by Andy Ritchie
What was interesting was how, during the meal, our roles subtly reversed. Whereas earlier in the day I had been asking all the questions, this time it was Tukaal who did the questioning.
But it was the types of questions he was asking which really interested me. He wasn’t asking about facts and figures and pieces of hard evidence as I had been. Instead, he was asking about things which were much more...how can I put it...insubstantial. He was asking about emotions; love, hate, anger, joy. He was asking about concepts such as honour and loyalty. He was asking about how certain things I saw and heard and did actually made me feel.
At first I thought it was all very odd, to be discussing such things as we were, but then, as the evening progressed, I began to understand why he was so interested in them. He was asking about all those things he probably couldn’t learn by reading a book or watching a video (if they did indeed read books and watch videos in alien Ambassador school), or experience through one of these ‘globe chambers’.
He was trying to understand people, what makes them the way they are, what makes them so different and yet, at times, so alike.
And just as in the park when he spent minutes studying a single bloom in the flower-beds, he exuded an intense interest that I’ve rarely seen, an almost desperate desire to learn, to absorb knowledge, and this didn’t relent until we arrived back at my house, some time around 11.00.
Once inside, Tukaal went up to his room for a few minutes and, when he came down, I offered him a night-cap which he respectfully declined, saying instead that he needed to retire and then bidding me goodnight.
*
Now, it might just be me, it might just be the fact that I’m tired and I may be imagining things, but I can’t help thinking that when he came downstairs he seemed...troubled, as if his thoughts were suddenly on other things...on darker things. Then again, was it my own fatigued mind playing tricks on me. Very possibly. After all, I was completely shattered.
[Collator’s Note: I can confirm that JP’s instincts were correct. When Tukaal went to the spare room on their return from Sukhis, he noticed that his URG communicator was flashing. He picked it up, made a couple of touch-screen commands, and seemed to replay a recorded message. I have no idea what the message was about because it was all in an alien language. Tukaal, however, can then be seen trying to return the call four times, but every time he tries, the device makes a noise that suggests he has been unsuccessful. I got all this information from the Tukaal DVDs which I have referred to in my earlier note. These DVDs also confirm that, after he retired to the spare room on his first night in JP’s house (whilst JP was downstairs writing the Friday instalment of his diary) Tukaal called someone on his URG. It can be safely assumed that he called the Researcher he had come to Manchester to meet because, even though they spoke in that same alien tongue, you can distinctly hear mention of an address in Manchester and the word ‘Sunday’. I decided not to mention this fact in a note in the previous section because I thought it may raise in the mind of you, the reader, too many questions which were going to be answered in the following chapter anyway. I hope you will forgive me for this.]
But, in spite of my tiredness, I decided that I couldn’t go straight to bed. Instead, I stayed up to write up this account, and I’ll stay up a little longer to make sure I get all my notes in order and perhaps print out some of these documents which Tukaal put onto my laptop.
Maybe, at the very back of my mind, I’ve got this idea that I’ll find something in one of them which will re-ignite the fires of doubt that I have about Tukaal and what he is doing here...and, in a perverse sort of way, I actually want those fires to be re-ignited because, if they are not, then the only alternative I have is to accept that he is who he says he is...and in so doing recognise that our already small and insignificant lives on this world of six billion people are actually nothing more than the tiniest specks of near pointless existence in a universe of hundreds of trillions.
I’m not sure I’m ready for that.
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Explanatory Note 1
About JP’s Discussions with Tukaal
[Collator’s Note: As previously mentioned in JP’s diary, he came up with a ‘cunning plan’ to try to confirm, or otherwise, that Tukaal was the ‘real deal’. This was based on interrogating Tukaal about various aspects of the Confederation to seek out inconsistencies and irregularities. As JP has already admitted, this plan didn’t work because Tukaal was not only able to provide detailed explanations in relation to each question JP asked, he was also able to provide documentation to back them up.
As JP mentions, he wrote extensive notes about the many issues they discussed. However, some of these notes (particularly those JP made towards the end of the day), are somewhat less than comprehensive, yet cover some very important issues. As such, I have taken the liberty of reviewing the video of the conversations between JP and Tukaal which were on the DVDs downloaded from Tukaal’s neural net, firstly to place the notes in the order in which they took place in the conversation and, secondly, to add any further detail which I believe will be useful in helping anyone reading this diary gain a better understanding of the Confederation, its mechanics and its bureaucracy.
Also, in addition to the notes that JP wrote during and after the conversations with Tukaal, I have also added some other information relating to the Confederation that I found on memory sticks or in his notebook.
I have arranged all this information as follows:
Confederation Note 1 — The Structure of the Confederation — these are the first set of notes which JP wrote as Tukaal explained how the Confederation is set up.
Confederation Note 2 — An Explanation of Earth’s Classification by the Confederation — having explained about the Confederation’s structure, Tukaal then went on to explain, in much detail and with the help of copies of minutes of meetings, how the Earth has been classified by the Confederation and how that classification has resulted in his arrival. JP wrote extensive notes on this particular issue.
