The Newcomers: a novel of global invasion , human resilience, and the wild places of the planet

by Pamela Jekel

  Finally after three months of the silent presence of alien ships all over the world, their first message appeared simultaneously on every television and computer screen, in whatever language was being broadcast locally. Translators quickly reported that the message did not vary in idiom or tone, no matter the language:

  “We come with peaceful intent to advise mankind of a rapid and effective response to the ecological deterioration you now experience. Without a common and unified strategy, man will be extinct within a generation. This planet can be restored to ecological health. We will be working with your governments to save the earth.”

  It was later estimated that one billion people worldwide clicked on the button that said, “I have read and understood this message.”

  Commercials on TV swiftly changed to more ecologically-correct products, as many corporations rushed to seem greener than the next. Each show was interrupted by government reminders to recycle, save water, and carpool. People once again adjusted to this new reality. Few on the streets looked up constantly anymore. The existence of life from outside earth seemed very important at times and unimportant at other times, and so people were unable to decide whether the presence of the Newcomers mattered hugely or not at all. All the old assumptions about how the world worked were obsolete and the new ones weren’t effectual. It felt as if something important had died, and nothing had been born to take its place.

  One late-night comedian changed his signature exit line to a simple gesture: he pointed to the ceiling with an index finger, looked up, holding the pause a moment with a questioning smile, and then gave a small “toodle-oo” wave to an invisible presence. It always got a big laugh, and the gesture was repeated on the street now, like a secret handshake.

  Nine months later, another message appeared:

  “It is in the best interest of the eco-health of Earth that all nuclear plants be shut down in one year. Those that are not shut down within one year will be destroyed.”

  Immediately, the United States, Japan, France, India, China, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Korea, and other countries which obtained much of their power from nuclear energy announced emergency meetings to deal with this crisis. Each government issued statements attempting to quell panic and to assure their people that negotiations would begin soon with the Newcomers to reach waivers or extensions; each government promised swift retaliation if any destruction occurred. Some believed it was the apocalypse; others were convinced it was a new era of global awareness and peace. The Pope prayed for the faithful, and news stations hired psychiatrists as regular anchors to discuss collective depression, warning against the contagion of blunt affect and advising regular exercise to induce endorphins.

  “Should we be taking off?” Skylar asked Jack. “Just take the kids and get out of here? Go to the cabin and hunker down?” They had a cabin on five acres in Watkinsville, just outside of Athens, right on the Oconee River. Nothing fancy, but it had a deep well, a propane tank, a woodstove, plenty of firewood, and they’d recently planted a small orchard of apple and peach trees.

  “Take Chase out of school? Quit our jobs?”

  She dropped her head and crossed her arms.

  “We keep talking about this, but really….I think we need to hang tight. My guess is that this isn’t going to happen,” he said. “We get more than thirty-percent of our power from nuclear, France gets like sixty-percent. I can’t imagine what this would do to economies worldwide.”

  “Maybe they don’t care about that. Maybe it’s just as they said. Go green or pay the consequences. Maybe we should, Jack. I mean it. Just get out of here while we can.”

  He went to her and enveloped her in his arms. “If you’re talking about paying the consequences, the nuclear plant in Augusta is even closer to the cabin than it is to Marietta, if they blow it. But say they don’t. Say it shuts down. So we go to the cabin. And do what? You know where we are financially. Certainly not where we were before. If we quit our jobs now, we might as well kiss off college for the kids.” He rested his chin on her head. “But look, if you really feel like we need to jump ship, then we will. This should be a joint decision.” He rocked her for a few moments, and her arms snaked around him. “I don’t want any finger-pointing later, if it turns out we should have left. Do you really want to do this?”

  “I don’t know,” she groaned.

  “Neither do I. But I do know if we leave now, we’re taking a step we can’t undo. We can be gone for a few weeks, maybe more but what will that accomplish? Two months gone, and I might as well resign. No more health care, no more paycheck.” He gave her a few moments of rocking to absorb that. “Do you want to just wait awhile and see what happens? It wouldn’t hurt to stock up on canned goods, though. You’ve still got that store of dried foods. Let’s add to it, check the medical supplies, get some extra cash, make sure we’re ready to go. I’ll get the oil cans filled and have them top off the propane tank at the cabin. Keep both cars charged, the computer solar packs, and the spare batteries, too. We can be out of here in a day, if we have to be. At least we’ve got someplace to go.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “This is a mutual agreement?” he asked with a smile.

  She hugged him tightly.

  “I need a ‘yes’ on that.”

  “Okay. But contents may shift during flight.” Her smile was wry as she released him.

  The President came on television and radio, and announced that the United States was entering into negotiations with the Advisors. The power needs of America would not be interrupted. He took no questions from the press, and he looked ten years older than he had the year before.

  “Long on feelings, short on facts,” Jack said as he listened to the speech.

