“Currently they seem to have only a few small wars, nothing major. But historic records show that this planet suffered two major world wars in the last century alone.”
“How do we know all this?”
“Our computers connected into a huge repository of data formed by millions of computers on their planet. They call it the Internet.”
“Interesting name.”
“Yes, it’s a relatively new concept for them. About three decades old.”
“And this information is freely accessible?”
“Yes, yes it is.”
The ship entered the planetary atmosphere and continued its course toward a city called Washington DC, the capital of the United States of America. As they approached, the humans sent a video signal to the shuttle, and Chase displayed it on the main screen. General Adams appeared before them, a man well into his years. Tall with gray hair, brown eyes, and a neatly trimmed beard.
“I’m General Adams. We welcome you to the White House.”
“Thank you, General. As per your request, I’ve brought Lieutenant Commander Athanatos with me to meet with the people of Earth.”
“Lieutenant Commander, huh? I see we share similar ranking systems in the military chain of command. I guess congratulations are in order then, Lieutenant Commander Athanatos. From what we’ve witnessed here today, it’s a well-deserved promotion.”
“Thanks, General,” answered Chase, not knowing who to thank first.
“We’ve transmitted coordinates for your landing; we look forward to meeting you upon your arrival.”
“Thank you, General. We look forward to meeting you as well. Captain Saroudis out.”
The transmission ended, and Chase looked at his captain with a raised eyebrow.
“What is it? ‘Lieutenant Commander’ isn’t good enough for you?”
“No, of course it is. Thank you, Captain. I just— I didn’t think I would get a promotion mere hours after pulling a gun on you.”
“Your actions were reckless, and I didn’t particularly like that part, but I’m not a fool. You did what you had to do and you did it with courage. Courage bordering on foolishness but, in the end, you did what you thought was best and you were right all along. You saved an entire world and, no matter how this turns out, I believe that no other course of action could have resulted in a better situation.”
“I don’t know what to say. I just hope we won’t both regret it.”
“You and me both, son, you and me both.”
The shuttle landed on the designated pad near a large, white building. The biggest “house” Chase had ever seen. There were a number of humans waiting for them, as well as some armed soldiers. When the doors opened, the first thing that struck both Chase and the captain was how beautiful the sky was: a deep blue with very few clouds and a brightly shining sun. There were some flying vehicles around the area and some flashes coming from a far-off crowd.
Once they’d descended the ramp, General Adams stepped forward and performed some sort of military salute. “On behalf of the people of the USA, we welcome you to Earth.”
“Thank you, General,” answered Captain Saroudis. Then he added, “USA?”
“Oh, of course. The United States of America. The greatest country in the world!”
Chase smiled but inside felt worried about the fact that there were so many countries on this planet; this wouldn’t help speed up their alliance with the people as a whole.
“We’re honored, General,” answered Saroudis with a polite smile.
“Follow us this way; we have a lot to talk about.”
Chase and Captain Saroudis followed the group of men into the building called the White House.
While everyone was walking down an inner corridor, Chase turned to the general and asked, “What were those flying machines outside, and the flashes?”
“Oh, of course,” he was quick to explain. “The flying machines are helicopters; they use propellers to allow us to fly between one place and another. Some are military, others are for transportation purposes, and some were from the press.”
“The press? What is that?”
“The press is a dedicated group of people whose job it is to inform the people of our planet about what’s going on. They’re called journalists; they write about or film the events unfolding on our planet on a daily basis. Then everything is shown on TV or printed in the newspaper.”
“TV? Newspaper?” asked Captain Saroudis.
“These are means of communication. We print the news onto sheets of paper that are sold or distributed to the population. TV is short for television; it’s a video broadcast we send to the people of our country and sometimes to the whole world to keep them informed. Your arrival is the biggest story the people of Earth have ever gotten. You will surely have your faces on our TVs for months or years to come.”
Chase resisted the urge to shrug. “I’m not sure we have time for this but, one thing at a time, I suppose.”
“Yes, I suppose this must all seem quite strange to you.”
“It does, but we have similar concepts in our civilization. I believe it’s mostly the terms or vocabulary that will be a barrier to understanding one another,” added the captain.
“I’m extremely surprised you’re speaking English.”
“As were we that you speak Universum.”
“Universum?”
“That’s what we call our very similar language. We also noticed that we share an older language, what you call Ancient Greek. It has us baffled as to how this is at all possible; we can only surmise that at one point, in a very distant past, our species were connected.”
“It has been theorized that there must have been some alien life that either interfered or lived here thousands of years ago, but we didn’t have any proof until now. As a matter of fact, this is the first time we’ve had contact with an alien race.”
“What is alien?” Chase asked curiously.
