The Alpha Choice

by M. D. Hall

‘I understand.’

  He pressed the disconnect button before turning to his visitors and holding out his hands, palms upturned. ‘I’m all yours...’

  A minute later the three of them were leaving his office. Hugo separated himself from the Te'ans, as they passed Liz’s desk. On her feet by now, she smiled and told him, in a quiet voice, that she would be there when he returned. That meant, whenever he returned. Hugo knew there was no point in trying to dissuade her, so simply nodded, but remained silent.

  In another three minutes, he was leaving the building through the public foyer, flanked closely on either side by his clients, as though they were afraid he might make a break for it as soon as he had the chance.

  They had refused the offer of his car to travel to their secret destination. Instead, a black limousine swept into the ‘no parking’ zone at the front of the building. The driver, a well muscled, taciturn man who could easily have been Beron’s older, bigger brother stepped out from the driver’s door, and with a swift, fluid movement was at the rear of the car, holding the door open for his passengers.

  Tala and Beron both entered the rear of the limousine, leaving Hugo alone on the sidewalk with Beron’s brother. He wondered if this was meant to provide him with one last opportunity to pull out. Perhaps he was imagining it, but he felt certain, the moment he entered this car there would be no turning back.

  The driver displayed no signs of impatience, in fact, no signs of any emotion at all, and appeared ready to wait by the side of the car for as long as it took Hugo to decide. The lawyer stepped into the cabin, seating himself opposite the Te'ans, so he faced the rear window. A split second later, the driver was behind the wheel and the enormous car, without further ado or words from the occupants, slid away.

  The journey was uncluttered by conversation. These people, Hugo thought, don't waste time on pleasantries. They were taken westwards, and after almost two hours of silence, turned north. Another hour and they were on country roads that were strange to him. He soon lost track of how many turns they had taken, or how far they had travelled, when they turned right and down a long single track. Hugo felt sure their journey must be coming to an end and did not anticipate any oncoming traffic, his visitors would ensure no such ‘inconveniences’ would spoil what they had in store for him. This road, he just knew, was used only by his clients, and he was about to be proved right.

  Hoping to glean some clues as to what awaited him from his surroundings, he looked around, but the road was a series of bends in a narrow track. Each side was edged with tall hedgerow which, in places, became trees so thick with foliage, they formed an impenetrable barrier, making it impossible to see beyond. After another few minutes they exited the green tunnel, to be bathed in sunlight, then slowed almost to a stop, suggesting they had arrived at their destination.

  He turned his head around in eager anticipation, and was disappointed by what lay before them: abandoned farm buildings, with no through road. This was as far as they were going. He wondered whether they might have taken a wrong turn, when the large doors to a barn, immediately in front of them, slid open enough to permit twelve figures to emerge, three abreast.

  The group were equally split between men and women, all dressed as immaculately as his clients. Now clear of the barn, they stood in a semi circle, facing the new arrivals. He was unable to see past them into the barn, but even if he could, the opening was so narrow he doubted whether it would have revealed anything. There was no mistake, he had arrived at his destination.

  The limousine stopped some way short of the waiting group. Tala, then Beron exited the vehicle moments after it stopped. Hugo, again marvelled at the speed of the driver, it should have been impossible for anyone to move that fast, but he was not just anyone, as Hugo reminded himself.

  As he was last to enter the car, so he was last to leave. Standing outside, he saw two SUVs and no signs of advanced alien technology.

  Tala, with Beron slightly behind her, approached the semi circle, and despite receiving no offer to accompany them, Hugo thought it prudent to remain close behind. The waiting Te'ans parted before the newcomers, allowing them to pass. No words were exchanged.

