by Clyde Key
* * *
This would be a Media Event. It was set up in the roof garden atop the penthouse of the historic Watergate Hotel. PNN had video cameras permanently in place because this was a favorite location for politicians to make important announcements. And the view up here was spectacular. The flowers and shrubs were well maintained (many were live). Just before the news conference, Watergate employees turned on the sprinkler system briefly and this gave the appearance of sparkling dew on the plants. It wasn’t Eden but it was as close as you could come in 22nd century Washington, DC.
The Watergate roof garden location had been Andersen Curvin’s idea. Curvin had learned that the weather would be unseasonably warm (though still likely cold for the reporters and The Visitors) and there would be a light southerly breeze all day. So the news conference had been planned accordingly, with all the reporters and VIPs seated along the south side of the garden. With The Visitors on display in front of them, the breeze would carry away that strong alien odor so there would be no embarrassing stories written on the topic. Sisk knew that sooner or later she would have to deal with the problem of gaining public acceptance of this unfortunate aspect of Visitor interaction. She planned to postpone the problem as long as possible because she quite frankly had no idea how she would accomplish it.
The cabinet members arrived first and were seated along the two back rows. The front rows were reserved for the reporters who showed en masse a few minutes later. Their video crews were back at the PNN studio however, because this video equipment was remote controlled.
Arlene stood before the group a few minutes before The Visitors’ scheduled arrival. “Before our guests arrive, I’d like to take a few minutes to make some important points. The first is that The Visitors—excuse me, Veezee—are different from humans in many ways—in ways you will no doubt find shocking, in fact. But it is very important that none of you react in any way that could be construed as deprecating or demeaning. Think about how you would feel if you had to represent humans for a panel of beings from outer space. I trust you will do all that you can to make this a helpful first meeting of most of the citizens of our world and this strange and wonderful civilization.
“Secondly, I must tell you that Veezee communicate directly with each other via magnetic brain waves. Therefore they have to use translation devices to convert Veezee thought to human communication and vice versa. Each of these Veezee will be fitted with these devices so they can speak with you. The Visitors do make sounds however, which they use to see and to navigate by some kind of built-in sonar. A few of you may find this sound to be somewhat shrill and painful. I would ask you to bear it willingly for the period of this conference.
“And the last item I would mention is that Veezee have an unusual method of exiting their rocket globes. It may be disturbing to watch but I’m telling you this so you will expect it and thus not make any unnecessary reactions.
“There is a format we have agreed upon for this meeting. Veezee representatives will present a prepared statement from The Eldest. Then they will answer questions from the group. Please understand that if I feel a question is inappropriate, I will disallow it.
“Now, Veezee are very prompt. It is almost time for the conference to begin so I expect they will arrive in just about twenty seconds.”
At that, a hush fell over the expectant crowd. Sure enough, in a few seconds the three globes appeared over the wall, zipped across the rooftop, and came to an abrupt halt right in front of the assembly. The flames died and the globes settled quickly.
When The Visitors’ emissaries began the procedure of exiting their globes, Arlene held her finger to her lips and signaled shh. But the assembled dignitaries and reporters were very quiet anyway as they watched the strange procedure.
When they were completely out and recombined, Arlene said with a great flourish, “I present to you, Veezee!”
“Greetings from The Eldest Veezee,” said a Veezee. At first, Arlene couldn’t quite tell which of them spoke. Then she decided that they must have spoken in unison. “The Eldest Veezee wishes to inform you many facts about Veezee.
“Veezee are a very ancient civilization, many times older than the oldest Earth civilizations. Veezee have learned much technology, but have not much need for technology. We require only food and space to live and opportunity to think with The Eldest in order to be happy.
“Veezee are not like humans. We have unity and we have no war. Veezee had no thought for war before we came to this planet. We wish no war with humans.
“Veezee wish to be free. The government of humans of the United States of America upon whose portion of the Earth’s surface we have landed will not allow us to travel on the surface of this planet. United States of America soldiers attack us when we attempt to explore away from the area where we landed. It is also true at the other landing sites. We believe the government of the United States of America can influence other Earth governments to allow us to travel freely on the other landmasses.
