The Book That THEY Do Not Want You To Read, Part 2

by Andy Ritchie

  Once Tukaal had confirmed that all was well, we made our way out towards the perimeter fence and, following a quick flash of his Multi-Tool (ooh, Matron), scrambled through the hole he’d cut in the fence.

  Within another minute we were well clear of the sub-station and, within another ten, we were back at the camper van, still parked on the car park of the BandQ Warehouse, both of us a little bit damp from the light rain that had just begun to fall.

  A further fifteen minutes after that, we were parking up at the Craighead Caravan Park at Cruden Bay, a little way down the A90 from the power station and breathing an enormous sigh of relief.

  If THEY had been alerted to our presence at the underground complex, then THEY had not reacted quickly enough to prevent our escape.

  There had been no helicopters.

  There had been no black-clad troops with machine-guns jumping out of bushes and abseiling down the side of the sub-station.

  There had been no road blocks or black Range Rovers to chase us down the road.

  There had been nothing.

  In fact, the most nerve-jangling moment of our escape had come when the woman on reception at the Craighead Caravan Park had commented that she had seen the exact same camper van here less than a week ago and wasn’t that strange because she didn’t remember seeing us, but rather another gentleman who was ever so slightly odd but who was nice with it nonetheless and she now had available an electric hook-up if we wanted one, because she didn’t have one when the odd-looking man was here last week, but wasn’t it strange...

  By the time Tukaal had finished speaking to her, she had completely accepted his explanation that he had lent his van to a friend of his the week before and that his friend had suggested that they pop into this particular caravan park because the welcome is so warm and the lady on reception is so very, very pleasant...the Jedi-mind-trick thing had proved its worth once again.

  Once we were parked, Tukaal immediately went into the back of the camper van and, having opened his metal case, I could see that he had taken out his sub-space communicator into which he was now busily fitting two power cells.

  ‘Calling someone?’ I asked, my tone inquisitorial.

  Tukaal just looked at me as he closed up the back of the communicator and switched it on, whereupon he opened the side door and walked out without a word.

  ‘Stay away from any electrical hook-ups or things like that!’ I shouted after him.

  He didn’t really acknowledge my warning. Instead, he just looked at me for a moment through the window, his expression betraying a worrying number of emotions.

  Sadness.

  Disappointment.

  Embarrassment.

  I then watched worriedly through the rear window of the van has he talked earnestly into the communicator.

  I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but deep down inside my gut, I knew that it was bad.

  (continue with audio file VN550005)

  [Collator’s Note: Quite why JP decided not to finish this off in the same style, I am not sure. Perhaps he intended to do it later but never got around to it. Who knows?]

  -----

  Diary Entry 43

  [Collator’s Note: JP’s ‘story’ about what happened on Thursday 16th was incomplete because it did not include the following conversation. This is what was on audio file VN550005. It is interesting to think that, after this conversation, JP could still find it within himself to make further audio notes about that day (audio files VN550006-14) and then, at some later point, write it all up so descriptively.The conversation starts off with Tukaal returning to the camper van after making his call. JP was making his second voice note and must have left the recorder going, which is how we are able to hear first-hand what was said.]

  JP - '...into the duffel bag...there was the SICPad, the Multi-Tool...'

  Sound of Tukaal entering the van, placing something (communicator?) on the worktop and then slumping down into one of the seats at the rear of the van. He lets out a heavy sigh.

  JP - 'So, who have you been calling?'

  Silence from Tukaal

  JP - '[raised voice] Look, you said you would tell me everything once we had got out of the complex and you had had time to gather your thoughts. Well, I think you’ve had enough time to gather, don’t you?'

  Tukaal - '[sighing again] It’s extremely complicated.'

  JP - 'Then make it simple.'

  Tukaal - 'Okay. It all relates to that small, opaque pellet that the Tofusbutt extracted from inside the body of that hybrid offspring...'

  JP - 'You mean the thing that looks like a Werther’s Original.'

  Tukaal - '[slightly annoyed] Well, seeing as I have never seen a Werther’s Original, I can’t say, can I? But if they are small, tan-coloured and smooth, then yes.'

  JP - 'Sorry.'

  Tukaal - 'Anyway, as I was saying, it all relates to those pellets which are, in very simple terms, small lumps of emotional energy...'

  I think JP must look blankly at Tukaal at this point.

  Tukaal - 'Okay, let me try to explain what emotional energy is...all life-forms produce emotional energy; this was discovered a long time ago, but the difficulty has always been to capture it and transform it into something that could actually be used. The Confederation has been trying to do this for over three thousand of your years, without success.'

  JP - 'But what we saw in that complex, those things on the beds, they’re able...'

  Tukaal - 'Yes, to take raw emotional energy collected through your own electricity distribution grid and physicalise it into those pellets...it’s incredible really, truly ground-breaking...to produce a hybrid in which the genes of who-knows-how-many life-forms are spliced together is remarkable enough, but to find the life-form combination that is actually able to harness emotional energy...'

  JP - 'You...admire what they’ve done, don’t you?'

