by Jerry Ahern
Rourke nodded in agreement, “Now we just have to find out if we can all play in the same sandbox. Wait a minute, what’s that?”
Rourke watched the big screen as one of the ships broke formation and moved into a closer Earth orbit and then began a powered descent into the atmosphere. “Well,” Zima said, “it looks like we are about to find that out.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Communications between Command Headquarters and the descending aircraft had been difficult to establish; voice communications were purposefully being denied by the descending craft. Written word messages were received by Earth’s national capitals simultaneously, these consisted of the United States, New Germany, China, Russia, Lydveldid Island, Australia and the Gallia.
These messages conveyed instructions for world leaders to rendezvous at a set of specific coordinates; those matching the location of the New German capital. The wording was surprisingly clear and concise; while the grammar was somewhat stilted the instructions were clear and delivered in the native tongue of the recipient country.
The meeting was set for twenty-four hours following the craft’s entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, the craft described its intentions to spend the intervening time to survey the surface of Earth and indicated flight paths it would be taking. President Hooks noticed that these really were not true communications. They were cleverly disguised instructions; apparently ‘The Others’ weren’t interested in giving out very much information.
Following entry into the atmosphere it was possible to observe the ship directly for the first time. The first thing noticed was the immense size; the fuselage alone was the length of an aircraft carrier. Yet even with its incredible size, the craft was highly maneuverable. Capable of speeds that enabled it to move quickly over the face of the planet, it also had the ability to “hover” in place; seemingly to just hang in the air. Another interesting aspect was while there were what appeared to be exhaust ports no one had any idea of what the power source was.
The ship traversed the globe in a grid pattern occasionally stopping to hover over selected areas of interest. These include sections of North and South America and several sections of Africa and Europe. It spent several hours suspended above the North Pole and several others at a list of locations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The strange part was there was nothing below the huge airship except open water at those locations; it seemed the ship was visiting places that no longer existed and were memories only to the ship’s occupants.
Then it settled above the continent of Antarctica at an altitude of 5280 feet, exactly one mile. It parked at the geographic coordinates of 90°S, 0°W; the South Pole. Below it laid a featureless, windswept, icy plateau, the ice estimated at 9,000 feet thick. The ship sat there for several hours, unmoving. Finally, apparently in preparations for the world meeting in less than three hours, the ship began a slow rotation turning a full 360 degrees before stopping and moving off in the direction of South America. The journey ended with the gigantic craft hovering just fifteen feet above the airport runway near the capitol building of the New Germany Republic.
Representatives from Earth’s governments departed a hanger on the north side of the airport on a passenger bus and drove slowly toward the tarmac. Stopping at a predetermined point, they disembarked and slowly approached the craft. A hatch opened and a stair ramp descended from the left side of the craft and made contact with the pavement. Four beings came down the ramp, stepped off and stood for a long moment, looking around. Finally as a group they walked toward the world leaders. The beings appeared human.
Each was tall, a little over six feet tall; three had no facial hair but strong chiseled features and the short cut stubble on their scalps and posture gave the three a military expression. This race appeared to be diverse. All had slightly oriental characteristics but there was a blending of racial characteristic.
The tallest was almost Nordic in appearance, another faintly Negroid; the darkest appeared to have the Mongol features of some Native American tribes. They were in jump suits of a silvery, metallic appearing cloth; the fourth, older than the others wore a simple robe like attire. His robe was saffron in color, his hair and beard were long and snow white. He spoke first, holding his hand up palm facing the delegates and smiling, “Hello, my children. We have returned.” He had a strong clear voice and was speaking English.
Wolfgang Mann, stepped forward, raised his hand and said, “We welcome you Sir, I am Wolfgang Man, President of New Germany may I ask the purpose of your visit?”
The tallest of the others, apparently the second most senior, stepped closer. “Visit? This is not a visit. As The Keeper said we have returned.”
Mann spoke, “You must pardon me. It was not until recently we knew of your existence. We have many questions we would like to have you answer. Would you accompany us to a location where we may speak together more... comfortably? If you would like, why not have your crew actually land your craft here.”
The second speaker said, “Our analysis shows the weight of our craft exceeds the strength of this material.” He pointed at the concrete runway. “President, for now you may address me as Captain.” Pointing to the older one, “This is ‘The Keeper’; my other two associates will remain here, outside our craft as a sign of trust. Would you also make such a ‘sign of trust?’” Mann agreed and designated two subordinate ministers. “Good, then we are happy to join you Mr. President.”
Mann had four chairs brought from the bus for those that would remain. The two ministers sat down and gestured for the Captain’s associates to do the same but they remained standing, almost in a “parade rest” position.
Rourke came forward, “Gentlemen, my name is John Thomas Rourke. It is a custom among our peoples to greet new friends with a shaking of hands. May I offer my hand to you in friendship?” Rourke had purposefully positioned himself in front of the one called The Keeper. The Keeper raised his hand, a little unsure what to do next. “May I, Sir?” Rourke reached out with his left hand, took The Keeper’s right arm and guided it so Rourke could grasp the hand; then he pumped The Keeper’s hand slowly at first and then more vigorously, “I am John, Sir and it is a pleasure to meet you.”
