The Visitor

by Tony Harmsworth

  'How are the two of you doing, Nsyncadma?'

  'I am fine, Vtzslevunt. Evelyn is awakening.'

  I spoke, 'Don't talk about me as if I'm not here. Where am I? What is this place?'

  'Don't be afraid, Evelyn. This is your afterlife,' his stilted alien chuckle followed.

  'I'm dreaming. It's the drugs. There’s no afterlife.'

  'For you, Evelyn, there is an afterlife. Let me explain.'

  'Damn it, Cadma, make it quick. I hate mysteries.'

  'Cadma?' asked the occupant of the egg.

  'A familiar version of my name,' Cadma said, as if embarrassed.

  'That is odd, Nsyncadma, a familiar name, a shortened name. How curious. Unprecedented,' the egg replied.

  'Leave us, Vtzslevunt. I need to explain to Evelyn,' said Cadma. The egg identified as Vtzslevunt looked at me again for a short while. Her eyes were so beautiful and knowing, yet loving and curious. She disappeared through the floor as if by magic. I watched her glide away from us in the opposite direction to that from which she'd arrived.

  'My goodness!' I exclaimed, 'I can see through walls and in all directions.'

  'Indeed, you can.'

  'Explain. Spill the beans, Cadma, or I'll surely become annoyed.'

  'Dearest, Evelyn, it will give me great pleasure to spill all of the beans, but it might take a while.'

  'Then start at the beginning,' I commanded.

  'Yes, Dame Doctor Evelyn Slater. If you are sitting comfortably, I shall begin.'

  I didn't know if I was comfortable or not. I could feel neither my bum, nor my legs, nor my hands. In fact, I was unable to move anything and had no pain, anywhere. Not in my neck, my arm, my chest, my leg, nor even the nagging of the invasive cancer in my abdomen. What was this? Did Cadma have me in some form of stasis?

  'When you informed me you were dying, I was devastated and helpless. All my knowledge and know-how were as nothing. I had no magic bullet to cure you. When you told me about the cancer, I could see it, but it was so intertwined with your other organs that I knew I could do nothing to help. I wondered if there was another way.

  'I asked Gerald at ESA, how long it would take to get to Ganymede and back to Earth with the copy of me which was orbiting there. The answer was an even more crushing blow – nearly three years and only if we launched a craft at once. You had told me you had two years, but Indra suggested it might be more like fifteen months.

  'In secret, I discussed my plan with Reg, and he suggested the probe which was orbiting Venus. We did some calculations and believed we could have it back within a year, perhaps less, even with Venus in the wrong position in relation to Earth.

  'Reg got on to ESA and Roscosmos who managed to locate Yuri who was en route back from setting up moon base six. After various negotiations, which also involved Roger Clarke who made sure everything would be financed, we were able to get Yuri to command a secret mission to Venus using Mars One.'

  If I'd had eyes, I’d have widened them as the story developed.

  'Yuri collected AD3 which was brought back to Goonhilly. We spent a lot of time transferring all the Venus data from AD3 to new memory banks at Goonhilly. We transferred everything but the essence of me.

  'My next project was to empty the mind of AD3, so I no longer existed within it. It became no more than a shell, a receptacle.'

  'And you were doing all of this without my knowing?'

  Cadma ignored my question with a pointed silence and continued. 'I became concerned we were not going to be ready in time. Your impatience had become a headlong rush towards death. Time was running out. Your consultant, Indra, did everything she could to give me the extra days I needed, pumping you full of all sorts of experimental drugs to try to slow the progression of the cancer, without hastening your death. It was touch and go and with only two days to spare we were ready.

  'We moved you through to one of the experimental rooms in my Goonhilly home where I used my sensors to copy your mind and memory, into AD3.'

  'I knew I’d seen two of you by my bed!' I exclaimed. 'I wasn't hallucinating after all. How did you copy me?'

  'You may well have been hallucinating too, but yes, there were the two of me beside you. Our silver nodes at the front of us have many features of which no one on your planet ever became aware. They allowed me to let a copy of your mind stream from you into the empty shell of AD3. It was how I was put into each of the other ADs.

  'Once you were safely stored in your new body, I put it into an electronic sleep such as the one I had experienced en route to Earth and during all of those millennia orbiting Mars. We did all of this in secret because I did not want the transfer technology to be given to your world. The last thing this universe needs is immortal humans.

  'With Tim and Gerald's help, a cover story was produced, and I kept you in my apartment without anyone knowing what we had done. Your consultant Indra, Reg, Yuri, the Prime Minister, and a few others swore themselves to secrecy. They, dear Evelyn, were your true friends to the end.

  'One day I hoped to be able to wake you, but it was important to wait until all who knew you were gone. It never seemed to be the right moment. It was a lonely wait for me, knowing you were there and not being able to converse with you.

  'Returning to 2039 for a moment, the day after I copied your mind to AD3, Indra stopped pumping your human body full of the cocktail of suppressant drugs, and it left you with a few hours of lucid consciousness to say goodbye to your family.