  Approaching the group, it struck him that the reception committee would not have been out of place at any photo shoot. They were all strikingly good looking, seemingly made up of a number of racial groups: Chinese, African, Latin and Caucasian, but for the fact that none of them were what they appeared to be, maybe this is their way of saying. ‘Hey we’re just like you, trust us.’ A cynical ploy, to convince me they’re more similar, than dissimilar to humans…Tellurians? Whatever the reason for their presence, they were fulfilling no purpose, that Hugo could discern. Once through, he looked back. The gap had closed and the group continued to look outwards. Come on, you must be just a little curious...no? It’s your loss.

  From the reception, it seemed to Hugo that Tala and Beron - although from all he had seen and heard, he suspected only Tala - held positions of some importance, and from the lack of apparent communication it was obvious his own presence was expected. So much for free will, he thought.

  As they neared the barn, the door opened wider. Without pausing, his companions stepped across the threshold, and waited a short way inside. Hugo followed suit, and when his eyes adjusted to the poor light he discovered he was in a large…barn. Looking around, there was nothing to remotely suggest any technical wizardry. About to say something that would inform them precisely how he felt about having his time wasted, Tala turned to him. ‘Follow me.’ Having spoken her first words since they were in his office, she then walked away, leaving Beron behind, evidently the invitation was exclusive.

  Hugo felt his ire subside, and meekly followed her as she moved over to a simple stall for housing a farm animal, most likely a horse. At each corner of the stall was an innocuous wooden post that had seen better days. Tala stood between the two furthest posts, and gestured for him to move forward to a position between the two nearest to him.

  When he was standing where she had guided him, she spoke again, with a glint in her eyes. ‘Did you seriously think we’d leave our technology on display, for anyone to stumble across?’ She shook her head, genuinely bemused by his naïveté.

  He was about to say something, when the barn disappeared and was replaced by a vast hanger. It was probably the most apposite description in view of there being numerous vessels, similar to those he saw in the hologram, suspended at different heights and in varying stages of construction.

  It was impossible for him to gauge the size of the structure. He remembered an old science fiction movie he saw when young, in which the characters entered a vast subterranean complex so deep, it seemed to his young mind, to descend, forever. This structure was on par with what he remembered. Maybe not as deep, but the sheer sense of awe reminded him of how he felt as a kid.

  Directly ahead of him, suspended in mid-air, was one of the flying craft. There were differences to the ship in the demonstration; this one was a lot smaller and had more wing-like appendages suggesting, to his non-scientific mind, that it was expected to be more manoeuvrable, although he suspected it had more to do with the ‘dumbing down’ of Te'an technology, that Tala mentioned. Still, he had never seen anything so stunning. In size, he estimated it to be three times the length of a transatlantic aircraft. The short, stubby wings were both to the centre and rear of the craft, while positioned centrally above the rear wings was a tail fin. The silvered body was deep with room for, at least, twenty rows of windows running laterally, not that it had any windows! He guessed it would comfortably accommodate over a thousand passengers.

  It had no visible means of support, and there were no engines on view. Other than the fins, the entire body was smooth and unbroken. There were technicians at various points at the outer skin of the craft, working on areas exposed by the removal of panels, both the technicians, and the panels were floating near to the craft, and in the case of the panels, completely motionless.

  Teari
ng his eyes from the huge ship he allowed his gaze to extend to the rest of the ‘hanger.’ While still in awe of the sheer size of the enclosure, he was able to guesstimate about sixty vessels of varying sizes, some surrounded by free-floating gantries.

  He then turned his attention to the enclosure itself. On all sides were windows on so many levels, it was impossible to even guess their number. The height of the walls, he estimated to be about half a mile, maybe more, while the length and width of the hanger were impossible to gauge. How could they construct something like this, without anyone knowing? he asked himself/

  He had no idea how long he stared at the sight, with so many more questions flooding into his mind, but they would have to wait. Turning to Tala, who had been patiently waiting at his side, he gave her the answer she had waited for, and expected. ‘I’m convinced, when do we start?’