Confederation Note 3 — Some Comments by JP on the List of Documents Associated with First Contact — with Tukaal having explained about the reasons for First Contact, JP spent some time studying the mass of documentation, procedures and forms related to the First Contact process, and has made comments on these.
Confederation Note 4 — Discussions about Normalisation — JP made (not very) comprehensive notes from his discussions with Tukaal on the subject of ‘normalisation’ i.e. the means by which all the planets of the Confederation are able to work with identical systems in relation to numbers, times and dates, distances, etc.
Confederation Note 5 — Amusing Acronyms — having discovered the rather unfortunate acronym used by the Confederation with regard to units of time, JP then spent a little while looking through the Confederation’s list of Commonly Used Acronyms.
Confederation Note 6 — Shells, Ambassadors and the Angel of Death — these notes on the role of Ambassadors in general, on Tukaal in particular and on the shell he is using, must have been written later, judging by the detail and style, but it was discussed at this point during the day, according to the video.
Confederation Note 7 — Researchers — a list of bullet points about what Researchers do and how they manage to exist amongst us. These were the last notes written by JP on the day.
Confederation Note 8 — An Invitation from the Confederation — this was loaded by Tukaal onto JP’s laptop towards the end of the day, along with item 9 below, and both eventually ended up on a memory stick. The video shows that JP was too tired at this point in the day to look at it, but he clearly examined at it some time later because I found a printed version of it with some hand-written comments.
Confederation Note 9 — Some Basic Facts and Figures about the Confederation — I have no evidence that JP ever actually looked through this ‘web’ style package of pages which gives lots of information about the Confederation. However, I’ve had a look at them and think it is worthwhil
e including them.
Confederation Note 10 — Formulae for converting Earth Numbers into Confederation Numbers — an extension of Confederation Note 4.
If we were being chronologically accurate, nearly all these Confederation Notes should now be included at this point in the diary.
However, a detailed understanding of them (with the exception of Confederation Note 2) is not strictly necessary in order to proceed further and, with this in mind, all of these Confederation Notes have been placed into an appendix (Appendix A) at the end of the book for reference.
Whilst I recognise that there may be an eagerness on your part to press on with reading the diary so as to find out what happens next to JP and Tukaal, I would strongly urge you to take the time to examine the notes in Appendix A, as I believe there is much to be learnt from them, and the information they contain will certainly enhance the overall experience.]
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Explanatory Note 2
Summary of Confederation Note 2 relating to An Explanation of Earth’s Classification by the Confederation
[Collator’s Note: I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should do with the notes JP wrote regarding the Earth’s Classification by the Confederation (Confederation Note 2).A part of me wanted to insert JP’s notes on this matter, in their entirety, at this point in the diary because I believe it is imperative that you, the reader, gain not only a detailed understanding of the Confederation’s classifications of the Earth and mankind and how they ultimately led to the arrival of Tukaal, but also an appreciation of the unbelievable bureaucracy that pervades throughout not only the classification process, but the Confederation in general. A recognition of the depth of this bureaucracy is key for what is to come later.I also felt that simplifying JP’s own detailed (some may say ‘overly-detailed’) explanation was somehow not in keeping with the ‘ethos’ of trying to present the diary as closely as possible to the way JP wrote it.
Another part of me, however, disagrees.That part believes that the inclusion of the whole of Confederation Note 2 at this point of the narrative may well result in the reader getting ‘bogged down’ and, as a result, creates the risk of the reader giving up on the diary altogether.The last thing I want is for anyone who has had the courage to start reading this book to be in any way deterred from completing it and so (against my better judgement, admittedly) I have prepared a brief summary of the key points of Confederation Note 2 for inclusion at this point in the diary.I would, however, strongly encourage you to read JP’s own detailed explanation, and the copies of the Decisions and the Minutes of the Classification Council that he has been able to obtain and through which he has been able to give us a blow-by-blow account of the process of Earth’s Classification, and the implications that has had for us all.]
As explained in Confederation Note 1, the role of the Classification Council is to ‘ensure safety, security and tranquillity for all’. It achieves this by classifying both a planet and any sentient life-forms that live upon it against a defined set of criteria.
The Earth and mankind were first ‘classified’ in about 1760. This initial classification (which was ‘Unaffected/Sentient-Benign (1)’) meant, in essence, that there was nothing really to worry about with regard to our planet as a whole or the human race in particular and, as a result, the Confederation did not look at Earth again for a hundred years.
The 1860 classification, though, was different. This time the classification reached was ‘At Risk/Sentient-Benign (1)’, largely because the Confederation’s assessment team had found some evidence that the Earth was being subjected to ‘corrupting influences’ that were plundering some of the planet’s natural resources. This resulted in frequency of assessments of the Earth being increased from every century to every decade; but apart from that, nothing else changed.
