by Ashly Graham
A proposal was then made and seconded, that a Blender crew should visit Earth for the purpose of conducting an exploratory exercise, evaluating the situation at close quarters, and reporting back to the Executive Committee with its findings. A vote was taken nemine dissentiente. Willingly acquiescing to the will of the majority, and accepting the task of acting as the Alliance’s envoy under the direction of the Executive Committee, Lightyear undertook to send a Blender task force to Earth with the objective of making a covert survey, and “ascertaining the extent of Mankind’s negative intentions and destructive capability beyond its unacknowledged boundaries”.
Before the convention broke up and the Alliance’s members departed, they agreed upon who was to remain on Lightyear to serve in the common interest on the Executive Committee, and the language and codes by which they would communicate with the diaspora of the Alliance’s representative nations.
Using both their own technological resources and those that their partners shared with them, the Blenders set about designing and constructing a mobile space station that would be operational within Earth’s atmosphere, and self-sufficient in everything it needed for the maintenance of its crew and equipment. It would be able to manoeuvre under water, on land, and in the air with equal facility under any conditions. It would house laboratories staffed by a community of scientists and doctors who would be proficient in performing whatever tests and analyses might be necessary in the field, in the course of acquiring and processing information concerning the planet and its occupants, and discerning what the Humans’ psychological motivations were and what their objectives consisted of.
In order to guard against any attacks, challenges or resistance that it might encounter, the station would be provided with protective, evasive, and repulsive—but not offensive—means.
When it was ready, the Blenders named the great station “Water-Sky”. Water-Sky was dispatched to Earth, where it invisibly and undetectably...a couple of dogfish, an electric eel, and a giant squid were able to pick up a faint signal, but the glitch was soon fixed...established a submarine base in a deep ravine at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
As soon as it was in situ, by a series of remote procedures Water-Sky began a pre-planned programme of collecting samples of water, air, and chemical and mineral deposits from around the world. The cells, tissues, fibres and bone-matter, the blood and bodily fluids; the bacteria, viruses, and diseases of every species of mammal, bird, reptile, fish, insect, and every form of vegetation, were radioscopically extracted and collected and isolated, and subjected to a battery of cultural and molecular analyses and tests. Also, millions of examples of Human thought processes, both as individuals and groups, around the planet were recorded and interpreted, with the object of trying to increase understanding of Mankind’s instincts and behavioural patterns.
As mandated by the Executive Committee, cloned copies of every piece of collated matter were transmitted back to the Mission Control centre on Lightyear for distribution to the Alliance’s members, so that they might do their own research and have the opportunity to reach their own conclusions.
But the best laid schemes gang aft a-gley, wrote Robert Burns, and the situation took a catastrophic turn…thereby proving that Earth was not the only heavenly body to be affected by Sod’s, or Murphy’s, Law. Water-Sky’s Captain received an urgent request from his Chief Scientist for an emergency consultation; which of course the Captain agreed to, knowing that this individual would not ask for anything without good reason, because, taking intelligence and a certain intuitiveness for granted, a Chief Scientist’s reasoning skills were his prime qualification for the job.
The Chief ran so fast to the bridge that his legs could not keep up with him, and he tripped so many times that he would have arrived faster had he walked. When he did get there, he had a similar problem with his tongue, and valuable moments were wasted while he downed two and one-third pints of iced green tea brought to him by a petty officer.
When the Chief Scientist had calmed down sufficiently to speak, the Captain asked him how he was doing and how things were going.
Terrible, said the Chief Scientist, on both counts: now that all the pieces of the puzzle that his team had been putting together, while Water-Sky lay doggo on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, were in place, the picture that emerged was…the Chief Scientist used a bad word, in fact several bad words, more of a phrase, really, from the Human language that he had just learned, but did not understand.
To which the Captain replied that he was sorry the Chief Scientist had reason to be upset. And he asked the petty officer to pour him another pint of tea.
No, thanks, said the Chief Scientist, I’ll be peeing all day and up half the night.
We wouldn’t want that, said the Captain.
But that was not the reason for his coming, said the Chief Scientist: you know, to complain.
Really, said the Captain.
No, said the Chief Scientist, it wasn’t.
Then what was the reason, said the Captain.
Ah, said the Scientist: the reason that he had asked for this interview was that he had just picked up signals from Lightyear’s unmanned outposts, which were located far beyond the perimeters patrolled by its regular sentries, that were indicative of a rapidly approaching, Earthbound, force of huge dimensions. So large was this force that the monitoring stations’ systems were almost overwhelmed by the frequency and severity of the reports.
It had not taken long for the sketchy details to materialize into the startling news that an armada of Oriented Pallasites, commonly known as meteorites, was approaching the Milky Way. It had been determined that these meteorites were so broadly massed and massive that, if they continued in their path, they would encounter the planetary and astral bodies that comprised the Alliance. It was suspected, from the loss of contact with some uninhabited clusters on which Lightyear had communications towers positioned, that they had already been taken out, plus a number of remotely piloted aircraft, or drones, and self-operational unmanned aerial reconnaissance and spy vehicles, as the invaders cut a swathe through space.
