Miriam took her new duties seriously. I must remember everything! Her mind became a video recorder and the instant she made it back home—and she prayed continuously that she would—she would write down everything she saw. The President liked thorough reports. Her first report, years ago, had been awful. Never had she seen a man of such high standards wail as he did that day. Since then, she gave stellar reports and this would be one for the ages.
The first account she would give would be of the platform, it was alien. The weirdest looking black-silver metal she had ever seen. When they stepped on board the platform, fear took her. It filtered into her chest and squeezed her heart. Her lungs felt heavy and she found it hard to breathe. Still, she had a job to do and as she held onto her boss, she began her duties. Her high heels came in handy. Without the President knowing it, she tapped her heel on the platform to hear the sound it made. The feel and sound would go into her report.
Next, she ignored the outer cave and focused on the interior. As they slowly walked forward, her mind recorded everything she saw. The first look at the spaceship stopped her heart. She remembered to breathe, but had few words to adequately describe the ship. The best she could come up with was that it was cylindrical, made out of the same weird looking alien metal, and hovered slightly above the cave floor while emitting a continuous hum. Near the ship, she saw a platform and moved in that direction. Where would it take her? Her heart sped again as they stepped on it and it moved. Again, she tapped her heel.
Miriam breathed a sigh of relief when her heart stopped pounding and they could see. Gazing at a real live spaceship nearly did her in. What she now looked at would finish her for sure. She stared at a seated woman that appeared from a wall. Somehow, someway, somewhere she found strength. Her heart rate slowed. This is for posterity, she told herself.
Miriam faced the woman without fear. As long as the woman remained seated, she was harmless. She took a deep breath and focused. I must remember everything! Miriam took a step away from her boss. She gazed at the seated woman, taking her in.
She could be human. She looked human. The woman had long, red hair that ran halfway down her back. It flowed behind her partially obscuring the tubes and wires connected along her back and neck. From an angle Miriam saw the woman didn’t sit all the way in the back of the chair. A metal brace of some kind came from the chair and went to the center of her head. Another brace was in her lower back. The woman was immobile.
Miriam relaxed. The woman couldn’t rise from the contraption if she wanted to. It was as though she were seated or strapped in something that resembled an electric chair. With that fact in hand, Miriam gave the woman another glance. It was a human face. Gray eyes, eyebrows, thin nose and lips, and prominent chin. Her neck was soft and a steady pulse came from the side. Miriam moved back to the face to search it once more. She saw small diamond earrings.
Miriam gulped.
Moving down passed her neck to her chest revealed alien fabric. Maybe she wasn’t human after all. The fabric stretched from shoulders to knees and looked thin, translucent. It moved. No way was Miriam about to touch it. She would write that it was a thin material of foreign origin and leave it at that. Curiosity made her look at the woman’s body. She told herself she needed the information for her report, she didn’t. She was curious. The woman had well-developed breasts and the outline of female genitalia in the lower regions.
From millions of miles away, yet they developed as we have. Maybe we are related.
Next, her eyes wondered to the woman’s legs and then her feet. For some reason, Miriam found herself wondering what kind of shoes the woman wore. She would not get the answer to that question; a container hid the woman’s feet. The container looked metal, but she knew it wasn’t. The foreign material would have to be studied by experts. For her report, she would write the woman’s feet were in a metal container and leave it at that. As for the shoe question, that question would have to go unanswered.
To her surprise, Miriam had somehow moved so close to the woman she could touch her. Yet, she didn’t recall how she got there and the woman never looked at her. Had her curiosity taken her that close? She slowly backed away from the woman to stand nearer to the President.
President Connors remembered his office and his duty. He approached the seated woman. The woman’s unnerving eyes followed him. He took a step back. Miriam stayed at his side in an effort to offer him strength and gain strength from him. Miriam met the cold eyes and kept eye contact. She felt her boss was doing the same. Maybe they could stare the woman down together and gain an advantage. She steeled herself for the mission. Inside she winced under the heavy gaze, but outside she showed her metal.
“Are you Norman?” Connors asked.
“I am Norman,” said the woman.
“You are not the voice on the phone?”
She repeated, “I am Norman.”
“Perhaps, Mr. President,” said Miriam in a quiet voice. “Perhaps we should accept that and move on.”
“Well said, Miriam,” said the President. “I am here. What do you want of me?”
The woman’s voice had a slight metallic edge to it as she spoke. “I am from the system you refer to as Sombrero galaxy in the constellation Virgo. We call our home planet Isdale.”
“Okay,” said the President. He kept looking at the woman and then posed a question. “Is this your form? Are your people human, like us?”
“Our bodies are greater in shape and design.”
Miriam’s heart thumped. “How do you know what our body design is?” She hated she interrupted, but the question leaped out of her mouth before she could stop it.
Norman was silent. Could it be true? Miriam and her boss looked at each other and she was sure of the rage on his face. How barbaric were these aliens? Her rage grew with his.
“Have you been ex-experimenting on my people?” asked President Connors. His fingers closed into fists as he strained to get the words out through gritted teeth.
More silence.
“Have you been experimenting on the people of this planet?”
“You are the only sentient life-form we have encountered. We wish to meet you. Communication is necessary for that goal.” The words flowed with no hint of deception or malice.