  ‘As you can see,’ she looked around the vast space laid out before them, before returning her gaze to the mesmerised Tellurian, ‘we’ve already started. Similar installations exist at several locations on this continent, as well as other parts of your planet. It’s our wish that the other plants remain a secret until the venture has received global acceptance. Your task is, amongst other things, to legitimise all of this. Most of the construction work has been done, and there are a number of levels below this, where other work is in progress.’

  A question, which had been buried beneath the overwhelming weight of all he had just seen, resurfaced. ‘How did we get here?’

  Her reply was matter of fact. ‘We teleported,’ rather than wait for the obvious follow on question, she continued. ‘As I informed you, our teleportation technology is incomplete. Site-to-site defined teleportation is the current level of our ability,’ she could see the look of disappointment on his face. ‘We are advanced beyond your imagining, yet there are races who are far more developed, and others with powers we can’t even guess. Beyond that, who knows what beings use the cosmos as their playground?’

  For a moment she appeared lost in thought, gazing out at that midpoint between here and there, with no point of focus then, as quickly as she had found her moment of contemplation, she retreated from it. ‘As I was saying, our teleportation takes place within confined and carefully delineated areas, such as a building, a ship or,’ she swept an arm across the vast hanger, ‘a facility such as this. We construct a field around a designated area within which the teleport stations can operate. The field can’t be extended to cover an entire planet, or an area beyond the smallest part of it, the energy it would take is far beyond what even we are capable of generating.’

  She looked past him, and following her line of sight, he saw they were standing next to a black post, no taller than an average man’s height, completely unembellished and standing on its own. He recalled the posts in the stall, and while they had the appearance of being old and worn, they looked very similar.

  ‘Two of the posts in the stall are teleport stations, just like this, save for the camouflage, the others are merely dummies to provide visual symmetry to prying eyes.’

  He noticed several more of the lonely posts scattered, seemingly at random.

  ‘As long as you’re close enough to a station, and form the thought to be teleported, it will activate and send you to your chosen destination.’

  ‘How does it work?’ He asked.

  ‘To put it simply, you’re displaced from your current location and moved to another. You’re not ‘broken down’ into your component particles rather, a hole is briefly opened in space-time and you’re moved through it. Of course, the system checks that there’s no one in your destination space. If it’s occupied by either an object or a person, you’ll be sent to the nearest available station.’

  ‘How could I think about using a system I didn’t even know existed?’

  ‘I arranged that in advance. It’s possible to utilise the station for teleports of several people at once, by sensing multiple presences and logging the thought patterns of everyone present. The stations will never teleport anyone without their knowledge, or consent…’ Hugo tried to interrupt, but she ignored him. ‘As we anticipated this demonstration, it was a simple matter to set the station to override its programming, subject of course, to overarching safety protocols,’ then, seemingly as an afterthought, she added. ‘I hope we haven't offended you?’

  Resentment had been slowly creeping into his thoughts, at the idea of someone manipulating what happened to him, and considering it unnecessary to ask his permission, but in the light of all he had seen and experienced, it seemed childish to voice any objection, so he put it down to cultural differences. ‘Of course not,’ he replied. He noticed a minute change in Tala’s demeanour, which gainsaid her apology. He sensed that she knew exactly how he felt, but did not really care.

  ‘Let’s go somewhere more private to talk,’ she inclined her head in the direction of two teleport stations positioned side by side, ‘with your permission?’

  He nodded and the two of them stepped towards the teleport posts. Almost immediately, he found himself standing beside a similar post in a large, circular windowless room, where he counted nine metal workstations, each with a chair attached.

  Walking over to one of the stations, he touched it. Expecting to feel cool metal, he struggled to describe the sensation, the nearest he could conjure was comfort. At a guess, he would say the surface was matching his body temperature, and while the material looked like brushed steel, it felt soft and inert without having much give. He had to admit that despite being decidedly odd, it was quite a pleasant experience. The top of the unit was completely flat, no terminals or buttons to be seen. Tala joined him. ‘May I?’ she asked.