  Tukaal - 'I admire the intellect, the creativity and the dedication that has obviously gone in to tackling what has always been what you would probably refer to as an alchemist’s dream. But I find the way it has been done to be grossly unethical and utterly indefensible. However worthy the aims, to create creatures like that, whose sole purpose is to harness energy irrespective of the pain and the suffering they endure, then that is an insult to morality.'

  JP - 'So how come you know so much about all this. You’re just a diplomat.'

  Tukaal - 'I studied the work of Tark whilst preparing a Red Banner Thesis for my Blue Lisic — it’s a bit like a Ph.D here on Earth. I studied the theories about generating and harnessing emotional energy...they are using Tark Particles as the transport medium within the electricity distribution grid. That’s how they get the emotional energy to the power station...'

  JP - 'So who is behind all this. Is it THEM? Is it these Bad Guys you told me about...and who is this ‘One’ which the guy in the second-hand shell was babbling on about?'

  Tukaal - '‘The One’ is almost certainly an alien. He is probably the overseer of the interests of the Bad Guys on this planet. He’s the one who will be pulling all the strings, including those of our friend, Patrick Mendelssohn. THEY, as you like to refer to them, will almost certainly be working for The One.'

  A few seconds silence, as if each is thinking about what to say next.

  JP - '[serious] When we went into sub-level five and you saw what was in there, your whole demeanour changed. Why? What was it that you saw?'

  Tukaal once again breathes a heavy sigh.

  Tukaal - 'That, Jeth, is the problem. The equipment we saw in sub-level five is almost certainly an energy enrichment plant. The purpose of that energy enrichment plant is to refine the raw energy pellets like the one we saw into a hyper-concentrated crystal of almost pure emotional energy by removing all non-energy matter. To do so requires extremely high temperatures, extremely high pressures and extremely potent electro-magnetic fields...'

  JP - 'Which is why it makes sense to build it under a power station, I guess.'
<
br />   Tukaal - 'Exactly. Unfortunately, the crystals are extremely unstable, difficult to store, difficult to transport and useless for commercial energy production.'

  JP - 'So why produce something like that?'

  Tukaal - 'Why do you think? '

  JP -'To make a weapon?'

  Tukaal - 'Of course. To make a weapon. You see, Jeth, [speaking earnestly] that’s what you need to understand about all of this, that’s what you need to understand about the Bad Guys. They’ve managed to discover something truly extraordinary here, managed to harness a source of energy which most scientists in the universe believe can never be harnessed...they’ve achieved something truly remarkable and yet, in true Bad Guy style, their immediate thought is how can they turn what they have discovered into a weapon.'

  JP - 'What kind of weapon?'

  Tukaal - 'A truly destructive weapon, something that the Confederation lives in constant fear of being developed, something called a W.I.M.D.'

  JP - 'That stands for...what...weapon-of-something-mass-destruction...?'

  Tukaal - 'The ‘I’ stands for Intergalactic. We are talking about weapons of unimaginable power...'

  JP - '[laughing nervously] W.I.M.D.? Inter-galactic versions of what they never found in Iraq? You’re bull-shitting me, right?'

  Tukaal - 'I’m deadly serious, Jeth. They’ve not only discovered a way of capturing human emotional energy and concentrating it into its purest form, they’re close to developing a way to combine the enormous power of those crystals with a Thausman Singularity. If they manage to perfect that, they could destroy entire planets, entire stars, maybe even entire galaxies. That’s a power no-one can be allowed to possess. That’s why I had to do it.'

  JP - '[suddenly suspicious] Do what?'

  Silence from Tukaal.

  JP - '[a little more forcefully] Do what?'

  Tukaal - 'It’s called a Scenario 26. I’ve never had to deal with one before. It’s part of the Imminent Threat Emergency Protocol. It states that if an Ambassador, acting under paragraph 1394 of the First Contact Protocol, identifies a threat to the Confederation, they are required to report that threat immediately and to recommend directly to the Secretariat whatever measure is appropriate to counter the threat.'

  JP - 'And what ‘measure’ have you recommended?'

  Tukaal - 'Look, Jeth, this is something I would never have believed was possible, the ability to create a weapon that could unleash enough energy to literally blow a planet apart...it goes beyond terrifying...it goes beyond anything I could ever have imagined, even in my worst nightmare...it simply cannot be allowed...Jeth, you need to understand what is at stake here. Countless worlds across hundreds of galaxies will be at risk...it’s the fact that mankind produces so much of this energy that makes these weapons possible...'

  JP - '[sternly] Tukaal, what have you done?'

  Tukaal - '[distractedly, almost to himself] If you remove the source of that energy, if you deny them the basic raw materials, then the threat is extinguished...'

  JP - '[insistently] Tukaal, what have you done?'

  Tukaal - '[still to himself] It’s the only logical course of action...'

  JP - '[shouting] Tukaal, what the fuck have you done?!?'

  A moment of silence, heavy with expectation.

  Tukaal - 'I’ve been in contact with the Secretariat and told them what I’ve found. I was asked to recommend a course of action...I...I...I told them that the most effective solution would be... [voice tails off]'

  JP - 'Would be what?'