“Alien is the word we use to describe people or life-forms that are unknown to us or that come from outside our borders—but that second one is of no importance. We’ve had suspicions for decades that there must be life on other planets. In fact, a part of our population believes we’re visited on a regular basis by aliens, but most people think it’s nonsense.”
“And are you being visited by other species?”
“If you don’t mind, we’ll discuss that topic another time. For the time being, we need to discuss a few other things, like your intentions toward our world.”
“Yes of course,” agreed Captain Saroudis.
Chase couldn’t help but feel the need to interject. “Our intentions? I’d think our intentions are clear; we came to help.”
“That part we understand, but put yourself in our place. The same day we learn that we’re not alone in the universe, we get attacked and nearly destroyed by one alien species, and then another saves us. The fact that there’s life on other planets—beings with immensely more powerful technologies than ours is both fascinating and terrorizing at the same time. And from what we’ve gathered after what happened in orbit, you have the means to wipe us out, if that will ever be your intention.”
Chase was about to answer coldly, but Captain Saroudis put his hand on his shoulder and said, “I understand, General. So let me reassure you right away that that is not our intention. It was pure luck that we detected the fleet approaching your world. We happen to have directives in our society not to interfere with affairs that don’t concern us.”
“I see…” the General said slowly. “So, why is it that you did so? Not that I’m complaining; we would surely all be dead or enslaved right now if you hadn’t come to our aid.”
“We detected the similarities in both your biology and language, as well as a few things from your probes and communications. It became clear that we, as people, were linked somehow. It was also clear that if we didn’t interfere, you wouldn’t be able to defend yourselves against this foe.”
“Y
es, as much as the leaders of our world will hate to admit it, you’re most certainly right, Captain. However I must warn you, while we are extremely grateful for your help, as a species, humans are a very suspicious people. Many of our population might think this was a plot to infiltrate us and exploit us in one way or another. But I suggest you discuss all this with our leader and chief, the President of the United States.”
The group arrived at an elevator door protected by two armed guards with blank faces.
General Adams turned to Captain Saroudis. “Are you carrying any weapons on you? I’m sorry to ask, but it’s security procedure. I’m sure you understand.”
“We do understand and no we don’t have weapons on us. It would seem futile to pack weapons for our first meeting. We do want to make a good first or, in this case, a good second impression.”
“Very well.”
The general put his finger on a green pad near the metallic doors. After a second and some beeping, the doors to the elevator slid open.
“If you will please enter the elevator.” He gestured the way.
Both Chase and Captain Saroudis stepped onto the platform followed by men in black costumes, white shirts and black ties. Some of them had wires that came out of their ears and disappeared inside their jackets. Upon closer inspection, they seemed like some sort of security detail.
Once inside, the general touched a blue button with his thumb, received some sort of scan, and the elevator started moving. Though the contraption seemed to have some sort of crude inertial compensating system, it was clear they were going down.
“Are we going underground, General?” Chase asked.
“Yes, several stories down, into a protected bunker where we will meet with the President of the United States as well as a few other people from our country’s government. Since we were taken by surprise with all of this, we couldn’t assemble all the people that would normally be needed for such a meeting, but you will see the President, some of his advisors—I’m one of them on the military side—and some scientists.”
11
A few moments and several hundred feet of descent later, the elevator doors opened into a very large room with a high ceiling. The walls on all sides were heavily reinforced and most of them featured huge display monitors. There was a big table in the center, and it was here that the general gestured Chase and the captain to sit.
A moment later, an image of a face appeared on the biggest monitor. It was a human of around fifty to sixty years of age, judging by the number of wrinkles on his face and the gray in his hair.
“I am President Jack Mandle of the United States of America, and I welcome you to our planet.”
“Thank you, sir,” the captain and Chase said in unison.
The rest of the people around the table exchanged quick glances and General Adams spoke up. “They don’t know our way of addressing rank, Mr. President.”
“That’s quite alright, General. They just saved our world; they can call me dude if they want. I wouldn’t be offended.”
Chase and the captain glanced at each other, not understanding the word “dude” but deciding to let it go. Instead, the captain leaned forward. “Mr. President, thank you for talking with us. We have lots to discuss. But I would like to address what I believe are the most pressing issues first. Then we can both choose delegations of our people, scientists, doctors and the like, to meet and discuss the details, as I’m sure you’ll want to.”
“Alright, Captain, what are these urgent matters you’d like to discuss?”
“Well, Mr. President, while we defeated the alien race attacking Earth today, we believe they’ll most likely come back and in greater numbers. We need to discuss how we can help each other to fend off the next attack. We also need to discuss the prospect of forging an alliance between our two peoples, but also with the other nations on Earth. I wonder if we could use what happened today to try and unify the people of the planet as a whole so that we can all benefit from this alliance.”