  Hugo moved to one side, as she sat at the unit and apparently, did nothing. A hologram appeared above the station, and within her line of sight. It was populated with three-dimensional diagrams and symbols, which meant nothing to him. Standing up, she beckoned him to take her place at the console. As he had an excellent view of what was in the hologram, the point escaped him, but he complied anyway.

  No sooner had he sat down, than the most extraordinary thing happened; the seat instantly moulded itself to his form, and then applied further adjustments, which very quickly, adjusted his posture. At no point did it feel uncomfortable, but then he became aware of, rather than felt, minute pulses passing through the chair. Within no more than three-seconds of taking the seat he felt comfortable, and alert.

  The surprises did not stop there. The hologram expanded to fill most of his field of vision, although he could clearly see through it, to the rest of the room. As he looked at the images floating in front of him, he moved his attention, from the diagram nearest to him, to one positioned behind it. Immediately, the rearmost image repositioned itself, so that it was foremost. He tried it again, with collections of symbols and other diagrams and, on each occasion, the image he focused on came to the forefront of the hologram. He then tried something he was convinced, would not work. As the symbols were meaningless to him, Tala’s native language should also be indecipherable. Never mind, here goes, he thought. Looking at two disparate images at opposite edges of the hologram, he imagined them being side by side at the top of his field of vision. As the thought formed, the two images appeared, just as he wanted them. He looked at Tala, who was smiling. ‘The console recognises your thoughts, irrespective of your language. It’s capable of acting upon your instructions and, as they didn’t conflict with the safety of the ship, or its crew, enabled them.’

  Hugo was speechless, almost. ‘Amazing,’ just about summed up how he felt. ‘I don't suppose it’s possible to take us somewhere in this ship?’

  Without replying, Tala turned to face the only flat wall, which Immediately transformed from being completely blank, to a myriad of diagrams and symbols, some of which were changing while others remained constant. The images were superimposed over one single, vivid image encompassing the whole wall, Earth, as viewed from orbit.

  Hugo had seen pictu
res and video shots taken from space, but nothing so striking. As Tala turned back to face him, he asked. ‘Is that image real?’ she nodded, and he became confused. ‘You told me you couldn't teleport outside of the hanger.’

  ‘We didn’t,’ came the simple reply.

  ‘Then how did we get here?’

  ‘We teleported onto the ship, which then moved into orbit around your planet.’

  ‘But, I didn't feel us move.’

  ‘That,’ Tala replied, ‘is simple enough to explain. The field enabling teleportation within a controlled area, also acts upon every particle of our bodies, so as to maintain a constant equilibrium between us and the movement of the ship. In this way, we can maintain integrity on the subatomic level, and can be subjected to extreme gravitational forces with no ill effects,’ she paused before adding. ‘The same field produces a localised gravitational effect.’

  ‘Unbelievable,’ replied Hugo, ‘but surely the field can't stretch all the way up here?’

  ‘It doesn’t have to. Each ship has its own field generator, which maintains inertial and gravitational constants.’

  He could hardly contain his excitement, a fact that did not go unnoticed. ‘Before you get too excited, let me remind you that while both parts of the field will be given to your people, these craft will have their ability to travel beyond your solar system, severely restricted.’

  The lawyer in him refused to believe that the non-negotiability she had spoken of, was an absolute, but his honed instincts also told him, this was neither the time, nor the place for that discussion.

  Tala thought it an exquisite irony that the very thing the Tellurians would strive to obtain would, ultimately, be their downfall. Not that she intended leaving anything to chance, the matter would be taken out of Tellurian hands, after all, she reminded herself, we have a strict timetable. She returned her attention to the wall with its majestic image of the planet below, and without any sensation of movement, the scale of the image increased exponentially until, seconds later, the scene was now the inside of the hanger. The speed of the transition was such that it was impossible for Hugo to tell how they managed to enter the hanger, it also left him a little light headed.