The Good Reaper

by Dennis J Butler

  25 - The human race joins the alliance

  There wasn’t a great deal of publicity when the announcement was made. The loosely organized committee the humans had made decided it would be better not to make a media event out of it. There was still a scattering of protests going on throughout the world. US President Hawkins and Russian President Pasternak recorded a ten minute announcement that was distributed to news outlets around the world. There was no increase in protests after the announcement. The same people who had been protesting all along, continued.

  The first two years we focused on bringing medical advancements to Earth. Wiping out Malaria was more difficult than wiping out Ebola, due to the relentless reproduction of mosquitos. But at least the attorobobiotics treatment would prevent people from dying. During our second year on Earth, we began building medical facilities in several central locations. We began with Chicago and London and branched out to Berlin, Moscow, Dubai, Mombasa, Tianjin, and Sydney. The last of the facilities in Sydney took two more years to finish.

  The human race had been using the cancer treatment for about eighteen months and we were proud and happy to see that the disease was re-classified as a non-chronic condition that was treated and cured quickly.

  Going into our third year, there were still protests against our presence, scattered throughout the world. There was an underground movement that still didn’t trust us. That is why the Ranjisan government decided not to tell the truth about the CIPE underground facility on Easter Island. We decided to just abandon it, thinking that if the human race found out that we had built the underground complex it would lead to more distrust.

  Since our medical treatments are based on robotics, developing medical advancements on Earth opened the door to technology. Ranjisi Software Engineers and Computer Scientists believed that there is a bridge between what is real and what is simulated. This theory was confirmed and proven by the Aegialia who have successfully developed symbiotic propulsion. Alegialian scientists took a slightly different path in the development of their own version of attrorobiotics. They combined robobiotics with super-nano attorobiotics but they took it one step further. They took one more final, daring step. After many years of development, the Alegialian scientists were able to reverse the process, meaning that a person injected with their version of the attrorobiotic pods could mentally control the software application. They brilliantly used this theory and adapted it to their propulsion technology. They were successful. With this technology, a person could sit at a console and fly a ship using nothing but their mind.

  Our goal was to work with human scientists in the study and implementation of Alegialian technology. In our effort to bring the human race up to the next level of technological advancement, two institutes were established in our third year of Phase III, one in Berlin and one in San Francisco.

  Our intentions were good but they were not received that way by the growing population who for no apparent reason, didn’t trust us. When the news hit the airwaves that we were developing symbiotic technology, that was the tipping point. The protests increased. Hundreds of blogs and websites popped up and they all had the same negative them: “Aliens developing mind control technology to control the human race.” It was sad and disheartening. There was no logical reason why we would do that. We had nothing to take or gain from the human race. “No one in this vast universe does something for nothing,” I thought. “But for us, if I really thought about the ultimate motives for what we were doing, it was really nothing more than building an alliance of races. If we consider all the planets in all the solar systems in all the galaxies across the universe, it would be naïve to think that there are no hostile races anywhere. There is no fine print in the contract to join the alliance. In fact there is no contract. But it is implied that if one of the member races is attacked by hostiles, the other races would come to their defense. I’m not sure how effective it would be if it came to pass because none of the member races had advanced space military defenses. “Maybe we can bluff the enemy if one of us is attacked,” I wondered. But that was it. There were no sinister, secret motives for Phase III.

  It didn’t take long for the Ranjisan Council of Provinces to come to the decision that we should leave Earth and return home. The announcement was made exactly three weeks after the news of the symbiotic technology broke. All Ranjisi were given reporting times and locations for the trip home. I wasn’t surprised. The production and distribution of all the medical advancements we had brought to Earth were moving on their own steam. The African team in Sierra Leone, headed by Doctor Bockarie had become the new world center for infectious disease control. The human race embraced the technology and ran full speed ahead with it.

  ***

  The Phase III team couldn’t understand where all the animosity toward our race was coming from. All we had tried to do was improve the quality of life for the human race. When the protests first started, we assumed they were incited by religious fanatics. They may have had a small hand in it, but they were unorganized. It all began to make sense when I got the phone call from Assistant FBI Director Abbott. The Director had never called me with good news so I assumed again that it was something bad.

  “Hello Naos,” This is Assistant Director Abbott. “I hope all is well with your team there. I guess you should be getting ready to leave.”

  “Yes Assistant Director Abbott. What’s up?”

  “Have you seen the negative TV ads?”

  “No I haven’t.”

  “I’ll send you a link to where you can see it online.” A minute later the link appeared on my phone. The ad was a very negative ad portraying the Ranjisan race as opportunist liars with secret ulterior motives:

  “The Ranjisi have been caught in lie after lie after lie. Send them home. We do not need them.”

  In the background was a video of several Ranjisi being arrested. I couldn’t tell if they were actually Ranjisi since they were far away in the background. At the bottom of the ad in very small print was the line, “Sponsored by the Committee for the Advancement of the Human Race.”

  “Okay Director. Who is this Committee for the Advancement of the Human Race?” I asked.