  Tukaal - [silence]

  JP - 'SAY IT!!!'

  Tukaal - '[cold, flat voice, almost shocked] I’ve requested a Life-Form Discontinuation Order.'

  JP - 'WHAT!?!'

  Tukaal - 'I told them that humans were the source of the emotional energy that made the W.I.M.D.s being developed here so incredibly destructive, and I said that if humans were taken out of the equation, then the problem would be permanently solved.'

  Silence for a moment.

  Tukaal - 'They asked me if I was recommending a Life-Form Discontinuation Order under the Life-Form Discontinuation Protocol...and I said yes.'

  More shocked silence.

  JP - 'That call you made a few minutes ago on your communicator thing, that was this call to your Secretariat, telling them about what you’d found. Correct?'

  Tukaal - '[sheepishly] Yes.'

  JP - 'And during that call, you and your Confederation buddies decided that the easiest way to solve your problem was to simply exterminate the human race. Correct?'

  Tukaal - 'It isn’t as simple as that, Jeth...'

  JP - 'Well, you devious little fucker.'

  Tukaal - 'Jeth, please, I...'

  JP - '[venomous] What was it you said when we were on sub-level five and I asked you what the fuck was going on? ‘Trust me, Jeth’, you said. And all the time you were itching to gather up your evidence, get out and get here so that you could phone up your mates and tell them to get some beers in because there was going to be a barbecue. That’s one hell of a fucking way to repay someone’s trust!'

  Tukaal - 'Jeth, I’m sorry, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I was terrified by what I’d seen...I had to report it...I didn’t know the ITEP required me to make that decision...I’ve never had to use that protocol before...'

  JP - 'Look, you fucking alien bastard, I don’t give a flying shit about your fucking protocols. THIS IS MY PLANET WE ARE TALKING ABOUT! Six billion people...!'

  Tukaal - '[shouting himself now] Do you think I don’t realise that!! Do you think I didn’t have that at the very forefront of my mind! But there are trillions upon trillions of sentient beings in the worlds of the Confederation, including my world, all of which would be at the mercy of the Bad Guys if they ever perfected these weapons. Could you imagine what would happen if they used one of those weapons on Altimus 4, or Capallico Main? They’d only ever need to use it once and the Confederation would be powerless...I won’t have the fact that I could have done something to prevent that on my conscience...'

  JP - 'But you’ll happily have the deaths of six billion human beings there instead, won’t you...'

  Tukaal - '[also venomous] Do you think this is easy for me? Do you think I enjoy this? This has been tearing me apart ever since I realised what we had discovered! But I have no choice. I had to tell them what I honestly thought was the best thing to do...'

  JP - 'Are you trying to justify mass murder to me, or to yourself?'

  Tukaal - '[voice hard] I don’t have to justify anything, least of all to you. It’s a simple choice. The lives of six billion primitive life-forms on a backward planet at the far edge of the galaxy, or the lives of trillions of enlightened beings on the most culturally and technologically advanced worlds in the cosmos.'

  JP - 'Primitive life forms, eh? Backward planet, eh? Nice to see what you really think of us. Of course, it’s all right for you. You can just get yourself whisked off before the shit hits the proverbial, can’t you? I guess you’ll just go back to Confederation central and find yourself another assignment, another life-form to study, another planet to visit and, before you know it, the memory of what you did here, the six billion lives you played your part in snuffing out, well, all that will just fade away until you probably won’t even remember what a human looks like.'

  Sound of movement followed by the sound of a brief scuffle. Then strangled sounds from JP.

  [Collator’s Note: I suspect that Tukaal has grabbed JP angrily by the throat.]

  Tukaal - '[hissing savagely] Now you listen to me, you annoying human fucker. Do you think I want to do this? Do you really think I want to do this? I’ve devoted five years of my life to this project, to bringing mankind and this planet under the wing of the Confederation. Do you think I want to see it end with mankind being eradicated like an annoying pest?'

  JP - '[sounding strangulated] Well...you...don’t...seem...to...be...doing... much...to...prevent...it...'

  Tukaal - '[anguished] But what ca
n I do?!? The research is so advanced...it must be stopped now!!'

  JP - '[sounding even more strangulated] But...there...must...be...an... alternative...just...need...to...find...it...'

  More sounds of movement. JP coughs and wheezes.

  [Collator’s Note: It is reasonable to assume at this point that Tukaal released his grip on JP’s throat]

  JP - '[still coughing, but pleading] Look, Tukaal. I’m begging you. You need to think of something else. We, mankind, we deserve to be given a chance. To be exterminated simply because some aliens who you and your Confederation don’t get on with decide to use our planet as a workshop, well, that’s just not fair. We shouldn’t become casualties in your war. If we do, if the Confederation perpetrates this act of genocide, then how does that make it any different from those against whom it is supposed to be fighting? Six billion lives. Six billion! Can they all really mean so little? Are all those lives, however primitive, so insignificant that they should be sacrificed without a second thought? Surely you can’t believe that.'