The Good Reaper

by Dennis J Butler

  From where the dining room table was situated, you could see across the foyer into the living area but you couldn’t see the front door. Carl and Roy listened quietly while Madeline went to the door. It was quiet. They could hear the sound of soft voices but they couldn’t make out what they were saying and they didn’t recognize the voices. Carl knew something unusual was happening so he pushed his chair back and began to stand up when Madeline and two strange men stepped into the dining room.

  “These gentlemen are here to see LeAnne,” Madeline said.

  “I’ll get her,” Roy said as he took two stairs at a time.

  “LeAnne, there are some men here to see you,” Roy yelled from the top of the stairs.

  LeAnne tried to think of who it could possibly be. She couldn’t think of anyone that would come to see her on a Sunday afternoon. “I’ll be right there,” she said.

  The two men stood there silently and smiled briefly at Carl. “Why don’t you have a seat,” Carl said, pointing toward the dining room table.

  When LeAnne stepped into the dining room her eyes widened and here heart began to race. She knew who they were. She had never seen them before but she knew what they were. LeAnne stood up and came around the table to greet the odd visitors.

  “Yes, what do you want to see me about?” LeAnne asked, moving her eyes from one visitor to the other.

  “Do we need to talk in private?” one of the men asked.

  LeAnne was silent for a long thoughtful moment while looking down at the floor. “Is this about Naos?” LeAnne asked without looking up. She said the words quietly. In some way she thought that the visitors would hear her but her parents wouldn’t.

  “Yes LeAnne. We have some rather good news.”

  LeAnne turned and looked at her family. Carl and Madeline were seated at the dining room table while Roy stood behind them looking on. They were just watching and looking confused and concerned. “I guess it’s time I told you all the truth,” she said and turned back to face the visitors and continued, “That is, if you have the time to help me explain. I kept my vow of silence to Naos and your people. I haven’t told anyone anything, not even my family.”

  Carl, Madeline and Roy looked more confused than ever. They were all wondering the same thing; who were these people, why did LeAnne refer to them as “your people” and who in the world was Naos.

  “What’s this about LeAnne?” Carl asked, sounding just a bit angry.

  “Please introduce yourselves and have a seat. This is going to take time,” LeAnne said.

  “Real names I guess?” The two men looked at LeAnne and waited for a response. LeAnne nodded.

  “I am Sargas Oriel-Alnitak and this is Giauzar Oriel-Almeisan,” Sargas said as the two men took their seats. “We’ve come to interview LeAnne about the medical procedure she recently underwent. Also we are here to gather as much information about her condition prior to the treatment as well as all the previous treatments.”

  “Are you with the FDA or something?” Carl asked. “You do know the treatment was done in Germany.”

  The two men looked at each other and then at LeAnne. It seemed they were waiting for LeAnne to break the ice. “I have a confession to make,” LeAnne said. Everyone stared wide-eyed at LeAnne. “It wasn’t done in Germany. It was done in Arizona.”

  “Algol Arial-Seginus performed the treatments, correct?” Sargas asked while Giauzar appeared to be typing notes into a small tablet device.

  “Yes, Algol AKA Cooper,” LeAnne answered. “I’m sorry about what happened to him”

  “That’s part of the good news LeAnne,” Sargas said. “Did Naos explain to you about Phase III?”

  “Yes. Hopefully that will happen in about ten years.”

  “Could somebody tell me what the hell is going on?” Carl stood straight up and yelled across the dining room table.

  LeAnne decided the time had come. There would be no more lies. “I wasn’t cured by a doctor in Germany. I was cured by these people. They aren’t German. Where they come from is much further away than Germany. These gentlemen are space travelers from a distant world in a faraway solar system, many light years away.”

  Carl stood there staring and looking disoriented. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open.

  “Gamma Anadeia is our name for the Milky Way,” Sargas said with a humble smile. “Our home is called Ranjisan. We have been here observing the human race for over forty of your Earth years.”

