by Paul Byatt
“Steve? “
“Erm, Colonel Rogers,” Ruth stuttered.
“Isn’t he a bit young to be a colonel mum?” asked Thia innocently. She had caught the blush that her mum had exhibited and wanted to prolong the embarrassment.
“Oh no!” yelped her mum, a little bit too loudly, “ He’s younger than me! He’s been a career soldier with the UN. He says it cost him his marriage. His ex-wife didn’t want their daughter to be whisked around the world on the whim of a politician.”
“Unlike you then,” teased Thia, “You don’t seem to mind me leaving school after school.”
“Oh, baby, no! It isn’t like that at…”
“Mum, I’m joking! I love it here, really. It’s brilliant! I’m so excited. Mum, in two weeks we’ll be at the biggest thing ever. We’ll be here in the middle of history!”
“I know darling,” smiled Ruth as she patted her daughter’s long hair. She held the smile, wondering just how lucky she was to have a little girl who took so many changes in her stride, “’In the Middle of History’, that’s a nice phrase.”
Thia gave a pause before she continued, “It was Mr James who said it.”
“Your new teacher? You like him?”
“I think so. Juanita thinks he’s quite cool. Ali reckons he is better than the other teachers he’s had. Yeah, he’s alright.”
“Good. Now, young lady. Bed! You have football in the morning!”
“Yes mum.”
TBT > Angel < Devil: Two weeks!
Devil: I know! My crew and Missioners are getting very excited.
Angel: As are mine. They have also been reassured by the primitive nature of their weaponry, especially for those who have young ones attending the school.
Devil: Agreed, I foresee no major difficulties neutralising any threat. The only problem that arises is keeping our abilities secret.
Angel: Surely only a minor problem? These humans will merely blame their technology if an attempt fails or a failure of nerve if an attack of a more personal nature.
Devil: True, just being my paranoid self again. Apart from their most avid of sci-fi geeks, they would never suspect us; they lack the experience that our crew and Missioners have.
Angel: ‘Sci-fi geeks’. I see you are using more and more of their slang expressions.
Devil: It would be rude not to.
Chapter Six
It was yet another hot and bright day in the middle of the Sri Lankan hills. As it was a Sunday, Thia and her classmates didn’t have any school and nor was there any football training. Thia couldn’t decide if she was annoyed at this or if, as her mum had pointed out, “it will do you good to be out and not chasing a ball for once.”
Her new school friends were with their families having enormous lunches that had been either prepared by chef and her team or, in the case of many, cooked within the family apartment. Thia’s mum was away in Colombo for yet another meeting and she was in reflective mood. She had thought about accepting one of her friends’ invitations to lunch but it felt a bit intrusive to be part of a private family affair; she didn’t doubt that it would have been fun but today she felt like taking a breather from being surrounded by people all of the time.
It was only a week until the arrival of the aliens and the ‘net was in a fever of anticipation, anger, fright and awe. The two ships that were bringing their guests from the stars had been filmed, photographed and followed by any telescope, satellite or space station that was in orbit. The speculation was endless and it was getting all too much.
Thia wanted away from it all. She had taken a while perusing the books in their communal library and chosen something to escape with; The Hobbit. It what her father had chosen to read to her when she was little and she had loved it even though a lot of the details were lost on her at the time.
She was sat underneath one of the many palm trees that had either grown in the compound area prior to the UN invading it or had been imported from another part of the island. She had checked that there were no thambili ready to fall – how embarrassing to have one knock you out as you sat blissfully unaware of the danger above you.
As she made herself comfortable against the trunk she had a moment of panic when she realized that she didn’t have her phone or wristpad with her. Then she remembered that she had come here to get away from the endless updates from her jealous friends all over the world and smiled. She looked around the quiet garden area that had been designed especially for this type of activity and could only hear the crowds of people that surrounded the compound, shouting their demands and pleas. She knew she wasn’t in any danger; she could see the subtle cameras that were all over the compound. There was no getting away with being watched except in their own apartment. Everyone had an unspoken acceptance of it as the price to pay for being privileged.
Thia opened her paperback book and read her favourite opening lines of any book she had read; ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit’. Within moments she was lost in another world, oblivious to the sounds of the many insects and larger creatures that fought for their lives within the confines of the gardens and the humans who thought they were doing the same from without.
Thia was at the Arsenal game with her dad and her uncle. The sun was shining and her team were winning, making all around them very happy. Her mouth was full of the sweets that she and her uncle shared, making her unable to join in the chanting and shouting that her dad enjoyed so much. She looked up to him as he turned his face to hers, beaming a wide smile. She returned the grin as her dad gave her a cuddle and tousled her hair. When she looked up again, she realized that she had tears in her eyes.