“That’s a yes then,” said the President, his face showing scorn. “You have violated the people of this planet. What race, what intelligent being would violate those they came to communicate with? How dare you perform experiments on my people! How dare you—”
A bright light came from the seated woman. A low hum followed, then a strong circling wind. It caught him off guard and cut his thoughts midsentence. The light spread out and forced a retreat to the far wall. President Connors and Miriam pressed themselves into the wall, determined to push themselves to the other side as the light came toward them.
“Please! Please!”
Miriam’s plea stopped the light. It stopped moving while they cowered and clung to each other, afraid for their lives. The light faded and the wind died. To their right, the metal wall shimmered. It turned from solid to the liquid metal they had come accustomed to seeing. A light shone from the wall. They saw another room beyond the now transparent wall.
A figure stood at the wall, gazing at them. It was tall, nearly seven feet with two arms and two legs like a man. Three long slender digits were on each stump of a hand. The body was light gray or green and wrinkly, no, those weren’t wrinkles, she thought, veins. Yes, they were veins. Just last week Miriam had spider veins removed from the back of her left leg and these resembled those veins. Miriam pressed in closer to the only man present, hoping for his protection. Her heartbeat was loud, intertwined with his. Connors held Miriam tighter. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled with electricity of fear. She thought of home and her family and wondered if these were her last moments.
“Mr. President, I-I-I—” Miriam wanted to say she was proud of him and if they died she was glad he stood up for human rights. The words wouldn’t
come out of her mouth. She stared dumbfounded at the alien.
The figure lifted an arm and pointed a long finger at their opposite wall. The slim finger ended in a knob. President Connors turned back to Norman’s wall. Light shone down on the wall. Norman looked at them with a face nearly human. Miriam looked back at the wall with the alien, he was gone and the wall was solid once more.
“My apologies,” said Connors to Norman. “I meant no offense.”
Tension rose in Norman. Miriam watched the woman’s mouth twitch then tremble as if trying to fight to move. Her lips became something of a smile with the ends quivering. The gray eyes changed with the face and were now blue.
“I-am Nor-man,” said the woman, with a return to the accented robotic voice.
“Yes?”
“The real Nor-man.” The eyes fluttered for a minute and then opened full blue. “I am Norman,” this time her words were smooth and perfect English with a hint of an accent. “I am from this planet. Found by Isdale. Through me, you will communicate.”
Shackles unbuckled with a strange sound. Norman lifted a hand they thought could not move and pointed to the solid wall the alien stood behind.
“We need a barrier between your people and mine until an appropriate remedy comes to pass. You will communicate through me until that time.”
“Remedy? Explain this need for a remedy.” President Connors was back to being strong again.
“Our people are incompatible. You contain diseases that may harm us.”
“We? We can harm you?”
Norman raised an arm and directed them to their left. The wall became transparent and there they saw two bodies lying on the floor.
“Oh my God!” Miriam gasped.
She turned her head from the gruesome scene. She couldn’t look on it. Yet, she had to record even this. Slowly her head swiveled back to the wall. It was like watching a train wreck, she couldn’t help but to take it all in.
Little machines moved on wheels around two bodies. The machines prodded them with metallic attachments. The two bodies were corpses. The first was roughly seven feet with the arms and legs of the previous alien. It was one of them. The second corpse was small with human sized limbs, presumably a man. Both had puss-filled boils and charred skin. Both beheaded. Near them she saw bits of charred flesh and wondered which of them the pieces belonged to.
“Norman,” said the seated female. She pointed at the human body. The body lay on its back.
Miriam winced. “My God!”
“What happened to that man?” asked Connors.
“Incompatibility. If we expose ourselves to you openly, this is the result for both our people. I have searched my mind and this has occurred in our history long ago.”
“Your history?” asked Connors.
“Ours, Mr. President. She means ours.” Miriam paid attention to the woman’s chaotic speech and knew she was correct. She braved a question. “Is-Is that right?”
“Yes,” said Norman.
Connors took a step closer to the seated woman. “The plague?”
“Yes.”
“And the bodies? Why are they not destroyed for safety’s sake?”
“They are isolated and used as research. A cure will come in time. Until then, I will interface with you in this form.”
“What is it exactly that we need to interface about?”
“An exchange of information. We will study your people and send others back to tell of your existence. We will then continue to the next system and continue our search for sentient life-forms.”
Miriam smiled after hearing that news. “You’re on a quest or a trek, like Star Trek.”
Norman’s eyes moved rapidly from side to side. They stopped and fixed on Miriam. “Seek out new life and new civilizations. Boldly go where no man has gone before.” More rapid eye movements followed. “Yes, a trek. A non-hostile trek to seek sentient life-forms.”
“Well, you came to the wrong planet for that.” Miriam gave a nervous chuckle.
Connors smiled at her. His smile said ‘be quiet.’ He smoothed his suit and took a step forward. “I am the highest authority of my people. Am I speaking with the leader of your people?”
Norman’s blue eyes returned to Connors. The blue dulled as if overtaken by gray. “I am Norman. Consider me your leader.”
“My leader?” Connors puffed up.
“Correction, the leader. To begin, we wish no communication with the outside world. We will gather information and leave your world without interfering. We will follow your Prime Directive.”
Miriam lowered her head to hide her smile. Suddenly, they were not fearsome aliens. We may yet survive.
Chapter Twelve: Reilly