  One month later, a third message appeared on every television and every computer. The words were just as succinct as before:

  “It is in the best interests of the eco-health of Earth that The Trans-Siberian, Baku, Druzhba, Trans-Afghanistan, and Trans-Alaskan pipelines be shut down within one year. If these pipelines are not shut down within one year, they will be destroyed.”

  This time markets plummeted, and people were so distracted about their savaged Keogh and SEP plans, their missing retirement savings, and their precarious financial futures, that somehow the loss of pipelines seemed less significant. After all, the Alaskan pipeline hadn’t been productive since Palin left office, and the environmentalists had been yammering about closing it down for years. Offshore drilling had been outlawed since the BP disaster more than a decade before. Most people had electric or hydrocars, at least in America and Europe, and many had traded them in for mass transit, as the transportation taxes rose. Gas at the pump was already six bucks a gallon, and it doubled in two days. Few people knew where their oil came from, but they knew the government would not allow America to do without, no matter who we had to go to war with to supply it. From the rest of the world, the same governmental statements, same assurances, and same promises of retaliation were issued in response to the Advisors’ third message.

  Now people checked their televisions and computers every morning and every evening to see what was coming next. And then, only one week later, the fourth message rocked the world:

  “The Advisors will provide alternative energy sources to replace nuclear and petro-chemical sources for private and commercial use to all governments of the earth. These alternative energy sources will be available for all without cost and will power existing automobiles, homes, and factories more efficiently with no pollution. It is time for Earth to join other planets in universal energy cooperation.”

  “Why didn’t they send that one first?” Skylar ranted. “We’d have a few less cardiac arrests on Wall Street!” She was sick to death of being worried all the time, tired of feeling like they should do something, even if she wasn’t sure what it was.

  It was estimated that more than two billion people clicked on the button, “I have read and understood this message,” which meant, by Jack’s calcu
lations, that many people had acquired televisions or computers, just so that they could be part of the mass communication.

  With the arrival of the fourth message, all Advisors’ announcements seemed less threat than promise, at least to most. Few could see nuclear power plants or oil pipelines out their windows each day. Undoubtedly, those people who had jobs with or owned shares of oil companies and nuclear power plants were not relieved at all by the fourth message, but their wails of dismay were outshouted by the jubilation of the majority.

  Hollywood quickly became so pro-Advisor that almost every new movie and made-for-TV movie featured an alien hero battling the evil corporate ravagers, and really, they weren’t so grotesque once you got used to them, Skylar thought. No taller than pro basketball players, and their smooth paleness was almost iridescent on the movie screen. Of course, she wouldn’t want Miranda to bring one home, but she guessed that by the time her five-year old was bringing home prospective mates, that lingering distaste would seem as quaint as the old horror of black with white did now.

  Chase was another story. At twelve, he was her rebel, her most-likely-to-upset-the-applecart child, and he thought the aliens were cool. It was too soon to know about Moses yet, her last, her dimpled-legged son. At two and a half, he already looked more like Jack than any of them, and she could only pray he’d have Jack’s heart and gentle patience. He would need both in this world.

  Jack said that night while they watched the Nature Channel, “There won’t be any wild places left on the planet, once they’re through with them.” Though an engineer for Lockheed Martin, Jack’s real love was remote wilderness and wild things.

  “Oh for God’s sakes, that’s what they’re here for, to save the wild places forever.” Sky was too tired for courtesy.

  “Yeah, right. Their capital in Alaska? Have you heard what’s going on up there?”

  “I’ve heard what Time says, but I haven’t heard the truth, and neither have you,” she replied, reaching for Miranda with one hand and the hairbrush with the other. Her little girl snuggled against her breasts while Skylar gently untangled her wet hair. It was their little ritual. Oneida was their nanny during the day, but the nighttime belonged to Skylar, and she relished the closeness with her kids. “Why would they want to wreck the planet? That’s what they say we’re doing.”

  “Actually, Bill in Design has a cousin in Juneau, and he says that they’re already shutting down the BP Exploration plant, the central compressor and gas plants, and the power stations at Lisburne and Endicott. After they close down the pipeline, they plan to close down the de-sal plants, too, and they’ve announced that half the fishing fleets will be dry docked.”

  “How’s that going to ruin the wild places? Chase, did you finish your reading project?” she asked her son as he passed through on the way to the kitchen.

  “Yes ma’am,” and he fluffed Miranda’s blonde bangs as he went by.

  “They’re going to shut down the oil companies and the nuclear power plants and maybe make salmon more expensive, but how is that so bad? Look what we’re getting in return,” she said. “Ultimately, won’t that be better for the eco-health all around?”

  Jack grimaced. He had no patience with so many of the new buzz words. “Not when the people up there have to eat all the caribou and burn all the forests to survive. Plenty of them don’t have electricity, you know, they run on generators. And those run on gas. Come here, kitten,” he pulled the now-combed and eager Miranda into his lap. “You all ready for night-night?”

  “I hadda good day, Daddy,” she said, patting his chest. “Moz was bad, though,” she nodded for emphasis. “Tell him, Mama.”