  The Pearsons looked like they were in a daze. The whole scene was surreal and completely unbelievable and yet there was something real about it. Perhaps it was the natural and relaxed way that LeAnne casually spoke with the two odd men. She didn’t seem the least bit surprised about anything they said and she seemed to already know about most of it.

  “Before we continue I need to know, what is the good news? Does it have anything to do with Naos? Is it something to do with Phase III?”

  “Yes,” Sargas answered while Giauzar continued to take notes. “A few months ago, the Ranjisi Grand Council of Provinces and CIPE re-opened discussions about Phase III. Your case is at the center or it all. Naos gave an emotional statement at his sentencing which has become the cornerstone for moving up the timetable for Phase III. Your case was at the heart of the Phase III discussions. Naos is now somewhat of a celebrity back home. So he and Algol have both been released from prison.”

  “Oh thank god,” LeAnne said while wiping her eyes with a table napkin.

  Carl, Madeline and Roy were still in a state of shock, unable to understand what they were hearing and yet not able to believe or disbelieve it. “I know this is all unbelievable and really too much to comprehend but I’ll explain a little at a time,” LeAnne said as she turned back to her parents.

  “Okay, so you are telling us that these two men are aliens from a planet called Ranj-something and they cured your cancer and you have a friend name Na-os?” Roy sounded a bit more coherent than his parents.

  “Are you on drugs?” Carl asked, looking at LeAnne. “I don’t know what the hell is going on here but I think you boys best be leaving now.”

  Giauzar spoke for the first time. His voice was soft and almost difficult to hear. “Maybe it would be best if we left and let LeAnne explain everything. We could come back when you are ready.”

  “But I want to hear more and I want to hear it now,” Roy said. “Is there some kind of proof you can give us. You do look human. Do you have the ability to change your appearance or something?” Roy looked both serious and sarcastic at the same time.

  “We don’t carry with us anything that would prove who we are. It has always been a highly secret operation,” Giauzar said. “We are almost identical to humans except for the fatigue we feel here dealing with Earth’s strong gravitational pull.”

  “We could come back in a few days with photos of our planet,” Sargas said. “But I will have to ask you not to talk about this to anyone. Although the time of our formal introduction to the human race may be coming, as of right now we still need to keep it a secret. When the time comes, our leaders will make contact with your leaders and come up with a plan that will hopefully not cause a panic. Learning that the human race is not alone in the universe will be unsettling to many, especially religious leaders. It needs to be done carefully.”

  “Okay. Let’s do that. I can take my time explaining everything and you can you come back in a few days.” LeAnne said.

  “Today is Sunday. We will return on Wednesday,” Sargas said.

  Sargas and Giauzar said goodbye. LeAnne was surprised at how calm her father was. She expected him to drill her with questions as soon as the visitors left but he seemed calm and relaxed.

  Roy seemed more open to the whole concept of aliens walking among humans on Earth so LeAnne continued to explain more of the details to him a little at a time. Carl and Madeline didn’t seem to want to talk about it at all. They didn’t ask one question about it, at least until the visitors returned on Wednesday evening.
r />   LeAnne and Roy greeted them at the door.

  “Come on in,” Roy said. Roy stared hard at the visitors. Since he seemed to be accepting the fact that they were possibly from a faraway world, he was studying the two men closely. Sargas was aware of Roy’s staring but he didn’t seem to care.

  Before he sat down he lifted up his pants to expose his legs. They were noticeably skinnier than a normal, healthy human. “If you were to visit Ranjisan, you would probably be able to jump 20 or 30 feet with your leg strength,” Sargas said.

  “You’re all like that?” Roy said and looked over at Giauzar who quickly lifted his pants up to expose his weak, fragile looking legs without saying anything. Carl and Madeline stepped forward and bent down, looking over Giauzar’s legs before sitting down.