Smiling, The Keeper said, “John, I am pleased to meet you.”
Rourke turned to the Captain, “Captain, I am John and it is a pleasure to meet you.” Without hesitation the Captain extended his right hand, his grip was firm and his eyes locked onto Rourke’s. There was no pumping this time, just a firm grip as two beings sized each other up. The Captain said, “I believe the term is ‘hello’? Hello, John Rourke I am pleased to meet you.” After a flurry of handshakes, the Captain and The Keeper joined Rourke, Mann and the delegation aboard the bus for the short ride back to the hanger.
Rourke sat next to The Keeper; he had taken an instant liking to the older sage. Rourke said, “My people are interested in learning your story. There are a lot of questions; we have only just recently learned of you.”
The Keeper finally spoke, “Our scientists had been warning for generations that the planet was approaching a series of natural events that would have catastrophic results for our civilization. There were to be great geological upheavals, probable shifts of the magnetic poles and climatic changes that would affect all life on the planet. It had taken many years but we were preparing to abandon this world and take our entire population into space. That was when the enemy appeared, with no warning the attacks began. There was a great war, even more violent and destructive than anything your people have ever perpetrated.”
“We had launched several of our ships to rendezvous at our space port, which was in geo-stationary orbit 200 of your miles above the planet. We were making final preparations for the last two waves of evacuation when we fell under a final devastating attack. We were able to launch the majority of our fleet before the final destruction; but not all. There were no attacks once we left the Earth orbit and we continued to watch as long as the monitors allowed. We
witnessed the geological upheavals and the beginnings of an ice age, unlike anything in Earth’s history, grip the planet. Then we were too far out of range to see anymore.”
Rourke interrupted, “Yet, there are no surviving records of the Great War, or of the enemy of your people. I can tell you that mankind was al most totally destroyed and humanity was reduced to just a few survivors using stone tools, clothing themselves in animal skins and seeking shelter in caves. I believe that some few of your people retained the possessed knowledge of your destroyed civilization’s wisdom, passing tantalizing bits, snatches of knowledge and tales of great exploits down through the ages as legend, myth and alchemy. Tell me, what was the war about?”
The Keeper said, “What your people call Chlorophyll. The green pigment found in algae and plants, it is an extremely important biomolecule, critical in photosynthesis, which allows plants to absorb energy from light; making it vital for photosynthesis.”
Incredulously, Rourke said, “Chlorophyll, is everywhere. Every plant uses it.”
“Yes,” said The Keeper. “It is abundant here, on this planet but it is a rare, very rare commodity elsewhere. It is essential for the alien race. They have evolved to the point that food, as you and I think of food, is irrelevant to them. However, they still require nutrition. Chlorophyll is an essential part of their diet, it allows for them to break down other compounds that keep them alive. We offered to share Earth’s Chlorophyll with them but that was not the course they chose. Co-existing with us was not their plan, they wanted to dominate mankind and reduce humans to virtual slaves who functioned totally at their ‘new masters’ direction. We did not feel that slavery was an acceptable option.”
“Chlorophyll,” Rourke said shaking his head. “All of this over something as simple and plentiful as Chlorophyll, that is amazing. I know that Chlorophyll was first isolated by two French scientists in the early 1800s; it absorbs light best in the blue portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, it does not absorb the green and near-green colors of the spectrum, hence the green color of Chlorophyll—containing tissues. Its primary function is to absorb light and transfer that light energy by resonance energy transfer. That is how plants produce oxygen gas; it is the source for the O2 in Earth’s atmosphere. Chlorophyll is what enables plants to produce oxygen.”
“John, I must also tell you that many of my people consider that Earth was theirs and they wish to reclaim it. They have no wish to destroy humanity, although some elements within the KI are far from benevolent. They consider the Earth to be their inheritance and view modern man as interlopers, little more than what you would call squatters. They remember your ancestors as primitive and there exists certain... biases against all things that are not KI.”
“My closest explanation of our society is that it is most similar in structure to what your people would identify as a constitutional monarchy. The last living descendant of the royal line is our leader, but some within the returnees believe it is now time for him to either step down or go away. If, you get my meaning?”
Rourke asked, “Are you familiar with this design?” He slid a picture of Dodd’s tattoo across the table, “I found this symbol on a belt buckle I found back in the 20th Century, near the crash site of the possible ‘UFO.’”
The Keeper shuddered, “My people know this symbol and we fear it. That...,” he said stabbing his finger hard onto the picture, “that is the symbol of our enemy and it is the symbol of yours. I can tell you this, they are both mysterious and menacing; once before—forty thousand of your years ago—they very nearly obliterated humanity. Their goal was to eradicate humanity and seize the planet as a base for further conquest. You must understand they are not human, either in form or emotional makeup. In fact, they are as different from man as man is from insects. They cannot be reasoned with or negotiated with; it is simply a question of if man continues to exist, or will they be destroyed?”
“The KI have kept their identity secret for centuries and some of our elements have been afraid to step forward, lest the aliens, who are our ancient enemy, strike. We returnees are better able to function on Earth’s surface than our alien enemies.”