  “Before I tell you who they really are, I want to tell you something else,” Assistant Director Abbott paused and continued, “We’ve made several arrests in the shooting of Chara and Atik. They are not religious fanatics. They are professional hired assassins. Two of the four men we arrested had ties to some old cases where strong-arm assaults were carried out on behalf of some shadow organization that was contracted by one of the large oil companies. So it made sense in a sick sort of way. The last thing the fossil fuel industry wants to see is electromagnetic or symbiotic propulsion. It would lead to sinking quarterly statements for stockholders.”

  “Wow! So they are willing to alter progress for an entire race of people, for money and profit. I guess they have never heard of diversification. They could easily transition into new propulsion technologies.”

  “I never said they were smart. They aren’t thinking with a vision for the future. They are only thinking as far as the next quarterly statement.”

  “Are you still sitting down?” The Director asked. “It turns out, we were wrong again. It wasn’t the fossil fuel industry.”

  “Who then?”

  “It’s even worse and more sinister than we thought. One of the men we detained has a long record. He sprung a deal. He’ll be going into the Witness Protection Program and testifying against the real organizer for the shootings.”

  “Okay Director. You’re leaving me in suspense here.”

  “It was the pharmaceutical industry. It’s not just one corporation but a secret alliance of several of them. They also sponsor the TV ad.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “They make billions or trillions off of all their medications that don’t actually cure anyone. They just treat the symptoms and the patients stay sick and the government keeps spending trillions on treating t
hem,” Assistant Director Abbott said.

  “Imagine attorobobiotics becoming the medical industry standard. The pharmaceutical corporations would lose control of the medical treatment industry. Their research divisions would immediately become obsolete. The drugs they spent millions developing would be replaced by attorobobiotics.”

  “But that’s just plain stupid,” I said. “They can control the production, distribution and administration of attorobobiotic treatments. There may be a time of adjustment but in the long run, they would still make their big profits. That’s unbelievable.”

  “The pharmaceutical industry is no different than the drug cartels that illegally bring hard street drugs into the country. In fact, the pharmaceutical industry may actually kill more people than the drug cartels. The difference is that they do it legally by controlling lawmakers in Washington and the Federal Drug Administration.”

  “So basically if you bring it down to the most basic explanation, they are killing people for money?” I asked.

  “That pretty much sums it up. The thing is, these decisions are done in secrecy, in back rooms and odd meeting places. No one officially signs off on it. It’s like the assassination of John Kennedy. No one person actually ordered it. These things are just implied with nods of the head and vague statements. But a non-verbal chain of events is triggered, ending in the lethal result. No one high up feels guilt or takes responsibility.”

  “So, we are being asked to leave based on false accusations, manipulation of the media and criminal activities,” I said. The Director could hear the frustration and growing anger in my voice.

  “That’s correct, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Also, remember that not all Ranjisi are returning. Many of you will stay and the idea is to just keep a low profile for a while. It’s not like anyone is going to hunt you down and force you to leave. The relationship that has been forged between you and us is permanent. We’ll just hang back for a while and pick up where we left off when things settle down,” Assistant Director Abbott said.

  “Attorobobiotic technology is already here, so there isn’t much the pharmaceutical corporations can do about that,” I said.

  “We were thinking that they may try and launch a big media campaign to discredit attorobobiotics but that’s not going to work either,” Assistant Director Abbott said. “The statistics have been coming out for months. Attorobobiotics is saving lives.”

  “But wouldn’t a public media campaign that would expose the pharmaceutical industry help to sway the people’s opinion of us?” I asked.

  “Not much chance of that Naos. The pharmaceutical industry has complete control over the news media. You see, the reality is, the pharmaceutical industry is much more powerful than the American government.”

  ***

  Our team was scheduled to fly out of Freetown and on to. On the morning we were set to depart, we all waited for the van to take us to the airport. Mesarthim was the last one to arrive. He didn’t need to say anything. He came empty handed. “No luggage?” Chara asked, knowing the eventual answer would follow.

  “I’m not going?” Mesarthim said. “This is my life now. I am happy here. I haven’t told anyone yet but Doctor Bockarie and I are engaged. I’m staying.”

  Everyone applauded and we took turns hugging Mesarthim and saying goodbye. “Where is your fiancé? We want to wish her luck and say goodbye,” I asked.

  “She’s busy working as usual,” Mesarthim said. “I’ll pass along your good wishes when I see her later.”

  I was thinking that they probably won’t bother looking for people who stay behind. There probably won’t be too many of us. People just want to see the official Ranjisi leave. Seeing how confident and happy Mesarthim was inspired me. It was the first time I thought seriously about staying behind.

  We said one last goodbye to Mesarthim and climbed into the van. The airport at Freetown was chaotic as usual. Chara asked me why I was smiling. “I just love all the energy here. People have to struggle to survive and yet they are happy and full of life.”

  After checking in, Chara noticed I was especially anxious waiting to board. “Are you suddenly afraid of flying on human planes?”

  “No Chara. I just have things on my mind.”