“That’s my favourite spot as well,” came the sudden voice, making Thia jump as she woke up and drop the book that had been resting on her stomach. “Oh, god, I’m sorry Thia, I didn’t think you were asleep!”
It was her new teacher, Mr James, standing ten feet away from her and holding a battered book whilst dressed, like her, in shorts and sweaty t-shirt. She quickly snapped back into the real world, subconsciously wiping away the tears that had formed on her face. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” repeated her teacher, “Are you okay Thia? I didn’t mean to frighten you. I thought you were just watching those two,” and pointed at one of the male UN soldiers discussing something urgent with one of the female kitchen workers who stood not twenty feet away.
“No Sir, it’s okay. I was just dreaming.”
“Not a pleasant dream though?” asked her teacher with concern as he dropped to his haunches trying to smile gently.
“Actually Sir, it was. I was dreaming of my dad.”
“Ah.”
“We were at the football.”
“Oh, then it was definitely a good dream then. Were your team winning or losing?”
“Winning of course Sir,”
“Of course; it’s only my team who lose when I remember games that I went to.”
Thia smiled at the look of anguish on her teacher’s face. She tried to make out the book he was holding in his hand and thought she saw ‘Lord of the Rings’. He noticed the look and presented the cover to her, “My favourite book,” he said with a guilty look on his face, “I see you have the prequel to it. An excellent choice young lady.”
“Thank you Sir,” replied Thia and waited for a few seconds as the question formed in her head. “Sir, do you like it here?”
“Do I like it? I love it Thia. You have no idea of how excited I am. As a kid I dreamed of being an astronaut. Silly I know,” he smiled as he caught her look of astonishment, “I’m not clever enough to be up there in space but I am lucky enough to be down here and meet the first visitors from an alien world. It’s the most amazing thing to have been chosen to be your teacher. Sometimes I wake up and just smile at where I am; firstly I’m in Sri Lanka, which is an incredible place and, secondly, I’m going to teach aliens. Wow Thia, I mean wow. I’m right here, right now, in…”
“The middle of history Sir,” continued Thia with a smile re
flecting her teacher perfectly.
“Hmm, quite. So yes, young Miss Chandra, I’m as happy as a pig in shi.. muck. And now, having woken you up, interrupted your lovely dream and intruded on your reading, I need to get back to my apartment because I think I’ve drunk far too much tea, if you know what I mean,” he smirked, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t forget we have football before school.”
“I’ll be there Sir,”
“Of course you will be,” and with that Mr James rose slowly, smiled again and turned back to the teacher’s block where he had been living for the past few weeks.
Chapter Seven
“This is it mum!” shouted Thia as she stood on the football field surrounded by all of her schoolmates and their families. They weren’t allowed to be at the landing site itself because of all of the dignitaries and their hangers-on currently gathered awaiting the most important event in human history.
All eyes were skyward, waiting for the signs of entry into the atmosphere of the alien craft that was deposit over a hundred beings from other planets. The sun was shining again, the crowds outside were quiet, the security provided by the Peacekeepers was obvious and everyone was alert.
Thia was holding her mother’s hand as her neck started to ache at the unnatural angle it was posed in. She lowered her gaze to stare at her companions; a mixture of ages, a mixture of cultures but all with a look of awe on their faces. Many had their phones and cameras ready but Thia didn’t want to do that. She reasoned that there were about ten thousand cameras of better quality than hers to record this momentous event and hers wouldn’t add anything to the mix.
Then there was a gasp. Everyone looked up. There, the trails of smoke that signalled an object in the upper atmosphere moving at the speed of sound. An indistinct shape appeared at the apex of the trail, becoming minutely larger by the second. More gasps as the angle of trajectory changed and then a boom as the sound barrier was breached yet again.
Thia held her mother’s hand even more tightly as the Identified Flying Object became clearer. According to all ‘experts’ on the subject, the craft was capable of short bursts of atmospheric flight given the shape of its wings and fuselage. Everyone agreed that it resembled, somewhat uncannily, the spaceship from an old Amercian Sci-Fi television series called Firefly. The designers of the fictional series had been asked for their technical input but had just shrugged their shoulders, stating that they had just used their imagination.
The craft came towards them at astonishing speed, making all on the football field take an involuntary step backwards. There were a few worried faces now appearing and some of the little ones in the crowd were getting scared.
Then, just as the IFO appeared to be hurtling towards its and their own doom, it slowed on ferocious jets that spat out what looked like steam. Then it gently glided towards its landing spot, currently about five hundred yards from where Thia now stood. There were more gasps but also some “Ahh”s as the people saw more of the details of the spaceship.