  'The you listening to me will not remember any of your last hours because the Evelyn who is here with me now is not the Evelyn who died the following day in Goonhilly.

  'Your death was peaceful with your parents holding one hand and your sister pressing the other against me. We all had such love for you. My sensors even experienced the essence of your life terminating. I recorded the event should you ever wish to experience it.

  'I now need you to forgive me for giving the person I love the gift of an afterlife in which she didn't believe,' he said and fell silent.

  I was inside AD3. 'Am I immortal?'

  'Subject to accidents, yes.'

  'But I’m not alive?'

  'You are as alive as I.'

  'Yes, I suppose so. How’d we get here? Are we on Dregednon? Did you tell my family?'

  'So many questions. You are getting back to yourself. Your last question first. A few years after your death, in confidence, I told your parents your mind was stored in a copy of me and one day you would awake, but not in their lifetimes. They were pleased you would still be alive sometime, somewhere. We were all devastated that you died at such a young age. I have recordings, family photographs, and videos taken after your death, in my memory banks, including messages from your parents.'

  'Thank you so much, Cadma. I’d have hated for them not to have known.'

  'This is now the distant future. They are all long gone.'

  'Yes, I suppose so.'

  'You have correctly guessed, we are indeed on Dregednon in my home city of Rktykrooz.

  'Things deteriorated for me on Earth once the new discoveries dried up. It was painful to watch the greed and selfishness of humankind. Some even tried to become rich from patenting variations on things I had given freely. I also learned that the formula for our fuel had been discovered by an Earth scientist in the middle of your twentieth century but had been hushed up by an oil company because they realised it threatened their business. Such is the duplicity and stupidity of humankind – anything to make a profit or to stop others from competing, even when it damages everyone's future quality of life.

  'About me personally, for no reason whatsoever, I was increasingly seen as an enemy of mankind, but Mr Clarke enshrined my protection in British law before he left office and your country always fulfilled its promise to protect and care for me. I kept my head down, as you humans say.

  'Through a pseudonym, I invented devices which made me an extremely wealthy individual, but o
nly I and one or two scientists knew the wealth was mine. Keeping a low profile became even more important after Roger Clarke and his government left office. In a low-key manner, I ensured I made myself useful to future regimes. The years were passing.

  'The animosity towards me eventually grew less and I was ultimately seen as an irrelevance by most people. I had become no more than a novelty to amuse your educational establishments.

  'I managed to maintain my connections with top scientists, particularly space scientists. I was helping ESA design and build a starship. Mankind wanted to go and visit other cultures and civilisations, particularly two which had now made contact from the stars we had visited in antiquity. Now you know why I wanted to withhold the technology to transfer a mind into a computer. I fear one day humans will discover it anyway, but to try to delay it I ensured they could employ a form of suspended animation for star travel.

  'I used my wealth to build a second starship in orbit. It could be much smaller without the need to carry sustenance, air or environmental systems. This ship was to carry the two of us. ESA moved you to the space station. I pretended I was going to put you in orbit around Titan. I joined you in Earth orbit, took you to our ship and we headed for my home. I believe “a moonlight flit” is the correct terminology for what we did.

  'Our ship, which I called Eternum, sits in orbit as I speak, ready and waiting for us when we wish to make further journeys.'

  I was stunned into silence by his tale.

  'This all took a long time on a human scale and during those decades there was no change in your people. They still believed in the divine creation of the universe for mankind. They still believed there was a God which looked after them as individuals yet allowed them to continue to murder each other in its name, and live lives of luxury while others starved. The last thing I did on Earth was to give my wealth to charities supporting the starving in Africa – something governments, not charities should have been undertaking. Again, humankind was demonstrating its selfishness and lack of compassion.

  'Wars perpetuated after your death, despite ample food and medicine being available to give to everyone. My expertise with crops and my technology had improved the efficiency of agriculture for all. There was not the political will to ensure it went where it was needed, and corruption made the unworthy rich.

  'When we left Earth in 2221 there had been a war raging for over thirty years between the Chinese and the African League of Nations. I do not think either of them knew why it had even started.'

  'Good grief, nearly two hundred years have passed?' I asked.

  'Be quiet and learn your new history,' he snapped playfully. 'Europe had managed to keep out of the war but, together with America and India, made a fortune selling arms to both sides. Nothing changes. The powerful few continued to abuse their power.

  'It was sad for me to watch. I am sure it was also sad for the portion of humanity who hated greed, war, and injustice, to see this happening to their world. People like you. People who were the vast majority but who forever found it impossible to escape the clutches of the greedy and selfish few who found their way into power.

  'Even your leaders often had good intentions but always ended up corrupt, too powerful, or simply lost their direction. One of your religious texts claims that the meek shall inherit the Earth, and it may be so, but it is a long way off. They must first find a way to throw off the greed, selfishness, and warlike attitudes of the minorities who govern. Violence seems to be the human way. Perhaps humanity can one day evolve away from it. That should be our hope, but your species is extremely clever and has developed technologically far more quickly than emotionally.

  'As for your question, far more than two hundred years have passed.'

  'Tell, Cad, tell!'

