don’t do it,” she says.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay. I love you, Rebecca.”

  “I love you.”

  As the President gently rolls the wheelchair into the enclosed liquid, the expression on Steve Kearns’ face moves from trepidation to tranquility. Within the liquid, a strange, iridescent light appears, resembling the ghostly phosphorescence of tiny bioluminescent sea creatures. Submerged up to his shoulders, Steve sees the liquid becoming active, and seem to focus on the stump of his missing left arm. Driven to see why his left arm feels so peculiar, he peels away his shirt sleeve to see what no human has ever seen. The liquid is now roiling with activity at the tip of his severed arm. A bizarre, scintillating dance of some form of radiant light energy reaches a frenetic intensity as Steve looks down, and sees something impossible. Slowly, he sees emerging from the stump of his left arm, a bone, growing in length by the second as he watches. In a matter of seconds all the bones of his arm, wrist, and hand reform until they look like any normal skeletal appendage. He watches in astonishment as he sees in slow motion the complex tissue formation of muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Staggered in muted amazement he sees in detail the incredible growth of nerves, and blood vessels.

  He looks in bewilderment at his new fingers and sees the myriad endings of numberless capillaries, and finally he sees the epidermal layering of the skin’s integument as it seals and closes over his new appendage. Stupefied, he looks at his legs, and sees the same process taking place. He quickly moves to pull his pant legs up now using both arms, and suddenly stops seemingly stunned that his new arm is so deft, and quick. Pausing for only a moment he starts again to remove his pant legs that were already cut short. Exposing his severed limbs, he sees the miraculous process continue. In stunned amazement he sees the spontaneous generation of knees, legs, and feet, bone somehow growing from itself, the differentiation of tissues, the complex musculature of the thigh, leg, and foot, the intricate vascular patterns of blood vessels, and the living blood beginning to pulse within. After the last layer of skin is added, the strange liquid that achieved this miraculous effect gradually becomes quiescent, and eventually completely inactive. Steve’s new legs are complete. Elapsed time from the moment he entered the enclosed liquid totals less than nine minutes. He looks incredulously at his legs and arm. Still sitting, he touches his legs, then moves them, and then he does something he hasn’t done for more than five years. As his brain gives his body the signal to stand, he slowly rises. After standing, he remains stationary for a moment, utterly stunned, almost waiting to fall over. He takes a step, and then another, and then walks out of the receptacle, and looks at what is beneath his waist. He looks, and in each leg, sees a textbook example of flawless human anatomy. He moves his legs again, and starts jumping as a joyous frenzy comes over him. He starts running, and jumping completely indifferent to the fact that he is barefoot, and only wearing shorts. Openly weeping Rebecca falls to her knees in thankful prayer. Seeing his wife’s humility Steve succumbs to the dramatic emotional poignancy of the moment, and begins weeping. Embracing his wife they melt into each other in a tear soaked ecstasy of gratitude. Some in the crowd began cheering, but its tone is subdued by the still spellbinding anticipation of what will happen next.

  Welling up with emotion, Rebecca looks at Ken Myers.

  “Thank you, thank you.”

  “You needn’t thank me.”

  “But I do need to…who? Who do we thank? Who do I thank? I need to. I need to” Steve says.

  “You don’t have to do that,” the President says.

  “Yes I do. Yes I do. Please, I need to, I need to.”

  “Steve, Steve, what you need is a pair of pants.”

  “But who did this for me? I… I don’t know what to say, or even think. Is this a dream?”

  “Steve, why don’t you go dancing tonight with Rebecca, and try out your new legs. You might like them,” the President says.

  Looking upward, Rebecca is reminded that what she is seeing is also being seen by countless millions via the sky view images provided by the strange enormous object still occupying the space above them, and in a tone of practical modesty says to her husband, “Come on honey, let’s go take care of you.”

  Looking over her shoulder as she, and Steve walk away, Rebecca once again offers her sincere thanks to the President.

  Among those drawn to the human perimeter of awestruck observers watching the incredible events taking place is the Vice President of the United States, Scott Conner. More scientist than politician, he sees what is transpiring in front of him as an unprecedented opportunity to acquire new knowledge. His mind is racing as he wonders what will happen next. He has no idea that he will soon play a major part in the fantastic drama unfolding before him, and as unbelievable as the events of the past hour have been, what follows next will stretch the boundaries of human comprehension.