Is that so, said the Captain.
Yes, said the Scientist. And that was not all.
No? said the Captain.
That’s right, said the Scientist: when this information was added to the data that he and his team had collated, he said, it was clear that the origin of the fell force was not spontaneous. Lightyear’s concerns about Earth’s nocent activities, and their potential to damage and infect the rest of the universe, which had prompted the convening of the First Intergalactic Convention of the Alliance of Planets and Stars, Suns and Moons, Novas and Nebulae, Giants, and Red and White Dwarfs, were most justified.
In the language of Mankind, it was the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Human race that was responsible for generating the humongous hailstones that were hurtling towards not just Earth but all of the Alliance’s community of civilizations.
What had happened was that the natural antibodies present in Earth’s solar system had become ineffective over the centuries, as Humanity squandered its gift of Free Will by using it to advance its greedy and selfish interests. The pure and positive waves of energy that once pulsated earthwards from Infinity had metastasized into huge cancerous tumours. The sinful piece of grit in the oyster of Creation, instead of being coated with the nacre of forgiveness, had grown and grown and grown, and divided and divided and divided, into many impulsive rocks of destruction. And now, as if being drawn by the strongest magnetic force, these multiple missiles were homing in on the source of their corruption, Earth, in order to eliminate it.
En passant, the mineral bane would cause, not just minor collateral damage, or even major collateral damage. It would also obliterate the blameless parties of all the other stars and planets. Nations that had followed the paths of righteousness…the compliance of the Black Holes could not be certified, because no one had ever audited their behaviour; or, if they had, a report had not been filed
…were going to pay the ultimate penalty for the actions of the tiny minority. Homo sapiens, by its persistent flouting of universal laws, taunting of a theoretical Deity, refusal to desist at the behest of saints, prophets, and seers; and despite the intervention of an alleged Scion of Divinity in human form, had not only brought retribution upon itself, but disaster to everyone else.
Consequent upon this earth-shattering news was that the supposition that forgiveness and absolution of sins was endlessly renewable had been proven to be an unwarranted assumption. Everything was going to be smashed to smithereens; and, unlike in the mythic Flood, there would be no Ark of survivors to repopulate a world that no longer existed.
Everything would be gone, that was, except for one celestial body that was located so far beyond the others as to be outside or beyond the meteoritic path: the star Lightyear itself, which was many times farther removed from Earth than the most distant object in Mankind’s cosmic ken, and far farther away from it than any of the other members of the Alliance were.
But this was of no consolation to the Blenders, either for their own sakes or those of the rest of the others comprising the intergalactic league, because Lightyear was not a big star. With the best will in the world, which Blenders manifested more than any other nation, it could not accommodate even a small fraction of so many refugees.
Water-Sky’s Captain had no reason to doubt the truth of all of this, and a lot more besides that his Chief Scientist conveyed to him in more than a few words; and, then, because he had not got to be Captain by not deserving to be Captain, he told the Chief Scientist to stick around while he got on the blower to Mission Control on Lightstar, so that he could repeat what he had just told him.
When the stark and incontrovertible facts were relayed to the Alliance’s Executive Committee, the pair was informed that Lightyear was simultaneously receiving the same information, albeit in less comprehensive and detailed form, from its various outposts, and that the Blender Chairman had already ordered the transmission of Red Alerts to the recently departed members of the Alliance’s ruling councils, recalling them to the conference table to discuss the crisis.
The Captain was instructed to put Water-Sky’s on-site operation on hold, and to stand by and await further instructions.
As soon as the members of the Intergalactic Alliance were reconvened, they knew that their current strategy would have to be drastically revised. If the Human problem had not already brought all nations together in a cooperative effort, receipt of this information would have instantly united them in an utter community of purpose.
The first thing that the majority of the federation agreed upon, was that Water-Sky’s fact-finding exercise must be enlarged into a full-scale diplomatic and humanitarian mission. The time for caution and concealment was over. Water-Sky must declare its presence on Earth, and assure the honchos at Central that it was no Trojan horse; that its occupants were peaceful ambassadors from a universal coalition of well-wishers, come to alert them to a lethal state of affairs, and enjoin them to combine forces with them against a common, inanimate, foe.
The almost unanimous opinion of those on Executive Committee was that, surely, when the terrible truth was confirmed by Earth’s own scientists, as it surely would be despite their much less sophisticated equipment and knowledge, the Central government would agree, if not to trust, then at least to attempt to verify—doveryay, no proveryay, as per the old Russian proverb—what was happening, and be open to persuasion that the Blenders had not come in a 1066 AD-style invasion.
