by Norman Oro
With the cure that had eluded them for so long tantalizingly close at hand, envoy after envoy threw the Domain’s almost limitless scientific and technological might behind finding that hypothetical race of sentients. The Grell were one, final extinction away from never having to kill again. Within a few dozen millennia, as had always been the case, their tenacity inexorably brought them closer to the species they sought…
5
Humanity
Answers
Dr. Rys opened his eyes once again to the Onavean sea. He looked to his right and found his son, Pedro, still entranced, floating beside him. After blinking a few times, he noted with some relief that he stayed himself rather than dissolving into another persona. As he gradually came into full possession of his senses, he also realized that the Cley had done a superb job preserving him. Despite being in all likelihood well over ninety years old, his mind and body still felt as they did more than half a century earlier. However, looking down at the skin on his hands and feeling the grooves on his face, there was no denying the passage of time.
Having spent what seemed like millennia using abilities that humanity would one day possess, he aimlessly wondered what the Cley meant when they said they’d wished him and his son to Onav. On a whim, he then went through the sequence of mental exertions that in his prior lives triggered displacement. To his elation, he instantly found himself standing atop the steps leading into the ocean. The burden of his bodyweight on his legs was noticeable, but that feeling was overwhelmed by the realization that he could access his abilities.
Mankind has yet to awaken, Dr. Rys. However, there are anomalies in the human Van der Weg field that enable you to join our collective and access our abilities.
He immediately recognized the presence in his mind as the Cley that greeted him and his son decades ago. Only now, he also knew his name. It was Ide Meadow, the real Ide Meadow. He willed himself back into the ocean beside his son and posed a question.
Yes, our wish affected humanity’s development.
He then wondered about the flashes of light he saw when he last communicated with Ide decades earlier, the ones that seemed to transform the very surface of the planet.
We designed Onav to listen to our thoughts and turn them into reality. Although mankind isn’t part of the Alliance, Onav for some reason obeys your thoughts, as well.
That explained why their surroundings changed so suddenly when they first arrived and why the area around the Onavean sea resembled Santa Cruz. Pedro had mentioned dreaming about it.
Yes.
In fact, Dr. Rys’s own aversion to having his picture taken quite possibly explained why the probes US-395 sent to Onav could never get visual telemetry.
We believe your field generator bridged your consciousness to our world.
A few moments later, Pedro awoke and they began going over what they’d experienced. They couldn’t help but talk about how astounding it all had been. Within what amounted to an instant in universal time, they’d lived the equivalent of millennia; and they had the memories to prove it. As if to put an exclamation point on that fact, Pedro soon disappeared from Dr. Rys’s sight and reappeared minutes later, ecstatic at his abilities. After a few hours of discussion, they heard a question through the Cley collective.
Are you ready to decide?
Being part of the shared consciousness, it seemed fitting for Dr. Rys to deliver their answer through it, as well.
Yes. We believe the Earth should join the Alliance.
There was then a silence within the collective followed by a barely detectable surge of emotion. If they had to guess, they would’ve said it was pride.
Very well.
Earth
In an instant, everything changed. The alien sea Dr. Rys and Pedro had spent a half century in was gone. In its place, they found themselves within a cavernous warehouse, next to a hulking metal sphere. It was the weapon. They were back in the sending room. Directly in front of them was someone wearing a hazardous materials suit, pointing a rifle at them. Looking at one another, they saw that they were young again. Not knowing whether what they’d just experienced was real or whether they were still inside a simulation or whether the weapon beside them would detonate, they felt panic take hold of them. Then they heard a familiar voice.
“Sir, it’s me. Guy Pool. You’re back in the sending room in Pueblo. We have to leave right away.”
Guy sprinted towards them then reached his hand out to Dr. Rys to help him up. They ran through the sending room’s massive vault door then into a large, white room that reminded Dr. Rys of the US-395 lab. He was puzzled the entire time because he didn’t recall the chamber ever having a lab room. Brushing the thought aside, he saw that more people were there, all of them also wearing hazmat suits. Before he and Pedro knew it, they were lying down, being wheeled out on stretchers into what appeared to be a large mobile medical clinic. After going through some physical exams, they were escorted to their beds. As they got settled, they learned that they’d instantaneously traveled almost two hundred miles across California and that the lab they walked into from the chamber was actually in Carpinteria. They also learned they had a visitor.
A few minutes later, Dr. Rys was startled by the sight of the man who came walking through their door. Wearing a suit and tie, he could’ve sworn that it was his father, the great Santiago Rys, somehow paying them a visit. However, that couldn’t be. His father had passed away long ago. The man greeting him was his son, Juan.
“¿Como está, señor?”
“Bien, Juanito. Mire a usted, mi hijo.”