“I’m curious, Sir,” Rourke said. “Where exactly did you go when you left Earth?”
The Keeper smiled, “To the center of the Galaxy, it is only about 23,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is an incredibly super dense region only about as big as the sphere enclosing Jupiter’s orbit. Sagittarius constellation lies in the southern sky and is one of the largest constellations in the sky occupying an area of 867 square degrees.”
Rourke said, “In Greek mythology, Sagittarius is represented as a centaur, a half human, half horse creature with the torso of a man and the body and four legs of a horse.”
The Keeper smiled and leaned forward patting Rourke’s knee, “We saw many things on our journey but no centaurs.”
The cell phone in Phillip Greene’s brief case vibrated. Greene knew only one person had that number. Activating the screen that separated him from his driver, Greene answered the phone, “They have returned. Currently their representatives are meeting in New Germany. I am sure your principals want to know that. Please remind them of my help and assistance and tell them I stand ready to be their representative, coordinating their wishes with the humans once their new order has been established.” The connection was terminated from the other end, without a response.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The poll results were coming in and the media was forecasting Phillip Greene would be elected by a landslide. Michael and Natalia watched them for about an hour before retiring for bed; it appeared the Progressive Party had won with about one-third of the polling places reporting. Suddenly, flashing lights and a car horn shattered their sleep. Michael glanced at the clock, it was still before midnight.
There was a banging on the front door and a voice calling, “Michael, get up. Get up now.” Michael jerked open the door to find his father, step-mother, uncle and sister waiting on him. “What... what’s going on?”
John Rourke said, “You don’t know, you really don’t know?”
Michael, rubbed sleep from his eyes, “Know what? What are you talking about?”
“Son,” his father said. “You won, the election is over and you have been elected as the next American President.”
The DOT television network election coverage was telling the story. After an initial upsurge, the Progressive Party’s momentum had staggered then totally vanished. The last two-thirds of poll results had been massively in favor of Michael and the Representative Party. The Progressives had taken a trouncing, loosing badly. Michael was not even aware the phone had rung until Natalia handed it to him, stepping outside to be able to hear, he recognized the voice of the incumbent President. “Well Michael, congratulations. Remember our last conversation? Well, ‘let me tell you about MY GREAT WEEKEND!’”
The initial meeting between humans and the KI had lasted four days, during which time other members of the KI had left their ship from time to time. They had given their specific reports and returned. The general tone was reserved, human scientists and other “experts” presented information concerning areas of the planet that might foster a settlement of the slightly more than 500,000 KI which made up the entire compliment of personnel from the thirty-seven KI ships. The one called Captain had been designated as the primary spokesman for the KI during this first meeting; The Keeper remaining, for the most part silent. Finally the Captain said, “We have learned what we needed to know. Now we will return to our people and discuss this situation with our leaders.”
With that the KI delegation rose and were escorted back to their awaiting ship. The Keeper walked over to Rourke, his hand extended. “I have learned John Rourke this gesture is also appropriate when friends part. It has been my honor to meet you and I will look forward to our next meeting.” As they shook hands, The Keeper leaned closer and whispered, “Be careful my new friend, be very careful.�
� Before Rourke could respond The Keeper turned and walked up the ramp of the ship. The ramp withdrew into position and silently the ship rose higher and higher into the sky before accelerating to escape velocity. In mere seconds the ship had vanished above the clouds.
Rourke stood quietly, wondering exactly what he was supposed to be careful of. A distant memory came bubbling to the surface of Rourke’s mind, an old movie that had starred Henry Fonda called Fail Safe. The movie displayed the Cold War tensions existing between the United States and the Soviet Union during the early 1960s. It told how a dramatic series of coincidental events lead up to an accidental thermonuclear first-strike attack by a group of United States “Vindicator” bombers against Moscow, the capital of what was then the Soviet Union.
It was a dramatization of what was known then as MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. Upon learning that an accidental attack on Moscow had occurred, the President, knowing the severity of the situation, sought a resolution to the matter that would avoid an all-out nuclear holocaust. With this threat in mind, the President had ordered an immediate similar nuclear strike by American forces on New York City. Rourke had lived under the threat of mutually assured destruction, finally seeing it come to pass. He had lived through the holocaust. He had seen threat after threat come and go as mad men plotted the destruction of mankind, very nearly succeeding in their blind ambitions and diabolic schemes. Now, he had a strange sense of foreboding; he remembered a saying from before the Night of the War. “It feels like déjà vu, all over again.” He hoped that he wasn’t experiencing an event he had experienced in the past.
“The Earth was ours and we wish to reclaim it. We have no desire to destroy humanity,” the Captain said. “They may serve us as their forefathers did in the past. The Earth is our inheritance; we were the ones that watched over their bumbling attempts to walk upright, to find a language, to speak. We knew their ancestors as little more than animals snarling and grappling with each other over scraps of food. We were the first great nation on this world. We were the first culture to develop a culture, industrial production. We were the first to develop intellectually, politically and morally. We were the first to transition from savage through barbaric to civilized life. We were the first to develop articulate sounds, music, astronomy, mathematics and science.”