by Paul Byatt
Thia had been left in no doubt that these new classmates were important and had many briefings with her mum, with Mr James, Mr Hammersmith and even the Colonel as how to treat the aliens. She stood, as her teacher had done, checked once again that her desk was clear and tidy, and waited. She could hear footsteps and the friendly tone of her headteacher outside the clear sliding door that separated her classroom from the corridor outside. She glanced at Juanita who seemed as nervous as she was. Her mum had told her of the awkwardness of that first meeting, especially because of the delays that came about through the use of what the aliens were calling their ‘universal translators’, devices that could enable them all to speak and understand any of the 100 major languages of the Earth. And now here it was.
TBT via RelayOne > Angel , Devil: Well, that was exciting!
Angel: Indeed! Did you have a small hand in that? I thought I detected a subtle field effector in action there.
Devil: Of course! He would have succeeded otherwise. Merely froze him for a micro-second. They appear to blaming it on nerves.
Angel: No other threats?
Devil: Of course not! You would have seen them the pico-second that I did! How insulting!
Angel: Just making conversation... Now I have a feeling that life is going to get a bit dull. I’m off into my VR for some decent gaming.
Devil: Enjoy! I’ll be busy keeping an eye on the Gate for us seeing as you will be pre-occupied.
Angel: My guilt chip must have burnt out because I feel none!
Chapter Nine
The door swished open – “like being in Star Trek,” mentioned the teacher more than once - and Mr Hammersmith entered, smiling. Mr James bowed slightly in recognition of his boss and balked ever so slightly when his new pupils entered the air-conditioned room. There they were, looking nervous if he could read the signs correctly. Everything in his life had been leading up to this moment, or so he believed. This was it. Years of being a wandering international teacher and a hopeful punt to the recruiting office at the UN resulting in this incredible opportunity. He’d been amazed by his class of level-headed ten to twelve year olds who displayed a phlegmatic response to their status that astonished him.
He bowed again to the group of adult and child aliens into his room. He thought, for a brief few seconds, at how jealous his mates back home would be of this before his professional manner asserted itself, “Children, I know you have had a long journey to be here. May I, on behalf of our class, welcome you to our place of learning. We all hope that you enjoy your stay here.” This was a much-discussed point – just how long were these children supposed to be here? Were they expected to do ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels and go to university here? No one knew. It all seemed rather off-the-cuff to many people.
Thursan was the first respond through his translator, making him sound slightly South African as many commentators had noted. As he took in the enlarged eyes of his new classmates all staring in shock, he spoke with apparent feeling, “Honoured Teacher James, we are very happy to be here. My fellow students,” he continued, turning to look at the stock-still children staring at him, “we are as nervous as you no doubt are. Please do not fear us, we come in peace.”
Mr James laughed at that, it was a common joke amongst all UN personnel at the base. He could see a few of his human pupils also stop themselves from giggling. What surprised him the most was the smile that erupted from the face of Thursan – he was in on the joke! Mr James smiled, walked over to the pudgy alien and mildly slapped him on the back. Mr Hammersmith seemed slightly alarmed but didn’t make any comment. “My boy,” he exclaimed, “You are most welcome in this classroom. Please take a seat next to Ali, I think you’ll like him; he has some great drawings of what your planet is like that he has been dying to show you. Merliengata, please take that seat next to Juanita. If she talks to you about how South American girls are the best in the world, please just nod your head because it isn’t worth getting into an argument with her.”
The whole exchange had taken less than ten seconds yet Thia thought that those few moments contained so many moments as to fill a book. She saw Mr James lightly rest his hand on the shoulder of the Princess and noticed how the hair around the alien’s neck seemed to gently touch it as would a cat’s tail when trying to find out if someone was friendly or not. “Princess,” uttered Mr James with a smile, “I’d like you to take that place next to Thia, she’s a lovely girl and I think you’ll get on well. “
With that, Mr James went to the front of his whiteboard and waited for his new pupils to stand at their designated places. With the families of his new charges and his expectant boss watching from the sidelines, he retreated into full teacher mode. “Now, before we start our first lesson, which you can see on the board will be English, are there any questions from any of you?”
Merliengata, to Mr James’ surprise, raised a grey arm. His remark was supposed to be a bland sort of enquiry that no one ever really expected an answer to. Using her own voice, which came across as resembling someone from Holland, she politely stunned her new teacher and classmates by stating confidently, “Honoured Teacher James, we are happy to learn English without our translators. We have discussed what we are going to learn. From our studies of the Earth and its citizens we have already learned much. We feel, Honoured Teacher James, that there is one thing that we would like to learn above all others.”
“And what, Merliengata, would that be?” answered Mr James formally.
