by Ben Bova
“And Chiang? As head of the World Council he must have considerable influence on the people in Beijing. They wouldn’t hang him out to dry; it would be a terrible loss of face for one of their own.”
“Chairman Chiang is … reluctant to commit himself.”
“Ah! So there you are.”
“I thought,” Ionescu said haltingly. “I thought … that if America announces it will support the mission … if America would lead the way…” Her voice trailed off.
The president shook his head. “Impossible. We can’t take money away from reconstruction and recovery projects to send another gaggle of scientists out there.”
“But—”
“Maybe when the people already there send in their reports about what they’ve found,” the president offered.
“We won’t receive any word from them for eight years,” Ionescu said.
The president spread his hands and almost smiled. “All right, eight years. Maybe by then the climate situation will have calmed down somewhat. Maybe by then we can think about sending out another mission. Especially if the news from New Earth is interesting enough.”
What the president did not say was that by then, eight years into the unguessable future, he would be safely retired and some other person would have to face the responsibility of paying for another mission to New Earth.
DISCOVERIES
Whatever nature has in store for mankind, unpleasant as it may be, men must accept, for ignorance is never better than knowledge.
ENRICO FERMI
TURNABOUT
The following morning, as Jordan left his cubicle and headed for the camp’s dining hall, Brandon fell in step beside him.
“Good morning, Jordy.”
“Morning, Bran.”
“Going to the city this morning?”
“That’s my intention.”
Brandon said, “I was talking with Thornberry and Meek last night. They think it would be a good idea if you kept your phone on, so we can record what Adri and the others say to you.”
Jordan felt his brows knit. “Record…?”
“I think it’s a good idea.”
“Do you?”
Brandon broke into one of his boyish smiles. “Oh, you can turn it off when you’re alone with Aditi.”
Jordan did not smile back at him.
* * *
As he walked the trail through the forest toward the city, Jordan felt the phone in his shirt pocket weighing like a guilty conscience.
Bran’s right, he told himself. We should be recording everything. Still, he felt it was somehow a sneaky thing to do, a betrayal of trust.
Then he saw Aditi standing on the stone walkway that circled the city, smiling warmly at him, and he forgot about the phone.
“Good morning,” he called, hurrying his steps toward her.
“Good morning to you,” she called back. And all Jordan’s doubts and fears about these aliens and their intentions melted away in the warmth of her greeting.
He resisted the urge to take her in his arms. Instead he simply extended his hand. She took it in her own.
“Adri told me about his physical examination,” she said as they began to walk down the city’s broad central avenue. The street was busy with men and women, some strolling idly, others striding purposefully, as if on some important business. Aditi’s pet feline was nowhere in sight.
“Today it’s my turn to be poked and prodded,” Jordan said, trying to make it sound light, pleasant.
Very seriously, Aditi replied, “No one is going to touch you. All the tests are noninvasive.”
“Of course,” he said. The irony in his voice was lost on her.
“I will be in charge of your examination,” Aditi said, rather proudly.
Somewhat surprised, Jordan asked, “You’re a medical technician, as well as a teacher?”
She hesitated, then replied, “I’ve had the training. All of us are capable of many tasks.”
They were heading for the main building, Jordan saw. Behind it was the dormitory where he and Brandon had been housed.
As if she could read his mind, Aditi asked, “Will you be staying here tonight?”
“I’d like to,” he admitted. “I’ll have to call back and tell the others first.”
“Of course,” she said.
As they neared the main building’s stately flight of entrance steps, Jordan asked, “And Adri, what tasks is he trained for?”
Again that little hesitation, as if she were checking through her memory for the correct answer. Or waiting for instructions. At last Aditi said, “Adri is our … historian. I think that is the best way to describe his duties.”
“Historian?”
“He deals with the past,” she said. Then she added, “And the future.”
“I don’t understand.”
Her lovely face puckered into an almost troubled frown, as if she were struggling to find the right words to explain it to him.
“I think that’s the best way to describe it,” Aditi said. “Adri studies the past of our people, and yours, and makes projections of what the future might be like.”
“The future of my people?”
“Yes. Naturally.”
“I’d like to see what he has to say about that,” Jordan said.
“I’m sure he’d be happy to discuss it with you.”
They walked the rest of the way in thoughtful silence. As they started up the stairs of the main building, Jordan asked, “How far back does your history go?”
“Millions of years,” Aditi answered. “Our years. We have existed for a very long time.”
“Back on Earth we wonder how long the human race can survive. You give me hope.”
“An intelligent race can survive almost indefinitely. Especially if it is intelligent enough to adapt to changing environments.”
“Ah,” said Jordan. “That’s the key, then, isn’t it? How intelligent are we?”
