Chapter 12 “Council”
Joe didn’t know Jead, in fact he’d never heard of him. Before they left Joe had hoped that Stan would update him on the homeworlds, but they never got around to it. Surprisingly Joe was not prepared so when he was in front of the council he winged it. Joe hated public speaking, but he thought things went well. As he pondered this Avery walked up to him.
“I could tell you were not prepared.” Avery took the wind out of Joe’s sails.
“It’s good to see you again Avery, I don’t hold a grudge against anyone you know.” Joe put his hands in his pockets.
“Oh my, oh my, some things never change. If I recall, you’re the one always trying to stir things up. Constantly going on about saving humanity and the future this, the future that. You’re an idealist Joe, never satisfied with the status quo.” As Avery lectured Joe he felt like a child being berated by his mother.
“If we don’t grow and change, we’ll stagnate and die.”
“You mean if you don’t grow and change, you will stagnate and die. People like you are always trying to put their ideas and principles onto others.” Avery sighed in disappointment. She looked down then back up at Joe. “You may not believe this but I actually missed you. You were,” Avery took a deep breath before continuing, “a worthy adversary.”
Joe raised his eyebrows after a long pause. “I never thought of us as enemies Avery, we all served the same purpose.”
“Purpose? And what purpose is that?” Avery’s head tilted back so she was looking down her nose at Joe.
“To further humanity.” Joe answered.
“To further humanity?” Avery chuckled. “You know, too many people like the status quo. They’re afraid of change, they’re afraid of the unknown. You never understood that.”
Joe didn’t feel like getting into a long debate. You didn’t mess with Avery in a debate. She could convince you and get you on her side before you knew it. Joe looked over at the door wanting to leave.
“You know, I never entirely disagreed with your idea’s Joe, just your methods. You never thought things through and you always got yourself into a bind.” Avery turned to walk away and her entourage followed. “Good luck getting yourself out of this one.”
Joe watched her leave in relief.
“I’m honored,” a voice boomed behind him.
Startled, Joe turned around, face to face with Jead.
“The savior of humanity. So you’ve come back to save us once again?” Jeads’ sarcastic tone really annoyed Joe.
“I’m sorry but I don’t think you two have been properly introduced.” A familiar voice rang out as an older gentleman walked up. Joe couldn’t help to contain his smile when he recognized his old friend.
Katan was a long-standing, well respected older council member. Joe valued his opinion and always sought his advice. Katan was a great communicator and had mastered the art of compromise. When Joe’s rebellion had failed, Katan tried to help him and almost ended up banished as well. A freeformed human, he was allowed to stay on the homeworlds, perhaps because he vowed to never resurrect again.
“Katan,” Joe’s face brightened.
“Joe, this is Jead, he’s one of the newest council members.” Katan could tell there was tension between the two men.
Joe and Jead looked at each other with forced smiles and shook each other’s hand. Joe didn’t know why, but this Jead just rubbed him the wrong way.
“Very nice to meet you. I don’t mean to be rude, but Katan and I really have to go.” Joe was trying to be as polite as possible to Jead.
“Go where?” Katan questioned.
“Well I have to get to Krell and make contact.” Joe seemed nervous as he turned to Katan.
“And what will you do when you make contact?” Katan calmly replied, putting his hand behind his back.
“This time we must open a dialog. We must talk and learn about them.”
“Your personal feelings must be put aside Joe. We’re all in this together and you must work with the council.” Katan could see that Joe was being hasty.
Joe nodded and knew that he couldn’t risk alienating himself from the council again. “OK, maybe you’re right. But I really think we should get going on this.” Joe nervously put his hands in his pockets then took them out, he could not get comfortable.
“Come over and see me later, I would like to catch up.” Katan smiled gently, trying to change the subject.
“OK, but with all due respect, I need to leave in the next few days.” Joe rubbed his hands together. He was very fidgety. All he wanted to do was get to the Krell system.
“You won’t be able to,” Jead interjected.
“Oh, and why not?” Joe replied, unblinking as he pressed his lips together.
“We won’t have contact with the Outpost in the Krell system for several more weeks. The last contact we had the Outpost reported they were almost discovered. They had to shut down all the gravity wells and won’t make contact until its safe.” Jead looked back and forth between Katan and Joe. “I must say, I’m impressed how you used the sun as a natural gravity well to get here Joe.”
