Chapter 29
Revelation
Jimmy Malone drove into the U.S. Army base at Ft. Irwin, California. He’d been summoned by General Thornton to discuss recent developments regarding the Bat Mountain Site. He was dreading the meeting because the situation was deteriorating quickly and the General would want answers, but he didn’t really have any. When he got to the general’s office he hesitated a moment and took a deep breath. He finally knocked.
“Come in,” the General said.
Malone walked in and forced a smile. “Good morning, General.”
The general nodded but didn’t return the smile. “Have a seat.”
“Yes, sir,” Malone said and took a chair across from him.
“I called you here because I’ve been reading some rather disturbing stories in the newspaper. I thought we were going to get this Bat Mountain situation contained.”
“Yes, sir. We’ve had some bad luck. Who would have thought Randy Perkins would take a sledge hammer to the wall.”
“Perhaps you should have stressed the importance of leaving the wall alone.”
“I thought we had, sir,” Malone replied. “And why Deputy Hanson took one of the rocks as a souvenir is beyond me. He should have known better than to walk away with evidence.”
“Well, you’ve got to do a better job of containment. Now we have a second site at Death Valley Junction to deal with. How are you going to handle that?”
“I don’t know. We can hide it for a while by keeping it as an active crime scene and putting up fences and a canopy. Eventually we’ll have to come up with a more permanent solution. I don’t think the public will buy a second cathedral.”
“No. That’s a safe bet,” the General agreed. “I know you don’t want to do it, but we may have to figure out how to kill this alien life-form–at least this colony.”
“It would violate the treaty, sir.”
“Would it? We didn’t agree to more than one site for them, did we?”
“No, but nobody was supposed to disturb the one that was allowed. We are already in breach of the treaty and we were warned this particular life-form can get very nasty if it feels threatened.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed. But we can’t have another colony in the middle of a populated area. We’re going to have to eradicate it. Do you all know its vulnerability?”
“No, but this is a sentient life-form. Killing an entire colony would be genocide.”
“But nobody would know that, would they?”
“The aliens would and they might go to the press.”
General Thornton shook his head in disgust. “Well, if this is a sentient life-form someone needs to communicate with them and make them understand that the attacks on them were by accident and apologize. Then maybe they will voluntarily go back to the Bat Mountain Site and live in peace.”
“That could be difficult, sir. Whereas some of the aliens look like you and I, the ones with the ability to speak with this particular life-form are nearly seven feet tall and their skin is a light green. They’d stick out like a pickle in a bag of French fries and if they were seen it could compromise the entire project.”
“That might be the best thing to happen. Just tell the world that alien life exists and get it over with.”
“But the reaction of the public—”
“Yeah, I know. There would be general panic and the President would probably be impeached.”
“Exactly.”
“Then just be careful when you bring in the alien interpreter. Don’t let him or it be discovered.”
“No, sir. We’ll be careful.”
“What about Jack Carpenter?” the general asked. “He’s been stirring up the press and sabotaging our investigation. I thought you were going to take care of him?”
“Our fixer had him in his sights but somehow he dodged the bullet. He’s a very lucky guy. I guess we should have taken him out in his hotel room in Vegas when we had the chance, but we were trying to be reasonable.”
“You should have. We can’t afford to be soft. There is too much at stake.”
“Right. We won’t make that mistake again.”
Malone left and went back to LA where he could work on setting up a meeting with the aliens. He wasn’t looking forward to the meeting as he would have to explain how everything had gone so terribly wrong and they wouldn’t be happy about it. He cursed Jack Carpenter for discovering the Bat Mountain Site and screwing up his life.
He kept the communicator he used to contact the aliens in a safe in his office. After he’d retrieved the small device, he punched in the number for Lt. Zieg Kulchz, the aliens’ senior military officer. Kulchz agreed to a meeting the following day at his headquarters at Possum Kingdom Lake in Central Texas.
Malone took a late flight to Dallas, rented a car and drove out to Mineral Wells where he got a motel for the night. He’d only been to the alien ship a handful of times and he dreaded having to go there again. The ship was hidden beneath the ground on an island the locals called Cactus Island, in the middle of Possum Kingdom Lake. To get to the ship he had to travel through tunnels from the mainland that went under the lake to the island. The caves were dank and smelled of bat guano. The alien ship was manned by huge green humanoids that scared the hell out of him.
The ship was round and looked about the size of a professional basketball stadium. To enter the ship Malone had to climb a ladder to the top of the ship and then go down a hatch into its interior. The hatch’s interior was only illuminated by a single blue light above the door. Once inside one of the crew led him into the heart of the ship to a long corridor that went in both directions. It was stark white and well lit. A few minutes later he stopped in front of a door, looked into an eye hole, and the locking mechanism clicked. He pushed the door open and walked in. Malone followed him with much trepidation.
