by Richard Sosa
Rik flipped through his list of Council members. “Shit.”
Iris smiled at him. “F-up really does fit you.” Rik rubbed his tired eyes.
Megs raised her hand to be recognized.
Iris whispered. “Here it comes. I pissed her off. She’s going to destroy your theory then they’ll all conclude you’re a fraud. You might get arrested today, so brace yourself.”
Rik stared at the large double door at the top of the auditorium. “Do you think I can make a run for it?”
Iris reviewed the layout of the building in the same direction and said. “No, Dask is somewhere up there,” Iris made a fake smile at Meg, “besides the plan is for me to get the hell out of here, not you. Remember?”
Megs gathered her papers into a neat pile and spoke carefully. “Our religious faith can support and comfort us as well as hinder us from considering some uncomfortable information about the harrowing process you witnessed. We have enough evidence that confirms Rik Onanes has arrived here from a very distant planetary system and he is humanoid primate but with some biological differences. He has told us the harrowing process uses DNA along with complex molecular elements to develop the harrowing attributes. These planets become a food source for these invaders and the humanoids will never know they are victims. These attributes facilitate the harrowing process and they exhibit themselves in such actions as, animal-like uncontrolled fear, un-thinking fight or flight response, intolerance of others unfamiliar, divisiveness as exhibited by tribes, nationalities, religions and political division. They—”
The chamber erupted with shouting and fists pounding on the tables. The Chair stood. “Order, I will have order in this chamber or Council members will be ejected from this room,” he turned to Megs, “Doctor, clarify for the record. Did you say, religious division?”
“Yes, I did.” The room was silent but the senator from the Gri-ath Provence stared at her with hatred. She ignored him. “Without change we all face our permanent destruction. We have already used religious intolerance to destroy our first home. If we fight each other, we could lose the small advantage we have to successfully fight off these creatures. I believe this society will move forward to defend their children and their future with or without you. History will not forget the division and inaction due to politics from those chosen to represent all. History will also record that religious bigotry and division politics played a role in our destruction, not our history of course but Rik’s. Rik Onanes’ and his people record these invasions and as a result, there is ample evidence of that kind of shortsightedness and it will install our planet as an example with the capacity to survive but lacked the political, technological and religious will to do so. And we will be part of that catalog of planets that went into the dark forever. The crime on us is that we have the capacity to at least fight for our survival and instead we let our religious and political-ideological division condemn us and our future? We let our political obtuseness blind ourselves to our commonalities against a common enemy. Rik says he can’t understand how this exists in our advanced world.”
Iris whispered to Rik. “Oh good, go girl win over the Christantin bigots with that.”
Rik frowned, “The what bigots?” as his translator tied to link the term to other planets he visited.
The room erupted with multiple angry voices from the legislators. Rehoa-Ra stood, dancing with anticipation to speak and screamed. “Silence. All of you, listen to me.” The room subsided. “Shame. Shame. Shame,” he pointed at Rik, Iris, and Megs, “Images fabricated by this, this girl. Vicious attacks on our way of life by this supposed visitor from someplace in space. Worst of all, attacks on our faith by this heathen scientist. I refuse to believe any of this. These are fake. Remove them,” pointing at Rik and looking around, “who among the faithful is willing to do gods work?”
Councilmember Hember-jec was recognized by the Chair and spoke. “No. Before you take it upon yourself to throw gods lightning bolts around use your damn minds. The Doctor is presenting explanations of how the harrowing process occurs for backward planets.”
Multiple voices burst out, ‘we are not backward, how dare you.’
The Representative from the Northern Trimair-ek Provence, Bishop Retormar was recognized and stood. He stared at Rik with a cold deadly expression. “This is preposterous and disrespectful. This presentation is a waste of my time. I could be doing other important work. Respect for this Council is your damn duty as a citizen. We have not fully vetted Rik Onanes as more than a jokester and those in the military that support me, recognize that this person is dangerous to our society. We can debate all day, my colleagues that have faith have made good points, but more importantly, the danger to us is standing right there,” he pointed at Rik.
Rik, beginning to catch on to the meeting process, raised his hand and the Chair recognized him. He spoke with a strong angry voice. “I am not concerned about my welfare. I want this world to survive. You will not succeed this way arguing as individual parties and this behavior is what makes the harrowing process work for the invaders. You must act side by side. I am not saying you are complete dolts, but the societies harrowed only evolve to a certain level. I am seeing things about this society that make me believe you are more advanced than the ones on the presentation data. You still have many attributes at work right now that are placing your world in danger. You have to act—”
“Like, if you were a truly an advanced council. It's going to be a stretch,” Iris said then sat down quickly.
Rik, surprised by her interjection, whispered. “Shut up. that’s not what I was going to say,” but he couldn’t help himself and smiled while watching her.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Iris whispered back.
