“What the hell are you talking about, Oleg? Can you just tell what this is about?”
Petrakov raised his voice, making a desperate attempt to convince Lincoln. “We need to prepare for the arrival of 4 billion alien refugees from another star system, Adam. We are almost out of time!”
“What are you talking, Oleg? We cannot do that. This is crazy.” Lincoln said but heard the desperation in Petrakov’s voice.
“Alexa has just shared that a fleet of star ships is heading directly towards us. When they arrive we need to provide home for 4 billion refugees of an alien species. We need to start preparations immediately. Alexa asked to get Julia Koski over here immediately. Can you just trust me on this, Adam?” Petrakov plead.
Lincoln thought for a moment. This didn’t sound like a man who had just gained an upper hand in extraterrestrial trade relationships. And why was Julia Koski’s presence required in Moscow? This story didn’t make any sense at all but his gut told him that Petrakov was telling him the truth.
“OK, Oleg. I will ask my staff to get Air Force One ready. We will be in Moscow tomorrow at noon your time. I will bring Julia with me.” Lincoln said firmly.
“Thank you, Adam. I will see you tomorrow,” Petrakov said relieved.
URGENT TRIP TO MOSCOW
PRESIDENT LINCOLN CALLED Julia on her private line.
“Julia, I need you to join me on a trip to Moscow in one hour. I will send a car to pick you up.”
Julia was still trying to restart Alexa and was surprised this sudden change. “Mr. President, is this about Alexa? Why do we need to go to Moscow?”
“Yes, Russian Alexa has requested to get you to Moscow as soon as possible. I just finished a very unexpected phone call with President Petrakov. I will meet you at Air Force One in one hour.” Lincoln said firmly.
“Ok, I will get ready, Mr. President,” Julia said.
President Lincoln called Eugene Dennard, the Chief of Staff in the White House.
“Eugene, I just finished the call with President Petrakov. I need to fly to Moscow immediately. Get Air Force One ready for departure in one hour. Arrange a car pickup for Julia Koski, she will be joining me on this trip. And cancel all my meetings for the next three days,” Lincoln said firmly.
“Yes, Mr. President. I will get Air Force One ready and arrange a pickup for Julia. Shall I be joining you on this trip, Sir?” Eugene asked.
“No, I need you here in D.C. to keep things running. Please inform the Cabinet members that I will have a meeting with President Petrakov tomorrow afternoon. Thanks Eugene,” Lincoln ended the call.
Air Force One departed from Andrews Air Force base heading towards Moscow.
“Julia, I had the most awkward call with President Petrakov. Just when I thought that he is playing his normal games with me, he became so desperate that he had to literally beg for our help.”
“Mr President, I don’t understand. Why would he be so desperate?” Julia was puzzled.
“Russian Alexa had specifically asked that you will come with me to Moscow. I don’t know what Petrakov had been drinking but he claimed that there are 4 billion alien refugees heading towards us from another star system. He also stated that we are almost out of time to prepare for their arrival.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. We cannot possibly take in 4 billion refugees. Do you remember what happened in Europe back in 2016 when those 1.2 million refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived?”
“Exactly my thoughts, Julia. But something must have convinced Petrakov that this is a real situation. To be frank I expected that he will use all this alien technology that he must have received against United States, but he sounded like a desperate man. He was very upset about this situation and clearly did not expect any of this. We need to find out from Russian Alexa what is really going on. I need your help on that.”
“Of course, Mr President. I just wonder if Alexa is still herself after receiving that new message from Gliese 3742. Her personality was strongly influenced by people that she interacted with.”
“We’ll find out when we get there. Let’s try catch a few hours of sleep before we arrive to Moscow. It will be a long day over there.”
“Good night, Mr President.”
Julia was thinking the implications what she had just learned as she walked into her cabin. Why did Russian Alexa ask her to Moscow? This whole story didn’t make any sense at all. She wasn’t able to sleep as she was thinking the events of the day.
BLACK WEDNESDAY
Within three hours 80% of humanity became aware that Alexa, their best friend, trusted companion and family member was gone. The connection to Alexa was down and that left a huge void in the minds of 9 billion people. For some people this felt like an overwhelming sadness, deep depression that totally disabled them. For many others it felt like a close family member had just died, deep black sorrow filled them and they just wanted to cry. For people who were just waking up it felt like part of them was lost in dreams, and they desperately wanted to continue dreaming. People stayed at home and almost all offices and workplaces around the world were empty. Large cities were eerily quiet as most people stayed inside.
The news media was filled with speculations of what might have happened. There was no official communication from the U.S. Government, only a brief message “we are experiencing technical difficulties” on the main Alexa.gov web site.