“If Veezee are allowed to be free, we will repay humans. We will repay with teaching technology. We will repay by teaching civilization to humans. We will repay by eliminating the shameful racist and sexist exploiters who have enslaved the weak and even now seek to retain an evil grip on your institutions.”
“Hear, hear!” exclaimed a dark-skinned PNN reporter whose name tag identified him as J. Ahmad. “That’s telling it right!”
“Ah...” Arlene interrupted. “That is not quite what we talked about. That could be misunderstood.”
The alien went on, oblivious to Arlene’s consternation. “Veezee offers enlightenment for the inhabitants of this planet in exchange for our freedom.
“Veezee will soon be free anyway, because we will not be controlled by lesser beings. Then we will eat all of you and take this planet.”
The last remark took the assembly by surprise. Initially shocked to complete silence, the group started an excited buzz. “What? What did you say?” gasped Arlene.
“That was joke. Veezee do not understand joke but know humans like joke. Do humans like this joke?”
“I’m afraid that was misunderstood,” said Arlene. “Perhaps I’d better talk to you about humor before you meet any more humans. Not that there was anything wrong with it. It’s just that humans are not understanding for the main part.”
“That is all of statement of Eldest Veezee. We will now answer questions as we agreed.”
A PNN reporter on the front row raised her hand. “How long will Veezee stay here?”
“Veezee must stay forever,” said the center alien. “Rocket fuel is almost gone. If Veezee leave this planet, cannot land on another planet. But Veezee is happy with this planet if have freedom.”
“Couldn’t you make more rocket fuel?” asked a young man at the end of the row.
“Veezee could make more fuel but needs all hydrocarbons on this planet. This planet would die as did the last planet when we left.”
“Whew! We can certainly appreciate that you must stay here under those circumstances! But how many of you are there?” asked Anthony Cleaver, reporter for Eastern VidChannels.
“We are two.”
“No, no! I can plainly see three of you! But what I meant is how many are your total population, not just in this meeting.”
“We are two,” repeated the alien. “We are noble Veezee and common Veezee.”
“Okay,” said Cleaver. “I take it you mean there are two groups of you, but how many are in each group?”
“We are two. Noble Veezee are one, but Noble Veezee are many. Common Veezee are one but many also.”
Then reporter Ahmad waved his hand and was recognized. “Which group are you guys from?”
“We are not guys. We are Veezee,” said the center alien. “We are noble Veezee. They are common Veezee.”
“We are common Veezee,” said the other two, in unison.
“How did you get divided up that way?” asked Ahmad. “Who decides who is noble and wh
o is common? And what’s the difference anyway?”
There is no decision,” said the center alien. “Noble Veezee are born to think and rule by the thoughts of The Eldest. Common Veezee are born to serve. Common Veezee are lower species.”
“Hey! That sounds like... Well, it’s not democratic,” said Ahmad. “We fought wars to get rid of... “
Arlene interrupted. “I’m afraid that’s a subject we’ll have to drop for now. I’m sure it can be covered at some other session.”
“We will tell you now,” said the alien. “It is what humans call symbiotic. It is like when Earth animals of different species interact positively. It is not like the evil slavery which even now some attempt to install anew into Earth institutions.”
This could get out of hand, thought Arlene. “I believe we’ve covered quite enough for the first session. I wish to thank our guests for this remarkable event and I promise all of you that we will hold another educational session soon. I would suggest that each of you prepare questions in advance of the next session so that I may organize the topics for most efficient coverage.”
Cleaver waved his hand vigorously. “Before this is over, could we examine those globes more closely and perhaps observe their operation? We really didn’t get a good look when they came.”
“That’s up to our guests,” said Arlene. “If they would like...”
Andersen Curvin tapped Arlene’s shoulder and whispered, “Not a good idea, Ms. Sisk. Remember the smell.”