  Chapter Thirteen

  All around the world enthralled masses of humanity are witnessing what is unfolding in Miami. In cities on every continent, in urban, and rural areas, most human activity simply stops. Public and private transportation slows to a trickle. In places of cold or inclement weather people watch nonstop television coverage. Vital services for the most part continue, but nearly all other activity comes to a complete global shutdown. Factories stop; schools, offices, places of business, and literally every building that doesn’t have a television set is empty of people. The warm weather of July allows millions across North America to simply walk outside and look skyward to view the spectacle. Streets, parks, open fields, roadsides, public places of every kind are peopled with tens of thousands of spectators uniformly engrossed by the astounding images above them.

  In Olympic Stadium, the epicenter of what the entire world is witnessing, thousands have just seen a man who was a triple amputee no more than fifteen minutes ago be given new legs and an arm by some miraculous, inexplicable process. Leaving all stunned to the nth degree, a profound silence comes over the crowd as they apprehensively wait for what comes next.

  Carol Myers, witnessing these things, is beside herself with questions that come with a terrible, dubious foreboding. Who exactly is the man that she calls husband? Who is Ken Myers, and how could he have any possibility of knowing what was going to happen tonight? His strange, imperturbable demeanor of showing no shock or surprise in the face of what is nothing less than astonishing have many thinking that he is much more than he appears to be, and first among them is his wife. She suddenly recalls the incredible story she was told by the President’s mother. A vague, uneasy, apprehension grows within her as she approaches her husband.

  “How did you know about this? Tell me, Ken. Who are you? Tell me!”

  “I am Ken Myers, your husband, the man you married. But you’re right, I’m more than that.”

  “Will you tell me?”

  “Everything will be resolved, Carol. Trust me.”

  As the President is saying these words, an audible gasp is suddenly heard. When Carol looks to see why, she and more than two billion others see something in the sky above them that is beyond the ken of all human experience. After decades of books and movies speculating about what the face of an alien creature would look like, there, projected across the surface of that enormous object hanging in the sky above them, with no fanfare, no announcement, no prior indication of any kind, almost a third of humanity is suddenly looking at something that is now looking back at them. It’s the face of a being from another world.

  They see a creature with brownish-gray skin, large, yellow eyes that are very expressive, with a head smaller than a human cranium. No hair can be seen on the creature. Small inlets under the large eyes, and open
slits on the side of his head suggest sensory organs of some type. Though astounded, most people assume they are looking at a projected image. They have just seen Steve Kearns on the same visual platform in the sky that now shows a very different face. That could not happen they reasoned, unless what they were seeing was a reproduced image. Despite little sense of general alarm, the size of the image they are looking at is humongous, and though people are relatively contained in their response, animals respond very differently. Dogs bark incessantly, farm animals are spooked, birds still in flight since the object’s initial appearance try in vain to outrun the perceived threat. For humans the initial and prevalent response is not fear. They have seen this colossal object in the sky for nearly two hours now, watching first an incredible display of patterns and colors at once energizing, and tranquil, a display that seemed to awaken a nascent sense of harmony, and concord for those who saw it.

  After that, seeing a man with no legs and one arm have his body literally remade in minutes has the effect of engendering a sense of auspicious and benevolent expectation. Most people are not afraid. To the contrary, uncounted millions in their muted sense of collective wonder, find these astonishing events hypnotically captivating.

  Several years before, the discovery of living subsurface bacteria on the planet Mars, was hailed as the greatest discovery in the history of science. No one could have known then, that the ultimate implication of that discovery of life on another world would soon present, and confirm itself in stunning, living reality.

  Then suddenly, the moment waited for finally comes, as three clearly articulated words are heard by all.

  “People of Earth.”

  Many lurch back as if shocked to hear something they were already keenly expecting. The sound of his low-pitched voice seems to have no particular point of origin, as if the open sky itself was its source.

  “As I speak to you now, I speak in all languages to all the people of your world. We are the Linesians. Our planet orbits a star twenty-six thousand light years away. For millions of years we have monitored the emergence of civilizations across the galaxy. We have known of your existence since before your ancestors walked upright. We have been witness to your dramatic history. We have seen with more than passing interest humans emerge from the grim struggle of your earliest beginnings, through the long journey that has become the story of mankind. In less than one hundred centuries you have reshaped the surface of the world, and established your modern civilization. From scattered tribes of primitive nomadic hominids of no more than a few thousand, your numbers now are in the billions, and you now hold within your fateful power, the very destiny of your species. Through language, culture, and the accumulated knowledge of science, human capability, and understanding has increased exponentially.