Megs was tired and when recognized stood slowly, paused to gather her thoughts and said with shoulder slumped. “Dear friends we share the same goals in the end. We want to go home to our children, to our loved ones and make sure they are safe. All I am asking is that you weigh this evidence and examine facts. That will be hard work. It requires your mind open and engaged. This is not about a division between faith and science, both are human endeavors that co-exist in wonderful ways in advanced societies. There are always people willing to mislead and misstate but we also have training and resources to test the facts and reach rational conclusions. Those who refuse to see the facts do so by choice.”
The Council Chair adjusted his glasses as he scanned the chamber. He cleared his throat which was more effective than his gavel. “Some want to return to a theocracy and violate the memory of those who died to advance our society to this point in our history. Can we be rational in this dark time? Must a crisis force us to fall back to a time when fear ruled us, and our infighting resulted in a great human loss for us? Your charge, ladies, and gentlemen of this Council must be to determine the actions needed based on the testable evidence, not on your religious or political donors' wishes. We will call the question to vote this afternoon.”
The Chair said to Rik. “You, as the guest today and sponsor of this presentation have the last slot to comment. Can you be concise?”
“Yes, you don't have much time,” Rik said, “these invaders will descend in these large Orbs as you saw in the presentation, the Capital ships. The fleet will include many thousands,” the room was stoic and quiet, Rik shuffled his notes, “like I said you don’t have much time.” He looked up at the top balcony and his eyes met Dask’s. Dask stood with his arms crossed over his chest. Muscles outlined his shirt and his expression was grim, disdainful and determined. They watched each other for a long moment and Dask’s chin rose a bit in defiance.
As they left in a large crowd, Rik said to Iris, “the politics of Aoife is familiar and yet unlike anything I’ve seen before.”
“What, you’ve never seen stupid acted out before?”
“Frightening,” Rik examined his time unit, “thanks for giving this to me it’s great to have a sense of time again.”
“I didn’t gi
ve that to you. It’s military property, don’t lose it. We shouldn’t have done this; we just made more enemies. No one listens to me. I think you just made my life more complicated.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Damn it.”
Chapter Nineteen
Rik and Iris were accompanied by strangers who walked alongside them not speaking. “This isn’t a good sign,” Iris said to Rik pointing around, “these people have concluded that we need an escort in daylight.”
Rik smiled at an older lady that he remembered in the balcony. “Are you going to walk with us all the way home.” The lady smiled at him, was silent and kept pace with them.
Back in Iris’ pod unit, they gathered equipment into backpacks. Iris said. “This unit is a disrupting Ragma-6. It will help us get away from any scans. If it works. Right now, Ra is trying to get this thing up and running because Central Command has locked it down. I think they know we might make a run for it.”
“We? No not we, me. I am the one they want to kill. That council member bastard publicly invited any crazy-ass on this crap planet with a pulse rifle to kill me. I can move faster on my own. I don’t want you hurt.”
Iris continued packing her backpack with two handheld pulse weapons in each side pocket while ignoring him. She looked outside scanning the park and the street. “This isn’t a crap planet. Stop saying that. What’s happening is creating a lot of cognitive dissonance in everyone’s mind. I don’t know why someone wants to kill you. It’s not logical.”
Rik checked his recorder and put it in his pack. “Babe, you’re overthinking this—"
“We wait until it’s dark then make the move,” Iris said.
“No. I am going alone, why aren’t you listening?”
“No. You listen. I am going with you. Period.”
“This isn’t your fight.”
“Only that my world is going to be destroyed. I am not going to wait around until you’re dead to make this my fight. Besides you promised.”
Rik threw his pack down hard. “Listen, I not leaving this place, I am staying here to die with you. I don’t want you hurt because some cretin who works for Dask is trying to kill me.”
“You promised you’d stay with me. Or have you secretly been planning to run away?”
Rik turned to look out the window but also to hide his face so that he could put his poker face back on. He searched Iris’ eyes, “Iris, everyone I give a damn about dies. I can’t deal that anymore.”
“Well, grow a backbone and let’s get on with this.”
“No, I mean you. Gods, you’re an idiot. I care about you. I’ve lost so much. I can’t be responsible for getting you hurt or worse. I just can’t bear it anymore.”
She looked down at the floor and then sat down hard. Rubbed her nose as if thinking about some solution that eluded her. Silence. Rik stood looking down at her, how can she not know I care about her, he thought. “Iris, I…look you were…there, I mean the first person who helped me, of course, I care about you.”
Iris said in a low tone tentatively changing the subject. “What a morning, right? Megs was kinda on our side.”
“Yeah, she was.”
“Rik, I didn’t mean to get you mad at me. I am a bit slow also. When you said you might have been dying alone in the park the night, they jumped you, I’ve been terrified by that. It looks like we’re trapped together on the same lifeboat. Keep your head down, I am a trained soldier, follow my lead. I promise to step up my game to protect you.”
“Follow my orders, you keep your head down. I am a soldier also.”
“So why are we messing around? Let’s be at this, but before we move, ready to send a second message, to every butt hole on this crap planet? Its hacked wide open for you. Call out that jerk, Rehoa-Ra.”
Rik stared surprised at Iris and then smiled. “You don’t need to come along with me. I have enough information now to survive on my own. You're such a troublemaker,” he smiled to himself,” I’ll kill any Babstarker I see. I owe you a lot, possibly my life. I’ll never criticize your big funny wristwatch thing ever.”