“Captain, I’m glad to see you’re seeking us as allies, but that will certainly raise a red flag amongst many of our people. What do you have to gain? I mean, you could claim this planet for yourselves or take it by force if you wanted. You certainly have the firepower to do so, and that fact alone will make a lot of people doubt that your intentions are sincere.”
“I understand, Mr. President, but here are the facts: we left our own galaxy because we’re being hunted down. One of the reasons we intervened today and saved Earth is that we need a place to stay, and we need allies to help us rebuild and repair. We took serious damage in the protection of your world, and we don’t have the manpower or resources necessary to expedite this task. With the help of Earth, we could repair our ships much faster. We’ll also need to start building new ones as soon as possible, another task that would be daunting without some sort of labor force.”
“I see.” The President paused and one of his advisors whispered something in his ear. He pondered the information, then continued talking. “We’ll have to discuss all this of course, and see how we can help you, but our military and scientists are confident we can. We’ll also have to inform the rest of the planet, and that’s sure to cause some internal turmoil. Not to mention the fact that you’re technologically far superior than we are. While we can surely provide manpower, I doubt we’ll be able to help you much when your technology and resources are so far ahead of our own.”
“That brings me to my next point, Mr. President. We are willing to teach you our technology and help Earth in any way we can. But we first need to reverse the damage you’ve already done to your planet.”
“We are aware of these challenges and our best minds are already at work toward that goal.”
“No offense, Mr. President, but, from the information we’ve gleaned from looking into your histories and records, you are not waging a winning battle.”
“Our world is a complex one, Captain, we must tread lightly and—”
“That’s all well and good, Mr. President, but I believe another attack from this alien race is imminent. In a matter of weeks at worst or months at best. It is only a matter of time. They will surely be back, and they will most likely come in much larger numbers. We believe we’ve destroyed all the enemy ships, but we can’t discount the fact that they might have sent a distress call during the battle. We need to mount defenses on and around the planet as quickly as possible, and we must change your infrastructure in order to achieve that goal in a minimum amount of time.”
“Wait a minute! Are you telling us that you need to take over? Do we have a choice in the matter or are you simply imposing conditions?”
The people around the table fidgeted nervously. It was clear the President had interpreted the captain’s words as a threat.
“No, Mr. President, we’re not imposing anything. We’re merely stating some cold hard facts. If you will allow me to explain, then you can discuss everything with the rest of the world and decide what you want to do. But it’s obvious that to survive what’s coming next, your entire planet will have to make drastic changes. Changes in the way you create energy, for one.”
This didn’t go over well at the table either, but the captain kept going.
“Again, we don’t wish to impose anything, and we’re not here to dictate terms. We’re only trying to help you reach your potential in a fraction of the time it would have taken you to do so on your own. But for these changes to take place quickly, many things will need to happen, and they will need to happen fast. We realize this must be extremely frightening to all of you, but we must insist upon the fact that without these changes, we do not believe either we or the people of Earth will be ready for what is yet to come.
“It’s unfortunate that we had to meet under these dire circumstances, but we believe that with our help and guidance, the human race can evolve. Furthermore, it’s clear that our species share a common ancestry. How else would we speak almost the same language and have the same app
earance as you if we were not somehow linked?”
A voice from the other side of the table said, “You could be masquerading yourselves as humans, while actually being totally different from us. You could also be responsible for the attack we just went through, and you’re just taking credit for the save to try and enslave us in the name of peace and evolution.”
Chase rose from his chair in anger, but before he could speak, the captain put a hand on his arm and gestured him to sit back down.
“Mr. President, while I can understand the doubts and turmoil that our arrival must bring, I believe we must make our point clear, even if it bruises some egos or creates some controversy along the way. Had we not intervened when we did, and had my colleague not risked his life to reach you before our battlegroup did, we believe a significant portion of the planet would have suffered irreparable damage and you would not be in a position to have a dialogue with your aggressors. And while we will certainly spend the next few days discussing all of these issues with the people of Earth, the simple fact is this: We are here, and we need allies. We would like to ally ourselves with Earth and help you defend yourselves against any new enemy that may come.”
“Any new enemy… Are there others?”
“We know of others, and we will discuss them all in due time. For the time being, we need to decide if you want this alliance or not. If you do not want us to help you, even if that help might seem like an imposition because of the urgency of the situation, then we will leave. While we can’t jump back out of Earth space right away, we still have sub-light capabilities that would allow us to break orbit today if that’s your wish. But we cannot overstate that the best way for Earth to survive the coming war is for us to work together by jumpstarting your evolution. Where we come from, we have directives that actually prevent us from doing this because the risk of giving such advanced technologies and weaponry to a race that is centuries behind could have catastrophic consequences for you. However, we believe that with our guidance, we can help you make the best of it and send you centuries ahead in terms of progress.”
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 17