Very seriously, Aditi said, “The key is the ability to give up outworn concepts, modes of behavior that no longer work for survival.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Your people back on Earth have survived ice ages and pandemic plagues and your own aggressive, xenophobic nature. The question before you now is whether the strengths that have helped you to survive have become countersurvival in the face of new dangers.”
“You mean the greenhouse climate shift?”
“That’s part of the problem you face. You seem to have overcome the move toward authoritative governments—dictatorships. But there are new challenges that face you.”
“New challenges? Beyond the climate shift?”
“Yes.”
“What are they?”
Aditi did not answer for several heartbeats. At last she said, “You should speak to Adri about that. He’s the expert in that field, not I.”
They had reached the top of the stairs, and Aditi led him through the building’s central corridor to a set of rooms that looked to Jordan like a clinic. The area smelled faintly of antiseptics. People spoke in whispers.
She led him confidently through the warren of hallways to a room that looked to Jordan like a laboratory: the walls were lined with consoles that hummed softly. In the middle of the room stood a tall glass-walled booth. No one else was in the room; they were alone.
Pointing to the booth, Aditi said, “If you’ll step in there, I can scan your body.”
With a slightly mischievous grin, Jordan asked, “Should I take off my clothes?”
She actually blushed. “No, not at all. That won’t be necessary.”
Jordan stepped into the booth.
“Close the door, please,” Aditi said as she walked to the equipment set along the wall.
Jordan pulled the glass door shut.
“Please stand still for a moment.”
He did. He even held his breath. He heard a brief buzz, felt nothing. Aditi had her back to him, studying the gauges and display screens.
“Good,” she said. “You can come out now.”
“That’s it?” he asked.
“That’s it,” she said, still intently peering at the readouts. “We have a complete picture of you, down to the molecular level.”
“That was easy.”
But Aditi said, “The scans show you had a virus in your lower intestinal tract that could potentially be dangerous—even fatal.”
“It’s dormant,” Jordan said. Still, he couldn’t suppress the shudder of fear that went through him.
Then he realized that she’d said “had.”
Before he could ask her, Aditi said, “I eliminated it.”
His knees went weak. Jordan squeaked, “Eliminated it?”
“Actually, the equipment automatically destroyed the virus,” Aditi said. “I should have asked your permission first, I know. I hope you don’t mind.”
Jordan laughed shakily. “I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all.”
HISTORY LESSON
She eliminated the virus, Jordan said to himself over and over. Just like that, a tap of the finger and the virus is gone. The idea whirled through his thoughts as Aditi led him up a winding stairway, toward Adri’s office.
“Your technology is quite impressive,” he said, walking alongside her. “Far ahead of ours.”
“In some ways, yes,” Aditi murmured.
“Yet you’ve never developed space flight. I find that rather odd.”
With a sidelong glance, she said, “We develop technology to solve problems. Disease has been a problem for both our peoples. It’s that simple.”
Is it? Jordan wondered silently.
Adri’s office turned out to be a spacious, sunlit, airy room on the top floor of the building, with long windows that looked out on the city’s stone buildings and busy streets. Not a vehicle in sight, Jordan noticed. Pedestrian traffic only. And genetically engineered animals.
Like the building’s corridors, the walls of the office were covered with graceful swirling abstracts. There was no desk, no sign of hierarchy; merely comfortable-looking furniture scattered about the room.
Adri was seated on a long, curving couch when they entered the room. He rose gracefully to his feet and went toward Jordan, arms extended in greeting. In his floor-length robe he seemed to be gliding across the smoothly tiled floor.
“My friend Jordan,” he said, in his thin, whispery voice. “It’s good to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you, too, Adri,” said Jordan.
“I’m glad that Aditi was able to remove a potentially life-threatening virus from your body,” Adri said as he pointed Jordan toward the couch where he’d been sitting.
Jordan turned to Aditi. “How in the world did you—”
Before she could answer Adri said, “The readouts of your medical examination were transmitted to me here automatically. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, I suppose not.” Jordan looked around the room but he saw no display screens, no communications equipment of any kind.
Gently taking Jordan’s arm with one hand, Adri pointed toward the ceiling with the other. “Holographic projectors,” he explained. “All the hardware is out of sight.”
Jordan allowed the alien to lead him to the couch. He sat on it, and Aditi sat beside him. Adri crooked a finger at a plush armchair and it rolled across the floor to him. He sat in it, facing Jordan.
Suddenly a medical diagnostic console appeared before Jordan’s startled eyes, beeping softly, its screens showing glowing curved lines.
“A hologram,” Adri said, with a nonchalant shrug.
“I see,” said Jordan.
Just as suddenly, the hologram winked out.
“Your people are comfortable in their base camp?” Adri asked.
With a nod, Jordan replied, “Reasonably so. I’m sorry that they seem so…” he searched for a word, “so apprehensive about you. Suspicious.”
“That’s quite natural, I suppose.”
Aditi said, “It’s one of those survival traits that has become countersurvival.”
