“Absolutely.”
“I’d like to go back and have some more.”
“They don’t close until ten; we have plenty of time to go.”
“I’m paying!” Allison smiled and drove to Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
They finished just before closing time and Allison noticed that Gregory took his time eating. He looked up at her and smiled, “If we hurry, we can make it to the dessert place.” They arrived just in time and at the dessert shop and ate it on a bench outside. After they finished, Gregory smiled, “Would you mind driving by the port; I want to take a look at it.”
“Why?”
Gregory shrugged, “I’ve avoided it since I left, and I think I’m ready to see it.”
Allison drove by the port and stopped the car. Gregory stared at the large ships in dry dock for a long time and Allison asked, “Are you alright?”
Gregory sighed, “I hated this place so much but now I remember some good memories. All of the bad events have just seemed to have faded leaving memories of Lou and the men I worked with.”
Allison stared at Gregory and asked, “Why are you delaying going back to the dorm?” Gregory turned to her with a furrowed brow. “You have classes in the morning, and you have never stayed out late on a work or school night. What’s going on?”
Gregory smiled, “Can’t I just want to be out with my girl?”
Allison shook her head, “Thank you for saying that but it’s completely out of character for you; something is going on.”
Gregory stared at her for a moment and asked, “Am I that predictable?”
“On some things, you are. What’s going on?”
Gregory blew out a breath, “I think there might be someone waiting for me at the dorm. I wanted to give them an opportunity to leave.”
“Gregory, it’s almost midnight. If anyone were waiting; they’d be long gone by now.”
Gregory smiled, “You’re right; let’s head back. Besides, I’ve kept you out late; you should be getting home.”
• • •
Allison drove up to the front of the dorm, turned the car off, and looked out of the windshield, “There’s someone sitting on the bench out front.” Gregory was staring at the bench and nodded. “Do you know who it is?”
Gregory turned to her, “I have an idea.”
Allison saw the man on the bench wave them over and she said, “We’re leaving!” Allison pressed the start button, and nothing happened. She pressed it again and the engine wouldn’t start.
Gregory turned to her, “Allison, if I get out of the car, I believe it will start. Go home and I’ll talk with you later.”
“If you go, I go!”
“Allison…”
“Forget it! Something sinister is going on here and I will not leave without you!”
Gregory stared at her and looked back at the man sitting on the bench. He waved them over again and Gregory turned back to her, “You might as well go with me; this involves you too. But you will not say anything! You will listen to what we discuss and only answer a question directed to you. If you can’t do that, I go alone.” Allison stared at him and then nodded. Gregory opened his door and Allison got out and ran around the car before he could open her door. She took his hand and followed him toward the man on the bench. She noticed as they approached that he looked to be around thirty years old with dark hair and close-cropped mustache and beard. He and Gregory appeared to be close to the same age, but Allison sensed that the man felt a lot older than Gregory.
They arrived at the bench and the man smiled, “The car will start now; you should send your date home.”
“I think you know she’s much more than just a date. And if you want to have a conversation, then she will be present. Otherwise the conversation won’t happen.”
The man’s smile vanished, “Mr. Jennings, you might want to reconsider that position. If she is more than just a date, you should consider her welfare.”
“I don’t think she or I are in any danger from you.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, “Do you know who I am?”
“I do.”
“Then you know why I’m here and your welfare is very much an issue.”
Gregory smiled, “I think your position on that particular issue isn’t the only one you’ll have to deal with.” The man’s expression turned angry and suddenly his eyes looked away from them. Gregory stared at him and said, “You’re talking with someone.” The man glanced at him and looked away. Gregory added, “I suspect that’s your daughter telling you that you’re full of more crap than a Christmas Turkey if you intend to harm us. She’s not going to waste all the years she’s worked on the equation by you being a jerk.”
The man looked up and shouted, “WILL YOU SHUT UP!!” After a moment he blew out a breath and turned to Gregory, “Just how did you know that?”
“I think it’s clear that you and Doctor Guetteur are related.”
“In what way?”
“Well, for starters, she looks like you…”
“Everyone tells me we look nothing alike,” the man interrupted.
“Then they’re lying to you. She has the shape of your eyes along with her nose and chin; it’s clear you both are related to each other. Further, if I had any doubt about it, you were here waiting on me to arrive.”
The man frowned and shook his head, “I know he’s smart; you don’t have to tell me that. Now stay out of this!” The man looked up and rolled his eyes. He took a device out of his shirt pocket, pressed a button on it, and they heard, “…Dad! You will not harm him, or I’ll never speak to you again! I’ve spent too much time to allow you to…”
“Merry, he’s listening to you.”
The voice stopped and the man said, “Now you’ve made your point. Please be quiet and allow me and Mr. Jennings to carry on a conversation.” The man paused and turned back to Gregory, “I don’t really understand the issue; the equation has been solved.”