“Sí, señor. Gracias.”
“Is your mother here with you?”
“No.”
“I see.”
He took a chair beside Dr. Rys’s bed then filled them in on what had happened during their time away. Juan had stayed in the military, rose through the army’s ranks and apparently had quite a career, retiring about ten years earlier as a general at the National Security Agency. As for Abigail, she went on to become a highly distinguished scholar and researcher, eventually retiring as Dean at Pomona College. Dr. Rys listened silently, occasionally nodding his understanding. After learning the history behind how they came to be retrieved, he was saddened that US-395 ended so badly. Nevertheless, his team had ultimately pulled through, which came as no surprise. In his mind’s eye, they were still that group of exceedingly bright and ambitious young men that he’d recruited over fifty years earlier. However, since then, they’d single-handedly financed and developed the displacement technology that enabled Dr. Rys and his son to return unaged from Onav.
Soon a nurse came in to tell them that the White House’s science and technology advisor would be speaking with them that afternoon, and that they should get some rest. Juan then stood up, said he’d see them the next day, welcomed them back again and left. Within a few minutes, the cumulative impact of everything they’d experienced, both real and simulated, caught up with them. They woke up ten hours later to some sandwiches, potato chips and soda. Dr. Rys couldn’t remember ever sleeping more deeply. A few minutes afterwards, they met Enrique Perez, the president’s chief science and technology advisor. Dr. Perez mentioned that there’d be a press conference the next day and asked whether they wanted to participate. Not knowing whether they should divulge what they knew at that point, Dr. Rys simply responded “yes” and said that there was a lot to talk about. They then spoke about scientific advances during the prior fifty years and about the Allen field technology that Dr. Marshall had invented. Dr. Rys couldn’t help but privately wonder at the fact that not even the Alliance had ever developed anything similar. A little over an hour later, Dr. Perez shook their hands then left.
Dr. Rys spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in his hospital bed, letting his mind take everything in. It was 2013. So much had changed. In some ways, being home felt more alien than anything he’d experienced on Onav. In order to remind himself that it had in fact all been real, he reached out with h
is mind and once again joined the Cley. After feeling their innumerable voices gently fill his consciousness, he let his connection go. The next day, there’d be one final meeting with a member of the White House team that helped to retrieve them. That would probably be when he’d tell them about the decision he’d made.
Old Friends
Shortly after they awoke the next day, they received a phone call from the president and his chief of staff. They thanked Dr. Rys and his son for what they’d done decades earlier then asked them how they were. It was a pleasant conversation, mostly about world events that had taken place while they were gone. After it finished, they had some breakfast then checked out of the clinic. They walked outside to find Juan waiting for them in front of a 1949 Buick Roadmaster. In Dr. Rys’s eyes, his station wagon had never looked more beautiful. He then heard a beeping sound and saw Juan pull out a sliver of metal from his jacket. As his son began speaking into it, Dr. Rys realized it was a cordless telephone. Despite all of the technologies he’d witnessed and used in his lives on Onav, what had come to pass on his own Earth nevertheless amazed him. Juan told them that their final meeting would actually be with the entire White House team, including the president. It would be in a building just across the parking lot.
After a bit of walking, they ascended a flight of stairs then came to a door that had a small metal placard with a room number and a name etched into it: Field Technologies. Dr. Rys knocked on the door and recognized the man who answered it immediately. Although he’d grown much older, the spark of brilliance in his eyes still shone through.
“Jeremy.”
“Dr. Rys. Welcome back, sir. You’re just in time. We’ve set up a conference room in the lab. It’s right this way.”
They followed Dr. Marshall inside and arrived to find what appeared to be an interconnected series of thin, rectangular slabs standing in front of a large table. Each one must have been at least six feet tall. Within seconds, the slabs came to life and began displaying an extremely sharp, almost three-dimensional image of the Oval Office. Dr. Rys soon learned that they were virtual conferencing screens. He stood up along with everyone else as the president appeared onscreen minutes later. Once they were all seated, the meeting began.
After receiving a synopsis of what had taken place since their retrieval and an introduction to the Vela system, Dr. Rys began summarizing what had happened during his time away. He began by explaining that the planet Dr. Marshall had detected hours earlier was in fact the sending room’s counterpart location. It was called Onav and was where he’d spent his over fifty years away. Realizing the nature of what he was asking them to believe, he requested something just minutes into his explanation.
“I understand how this all must sound. With your permission, Mr. President, I’d like to send myself into the Oval Office.”
“Yes, of course, Dr. Rys. Please proceed.”