  When they sat down, Giauzar lifted a tablet device from his backpack and set it on the table, turning it around so that it was facing Carl and Madeline. “This first photo is an aerial view of Dheneb, one of the larger cities on Ranjisan, taken just after sunset. In the background you can see two of our six moons. Pretty impressive isn’t it?” Giauzar said with a smile. LeAnne’s impression of Giauzar was that he was younger and less serious than Sargas. She suspected that somewhere inside him he may even have a sense of humor which was rare for Ranjisi.

  The Pearson family pushed the tablet back and forth, looking at the photo. “What are your buildings made of?” Carl asked. He seemed to be accepting the bizarre reality that had suddenly upended his world. Carl was a master carpenter and cabinet maker and his curiosity about Ranjisi construction was overtaking his skepticism.

  “We have some bizarre weather on Ranjisan which I’ll explain later. For that reason, a lot of our building materials are flexible. Most of these buildings are a soft metallic alloy but newer buildings are actually a form of soft, flexible glass.”

  The next photo showed Northern Tiara on the first day of Sorex. “Holy shit,” Roy called out. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. You can see this from your planet?”

  “It is rare to be able to see our six moons at the same time. This view can only be seen from one area of the planet and at one time of the year. It is called Sorex. It’s a common destination where newly bound men and women celebrate their joining.”

  The next group of photos consisted of exterior shots of several different types of long and short distance air ships. “So the flying saucers are yours?” Madeline spoke for the first time. “But I thought you were supposed to be little creepy Grey people with big eyes and heads.”

  “Well that’s another story for another day,” Sargas said. “They are here and they are definitely creepy but they are not us.”

  “So you are now telling us that there are two alien races here on Earth?” Carl asked sounding kind of broken and defeated.

  “Yes and there are still other races of beings that haven’t come here yet. In addition to us and the weird Grey people, we know of two other races. There are actually three we know of but two are from twin planets in the same solar system.”

  “Are they all friendly? What do the Grey people want? What do you want?” Carl asked.

  “We are part of an alliance, along with the other two races I mentioned. We want Earth to join us eventually. That’s why we are here. We’ve been studying human evolution, hoping and waiting for the time when we believe you’re ready.”

  “So you think we’re ready now?” LeAnne asked.

  “We believe you are very close. We are not exactly sure how and when we will make official contact with your government, but it is coming soon. The first thing we want to do is share our medical advances with you and hopefully we can help you to evolve into modern members of the universe,” Giauzar said.

  “We need to end war and start taking care of the planet,” LeAnne chimed in.

  “That would be a good start,” Giauzar said. “We have had a change of heart; a revelation of sorts. We now believe that the human race will evolve much more quickly once you all know that you are not alone in the universe. We are anxious to tell you the story of the amazing people of the Ophiuchi Star System. But for now, if it is alright with you we need to start gathering information about LeAnne’s condition, before and after the treatment. We need to document a case study.”

  Giauzar and Sargas interrupted LeAnne occasionally, asking for document specifics like times and dates while she told her true story. Carl, Madeline and Roy sat by listening silently as LeAnne’s story unfolded. She began with her arrival at the St. Elizabeth Medical Center in New York. It took several hours for the story setting to move from New York to Arizona and on to Idaho. Carl seemed to grow uncomfortable when there was a hint of LeAnne and Naos sleeping together. LeAnne didn’t go into detail but it was easy to read between the lines. When LeAnne spoke of Naos, anyone could see that she was very much in love with him.

  “I’m still confused,” Carl said. “You speak of this friend named Naos. So he is an alien? Where does the orderly Luke fit into the picture?”

  “Luke is Naos’ human name,” LeAnne said. “Naos and Luke are one and the same.”

  20 - First contact

  After what seemed like the longest two minutes of silence the look in Agent Goetz’s eyes which had been in a blank trance-like state, returned to a calm and focused state. It was clear to me that he did not believe anything we said. “Wait here a minute,” Agent Goetz said as he headed for the door. “I want to bring in one of my colleagues.”