“If I could do that so could they.”
“Yea, that’s true, but never the less, we must wait until we establish contact.” Jead clasped his hands in front of himself.
“Perhaps you’re right.” Joe sighed as he shifted on his feet, he hated waiting.
Katan put his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “Patience my old friend, let fate come to you.” Katan’s appealing voice helped calm Joe down.
“Would you kindly introduce me to your friends?” Jead pointed over to the Earth group.
Joe let out a big sigh. “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about them.” He couldn’t see them but he assumed they were in the middle of a large crowd that was gathering.
“It would seem they’re the center of attention.” Jead crossed his arms.
“Yeah, I better go get them.” Joe hesitated but eventually he went over to the crowd and in the center were his friends being treated like a bunch of celebrities. Forcing his way in to gather them up, he led them away from the crowd telling everyone they had important business to attend to.
“We’ve been invited to a big dinner with several of the council members.” Dr. Becker was glowing, she loved dinner parties.
“That’d be wonderful, but first I’d like to touch base with everyone and get you guys set up here.” The group huddled around Joe. “Housing has been arranged, you will be shown your rooms after dinner. You’re here to gather information, but please, don’t wander off to far.”
Katan had arranged housing for everyone and also guides to assist them, although the group was free to roam where they wanted. They would be staying in common housing, used by many travelers from the Outposts.
Everyone agreed to meet later and went off to dinner. Dr. Becker and Dr. Zanagar seemed to be having the time of their lives. They were talking to people and being very diplomatic. Tom and Bill seemed a little uncomfortable with all the attention, they preferred to find a quiet place and just eat.
Dr. Becker was taken aback by the simplicity of the dining room. For a second she wondered if they were in the right place. It reminded her of a high school cafeteria, nothing fancy at all. She expected to be served food, something exotic, but everything looked remarkably bland. She tried not to look disappointed and followed the council members who were gathering around a series of small round tables randomly placed about the room. Well, when in Rome. Apparently they would be eating buffet style tonight.
Being a picky eater, Dr. Zanagar scanned the food looking for something recognizable. He grabbed what looked like fruits and possibly vegetables, but he didn’t see any meat. He slowly nibbled at the food on his plate but it tasted like plastic. He glanced over at Dr. Becker who looked like she wanted to spit out the mouthful of food she was chewing. He tried to be polite, and he stared at his plate wondering how he could throw it away without anyone noticing.
&nbs
p; Joe, Tom and Bill all sat down a table away from where Dr. Zanagar and Dr. Becker were. Joe ate his food while Bill and Tom just looked at each other wondering how anyone could eat this crap. Bill was pawing his food when Tom noticed a man walking up behind Joe. He startled Joe by slapping him on his back.
“Care if I join you?” Nell had a big grin on his face. Joe and Nell went way back, he had the intelligence equal to any freeformed human. He was in line to become a council member someday. He seemed to know everything that was going on around the council chambers, so whenever you needed to know something, you went to him.
“Nell! Yeah, yeah, sit down.” Joe pointed to an empty chair as he kept stuffing food in his mouth.
“How you been?”
“Well I can’t seem to stay out of trouble.” Joe kept talking with his mouth full.
“I liked your speech.” Nell leaned forward on the table.
“Don’t sugar coat it like that. Tell me, what did you really think?” Joe noticed Tom and Bill were listening. “Oh, sorry, I almost forgot to introduce my friends. Nell, this is Tom and Bill.” The handshakes went politely all around.
“So, tell me what you thought of my speech.” Joe grabbed some more food and shoveled it into his mouth.
“Honestly, I agreed with everything you said. When you left the council to go to the Outposts,” Nell started to talk but Joe interrupted him.
“You mean when I was banished to the Outposts.” Joe mumbled through a mouthful of food.
“Oh, come on now, banished is a harsh word. Let’s say, a forced vacation.” Nell replied with a wry smile.
“Whatever.” Joe continued eating, hunched over his food.
“I hope there’s no harsh feelings between us Joe?” Nell questioned.
Joe shook his head as he rudely chewed his food.
“Anyway, as I was saying, your message stayed with everyone and has become the subject of much debate. As time went on, people began to agree with you, even openly. You know, everyone agrees something needs to change. It’s just that no one knows how. Where do we start? What do we do?” Nell shrugged his shoulders.