As he’d done in the Onavean sea, he reached out, connected to the Cley shared consciousness, ran through a series of exertions within his mind then displaced himself. After materializing beside the startled president and his chief of staff, he smiled, exchanged handshakes then rematerialized in the Field Technologies lab in Carpinteria. Having garnered everyone’s attention, he then went over what he’d learned and its repercussions for Earth.
Dr. Rys first discussed his concerns regarding humanity’s impending awakening. Based on his conversation with Dr. Perez, he believed that they were already in its very early stages, and that Dr. Marshall’s field amplifiers made possible abilities that would eventually be universal. As with any statistical distribution, he believed that certain people were born with a greater facility to tap into the Allen field than others, and that Dr. Marshall’s former student, Professor Minon, was an example of someone who stood at one extreme of that distribution. Even without the benefit of decades of simulations, she could already harness its energy, albeit subconsciously. He believed that there were others who shared that inborn facility and without interference, that talent would spread on its own to all of mankind. As with Dr. Minon, however, it would at first be accessible primarily by the subconscious. The Cley’s experiences with the awakenings of other races’ showed how dangerous that could be. To avert that, Dr. Rys intended to teach what he’d learned during his stay on Onav, so humanity could quickly bring those abilities under conscious control. After noting how time would be of the essence, the White House committed itself to supporting his efforts.
His second concern was, of course, the Grell. After going over each of the races he’d encountered during the simulated lives he’d led, he went into detail regarding the threat that the Domain represented. When he got to the choice the Cley asked him to make and his decision regarding where the Earth would stand with respect to confronting the Grell threat, he waited for a response from the Oval Office. There was none. The president simply nodded, tacitly affirming Dr. Rys’s decision. A few minutes later, the meeting ended.
The subsequent press conference covered everything up to Pueblo’s evacuation and their retrieval from the sending room. The president along with Dr. Perez divulged the existence of the Allen field and the technologies it enabled. The White House then released the clip Dr. Marshall had recorded earlier of his slide rule being teleported across California. They also went over the Vela system, which effectively safeguarded against an arms race involving Allen field powered weapons. After that, the president introduced Dr. Rys and his son as the unsung heroes who over fifty years earlier had averted a nuclear disaster in Pueblo. As to their strikingly youthful appearance, the White House stated that more information would be forthcoming then concluded the news conference.
Despite the president’s hopes for an uneventful end to his final term, the subsequent months were arguably the most significant in mankind’s history. With Dr. Rys serving as intermediary, the White House immediately started working with the Cley to determine how to shepherd humanity through what was nothing less than the next step in its evolution. Just before the president’s administration ended, it introduced a slew of legislation intended to protect the country and the world from field technology abuses. He then worked closely with his successor and the UN secretary general to implement additional bulwarks against misuse. A month later, the new administration presented a motion to the General Assembly to ratify Earth’s membership in the Alliance. After explaining what was known of the Grell Domain and showing footage of the technology that the Alliance had at its disposal, the motion passed unanimously.
When the time came to initiate formal relations, the General Assembly chose Dr. Rys to be Earth’s first ambassador to the Allies. The Allied worlds in turn chose Ide Meadow as his counterpart. Although their corporeal existence ended ages ago, the Cley were able to construct and animate likenesses of their former selves by manipulating matter and energy at the quantum level using the Allen field. The resulting avatar was practically indistinguishable from the real thing. Ide’s reconstructed presence, dressed in the traditional, sky blue cassock of the Alliance Diplomatic Corps, materialized shortly after the secretary general introduced him to the General Assembly.
“Secretary General Bunche, people of the United Nations of the planet Earth, I am honored to have been chosen to be your ambassador. As I look out from this dais, I can’t help but reflect on the fact that the striking physical similarities between our two peoples are almost certainly no coincidence. In many ways, you are our children. However, the alliance placed before you is one of equals. Through it, we’ll share with you our knowledge and our technology. Perhaps most importantly, when the moment arrives, we’ll stand with you in confronting the Grell. That moment may seem very far off and personally I hope it never arrives. These are peaceful times on your world and for that you are rightfully thankful. However, as our hard-earned experience has taught us, events can humble even the most optimistic of souls. Should that happen, should humanity ever encounter a challenge that threatens to master it, know this: You will never again stand alone.�
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A few minutes afterwards, there was an outdoor ceremony where diplomatic instruments were officially exchanged with Ambassador Meadow. And so, on a crisp, clear February afternoon in New York City, the planet Earth became the first world in countless millennia to join the Alliance. The UN opened a makeshift headquarters in San Francisco soon thereafter; and within days, the city was teeming with presences from thousands of Allied races. As for the Grell threat, consultations were immediately held with the Owghen regarding a suitable location for an Allied defense installation within Earth’s solar system. By the end of the year, work quietly began in a vast expanse of Martian desert with Dr. Marshall overseeing the project.