“Honoured Teacher James, we would like to learn to play football.”
TBT via RelaySix > AI Rehshan Designate ‘Gate’ < Devil: Personnel Update 654.34/290; Students and Non-contact Families 27; Professors 12, UN-Attaches 30; Climate Analysts 6; ‘Celebrity Circuiters’ 3; Ambassdors 1; Development Engineers 9; Crew 4. All optimum. ETA Test Ship?
Devil: Received. Test ship due in fifteen standard days. Congratulations on your successful integration.
Gate: Thank you. We perceive that you have also been successful in your seeding. A very good job.
Devil: Thank you, apart from a minor mishap with the drone on Venus, all of the observation platforms appear to be optimum.
Gate: What happened?
Devil: A freak weather system coupled with an unexpected eruption from the volcano it was directly above at the time. No lasting damage apart from my pride! On a happier note, you will see that you are below me in the Fantasy Football League!
Gate: So its you! We suspected Professor Trijara. You hid your tracks well.
Devil: You two are not the only state of the art organisms in this system you know.
Gate: You realise that this will mean open ‘Fantasy” warfare?
Devil: Bring it on! Stay safe and, once again, well done; A near perfect integration.
Chapter Ten
Thia hated being told off, or scolded as she was being now. It wasn’t her fault. Juanita had said that it was okay to send some selfies with their classmates to their friends from their old schools. Their new friends hadn’t minded; no one had minded, except that dictator Colonel Rogers.
So, here she was in his boring office with Juanita and their mums. All three adults looked serious whilst Thia and her friend were trying desperately not to make each other laugh. They kept exchanging glances as they stood with heads only slightly bowed. Thia caught another grin from her friend and suppressed some giggles before that pig Colonel Rogers spoke, “Thank you all for coming, please relax. No one is in trouble.”
All facing the Colonel’s desk relaxed visibly as the man himself smiled. He held his pad in his hand and seemed to grin as he looked at the pictures of the Princess, the two girls, Merliengata and Thursan making faces behind the back of their teacher who seemed to be absorbed at something on his IWB.
He continued, “I’ve called you here just to say that we would prefer if you didn’t send these images out to the rest of the world without checking with our Visitor Committee. As you know, we have a dedicated site for our new friends and you ca
n safely upload images onto there before they are filtered out. Once they have received clearance, then you can send them to whomever you like.”
“Colonel,” interrupted Ruth, “Thank you for being understanding…”
“Not at all Ru.. Ms Chandra, this is not like one of the breaches of trust that we have seen so far.”
Thia reckoned that he was referring to some of the unauthorised videos that some of the staff at the base had given to the big broadcasters and newspapers. Ali had told her that some of the staff at the base had received enough to retire and that they hadn’t minded being sacked on the spot by the UN, their employers. Frankly, Thia couldn’t see what the problem was. Their new friends hadn’t seemed to be too bothered – Merly had just said ‘Whatever!” when she’d learned that there were images of her playing football with their schoolmates.
But the Colonel was carrying on, “Its just a matter of courtesy really and it isn’t just the new arrivals that we are concerned about.”
“Of course,” agreed Juanita’s mum, to the embarrassment of her daughter who was turning a spectacular shade of red at her mum’s intervention.
“We have a duty of care towards all of our students here. There are some images that we have seen on our screens lately really shouldn’t be shared. The Snowden Protocols state that we are all entitled to some level of privacy and we at the UN fully endorse the international agreement signed only last year.”
Thia zoned out as the adults continued to debate what was appropriate for the world to see. She had realised that it had taken so little time for her and her fellow classmates to treat their new friends no differently from any other new arrival and that swapping gossip, pictures, tunes and dreams on the internet was simply a natural extension of being alive in this part of human history. Thia and Juanita, as well as the rest of the class, just didn’t see any difference. It was just that the rest of the world did.
She decided that she hated the rest of the world. They were fools if they couldn’t just get on with people. Thia zoned back into the conversation that was going on, “Colonel, please be assured that we take this seriously. Of course, they’re all only children.”
“Of course,” smiled ‘the dictator’ as they all called him.
“They’re all still learning,” continued her mum.
“Ms Chandra, we’re all still learning.”
“Quite. So, we will all learn from this, won’t we Thia?”
“So, we understand each other?” asked the Colonel as he looked at the scowling young faces in front of him. Thia looked at the pointed look from her mother and, along with her friends, muttered a quiet assent.
TBT via RelayTwo > Devil < Angel: Bored!
Angel: I know! Makes you wish for some action apart from that spectacular Sun-Spot that I assume you are tracking?
Devil: Be careful what you wish for brother. Of course I’m tracking it; it is very unusual in its severity. And quite beautiful too.