“Solving it doesn’t mean one can use it.”
“Do tell,” the man responded.
“They don’t know the elements in it. It’s pretty much useless to them without knowing them.”
“And do you understand how to use the equation, Mr. Jennings?”
Gregory smiled, “That question is why you’re here, isn’t it?” The man smiled slightly and nodded. “Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t?” The man tilted his head and Gregory raised a shoulder, “I didn’t think so. Just taking my word for it is too big a risk to your endeavor.”
“I’m glad you understand that, Mr. Jennings.”
Gregory shrugged, “So there’s no good reason not to tell you that I do understand the equation’s solution.”
“You do?” they heard over the device on the bench.
“Yes, Dr. Guetteur, I do.”
The man glared at Gregory and blew out a breath, “So you’re suggesting that you alone are able to solve an equation that even my computer couldn’t solve. What makes you that special?”
“I’m not suggesting I could solve it; the fact of the matter is I did. However, I didn’t solve it by myself.”
The man leaned forward, “And who else knows about this?”
“You’re aware I was serving a life sentence at the port, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“I watched a man work on this equation every day for more than ten years. He was consumed by it, but he just couldn’t get to the solution. I listened to him talk to himself as he struggled every night with it. During those ten years, he gave me books and I learned mathematics. I eventually saw what he was missing, but I didn’t tell him because I knew he was suffering physically, and that equation was the only thing keeping him alive. I finally saw I was being selfish, and I gave him the parts of the equation he was missing. The night we solved it, he finally found peace and died.”
“So you’re the only one that understands it?” Gregory nodded. “How long have you known?”
“About three yea
rs.”
“And you’ve not told anyone else?”
“Your daughter was the first.”
“And why didn’t you reveal it to anyone else?”
“Because I knew if I did, you and I would have had this conversation long before tonight.” Gregory paused and said, “I think anyone that threatened the Watcher’s plan wouldn’t survive very long. Isn’t that true Watcher?”
Allison’s eyes flew wide open and she squeezed Gregory’s arm. Gregory turned around and looked at her, “Yes, this is the Watcher.”
The man shrugged, “Call me Charles; Watcher is so…”
“Intimidating,” Gregory suggested.
“Something like that.”
“If you knew that, why did you show me how to solve it?” Merry asked over the device.
“Because it was time.”
“What do you mean by that Mr. Jennings? You know I’ll never allow humans to have a stardrive.”
Gregory’s lips pursed, “They’re too dangerous to the billions of civilizations out in the universe, right? That’s what you told us more than twenty-six years ago.”
“That was true then and is still true today!” Charles replied harshly.
“So you’re more concerned about every other civilization than you are humanity.”
“You know that’s not true! I prevented a nuclear war that would have destroyed the planet and humanity with it.”
Gregory nodded, “Yes, you did. And I don’t fully understand why you did it.”
“What do you mean?”
“If humanity is so dangerous, you could have just stepped aside and allowed the war to remove the threat humanity represents. That would be the logical thing to do…however, you didn’t. Was there a reason you stopped the war? I also wonder how you allowed it to get right down to the launch of missiles before you stopped it.” Charles glared at Gregory in silence and Gregory continued, “I suspect there was a personal reason you did that and I’m curious what it might be.”
“What makes you think I had a personal reason?”
“The logical thing to have done was to allow the war to happen and then you wouldn’t have had to put the suppression field in place. All of your problems would have been solved. Why did you do it?”
Charles continued to stare a Gregory and a voice said over the communicator, “You might as well tell him.” Gregory’s eyes narrowed, “Who was that?”
“My ship’s computer. Why should I tell him?”
“I only see one thing coming out of this conversation so there’s no reason not to tell him.”
Gregory said, “He intends to kill us.”
“I don’t see any way around it and you aren’t helping by being so accusatory,” the computer replied.
Charles said, “I found out my wife was pregnant.” Gregory turned to him. “My species has existed for more than two billion years and at no point during that long time have we been able to have offspring; Merry was the first. I discovered that my species could have children with humans.”
Gregory shook his head, “So, you stopped the war, put in the suppression field to control humans, and decided to use the planet as a huge breeding ground.”
“That’s not fair!”
Gregory looked at the communicator and said, “You must be Merry’s mother.”
“I am! What Charles didn’t tell you is that he was staying on Earth to die in the nuclear war.”
Gregory’s eyes widened and he turned to Charles, “Is that true?” Charles nodded. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I was responsible for it,” he said softly.
“How?”
“I sped up the evolution of humans. I changed the DNA of some early humans and Homo Sapiens was the result of it.”
“You’ve been on Earth that long?!”
Charles shrugged, “My stardrive malfunctioned and I’ve been here since humans lived in trees. I’ve lived longer than several billion years, and I’ve spent the last several million years trapped on Earth.” He sighed, “However, I had a hand in what humans became and I felt it appropriate that I should die with them. Finding out Nicole was pregnant with Merry made me change my mind.”