“It is nice to know we are not much different than you guys. You just described our government to a tee.” Bill sarcastically replied.
Tom kicked Bill under the table.
Joe tried to change the subject. “Nell, who are those council members over there?” Joe pointed to two women eating with Dr. Becker and Dr. Zanagar.
“They are new members. They’re also part of the linies.”
“Ah, crap. I better go get them.” Joe leaned back debating whether to go over there.
“Yea, that’s one thing you’re not going to be happy about my friend. The linies are all over the place. I bet half of the people are followers.” Nell sat back and crossed his arms.
“Half the council?” Joe looked over perplexed.
“No, I mean half of everyone.” Nell paused and sighed. “We don’t need anyone to destroy us, were going to do it ourselves.”
Joe paused for a moment. “What can you tell me about Jead.”
“Jead’s a linie, and he’s very good at manipulating people, a good talker.” Nell lowered his voice, almost to a whisper. “You know, too many people are taken aback by his words. He’s been the defacto leader of the council for many years.”
“He said he’s going to come with me to the Krell system.” Joe looked over at Nell.
“I doubt that! He’ll say one thing and do another. He just said that too look good in front of everyone. He wants to be the new hero of the homeworlds, like you.” Nell replied.
Tom and Bill looked up at Nell.
“What do you mean ‘hero of the homeworlds’?” Tom questioned.
“Joe hasn’t told you? Well I am not surprised, he’s too modest.” Nell leaned back with a smirk on his face. “Joe single handedly saved the homeworlds from certain destruction. These humanoid creatures, that some speculate is the base creature we’re made out of, were on the warpath. They were on the verge of gaining control of an Outpost, which meant they could find their way here.” Nell tapped the table with his finger. “That’s why we’ve shut down all the gravity wells around the homeworlds so no one can find us.”
“How did he do it, I mean, exactly.” Bill leaned forward on the table.
“He caused meteors and asteroids to rain down on the ships and planets that the creatures invaded, killing everyone, even those on the planets. He saved the homeworlds though. He saved humanity.” Nell put his hand on Joe’s back, trying to comfort him. Nell knew Joe wasn’t proud of what he’d done. “You had no choice brother, you did the right thing.”
“Did I?” Joe pushed away his plate. He couldn’t eat anymore.
“He saved one planet, but he had to shift the orbits of the other two rendering them uninhabitable.” Nell motioned with his hands as if showing orbiting planets.
“Mars and Venus? Where those the planets?” Tom asked.
“Yea, and they were full of people too.” The wrinkles in Joe’s forehead increased as he recalled the memories.
“That’s why you guys were stationed above Mars, to make sure we didn’t run into any ruins?” Tom looked over at Joe.
“Yea, that’s right.” Joe nodded. “Very good deduction. The ruins are buried and hard to find, but we were nervous that something got over looked. We had to monitor your progress very carefully. We even tried crashing some of your probes but you guys kept coming. Eventually you would’ve found something. That’s another reason why we made contact.”
Steve and Hank walked down a long hall way flanked by several military police. They came to a waiting area and Hank told Steve to sit tight. Hank went through two large steel doors complete with a combination lock to get in. About 15 minutes later and Hank popped his head out the door and waved Steve in.
Steve entered a large room filled with about a dozen people sitting around a long conference table. A TV monitor sat in the corner and Steve surmised that they’d been listening to his conversation with Hank.
A larger than life figure in a military uniform pointed to an empty chair without even looking up.
“Hi,” Steve replied trying not to be intimidated by the four star General. “I’m not the enemy you know,” he added.
“I know, but you have to understand our perspective on this situation.” The General had an emotionless poker face that looked like chiseled rock.
“Yea, I understand.” Steve adjusted himself in the big leather chair. “Where’s Alizia and Sam.”
“They’re safe and being treated with respect,” General Strock flatly answered.
“Are you questioning them?” Steve asked nervously, it was hard not to be intimidated by all the military people in the room.
“Look, you’ll see them after we talk, I promise. We need to clear some things up. First, I have a few questions.” General Strock finally looked up at Steve.