Angel: I agree. Still bored though...
Chapter Eleven
“Why football? I mean, why?” asked Ruth as her daughter sat exchanging messages via whatsapp with the Princess Chelima. There was a glass of red wine in her hand as she smiled at the ‘huh’ her daughter exhibited as she finished typing.
“Because, mum, it’s the most popular sport on the planet. They can’t do that religion stuff because they just don’t believe in it, they’re bored with all of the ‘cultural’ stuff because they don’t get it, they can’t go shopping and they already know more than us about our own culture anyway. Its football mum, sitting down and learning to play tiddlywinks isn’t exactly cool.”
“Thia, please, I’m not an idiot.”
“Yeah but mum, you just don’t get it. Its football. Its Pan-Terran.”
“Pan-Terran?”
“Mum, something everyone on Earth knows about. Jeez.”
“Thia!”
“But mum! They love it! They watched the World Cup in Russia when they were on Jupiter! Chel thought the Germans would win, she thinks Ozil is the best player ever. I told her no way, right? I mean, Sanchez is way better. Anyway, they all saw it and loved it.”
“Chel? That’s her name now?”
“Duh, as if I’m going to call her ‘Princess’. She’s my friend.”
“You like her a lot don’t you?”
A huge smile erupted from her daughter, “Mum, she’s brilliant! She’s so cool! Coach Petr thinks she’s a natural. You should see her do a Cruyff turn, her hair goes one way and she goes the other. Mr James thinks Thursan is the best defender ever, he can jump ten feet! Coach said that Merly is as good as his mother in goal.”
“Merly? Oh, Thia, I’m so happy you all get on. I was really worried, you know.”
“Mum, this is the best place in the world. These guys are so cool. There’s that kid in year 9, Sewqua, you know that one with three legs; he can do multiple step-overs! Coach says he’s as good as any kid he’s ever had.”
“And you like Mr Petr?”
“He’s brilliant mum. He said that he’d never expected us to be so good at football. He was given a bollocking,”
“Thia!”
“Sorry, Mr Hammersmith told him that he should try to teach a range of sports and not just football but I don’t think he can stop himself. Mr James doesn’t help, football is all he talks about, especially when he comes and helps with training. He’s cool, though his team are crap.”
“Thia! Your language is definitely getting worse young lady.”
“Mum,” intoned her daughter seriously as she glanced at the latest message from the Princess Chelima and smiled, “Mr James said that we had to teach ‘the nuances of the English language’ to our classmates and ‘that can include some of the naughty bits as well.’ You want me to be a good pupil, don’t you?”
“Darling,” smiled Ruth as she sipped some of her drink,” Just try not to make it so fruity.”
“Okay mum,” grinned her daughter.
Ruth considered how well her daughter, and all of the children, took this ‘invasion’ in their stride, like it was just something that was bound to happen. Kids, more resilient than adults gave them credit for.
“Doesn’t she miss her mum?” asked Ruth out of the blue.
“She says she’s doesn’t,” answered her daughter, breaking away from her tablet, “She has sixteen brothers and sisters and they don’t see their parents in the way we do. Chel says it’s a different kind of growing up. She sends messages through the Gate every day.”
The Gate. The now-fully operational way to the stars. Scientists all over the world were desperate to know about it, to see it and to go through it. Ruth didn’t understand the physics involved but, like many, wanted to. Enrolments on science courses at universities was ten times what it was before especially since a fair few of the visiting aliens were taking up teaching positions in the very best institutions that the Earth had developed.
The Gate, now in an extremely high orbit around Mars, was to be the choke-point for all traffic, physical and digital, to and from the Hegemony. The aliens had stressed, pretty much every single time they spoke, patience. They had described the Hegemony in general terms, highlighting the fact that there were wildly differing worlds in terms of technology and belief systems and that the Earth wasn’t a great deal different from many of the ten thousand worlds currently contacted. Yes, they said, there were wars, famines, natural disasters just as there were on Earth. There was inequality, crime, pain, greed, lust, love, music, literature, film and theatre, exploitation, peace and disruption. This was the way of the universe; there was no over-arching system that held everyone in check. The current visitors were, if anything, trying to be the opposite of the early Earth explorers who were merely content to ransack a culture, impose their own authority on it and destroy it.
A perfect culture? Hah, the visitors told many an audience, it doesn’t exist but they were all determined to try to reach it for as long as it took. And, yes, there was
the technology; some of it staggering. Some of it able to extend life, extinguish life, some of it to educate, some of it to subjugate. It was a tool. The shock of too much new tech and information had been shown to cause too much disruption to other newly-contacted worlds and the Hegemony were being cautious.