Even the apparatchiks of a repressive regime must see the wisdom of “engaging in meaningful dialogue” with a people who were so technologically superior to them. For if all nations were to work together, perhaps some way or means might be discovered whereby these vengeful vol-au-vents, these minatory marbles, these rumbustious rocks—to wit, the meteorites—might be diverted to a region of barren and unpopulated stars where they might harmlessly vent their spleens. Perhaps some reverse magnetism could be generated that would be powerful enough to slow them down, then stall them; maybe even send them back whence they came. However far-fetched the concept, in order to leave no stone unturned…as it were…no tactical method was unworthy of consideration and investigation, and even the most outlandish idea should not be discounted.
Guesswork might play a part. Good luck would be OK too.
The Blenders, having observed Human behaviour since inception of the race, were the sole dissenters. They were most doubtful that Water-Sky would be received cordially, let alone its crew treated as potential saviours. As steeped as Mankind was in blood, as innumerable were its misdeeds, Lightyear had not found a scrap of evidence of contrition amongst Earth’s factions of willingness to, if not ask forgiveness for their foolish ways, re-clothe themselves in their rightful minds—per the words of the American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier—and begin a programme of constructive atonement.
Even if they did, the Blenders said, it was likely too late. Despite the countless Acts of God that had been visited upon it…of earthquake, wind, and fire; tsunami, flood, and volcanic eruption; despite the decimations of the population by plagues and pandemics like the Black Death, and Bird Flu; and despite the ever-accelerating global warming, the result of unabated pollution, that was responsible for so radically altering climates, seasons, and and life-forms…the rulers of the Human Race, in failing to evince any awareness of the cause-and-effect relationship between Humanity’s actions and such calamities, would not be willing to listen to any placatory party that might, as Whittier wrote,
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!
Nothing, Lightyear’s representatives maintained, could shake Mankind’s faith in itself and its capacity, even enthusiasm, for reckless behaviour. The Central State government, those from Lightyear maintained, fearful of the inimical motives of a force from outer space, and disbelieving the visitors’ representations of peace and offers of assistance in dealing with a peril of which it had no knowledge, would treat the Blenders as invaders to be quelled or expelled without giving them a hearing. The sudden arrival of aliens would spark the sort of panic that had been written about and depicted in many a science fiction story and film.
Maybe in the past things might have been different, when a degree of democracy still existed on Earth; but Central’s authoritarian measures had revoked every citizen liberty and electoral freedom. Earth’s rulers would do everything to resist what they perceived as an attempt by a force majeure to challenge their supremacy and control.
Nonetheless, after giving weighty consideration to what the Blenders had to say, the Executive Committee decided that Water-Sky must reveal itself on Earth, so that the Blenders on behalf of all other civilizations might introduce themselves and apprise Mankind of their mutual plight.
Chapter Twelve
And so it was that Water-Sky arose from the bed of the Pacific Ocean, like Venus Anadyomene surrounded by dolphins. But none of those who witnessed it remarked upon the Botticellian beauty of the scene, and rushed off for canvas and easel, brushes and paint box with which to record the event. Nobody was moved to express the vision poetically, or burst into song, or fall down on his or her knees in wonder.
At first the sight of Water-Sky’s great shell, and receipt of its broadcast transmissions of peace and goodwill to all Mankind, were met with disbelief by Central’s ever-vigilant security patrols. There was nothing in the instruction manuals about how to deal with such a situation. Appeals for direction to Central’s Chief of Defence, Donald Silicant 3823A, were met only with the suggestion by his Department that naval aircraft and ships should circle whatever it was that they were seeing for a few hours, in case the giant structure might turn out to be a mirage, and disappear as suddenly as it had shown itself, so that it could be
written up as a Marine Misnomer and buried in the Defence archives as an appendix to the Extraterrestrial Anomalies reports.
Silicant 3823A’s wishful thinking having had no effect, Central’s headquarters was soon frantic with activity, as the As, Bs, and Cs leaked a mixture of anger, fright, sweat, and worse at news of the incursion, and the challenge it must be assumed to pose to their authority. They were at a loss to understand how Earth’s supposedly impenetrable security shields had been breached. Silicant himself, who was found drunk and sitting on the toilet in an As-only bathroom, was given a sobriety pill and four hours to put an explanation together that would exonerate him from dereliction of duty, before he was ordered to take another pill, of cyanide; and his Deputy, Eleanor Short-Planck 9577B was given a shot of nootropics, or smart drugs, to boost her intelligence by enhancing her brain’s neurochemical supply of neurotransmitters, enzymes, and hormones, and promoted as a probationary A Class to take over from Silicant as Chief of Defence.
Water-Sky’s Captain remained under orders from the Executive Committee to confine his station’s activity to broadcasting the same message over and over, and to await whatever response might be forthcoming. In addition, he was to instruct his teams of specialists, now that the station was above water, to use the time by combining in the fission chambers certain of the star Lightyear’s mineral compositional elements, which they had brought with them, with those present on Earth, and recording the levels of impedance affecting masses of various sizes moving at different speeds. The scientists also availed themselves of the opportunity to take additional gravitational readings, measure atmospheric pressures and densities, and conduct further analysis of chemicals and gases.