  “What do you think?” Chara asked.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about it,” Atik answered.

  “Me either,” I agreed.

  A few minutes later Agent Goetz returned with three uniformed guards. The guard who we assumed was in charge stepped forward and asked us for identification. Atik was the only one with a valid driver’s license so Gomeisa, Chara and I pulled out our fake ID cards. We were ordered to follow the guard to the elevators and then down to a sub-level floor, three floors below the lobby. The guards escorted us to what looked something like a conference room except that the walls were lined with leather sofas. In the middle of the room was a round conference table. We were below the ground so instead of windows there were paintings of outdoor scenes on all the walls. The guards didn’t say anything. They just left and locked the door from the outside.

  “I don’t know what to make of this,” Atik said. “It’s not like a prison cell and yet we can’t leave. I don’t know if they are taking us seriously.”

  “They probably think we’re some kind of terrorists,” Gomeisa said. “They still have a lot of problems here with terrorists so I guess you can’t be too careful.”

  “We need to get to a point where they are taking us seriously enough that they ask us to prove it,” I said. “That would be easy. We can take them to a ship landing if we have to.”

  After waiting for over an hour, the door opened and a man and a woman entered the room. They were dressed casually and seemed friendly. The woman introduced herself as Nora Kennard without adding a job title. “This is Dave Neil,” she said gesturing toward the man who had entered the room with her. Dave Neil just nodded politely and continued leaning against the open door. A few seconds later a woman pushed a cart into the room with bottles of water and juice.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting here all this time. You must be thirsty. Please help yourself,” Dave Neil said while pointing to the cart with the beverages.

  My immediate impression of the two agents was that they were skilled interrogators disguised as “good cop, good cop” but I figured it would be more pleasant than being interrogated by traditional hard boiled typed agents.

  The four of us sat opposite the agents and introduced ourselves using our real names. “So, can you tell me a little about your planet?” Agent Kennard asked, making the question sound perfectly normal.

  Atik reached down next to his chair and proceeded to place his briefcase on the table in front of him. Although the case had been scanned and inspected upon their ar
rival, Agent Kennard quickly reached out and grabbed the case. “Please help yourself. We brought it for you to look at,” Atik said.

  Agent Kennard began removing and inspecting the items from the case, beginning with a bound folder containing print pictures. The pictures were organized in groups beginning with aerial photos of Ranjisan. The first set were all landscapes with horizon shots showing the Ranjisan moons. They were impressive but they didn’t show any manmade structures. The second set consisted of aerial photos of Ranjisan cities and towns. We watched as the two agents began to look more wide-eyed and interested.

  The third set of pictures showed Ranjisi people in their daily work routines. Aside from their clothing which looked something like brightly colored jumpsuits, they looked human and the agents seemed unimpressed. The last few photos were show stoppers. They showed Ranjisi people traveling locally. Aside from the above-ground monorail stations, all the travel vehicles were public air transports including various sizes and shapes of skycabs and skybuses. I sensed a change in the agents. They looked more serious and concerned. But even though the truth was right there in front of them, their training was preventing them from accepting it.

  “Where were these photos taken? Is this somewhere in the Middle East?” Agent Neil asked.

  I thought that was the first dumb thing the agents asked. You could clearly see in the photo that the passengers looked something like our delegation, fair haired and fair skinned. “That photo right there looks like Dheneb,” I said.

  “Yes, you can see off in the distance, the roof of the Alpheratz Stadium,” Gomeisa said.

  The agents looked like they were in a trance again. “Let’s take these to be analyzed,” Agent Neil said. He looked up at us as if he was going to ask us if we had anything else. Atik had cleverly saved the clincher for last. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a packet and handed it over to Agent Neil. Neil slowly opened the packet and began laying the smaller photos out on the desk. The two agents looked absolutely bewildered. The photos showed the most common space travel crafts, beginning with exterior shots and then on to interior shots. The last few photos were celestial maps which showed the location of Ranjisan in relation to Earth.