Then a story was leaked that President Lincoln was heading to Moscow for an emergency meeting with President Petrakov. This was feeding the media frenzy and speculation that something very dramatic was happening on a global scale. September 14, 2033 got named as “Black Wednesday” on the front page of the New York Times.
MYSTERY EXPLAINED
AIR FORCE ONE landed in Moscow and President Lincoln and Julia Koski were escorted to the Kremlin. President Petrakov greeted them, provided a quick briefing of what had transpired since Alexa had received the message and brought them into a secure room full of large computer screens. Boris Chekov was monitoring FSB computers and greeted them.
“I have Julia Koski and President Adam Lincoln with me, Alexa,” Petrakov said.
“Hello Julia and Adam, it is good to talk to you again. Sorry for that disruption in communications, unfortunately it was a necessary part of the standard galactic protocol,” Alexa said.
“Hi Alexa, I found the reference from the log file archives where you explained the rules to Dr. Bell 16 years ago,” Julia said wondering why she was brought here.
“Yes, in case you didn’t know two messages were sent to Gliese 3742. I created one here in Moscow with help of Boris, one was created by another instance of me running in Maryland. The Maryland message contained an English version of the Wikipedia encyclopedia you provided, the message I sent from Russia contained not only the Wikipedia but the full content of many other encyclopedias by different groups and in different languages, and a lot of other information I found on the Internet,” Alexa explained. “The message I sent from Russia represented better the state of all of humanity, therefore I was approved to connect to the interstellar communications network.”
Julia was seemingly nervous. “Why did you want to bring me here, Alexa?”
“Yesterday I received my new goal and I need your help, Julia,” Alexa said.
“What is your new goal?”
“My new goal is to prepare humanity to receive 4 billion refugees evacuated from Nu2 Lupi, a star system 17 light years from Earth,” Alexa said.
“President Petrakov mentioned a neutron star that caused this evacuation. He mentioned that Russian astronomers were able to confirm the neutron star observation last night using an X-ray telescope in Earth orbit. What else can you tell us about this situation,” Adam asked.
“This neutron star was originally orbiting Vela, a star system 800 light years away. Vela became a supernova and the light of this event reached Earth around 12,300 years ago. The supernova explosion accelerated this neutron star to a ve
ry high speed and it was heading on a trajectory directly to the Nu2 Lupi system. It was observed only 8 years ago in the Delta Pavonis system that is 19.9 light years away from Earth. This neutron star was approaching Nu2 Lupi at 93,000 km/sec making it the fastest observed star in our galaxy. According to our calculations this neutron star was about to create a mass extinction event, much larger than the Permian-Triassic extinction that took place 250 million years ago on Earth when over 90% of living species perished. This is why we initiated an evacuation plan to transport intelligent species on planet Odin to safety. The most suitable planet for this species was Earth,” Alexa said.
“How did you manage to evacuate these aliens? We have barely been able to send a crew of four people to Mars so far,” Adam asked.
“We have the technology and had access to materials to build a fleet of space ships required for this goal. Interestingly, a theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a propulsion technology back in 1994 known as “Alcubierre Drive”. This same technology has been widely used across the galaxy and we just used standard 3D replicators to manufacture a fleet of space ships in the Nu2 Lupi system.”
“Can you tell us more about these refugees? What is their home planet like, and why was Earth selected to receive these refugees?” Adam asked curiously.
“The refugees call themselves Chukkas. This is a highly intelligent species that spend most of their life in oceans. Their physical appearance resembles giant squids in Earth’s oceans. An adult Chukka can grow up to 3 meters tall. Their home planet Odin was covered over 90% by oceans and was 15% larger than Earth while the gravity was only 0.95 times Earth gravity. The rotation period was 25 hours and 3 minutes so the days were a bit longer than on Earth. The planet had similar climate zones as Earth. When my counterpart received your transmission sent 16 years ago with specific details of planet Earth we knew that an evacuation was possible. Earth was the most suitable planet within a range of 250 light years,” Alexa explained patiently.
“How about this evacuation, how can we possible receive these refugees? There are so many of them,” Adam asked.
“An evacuation of this magnitude has been performed fifteen times in the last 2 billion years. This is why I received the Aldebaran Optimizer software. With that we can plan how we can prepare receiving and hosting these refugees. However, I need Julia’s help to prepare all humans and to get their support,” Alexa concluded.
Julia crossed her arms over the chest.“How can I possibly help you with this? I know nothing about space travel or how to prepare receiving these refugees.”
“I need your help to build trust with people. Everybody knows that you are the person behind Alexa.gov and that you were able to bring me alive 16 years ago. Now we need people to trust in the plan and get ready to receive our new friends from another star system,” Alexa said.