  “Moz wasn’t bad,” Skylar chided her daughter. “Moz was being two. You were two once, Miranda Lou, and you were SO bad. All the time, bad, bad, bad. Just a nasty little girl.”

  Miranda grinned and drummed her pink heels on her father’s leg. “I was not nasty! Moz is nasty!”

  “Well, Moz is dreaming now, and that’s what’s you’re gonna be doing in a heartbeat,” Skylar said, scooping her daughter up and carrying her up the stairs. “Wave night-night to Daddy, and blow him a kiss!” Miranda blew a monster juicy kiss in her father’s direction, and the two disappeared up the stairs.

  “So,” Jack said as Chase settled onto the sofa his Mom had just vacated, “you feeling good about the match on Saturday? Your first start at forward.”

  “Yeah,” Chase nodded, his eyes on the screen. “You coming?”

  “Sure. Pizza after? You got time in your busy schedule?”

  “No worries,” Chase grinned.

  Jack clicked the remote to turn down the volume slightly. “What do the kids say about all this alien stuff? Anybody running for the hills?”

  Chase shrugged. “A few, I guess. Nobody talks about it much anymore. I mean, it’s no big deal, right? They’re just saying what we already know; we got to clean up our act. Maybe this will finally make us get it together.”

  Jack nodded. “Maybe.”

  Another political announcement came on, the same one which was running on almost all stations this week during prime time. The handsome, smoothly American man spoke directly into the camera. “We have lost sight of eternity and infinity,” he said, his voice grave and earnest. “We are destroying nature for future generations. We have become slaves to a system which favors manmade capital over natural and human capital, which favors private goals over the public good. We could not create a common vision. The Advisors are here to help us do so. A unified strategy for the protection and restoration of the planet is what they offer…and we need them. Only with their help can we halt biodiversity loss, achieve carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, water purification, and erosion control world-wide.” The camera moved closer to the speaker, and the lines of sadness and worry were apparent on his intelligent brow. “We need a continuum of eco-health. This is our largest global challenge—“

  Jack sighed and changed the channel.

  “You worried?” Chase asked, direct as always. He never hesitated to ask the hard questions.

  “Some.”

  “You don’t think they’ll keep their promises?”

  “I don’t know what we’ll do if they don’t. We’re going to have to dismantle ourselves and then trust that they’ll give us the alternatives.”

  “What choice do we have?”

  Jack gazed at his eldest son. “Not much, I guess. We’re not used to that. As a country or a species. But I suppose we can adjust.”

  “Do you think we’re going to make it?”

  “Yup,” Jack said, turning the volume back up for So You Think You Can Dance; Skylar would be back for her favorite any minute.

  “Epically lame,” Chase groaned.

  “Yeah,” Jack grinned. “Tell it to your mama, Captain Courageous. I’ll watch.”

  * * *

  The aliens set up their initial bases in most of the wildernesses of America, and those few left in Europe: the northern forests of Wisconsin, parts of Canada, most of Alaska, northern Maine, the Outback in Australia, the Tibetan Plateau in China, Siberia in Russia, the Svalbard in Norway, the Pyrenees, and the Carpathians. From those bases, they spread quickly to all major seaports, capitals, and large metro areas. By best count, their ships numbered more than three thousand, with at least one craft over every city with a million inhabitants. It was reported that they did not leave their ships. They communicated with governments by Internet and television messages, in the same way they communicated with the general populations. No one but the President of the United States intimated that communications were two-way, and nobody but Americans believed him much anyway.

  Another message appeared:

  “All military and civilian aircraft are banned from flight from midnight on June 26th, 2024 until midnight on June 28th, 2024, as Advisor craft will be repositioning. Any craft in the air risks collision.”

  Rumors dominated the news, and the many inconveniences of no air travel for two days, inc
luding mail, package, and frozen organ delivery, cancelled meetings, tourism, and military necessities occupied peoples’ attentions. Several high-ranking airline officials were interviewed on camera, whatever military personnel would accept a microphone, and plenty of businessmen and stranded vacationers were ready to give their opinions of such a dictatorial command. But most remembered that eight airliners had already crashed into the alien crafts world-wide.

  “Well of course, we will comply,” American Airlines President said on-air, “To do anything else would jeopardize our passengers, and as you know, safety is our highest priority.” The Postmaster General reminded everyone that this was no different than an extended holiday, and American Express informed their customers that any lost deposits for travel would be reimbursed, but only for their Platinum customers, as this would count as an Act of God.

  At dinner that night, Chase reported, “My teacher says that once they stop our planes, they can control the planet.”

  Skylar was cutting Moses’ chicken and pushing the small circle of peas on Miranda’s plate closer to her spoon with a gentle nod of encouragement. They dined together as a family, no television, three times a week, something she insisted upon and tried to maintain despite soccer practice, swim team meets, and work schedules. Both sets of grandparents, Jack’s folks who lived in Athens and hers who lived in Macon, had standing invitations to join them anytime. “That’s ridiculous,” she said, “it’s only two days.”