This remained the case until 1960 when, as a result of mankind developing the technology to put men into space, the classification was changed to ‘At Risk/Sentient-Threatening (1)’. The Confederation was worried that if mankind began to travel across the galaxy, he would take with him his propensity for violence, which may eventually begin to affect neighbouring members of the Confederation. So, they spent the next forty-eight years gathering evidence from around the world regarding mankind’s ‘value and worth’, which they subsequently used to decide whether they should simply exterminate the entire human race, or whether they should try to help us mend our ways by inviting us to join the Confederation.
Fortunately, in 1998, they chose the latter and, since then, the Confederation’s Secretariat has been working towards ‘First Contact’, the day when an Ambassador from the Confederation (Tukaal) makes a grand entrance on the White House lawn and answers, once and for all, the question about whether we are alone in the Universe. That day was supposed to be Friday.
[Collator’s Note: These few paragraphs will, I believe, provide you with sufficient knowledge to continue reading the diary without your understanding of what is happening and why being unduly compromised. I would, however, once again urge you to take the time to read JP’s more detailed version in Confederation Note 2 in Appendix A.]
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Explanatory Note 3
[Collator’s Note: I’ve put this table together to provide a (hopefully) useful timeline summary of what JP explains in Confederation Note 2.]
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Diary Entry 3
Sunday 12th September
[Collator’s Note: I suggest JP prepared this hand-written note about lunch-time, maybe just before they went to Sainsburys.]
I would never describe myself a perceptive. In many ways, I’m probably the opposite, more often than not insensitive to the mood and disposition of others.
But, just as I did last night when we returned home from Sukhis, I immediately sensed when I came downstairs that all was not well with my inter-galactic guest.
‘I need to ask yet another favour of you, Jeth.’
Those were the first words which Tukaal said to me when I entered the kitchen. As with yesterday, my Wallace and Gromit tea-pot was already on the table with a thin plume of steam rising from the spout. I poured myself a cup. It was English Breakfast again.
‘What?’
‘I picked up a message from my colleague when we came back yesterday evening. Unfortunately, he has encountered some...difficulties which means he won’t be able to meet me today as we had previously arranged.’
It was the way he said the word ‘difficulties’ (like he said the word ‘complication’ yesterday) which I didn’t like the sound of, so I pressed Tukaal on this point.
‘Difficulties? What do you mean, difficulties?’
I went to the fridge and got out my bacon, sausages, eggs and tomatoes. Sunday is a day for brunch (it’s a hateful word, brunch, but seeing as I eat around 10.30 or 11, its probably the correct term to use). It was always a tradition in the Postlethwaite household for my Dad to cook a full breakfast on Sunday and, in homage to my ancestors, it’s something I have carried on, though only usually when the weather’s too bad to go for a walk or out with the camera.
‘I’m not entirely sure. The message that he left indicated that there was a problem at the building where he has a flat. He was not certain that it was connected with him personally, but, as I said to you yesterday, Researchers are, by their nature and by their training, extremely cautious.’
‘Couldn’t he just choose somewhere else for you to meet today, y’know, somewhere close to where he lives, a park, a café, something like that?’
I had put the grill on and was currently arranging the bacon, sausages and cut-in-half tomatoes on the grill rack.
‘Do you want some of this?’ I asked
Tukaal nodded, but it was a rather absent-minded nod, as opposed to a nod of enthusiasm.
‘I was going to suggest to him that we could meet at an alternative location, but when I tried to contact my colleague, his URG was de-activated.’
I was beating my eggs now, ready to put the
m in the microwave to scramble them.
‘By de-activated, I assume you mean switched off.’
Tukaal shook his head.
‘No, I mean de-activated. I couldn’t even leave a message for him. That is most unusual.’
I thought for a moment. Mostly I was thinking about whether I should do some fried bread, but I think (I hope) I gave the impression that I was thinking about Tukaal’s problem.
‘There could be any number of reasons,’ I suggested. ‘The network may be down. The battery on his URG-thing may have run out. He may have turned it off because he’s in the cinema. He could have an embarrassing ring-tone...’
The last couple of potential explanations were a bit silly, but that was because I was coming to the conclusion that fried bread would be a good idea and my thoughts were drifting towards its preparation.
‘There is no ‘network’ to go down, as you put it. Each URG contains a powerful sub-space transceiver that does not rely on additional infrastructure to carry the signal. The ‘battery’ in a URG is a new generation power cell and, as such, has a life of about 100 of your years. The Researcher may have ‘turned it off’ because of where he is, but I should still be able to leave him a message...and I don’t know about the ring-tone.’
I had got the bread out and was now warming some olive oil in the frying pan. The room was awash with the appetising smells of sizzling bacon and sausage. I took another slurp of my tea.
‘Are you worried?’
I thought it was worthwhile asking the question directly.
‘About the delay in the meeting? No, not really. Another day isn’t going to do any harm provided, of course, that I am able to impose once more on your hospitality...’