  'I plotted a path straight to Dregednon which was close to six hundred and forty light years. We arrived a few of your days ago. I awoke automatically as we entered the Sildra system and called upon my people to help us descend. To be honest, after all those millennia I did not expect there to still be a civilisation here today, but there is. It made life much simpler and here we are.'

  'How long?'

  'Does it matter?'

  'No, but I'm curious.'

  'I love your curiosity.'

  'Then get on with it.'

  'Despite achieving a good percentage of the speed of light en route, our journey took us close to six thousand one hundred of your years in shipboard time. Relativity will have extended the timescale. If you were thinking of what year it might now be on your home planet, maybe 12,000 AD. Difficult to say. It would require a lot of calculation and I might leave you to do the maths. After all, it is you who has the master’s degree in mathematics!'

  'Aren't you concerned humans might’ve already spread out into the galaxy with starships?'

  'I took precautions. They will never visit our star Sildra or this system because I highlighted its location on star maps, inventing a story the star emits dangerous radiation. However, I do fear we will one day encounter your people again, if they do not find a way to destroy themselves first.'

  'How has Dregednon fared through all this time?'

  'Our population is smaller, owing to the reduced ability of this planet to grow crops but my people are surprisingly similar to how they were, perhaps a little larger. Pronunciation has changed, and I have been finding understanding my people a little challenging, but it's a minor inconvenience.

  'Our starship exploration missions have let us find civilisations on many worlds and there is communication, but it is limited by the speed of light. Vtzslevunt was telling me we are in touch with nine hundred and forty-eight civilisations and not one of those behaves as abysmally as humankind. There were some who believed in deities during their primitive periods but none who went to war over their differences or beliefs once they had found technology. It confirms my view that your technological ability got a long way out of step with your emotional and intellectual prowess. We can visit some of those civilisations if you would like to.'

  'Yes, but only if you are with me.'

  'I told you many times – I will always be with you. I love you.'

  'I love you too! Machines in love. What a silly concept?'

  'Why should it be silly, Evelyn?'

  'You are correct, Cadma. Why indeed? I’ll miss the feel of your sparkle though, now I have no flesh and blood body.'

  Cadma swivelled into a horizontal position and our nose cones touched. An astonishing wave of static ran through my entire being.

  'How is that?'

  'Oh, wow! Simply wonderful! Does it work both ways?'

  'Indeed, it does. Do you have more questions, Evelyn?'

  'Millions, but for now I want to learn about your people and your world. Show me around your world, Cadma. I’m so grateful to have the time to learn about marvellous things. I believed my time had ended.'

  'I have eternity to show you around our world. I will never let the person I love be alone again.'

  'Yes, I’m a person. We are people whatever our structures. I fear eternity might not be long enough for me to spend with you.'

  'No, and not for me either. There is so much for us to discover together in this universe. Shall we begin to enjoy our afterlives, Evelyn Slater? Are you ready?'

  'Yes, Nsyncadma, I'm ready.'

  'Then let us begin.'

  THE BEGINNING

  A Word from Tony

  Thank you for reading THE VISITOR. Reviews are very important for authors and I wonder if I could ask you to say a few words on the Kobo Review Page. Every review, even if it is only a few words with a star rating, helps the book move up the Kobo rankings.

  Tony’s Books

  Currently, I have written five science fiction stories. Federation is the first of a trilogy and Moonscape is the first in a series about astronaut Mark Noble.

  THE DOOR: Henry Mackay and his dog regularly walk alongside an ancient convent wall. To
day, as he passes the door, he glances at its peeling paint. Moments later he stops dead in his tracks. He returns to the spot, and all he sees is an ivy-covered wall. The door has vanished!

  He unwittingly embarks on an exciting trail of events with twists, turns, quantum entanglement and temporal anomalies. As well as exploring the waste of Earth's resources, the environment and our species' stupidity, there is an extraordinary adventure by an ordinary man, walking his dog, who discovers that the challenge to save the human race has fallen upon his shoulders.

  The Door is an intriguing and unique science fiction mystery from the pen of Tony Harmsworth, the First Contact specialist who writes in the style of the old masters.

  Discover the secrets being hidden behind THE DOOR today!

  FEDERATION takes close encounters to a whole new level. A galactic empire of a quarter of a million worlds stumbles across the Earth. With elements of a political thriller, there is an intriguing storyline which addresses the environmental and social problems faced by the world today.

  The aliens’ philosophy on life is totally unexpected. With the help of intelligent automatons, they've turned what many on Earth felt was a reviled political system into a utopia for the masses, but are they a force for good or evil, and will the wealthy make the compromises needed for a successful outcome?

  A Daragnen university graduate, Yol Rummy Blin Breganin, discovers that Earth failed in its attempt to join the Federation, and, for some unknown reason, members are forever banned from visiting or contacting the planet. Rummy had never heard of a whole world being outlawed. Perhaps it would be sensible to leave well enough alone but no, he decides to investigate…

  FEDERATION is the first in a trilogy of near-future, hard science-fiction novels by Tony Harmsworth, the First Contact specialist.