by Dane Bagley
***
“Mayor Palador, it is so good that you will be able to stay. I see that your experience…your sighting, has been confirmed throughout the city. I trust that these men, around you, have made excellent calculations. I expect that we will see this object…this craft this evening. I have been considering the circumstances. These are serious considerations,” he said reflectively and then paused somewhat uncomfortably.
“On the whole, I do not know if it will be good or not to confirm this sighting. I think of your lovely wife, Aspiria, and how this gives you so much hope. Yet, it concerns me…very deeply, it concerns me that we may have visitors who are here on the sly, and may have already committed a gross violation…in taking her.” Perspiration began to bead on the chubby man’s brow. He tried to button his coat over his enormous belly, and failing, as always, played with the button nervously.
Now speaking more generally to the group, and not specifically to Roloff: “It is hard to say what purpose they would have in coming to our world, and not wishing to communicate with us in general—instead, taking a beloved woman, the wife of the honorable Mayor Palador, and…hopefully, communicating with her. And so, this brings us to the dilemma; to the decision—the decisions that we are to make. Assuming that we confirm this sighting tonight, what are we to do about it. Seeing it, confirming it, so to speak, will only bring us to a full knowledge; but what are we to do about it then. I speak in two regards: the rest of the people here, and the visitors—the perpetrators.
“Mayor Palador has been very discreet, in this regard. He did not share his concerns with anyone from Arkasia, in order that he might not cause concern; at least not until he had his suspicions confirmed. But now they are confirmed, at least in part, and this evening they may be confirmed in total; so, do we share this knowledge completely and fully with all…with everyone in the entire city—with all the towns and villages? What would result? We do not know much at all about our visitors. The only thing that we know—suspect—is not good: that they have taken, by force, one of ours. That they snatched her from near her home, right from her child—that they ran as cowards, and have kept themselves at a distance. So, would we share this with everyone, or would we share simply that they are here? I don’t see how, in Arkasia, the people would not suspect all that I am sharing. Eventually, word of this suspicion would spread to everyone, anyway.
“If they struck again, and the people were not warned when they could have been, would we be responsible for harm to others? Yet, if they mean no further harm, and we get everyone alarmed, what harm might occur unnecessarily. You may see why I hope, in spite of the hope I have for Mrs. Palador, that this is not confirmed tonight. Truly, I don’t want it to be real, but I’m afraid that I don’t put much stock in that possibility. I am nearly completely confident that it will be, indeed, confirmed this evening with a sighting of this light—of this vessel.
“Now, this leads me to the other problem that we face, namely this: what do we do in regards to the visitors?
“Do we try to communicate with them? This presents a major challenge in and of itself. Even if we want to communicate with them, how do we do this? But, I will come to this later. If we do not communicate with them, then will they continue to circle the world, with one of our own? We may know when we will have sightings of the craft. Do we continue to look up and watch it, and do nothing about it. If there is any hope of having them stop their cowardice and communicate with us, then perhaps we will have to make an introduction, so to speak. Perhaps they are shy…” A little laugh came from the group, helping to break the tension of the difficulty of his speech.
“What would happen if we let them know that we know that they are there? It could scare them off; but, it could also encourage them to come and speak with us. Perhaps we could then get the beloved Mrs. Palador back, and find out what their intentions are. It may be interesting to learn of them, and from them. Gentlemen, they clearly know much about science that would be of great value to you. If we know what they want, perhaps we could give it to them, and receive knowledge from them. Either way, at least Mayor Palador may get his wife back.
“At any rate, there are risks; but I don’t see how we, sitting on our hands, will ever accomplish anything. The last thing is this: if they can travel from another world to ours, and they can land on ours, and then return to their orbit, then they can leave and be gone, perhaps even for good. We may never know, and never see Aspiria again. So, we can’t deliberate forever. We don’t know how long the window of our opportunity is. And so, this is my proposal: I propose that we make our suspicions and concerns generally known throughout the city today. We let the people in, and let them share this moment of discovery with us tonight. We must be examples of calm, and not let them see fear in our eyes. We don’t know what may come next, but we, as a people, are strong, and with our city unified, I believe that we can get through this together. This will open up the possibility to communicate with them this evening. We are empowered to turn on and off all of the electricity in the city, centrally. If we encouraged everyone to fully light every light in their homes and businesses, then we could give them a brilliant view of our great city, about three times brighter than it would have been on any other pass by. Then, when the craft is in view, we would cut the power off and then back on at twenty second intervals. We suspect that they would have a view of our city for a longer period of time, than we will have of their craft; but if we do this only during the time that the craft is visible to us…I think that this would not be misunderstood…that it would not be consider coincidental…they would know that we are—we are introducing ourselves—waving to them, if you will.
“This would take the cooperation of the people, and it would allow for a communication that could not be misunderstood. To say that I would have any idea what would happen next, would be inaccurate. But I believe this to be the best course of action.” The sweat had built up significantly upon his brow, and under his arms. He actually succeeded in buttoning his coat button around his large belly, and then being uncomfortable, unbuttoned it as quickly as he could. He surveyed the group. A low hum was audible with some discussion now, but mostly the group was nodding. “Are there any objections?” There were none; at least, none were made known.
“I thank you, Mayor Tinron,” said Roloff as he looked him directly in the eyes.