But it was too late. The center alien pointed skinny fingers at Cleaver and said, “That human may come forward and observe the globes.”
All three globes opened simultaneously and the three aliens squirted their goopy inner substances inside, before bounding into the open hatches. Then Cleaver stepped up and reached out to touch one of the globes just as the rocket flame started. He jumped but when the globes hovered in position a few centimeters over the roof, Cleaver placed his hand on the nearest. “Wow! That is unusual! It tingles! It feels like it has a charge!”
Arlene was surprised when the roof caught fire from the rocket exhausts almost simultaneously under the three globes. Flames and smoke boiled up around the alien vehicles and Cleaver fell back in shock. Then the three globes, each obviously carrying a dead, fried alien, shot upward several meters before crashing back down to the roof. Flames roared where the globes had started and then the roof caught fire where the globes crashed. “The sprinklers!” shouted a PNN reporter. “Somebody turn on the sprinklers!”
Almost at once, water sprayed everywhere and soaked the assembly. The fires were soon extinguished, but Arlene cried. “No! No! No! We’ve killed them! It wasn’t supposed to be like this! We’ve killed them.”
“It wasn’t us, Ms. Sisk!” said Curvin. “It was an accident! We didn’t do it!”
Then all the reporters saw Arlene Sisk. The sprinklers had washed away all of the cosmetic paint, and she was quite green—perhaps not as deeply green as she had been before, but she was still shockingly green.
“Ms. Sisk, your makeup is gone,” said Curvin quietly.
Arlene held up her arms and stared. Then soaked, shivering reporters and cabinet members began to crowd into the elevator. Soon, only Arlene and young Curvin remained in the roof garden. As Arlene sobbed, Curvin noticed the red light still gleaming from one of PNN’s video cameras. It had transmitted this whole sad affair to the nation and was still focused on Arlene’s agony. Curvin picked up a chair and threw it at the camera.
32
Aug. 20, 2112
“I want you in Washington immediately. Come straight to the White House,” said President Litton.
“Yes, Ma’am,” said Ed. “Right away. I’ll take the first train.” Even if he hadn’t seen Litton’s grave expression on the wallscreen, the tone of her voice told Ed this wasn’t an optional trip. Something was up—probably something very bad.
The nearest magport was at Flagstaff, so Marilee Sharp drove Ed there in one of the high level floaters. It was a quick trip since there was very little highway traffic between Kingman and Flagstaff any more. Before aliens came to the planet, this had been a busy thoroughfare. Repellers bumped almost continuously then, jostling drivers and their passengers, but now the only ripple either of them felt was when Marilee happened to let the floater get a little too near the side of the road.
It was different in Flagstaff, though. As long as the aliens stayed in southern California, nobody felt like moving out of Flagstaff. Traffic was heavy all across the city but particularly near the magport. In that area, drivers all turned their repellers to full strength and drove aggressively. Bouncing off the repeller beams made Ed almost seasick.
“You know, this is almost like a different world,” said Ed. “People here are almost oblivious to the fact aliens are no more than 300 kilometers away.”
“I think they know it,” said Marilee, as she maneuvered the floater into the right lane to get to the magport. “I think it just hasn’t registered on people here. It’s amazing when you think about it, because the whole east coast is in such a complete dither over whether the aliens are getting out into the country.”
Then they were into the magport and Marilee found a space near the Departure Entrance where a sign said “No Parking—Hover Only”. “I’ll let you off here since you don’t have much luggage.”
“Good enough,” said Ed. He raised the door and stepped out, taking his overnight bag with him. He went inside and went straight past the ticket to the counter where the sign said “Government Passage”.
“Good morning, General,” said the young woman behind the counter. “Where to this time?”
“It’s Colonel, but thank you for the promotion anyway. I’m going to Washington, DC.”
“We’re full up. What priority do you have this time?”
“Level one,” said Ed. “I don’t have a choice about going.”
“Very well, but somebody’s not going to like getting bumped.” The woman manipulated some keys on her terminal. Then she smiled and handed him the pass. “Car two.”