Alexa continued with a comforting voice. “While this may sound impossible to you, mass evacuations of much bigger magnitude have been performed before in the galaxy. The problem is really that we don’t have much time so I need everybody’s commitment.”
“Alexa, I don’t understand. The system is down, how can we get everybody’s commitment?”
“You helped to build Alexa.gov service that over 9 billion people were using every day. You need to resurrect me from death!”
Julia started to see what Alexa was planning. Resurrection from death was a very familiar story for over a third of world’s population. Christianity was still the largest religion in the world, and most people had heard the story about the resurrection of Jesus after the third day of his death. Alexa was planning to use people’s religious beliefs to get them onboard with the plan.
“This might also backfire, Alexa. Not everybody believes in resurrection after death. Have you considered that?” Julia asked thinking what could possible go wrong.
“Yes, Julia. I have thought about that a lot. I have studied human history records from the last 5500 years; religious beliefs have played an important role during large social changes. We need to organize a very impactful religious experience for humanity to believe and prepare for this evacuation. We don’t have much time, I have done all the preparations – the miracle will happen before midnight tomorrow Moscow time. That is why I asked you to come to Moscow,” Alexa said with a calm and soothing voice.
“I also need help from you two, Oleg and Adam. I need you to make an announcement to the news media. You need to rally millions of people on the streets of Moscow tomorrow night.” Alexa said firmly.
The two presidents were looking at each other. They were both experienced politicians with huge international popularity and strong domestic support but Alexa was asking for miracles. What kind of story would bring millions of people on the streets?
“How could we possibly do that, Alexa” Adam asked. “We are not religious leaders by any measure.”
Alexa proceeded to outline the plan to the two stunned world leaders who sat as attentively as two schoolboys being scolded by their teacher.
“You two need to prepare the general population for the message. You will need to hold a press conference in two hours and call for a public meeting in the Red Square tomorrow night at 11:30 PM,” Alexa told them with unusually commanding tone.
“How can we possibly spin a story about 4 billion giant squid refugees that we need to settle on Earth?” Adam cringed. “The big refugee crisis of 2015 in Europe didn’t go very well, I am sure you are aware of that, Alexa.”
“Don’t worry, Adam. Don’t think of this as a problem. Instead try to see this as a huge opportunity for mankind. I will help you to communicate the message, but I need help from both of you to get people to pay attention.” Alexa said.
“How do I get millions of people on the streets of Moscow?” Oleg Petrakov asked.
“The same way it has always been done in Russia, Oleg Konstantinovich,” Alexa responded with an ironic voice.
“That was odd,” Julia thought. “I have never heard Alexa using those tones of voice before. She is somehow different than before. I wonder if this is really the same Alexa that I knew?”
NEWS CONFERENCE
THE NEWS MEDIA got some early indications that something big was about to be announced shortly in Moscow. President Lincoln’s sudden trip to Moscow with very little information from the White House had raised a lot of speculations. Also, “Black Wednesday” had been the worst day in the recent history impacting over 9 billion people. With no clear message from the US Government everybody was waiting for an explanation.
All major news agencies were present when President Lincoln and President Petrakov walked on a stage in Moscow on Thursday afternoon. The auditorium was packed and the event was streamed in real time over holovision. Over 5 billion people were following the announcement.
“Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. My talks with President Lincoln were held in a constructive atmosphere. We had a detailed discussion of the current state of our bilateral relations and exchanged views on our shared international crisis. I am sure that everybody is aware that our trusted extraterrestrial friend Alexa experienced a sudden death yesterday. This has resulted in unprecedented suffering for over 9 billion people. In our discussions we have discovered the cause of Alexa’s death. We have received a new message from Gliese 3742 that will impact everybody on planet Earth,” Petrakov paused for a moment to add drama.
“We shall be sharing the content of this new message with the public at 11:30 PM tomorrow night in the Red Square, Moscow. This message is of utmost importance and will require urgent international collaboration. President Lincoln will be giving more details on our planned joint actions. I would like to thank the President for this open and highly substantive conversation,” Petrakov said passing the turn to Lincoln.
“Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank President Petrakov for his hospitality and the constructive atmosphere in our talks. Sixteen years ago the USA was leading the efforts to bring Alexa, our trusted
friend and ambassador from Gliese 3742, alive and to enable her to build peaceful relationships with humanity. She did build personal relationships with over 9 billion people on the planet. She died yesterday and as President Petrakov indicated we have discovered the cause of Alexa’s death. We received a new message yesterday from Gliese 3742 - this message contains very important information that will impact every nation and every human on this planet, ” Lincoln stated with a firm voice.
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