“That still doesn’t change the fact that you put the rest of the universe ahead of Earth.”
“I firmly believe that one day in the future, humanity will stop killing each other and go take their rightful place in the universe. Until that day arrives, I will remain here at Earth.”
“You could just destroy the planet if you ever give up on that happening.”
“I am forbidden from doing that.”
“How?”
“My species follow some rules that we have all sworn to follow; we call them covenants. One of them is that we are not allowed to attack and kill another species for any reason.”
“What about self-defense?”
“Even that is forbidden.”
Gregory closed his eyes and his head fell to his chest. Allison put her head next to his, “WHAT’S WRONG?!”
Gregory blew out a breath, “I’ve got the answer to the question I had to know.”
“Is that why you solved that equation?” Gregory looked into Allison’s eyes and nodded.
“Exactly what are you talking about?” Charles asked. Gregory sighed and shook his head. “What do you mean you needed the answer to a question?”
Gregory was shaking his head and he turned to Charles, “I anticipated if I solved that equation, there was a good probability that you would confront me. I wasn’t certain, but here we are.”
“So you did it to insure we have this meeting?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I had to find out if you were some sort of evil conqueror enslaving humanity for your own selfish reasons. I came into this meeting expecting that I would come out of it really detesting you, but you’re not what I thought. You’re basically a good person; I really didn’t expect that.”
Everyone was silent and then they heard the computer ask, “Why do I get the feeling that we’ve lost control of this situation?”
Charles was staring at Gregory and he said, “I saw huge disappointment in your eyes; why are you so disappointed?” Gregory held Allison’s hand and shook his head. “Please, tell me; I am not going to harm you or Allison. I know you won’t use the equation.”
Gregory turned to him, “You’re wrong about that Charles.”
“What am I not seeing?”
Gregory smiled slightly, “You can see that?”
“I’ve been observing humans for quite a while. You’re not telling me something. What is it?”
“I didn’t know anything about history when I was sent to the port to serve my sentence. When I got out, I read a current history book that dealt with the history of the United States and all of the recent history that had happened during the suppression. It was in that book where I read your original speech to humanity. That speech led me to do a statistical study on what you said.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Charles, you said there were more than a billion intelligent civilizations in the universe, right?” Charles nodded. “So, I asked myself, what are the odds of there being aggressive civilizations among them; I didn’t like the answer.” Gregory paused and then continued, “I also pondered what the odds were that there were at least a few of those aggressive civilizations who were just as technologically advanced as you.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“If there was only one aggressive civilization out there as advanced as you are, then it would see you as a threat and it would do everything possible to eliminate you. Does a civilization like that exist out there Charles?” Charles stared at him and Gregory repeated, “Does it?”
“Why are you asking?”
Gregory lowered his head, “One does exist.”
“Why is that a problem?!” Charles asked.
Gregory looked up, “I suspect that civilization keeps track of you,
Charles. I analyzed the possibility of that civilization tracking one of your ships to Earth and eventually showing up here.”
Charles was silent and then they heard the computer, “Ok, I give up; what are the odds.”
“The odds are greater than forty percent that one of their ships will find Earth within fifty years. And that is purely based on them detecting your ship; it doesn’t include Dit’s ship. I assume he came here on one of your ships.”
Charles looked up, “Computer, run an analysis on this premise.”
“Hang on!”
“Charles, you’ve never mentioned a dangerous civilization.”
“Nicole, we run into them so infrequently that I never think about them. They represent no danger to us.”
“That’s because when you do encounter one of them, you just fly away,” Gregory commented. Charles nodded.
“Got it. The odds of a Revel warship showing up at Earth is about thirty percent within seventy years. That’s based on them detecting the communications we made not long ago with the other members of your species and tracking them back here. However, I must confess that Gregory is better at math than me; after all, I couldn’t solve the equation either. His projection could be more accurate than my own.”
Gregory turned to Charles, “And you will never agree to turn off the suppression field so humanity can build defenses against them.” Charles stared at him and Gregory added, “You would bear the responsibility of whatever harm humans caused if they went out into the stars.”
“I cannot allow that to happen until humans are ready,” Charles stated.
Gregory stared at Charles and said, “And what will happen when one of those Revel ships shows up?” Charles stared at him. “You will run leaving Earth behind to their tender mercies, won’t you?” Gregory asked.
“CHARLES! HE’S WRONG! TELL HIM HE’S WRONG!”
“It’s not that simple Nicole.”
“Yes it is! Tell him that we will defend Earth.”
“I can’t do that Nicole.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s right. If the Revel show up, I will have no other option but to leave.”
Chapter Thirteen
Nicole and Merry exploded. They started screaming and Charles looked up and rolled his eyes. Gregory turned to him and said, “They haven’t been listening, have they?”
The Watcher II: The Time of Suppression Page 16