  “Oh, you mean LeAnne?”

  “Yes. I’ve been here over two years and she doesn’t even know I’m here.”

  “I know you told me before that she had moved on with her life and you didn’t want to cause confusion by contacting her. But the question is, do you still love her?”

  Chara and I had become close friends over the years. There was nothing romantic about our relationship. She had her family back home and although I knew she would have stayed in Africa indefinitely she was happy to be going home.

  “You know my childhood friend back home has written to me every day since we’ve been here. I only get the emails once every two months and it takes me days to get through them. But she seems to be waiting for me. We could be happy together. I could be with my family and with Syrma. We could have children and we could be happy.”

  “But do you love Syrma, or do you love LeAnne? Where is your heart?”

  I didn’t answer Chara. I was confused about it but I was sure about one thing. Once I boarded that plane, the decision would be made. There would be no turning back. I would never see LeAnne again.

  “Let’s go,” Chara said. “We’re boarding.”

  Chara and I were the last two people in our group to get on the boarding line. I was standing behind Chara while she fumbled through her bags to get her boarding pass. It seemed an unseen force took hold of me. I didn’t think about it. I just did it. While Chara was preoccupied, I stepped out of the line and backed away from the boarding area. She was still looking the other way when I scrambled down the central walkway. When I reached the coffee shop I stood behind a column and peaked out toward our gate. Chara was the only one standing there at the little podium where they looked at boarding passes. She was looking around frantically. A few moments later the gate agent made an announcement over the loudspeaker, “Passenger Luke Riley report to Gate 23 for final boarding.”

  Chara disappeared into the boarding tunnel and I continued watching for a few more moments. They made the announcement two more times before closing the doors. That was it. I knew I could have flown to London and it would have given me more time to make my decision but I also knew that if I had more time I may change my mind. I figured I would wait until the plane took off before booking another flight so I went back to the big ticket purchase terminal and waited a while.

  I soon learned that no matter which airline I chose, I would need to fly to Europe first and then from there to New York. I guess I could have just taken the free flight to London and booked the flight to the US from there, but booking a new flight gave me a distinct feeling of closure. A long awaited answer to a puzzle had been solved. I had finally made the right decision.

  I stepped up to the Air France counter. “One way to JFK, I guess via Paris.”

  26 - A surprise visitor

  Stepping out of the airport terminal in Albany, I wished once again that I had learned to drive. The first three cabbies I approached declined my request. It was at least an hour from Albany to North Blenheim so I didn’t blame the cabbies. One of them must have been nice enough to call into their dispatcher. Ten minutes later a white Lincoln Town Car pulled up and rolled down the window. “You the guy who wants to go to Blenheim?”

  A few minutes later we were on our way. I wasn’t too nervous until I saw the sign that read, “North Blenheim 6.” The area reminded me more of Ranjisan than anyplace I had been before. The rolling hills were just about high enough to be called mountains. The greenery was different and I remembered reading about evergreens that stay green all year. Our winters back home are different. All the big trees on Ranjisan shed their leaves twice a year; once in the summer when the leaves literally burn off and again in the winter when they either fall off naturally or freeze,
crack and fall off. I liked the area there in upstate New York. I found it very relaxing, looking down at the streams as we crossed over several wooden bridges.

  My relaxation ended when the driver pulled off the paved road and turned up a gravel road. I knew this was it. The gravel road was either a private road or a “neighbor maintained” road but I was sure it would lead up to LeAnne’s door. The driver looked back and forth at his digital map before peering in his rearview mirror. “This is it. We are here,” the driver said as he turned off the gravel road and headed down a driveway covered in what looked like crushed white seashells. He had enough room to turn the car sideways. Off to the opposite side there was a pickup truck and two cars parked neatly in line as if they each had their own assigned parking spot.

  I paid the driver and asked him if he could wait a few minutes. “I’ll give you a wave when you can leave.”

  “Is this your ex-wife or something? So I might need to take you back to the airport I’m guessing?”

  “Well no. It’s just that it’s been a while and my visit is totally unexpected.”

  “Okay then,” the driver said. “Good luck.”

  I stood there for a moment without moving. I felt as if I was frozen and couldn’t move. Since I hadn’t had any contact with LeAnne since my arrest back in Idaho, I wasn’t sure how her family would receive me. I felt confident that LeAnne would be happy to see me. It had been a long time since the arrest. At that time, we were becoming closer each day. There was no doubt in my mind that we were sinking deeper in love each day. But that was five years ago. A lot can change in five years. For a second I got a nagging feeling that she had probably moved on and married. I wondered if perhaps her new husband would answer the door.

  But it was LeAnne’s father who snapped me out of my trance. He stepped out onto the front porch and squinted his eyes in the morning sunshine. A large dog followed him out and sat looking at me. I could see the dog reacting to LeAnne’s father’s mannerisms. The dog looked confused at first but then he followed LeAnne’s father’s leads as he walked slowly down the steps. The next moment I could see the light go on in his thinking. “You’re the guy from the hospital. You’re, um, Luke, right?”