“Fair enough, what do you want to know?” Steve sighed. He really hadn’t slept in a few days and all he wanted to do was find a bed. He sat there and zoned out, his stomach growling, making it hard to focus on the present. It almost felt like he was coming down with the flu. He put his head in his hands and wondered if his life would ever return to normal. His mind wandered back to simpler times and he started thinking about California. He thought about the mundane things in daily life like his plants and how they were doing. He started thinking about his co-workers -
“STEVE!” yelled Strock as he bolted up. “Are you with us? Don’t give up son, not now!” Strock leaned over putting both hands on the table.
Startled, Steve looked around to see everyone staring at him. “Sorry, I haven’t really had any sleep for several days.” To prove his point, he yawned.
They peppered him with the same questions that Hank had asked. Too tired to protest he answered the best he could. What were their military capabilities? How many people did he see? Are they planning an invasion? Steve gave the same answers and as sud
denly as it started, it stopped.
General Strock leaned against the table with his elbow, resting his head in one hand as he furiously tapped the table with his other.
“That’ll be all.” The General looked down at the pile of paperwork in front of him and waved Steve away.
Steve felt someone pull his chair out and turn it toward the door. Several secret service members flanked him as they escorted him out of the room. As soon as Steve left, the people remaining in the room continued their discussion.
“I will be briefing the President tomorrow morning. I’m going to recommend that we call up all reserves and declare martial law across the entire nation. I’m also going to insist that we re-arm the nukes. We’re not taking any chances.” General Strock leaned back in his chair.
“Re-arm the nukes? Are you crazy? What the hell will that do?” Terell Oliver, an executive officer at the CIA headed the Science and Technology department, snapped back.
“Yes, we need everything and everyone in our arsenal to be ready. We don’t know what we’re facing.” General Strock pounded his fist on the table.
“That’s right. We don’t know what we are facing. We have no idea if anything we have will be effective against them. Hell, we don’t even know who ‘them’ is.” Terell shrugged his shoulders.
“What the hell do you suggest then?” General Strock replied sarcastically.
“I’m not suggesting anything. If we start to re-arm our nukes, we could touch off another arms race. We need to find out as fast as possible who and what we’re dealing with instead of letting our paranoia take over.” Terell sighed. Scanning the room he realized he had everyone’s attention so he seized the moment.
“Gentlemen, this is the most important event in the history of our world. First contact with extraterrestrial life. If they had wanted to destroy us they probably would’ve done so by now.” He leaned forward on the table. “Why go through all this trouble with the Mars rover?” Terell leaned back in his chair.
General Strock sighed and everyone turned to look over at him. “We don’t know what they want, I’m just being cautious. We can’t risk the annihilation of our species. We’ll re-arm the nukes.” General Strock flatly replied.
Terell exhaled, deciding he didn’t want to argue about this. Ultimately it would be the President’s decision.
General Strock got up to leave and the room cleared out behind him. Terell stayed behind, sitting alone in the empty room. The last few weeks had been a rollercoaster ride for the CIA. They had dug up all the intel on aliens that the government had ever collected. Most were just stories of sightings and abductions, nothing that could be proven. Everything the government had on aliens never panned out. The only mystery that could not be dismissed was sightings of UFO’s by military pilots, which again were only stories with no hard evidence to prove it one way or another. Most could be dismissed as misidentifications of natural phenomena or conventional aircraft. Over the last few weeks Terell had accessed all government files on alien activity. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be found. No bodies, no crashed ships, nothing. His team had poured through everything; project Blue Book, even the old projects Sign and Grudge, revealing no hard evidence of extraterrestrial activity.
Terell removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. His team didn’t know what to think about the current situation. They had conducted interviews with scientists at SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and all had emphasized caution. SETI’s Director, the famous wheelchair bound Dr. Leonard Choung, had stated that contact with extraterrestrial aliens could be disastrous. Dr. Choung pointed out that here on Earth, when two different cultures come into contact for the first time it usually ended in annihilation of the less advanced one. He pointed out how a small group of Spanish Conquistadors conquered the Inca Empire. To the Inca, the Spaniards had unimaginable technology and they’d been paralyzed by fear.
Terell thought, are we doing the same thing now? Are we the Inca? Will we be annihilated? Or will they be our saviors? How the hell could we possibly know what’s going to happen? Still, after all his research Terell thought that our own fear might end up destroying Earth. Terell couldn’t believe what the General had said; re-arm the nukes. Was fear taking over? Nuclear bombs could be as ineffective as the blunt rock hammers the Inca soldiers had used against the Spanish steel weapons.
Chapter 13 “Chaos”