“Perhaps so,” Jordan granted. “But you must admit, all this is a lot to swallow.”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” Adri said. “What can I do to make the situation better?”
“You can start by telling me more about yourselves. Aditi tells me you’ve existed for millions of years.”
“Our civilization has, yes. Our culture.”
“And you’ve never developed space flight?”
Adri glanced at Aditi, then said, “We live on this planet. We have no need of space flight.”
“Yet you’ve apparently been studying Earth for some time.”
“Many of your centuries.”
“From here, on the ground.”
“We have optical and radio telescopes. We’ve listened to your radio and watched your television broadcasts. We’ve tapped into your digital webs. We’ve mapped and measured your planet. You exist in a very rich solar system: it’s filled with planets of astounding variety. And moons, asteroids, comets. No wonder you went into space. We have nothing here but our one lonely world.”
“But if you have telescopes of such sensitivity, why didn’t you try to contact us? Why didn’t you tell us you’re here?”
“Fear,” said Adri, quite flatly.
“Fear?”
“Your people are still decidedly aggressive. And xenophobic. You still have racial tensions among your own kind. The sudden announcement of an equally intelligent species would create severe problems for you.”
“So you waited for us to find you.”
“Yes, we did.”
Jordan shook his head. “That must have taken enormous patience. How long have you known of our existence?”
“We observed your cities and the pollution you poured into your atmosphere. We heard your earliest radio transmissions.”
“And all that time you waited.”
Aditi said, “We waited in hope that you would find us and reach out to us.”
“Which you have done,” said Adri. “And we have welcomed you.”
“Yes,” said Jordan. “The question now is, where do we go from here?”
MOTIVATIONS
Without an instant’s hesitation, Adri replied, “Why, we try to help one another, of course.”
“Help? In what way?”
Aditi said, “We can offer you medical technology that is far advanced over your own.”
“And the energy shields,” Adri added.
“Yes, they would both be welcomed. But what can we offer you?”
“Understanding,” said Adri.
Jordan felt puzzled. “Understanding?”
Adri nodded. “Yours is a large, aggressive species. How many people are there on Earth now?”
“Something like twenty billion. The recent spate of flooding has apparently killed a good many, of course, but the latest census figures I remember put the total in the twenty billion range.”
“Twenty billion,” Adri murmured.
“We are only a few thousand,” said Aditi.
“Thousand?”
“Yes,” Adri said. “Our numbers are very small. Frankly, we’ve been afraid of you. You could swallow us up in one gulp.”
“That’s why you haven’t contacted us,” Jordan realized.
“Your history is filled with the unfortunate consequences of contact between one group of people and another. The Neanderthals, for example. The Native Americans.”
Jordan suddenly understood Paul Longyear’s hard-eyed suspicions.
“So you waited until we reached out to you.”
“It seemed the best course of action for us,” Adri said. “Now that we have made contact, our future is in your hands.”
“Yet you could have remained hidden,” Jordan said. “You shielded your city from our ship’s sensors. We had no idea you were here.”
“If we had stayed hidden, what would have happened?” Adri asked. “You would have landed and started
to explore this planet. Sooner or later you would have stumbled upon us.”
“And destroyed us,” Aditi said glumly.
“No! Why would we do that? How could we do it?”
Smiling gently, Adri said, “Friend Jordan, not every human being is as civilized as you. Twenty billion of you! How many would come here, to this world? How quickly would they turn it into a replica of the disaster they have created on their own home world?”
“We would be wiped out,” Aditi repeated.
Jordan said nothing for a moment, his thoughts spinning. Then, “And now that we’ve found you, that danger exists.”
“It does indeed,” said Adri.
“What are you going to do about it?” Aditi asked.
Her face was unutterably sad, Jordan saw. As if I’ve just condemned her entire race to extinction.
“What can I do about it?” he wondered aloud.
Adri said, “That is one of the problems that face us.”
“One of the problems? There are others?”
“Oh, yes. But let us deal with this first problem first.”
“You are a test case for us,” Aditi said. “If we can make you understand, then perhaps there is a chance that contact between our two peoples can be beneficial.”
“And if not?”
Adri sighed heavily. “You are slightly more than eight light-years from Earth. Your transmissions of information back to your home world will take eight-some years to reach their destination.”
Jordan nodded.
Looking slightly guilty, Adri said, “Your messages to Earth are not getting through. I’m afraid we’ve blocked your transmissions.”
“Blocked them? How?”
“It’s only temporarily, until we decide whether we should proceed with you.”
“And if you decide not to proceed?”
“Then your messages back to Earth will be permanently blocked. Earth will decide that your mission somehow met with disaster.”
“They’ll think we’re all dead,” Jordan realized.
“You will not be allowed to return,” said Adri. “You will have to stay here.”
“With us,” Aditi said.