“You’ve been critical of my Tri-kront Eight Unit?”
“Yes, it’s clown size on your wrist. By the way, how was it that you have access to military-grade equipment?”
“I am pissed off and I have the codes for the lockers. Tap here to start your transmission,” she handed her device to Rik, “you'll transmit to the commons net through the little recording machine you gave me.”
“Loaned. I didn’t give it to you. There’s a difference.”
He touched his translator but realized he didn’t need it anymore and then spoke. “Your council members debated my message but altered the evidence we had prepared for them. The idea of an invasion and being prepared for it was debated which I find incomprehensible. I would not put your fate in their hands. If you do not act, then you are the seedlings of your destruction.”
Iris pursed her lip, “Rik, all the images and presentations are loaded. I also secretly recorded the council session, it’s illegal but we have that religious cleric calling for anyone with a pulse rifle to take a shot at you. Maybe he’ll lose support for his actions.”
Rik hit the ‘send’ key without a second thought and spoke as the imaged data streamed on everyone’s monitor. “Your council at work for themselves and their donors, Rehoa-ra calling for my death, he’s such a hypocrite,” then he softened his message, ”you have a right to survive and reach your potential as individuals and the same goes for your world. These worlds on my recorder no longer exist. This should not be your fate. Help me. I know I initially said this was a hopeless fight, but I’ve changed my mind after learning more about this world. I believe you are different and can survive. One of your Council members has called upon any nut case or military person with a pulse rifle to murder me. I want to survive to help you fight the invasion,” he turned down the sound but let the visuals stream out to the common net with hardened encryption to prevent it from being altered or terminated, “join Iris and me, we need your help.” He turned to Iris and whispered, “will everyone hear the message?”
“Yes, some will not accept it because they have connections to some Council members who are against you, but many can do the hard work of thinking. Now I realize what’s going on, some hardcore fanatics have Council members and senators bribed. That’s not difficult to do. That group wants us silenced. Most citizens will add your message to other data they have. We can hope that they take it to heart and if the government refuses to move fast then I think people will take matters into their own hands and try to help us. The problem is who to trust.”
Rik shouldered his pack to test the weight, “I am ready. We move when it gets darker.”
They both eyed each other with grim determination and nodded affirmatively.
Chapter Twenty
In a downtown small apartment, Rabid sat with his data analyst, Jermid as they double-teamed a data heist. Typing fast on a large IARI unit, Ra sat forward contemplating the data stream as it loaded and spooled into his secure files. Ra and Jermid have been spurring each other in data theft for ten Da-earra decades. He watched the data load and spoke to it. “You keep downloading and I am going to be a happy man. But don’t mess with me.”
Jermid laughed. “This is going down. Someone is on your ass right now and I can’t obstruct them.”
Ra slammed his fist on the table. “You god damn. You son of the underside of a snake. No. No,” then laughed as his data stream collector crashed as someone’s antivirus closed the breach. He keyed in codes to deflect any efforts to isolate his computer signature.
Jermid typed fast and moved what data they pirated into a secure holding file instantly parceling it into encryption bytes. The information routed out to secure clouds and returned to his screen completely disassociated from the owner. He read through the information and began to parse the information. “O.K. this we can sell,” then he inspected another file, “This is shit,” he scanned
further, “This is just stupid.”
Ra immediately scanned corporate files on the deep web. The two worked in silence through the afternoon. Ra frowned and said out loud, “Whoa, hello there. O.K. that's not good.”
“What’s not good?” Jermid looked up from his work.
Ra tapped the connection to Iris’ mobile communication unit and listened to the message on speaker, ‘this is Iris, pod 16 - 1734, link or speak your message, if you’re Tragma-an, pay me my credits or else you won’t be able to play with yourself.’ ‘Beep’, Rabid spoke, “Hey, this is Ra. There's some encrypted chatter that just fell into my database by accident and it looks like someone's coming out for Rik as a private matter. That’s concerning because I can’t get a lock on who is doing this. It must be an organized group with some resources to cover their tracks. Call me or get on the net and confirm.”
Later the same evening Rabid checked his watch and called Iris again, “Iris. Respond. Contact me. Something’s not right. I am sending Stu Oman over to find you.”
Iris and Rik laid on a blanket watching clouds fade as the night approached. Rik looked at the halo screen facing the park. “What’s with the screen?”
“It’s not laser proof but if someone is out there trying to target us, they can’t see anything except an empty balcony. I have them on the windows also. It’s going to get real dark soon. We’ll have enough cover to get away in a few trems hours of your time.”
There was a long silence between them. Rik waited for her next comment thinking she’d fallen asleep. He blurted, “I am from your future possibly thousands of years older than you. Are you bothered by that?”
“Explains a lot.”
“What?”
“Yeah, explains a lot about your inabilities. It’s obvious.”
“What inabilities? What are you talking about?”
“You know, your inabilities,” Iris said, “don't worry lots of older guys have
them.”