Kulchz was a tall human with broad muscular shoulders and a rugged face. He looked at Malone intently as he entered the spacious office that appeared to be made of glass. There were thousands of lights on the control panel and monitors above and behind him. He motioned for Malone to sit down. The room was furnished with several chairs and a sofa cushioned by a soft, white substance. When Malone sat down, the seat conformed itself to the shape of his body. As he sank into it, he felt like he was floating on air.
Kulchz sat in front of a large, glowing desk. With the faint blue glow came a steady humming noise that changed pitch from time to time. Malone looked at Kulchz expectantly but Kulchz just ignored him. Eventually Kulchz looked up.
“You wanted a meeting, so here we are,” he said evenly.
“Yes, I don’t know if you monitor our media broadcasts, but we’re having a problem with the desert life-form that you deposited in Death Valley.”
“Why did your people provoke them?”
“No one intended to provoke them. It was all a big misunderstanding.”
“You should have left them alone as the treaty provided. They are not aggressive by nature. They simply wanted to build their home and live in peace.”
“Yes, and that’s what we want, too, but they have killed several people and started a new colony miles from the first. We can’t allow a second colony. We must talk to them and get them to return to the Bat Mountain Site.”
“Only those with the gift can talk to the Nanomites.”
“The Nanomites? Is that what you call them?”
“Yes, that is their name on Tarizon.”
“So, can you send someone with the gift to talk to them and explain that no one was trying to hurt them.”
“We can. We have Seafolken aboard who have the gift, but the Nanomites may not listen. They have been betrayed many times by humans on Tarizon and won’t forgive easily.”
“Well, we have to try. There cannot be a Nanomite colony at Death Valley Junction. It would be impossible to keep it a secret.”
“What if you fail?” Kulchz asked.
“Then we’ll have to kill them and rem
ove all remnants of the colony.”
Kulchz shook his head. “If you kill the Nanomites you will provoke a war. The last time we went to war with the Nanomites they almost destroyed our capital city.”
Malone’s stomach twisted. “Why did you go to war with them?” he asked.
“Someone did exactly what you are proposing, they exterminated one of their colonies that had just finished a construction project. It was a tragic error that cost the lives of thousands of humans and billions of Nanomites.”
“These Nanomites construct buildings?”
“Yes, for thousands of years we didn’t realize the Nanomites were a sentient life-form. They lived in the desert where few humans ever went. We just thought their cities were geological formations. Then a scientist who was studying them realized they were intelligent and had the ability to communicate with each other quickly and effectively. This scientist, with the help of those with the gift of telepathy, were able to establish communication with them and eventually their talents as builders were put to good use. But it was a mistake. The Nanomites are billions strong but act singularly by consensus. If you injure one swarm of Nanomites you injure them all. If one human attacks a Nanomite swarm they assume the entire human race has declared war on them.”
“Oh, Lord. You’ve got to be kidding me. So, they think we are at war with them?”
“Probably.”
“That would explain why they have been so vicious in their reprisals.”
“Yes, so I will send someone to interpret for you, but you will have to convince them to go back to the Bat Mountain Site. It will not be an easy task.
“Wonderful,” Malone moaned.
“If it were up to me, I’d kill every last one of them.”
“You would?”
“Yes, as far as I’m concerned they are nothing but a pest and I’d kill them all, but it’s not up to me. We have a peace treaty with them and one of the terms of the treaty was us to help them establish a colony on Earth. You see the Nanomites’ have a strong instinct for survival, not individually but the survival of their life-form. Expansion of their cities and colonies is therefore of extreme importance to them. Once they have a new colony established they won’t be anxious to turn loose of it.”
“So, worst case scenario. If we end up at war with them, can they be easily beaten?”
“It’s easy to kill individual Nanomites, even whole swarms. Chemical extermination is quite effective. The problem is they are so small and move so quickly through solid objects that it is difficult to kill them all. So, if after an attack any survive, you’ve accomplished nothing as they will reproduce and be back to equal strength in just a few days and you won’t have any way of knowing when or where their next attack will come.”
Malone sighed in utter and complete despair. “Oh, I can’t wait to tell the President that we are at war with an enemy we can’t even see. Damn it!”
“Like I said, I’d like to help you exterminate them all, but my superiors will not allow it. All I can do is wish you luck.”
Kulchz summoned one of his aides and whispered something to him. A few minutes later one of the tall humanoid guards that Malone passed in the tunnels appeared.
“This is Linkh Leode. He will go with you and act as your interpreter,” Kulchz said.