What they saw was mostly black, as if the craft was hiding what was contained upon its exterior. To the disappointment of Thia, there were no guns. She shook suddenly in shock as a phalanx of jet fighters flew overhead, an honour guard only.
And then it was gone, disappearing behind the many buildings of the compound. Thia looked up at her mother’s rapt face. “Wow!” she exclaimed.
“Erm, yes, quite!” beamed her mum, “That was exciting!”
“Mum, I’m hungry.”
Chapter Eight
Thia was as nervous as her classmates. They’d all seen the arrival of Ambassador Horgain and the Ceremony hundreds of times on the net and tv’. Thankfully there had been no major problems from the huge crowds of protestors outside – the sheer number of them still startled her when she heard them chanting and screaming from outside the walls. The pictures had shown the aliens arrival where Ambassador Horgain had introduced so many weird and wonderful creatures to the astonished dignitaries, who did their best to be the best humans possible.
King Charles, as representative of the Commonwealth Nations, had been the one to break protocol and, according to many millions, had been the one to shatter the unease that had surrounded the historical meeting of humans with their alien counterparts. By shaking the Ambassador’s hand and then holding him in a friendly embrace, he had made all around them smile. That he had done the same to all who exited from the spaceship, all humanoid but with a startling array of differences, had only reinforced the feeling of goodwill rather than hostility.
There weren’t many who could have got away with that, or so her mum said, but as he wasn’t an elected leader he didn’t have to care.
That the aliens had left no spaceships in orbit around the Earth had placated many; this seemed to an ‘all in’ play with no hint of the subtle dangers shown in the various American sci-fi tv series over the years with huge ‘mother-ships’ hovering over the planet.
Of course, things hadn’t gone so well in Ecuador where their president had been injured in a sudden knife attack orchestrated by his body-guard of all people. Luckily no one had been killed but it had been dangerously close to being a disaster. The president’s intervention was being hailed as heroic as was the action of his wife who had stunned the world by landing a massive punch on the would-be assassin’s head, flooring him. That she had spat on him as he lay prone had only added to her fame.
Thia had discussed this with her new friend, Juanita, who hailed from Chile. Her friend had just said that when you mess with a woman’s husband in any Andean country, you had better bring back-up. Thia liked Jaunita a lot, partly because she was also into her football but also because she had a spikiness that appealed to her. Juanita had already displayed her feistiness during football practice where she had just hacked at Jung Bin’s legs as he went past her in a flurry of speed. Coach Petr had laughed and patted her head even as he sent her off. The victim himself had gotten up and shaken her hand as she left the field in disgrace, something that her new friend would not stop talking about.
Now though, today, this was to be their first meetings with their new alien classmates. As she sat in her pristine classroom with her eight fellow students – “Small class sizes, children,” her new teacher, Mr James, had intoned, “it’s bad enough with trying to teach too many humans and there isn’t a teacher alive who would be able to cope with aliens on top of twenty Earth citizens as well.”
Thia’s mum had kept her busy in the past two days since the landing, so much so that they hadn’t seen each other much. Thia didn’t mind, she could see that her mother was just as excited as everyone else on the planet. Her mum’s job, as far as Thia was able to make out, was to discuss and arrange the visits of various new arrivals to places and people who were part of human enterprise. This ranged from important businessmen, charities, Kings and Queens, Sporting Organisations, Environmental groups to scientists in Antarctica. Her mum seemed to be loving it, smiling for the first time since New York.
The tiny class sat still as Mr James nodded at something he had been told through his unobtrusive ear-piece. “Right kids, here we go.” Thia had spent hours, along with her other classmates learning about their three new arrivals. Merliengata was from the world called Finiry, a planet remarkably similar to Earth. She was the most human-looking of the three; she looked like her uncle Ambassador Horgain in every respect. Thursan was a young male from the planet that was said to be like Venus in its heat and toxicity. To even be here, he was said to have to wear a skin-suit that enabled him to breathe oxygen although from the images of him sent to them so far it would seem that it merely made him look jaundiced. His ears, four of them, and his eyes, three of them, had freaked everyone out when they first saw the pics.
The third new arrival was to be Princess Chelima, fourth in line to the throne of the planet Sinkery, a planet that they had been told had a landmass equal to six Earths. She was, like her professor uncle who had been the third to disembark from the spaceship, humanoid
in stature, pale to the point of transparency but with the ‘normal’ amount of arms. That each arm ended in seven digits had excited everyone but it was her white hair that had picked up by all of the magazines and online gossip sites – it was as long as she was tall and seemed to move independently of her, acting like a cat curling up around her on occasion and then like a flock of seagulls when she sensed confusion or danger.