Malone gave Linkh a once over and then sighed. “We’ll need to disguise him or we will attract too much attention.”
Kulchz shrugged. “Do whatever you must. Just convince the Nanomites to return to the Bat Mountain Site. Don’t let this situation deteriorate any further or we will have to intervene.”
“How would you intervene?” Malone asked tentatively.
“We’d have to exterminate the Nanomites for you but there would likely be a lot of collateral damage. I don’t think your President would be happy and my superiors would be very upset because such action could cause a renewal of the Nanomite War on Tarizon.”
Malone swallowed hard, got up and smiled at Linkh. “Alright. We’ll give it a try. Thank you for your help.”
Linkh bowed to Kulchz and then turned and led Malone out of his office. Malone followed him off the ship and back through the caves to the warehouse at the cave’s entrance. When they got back to his car Malone pulled out an overcoat from the trunk for Linkh to wear to cover his uniform.
“This is the first time I’ve been in one of your automobiles,” Linkh remarked.
“Really?” Malone said. “You haven’t left the ship?”
“No. The Seafolken are not allowed off the ship except at night and then only to feed in the lake.”
“Hmm. How did you learn to speak English?”
“We learned on the way to Earth.”
“Was it hard for you to learn it?”
“No. We have drugs that help you learn quickly.”
“Wow. That’s a technology that would be useful. I’ll have to talk to Kulchz about getting some of that.”
“I hope you don’t exterminate the Nanomites, they are a wonderful life-form. You should see the beautiful buildings they’ve constructed on Tarizon.”
“Is that right? Any cathedrals?”
“Oh, yes. Their cathedrals are most exquisite.”
“So, do you talk to them often?”
“No, not often, but I did talk to the speaker for the swarmmasters that are at the Bat Mountain Site before they were left off.”
“So, your ship caused the circular footprint near the site?”
“Yes, when we land we burrow so no one will see us from above.”
“That must be something to see.”
Linkh smiled and nodded. “Yes, the ground shakes terrible and it’s quite noisy.”
“Dusty too, I bet.”
“If the ground is dry, yes.”
“When we get to town I’m going to have to disguise you. We don’t have Seafolken on Earth so we best make you look like somebody people see every day.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I was thinking you’d make a good cowboy.”
Once they were back in Mineral Wells Malone took Linkh to his motel room while he went to the store to get the clothes and make-up for a disguise. An hour later Linkh was looking in the mirror at a West Texas Cowboy with dark weather-beaten skin.
“Very good,” Malone said. “I think that will work.”
When they got to Dallas Love Field to fly back to California, they had to walk through the terminal and were pleased that they got only a few stares and most everybody ignored them. On the plane one of the stewardesses kept looking at Linkh and Malone wondered what she was thinking. As they were deplaning she stopped him.
“Sir, I’m curious. Did I see you in a John Wayne movie?”
Malone laughed and Linkh just stared at the woman. “No,” Malone said, “but he should go for a screen test, don’t you think?” The stewardess nodded enthusiastically.
When they got back to Malone’s office it was late so they only stayed there long enough for Malone to check in with General Thornton and Senator Rawlings and update them on his plans.
“So, you have an alien with you right now?” Rawlings asked.
“Yes, a Seafolken. He looks just like a tall human except his skin is a little green. I’ve dressed him in jeans and cowboy attire which is common out here in the desert and applied a little makeup.”
“This is very dangerous,” Rawlings said.
“It’s the only way we can talk to the Nanomites and try to reason with them,” General Thornton replied.
“Nanomites? Is that what they’re called?” Rawlings asked.
“Yes, and they are so small you can’t see them even with a microscope,” Malone noted. “So, they can travel through solid objects and they reproduce like rabbits on steroids.”
“Great,” Rawlings replied. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Don’t worry. Apparently they are quite intelligent so we should be able to make them understand the importance of going back to the
Bat Mountain Site. I’ll call you tomorrow night with a report.”
Malone hung up feeling exhausted. He looked over at Linkh. “You’re hungry I bet?”
“Yes, I was hoping you were planning to eat.”
“What kind of food do you like?”
“I can eat anything you do, but I prefer fish–raw, if possible. If you take me to the ocean or a lake I can catch my own dinner.”
Malone laughed. “No, we don’t have time for that? How about we stop at the market and I’ll buy you whatever fish you want and I’ll pick up some take out along the way.”
“That will be fine.”
When they got to their motel Linkh ate salmon strips they’d picked up at Safeway and Malone downed Chinese takeout. When they were done they drank a few beers and then went to bed early so they could get a good night’s rest for an early morning departure for Death Valley Junction and their negotiations with the Nanomites.
Tarizon: Desert Swarm Page 29