Collected (Selected Book 1) Read online

  Collected

  (Selected Book One)

  Robin Roseau

  Table of Contents

  Visitors

  Testing

  Dreaming

  Life Continues

  Part Two

  Doorbell

  Explanation

  Disbelief

  Anti-Xenophobe

  Display

  Quiet

  Challenge

  Recovery

  The Hunt

  Recap

  Second

  Crushing

  Détente

  Finale

  About the Author

  Visitors

  Most of humanity was oblivious the day the aliens arrived on Earth. We found out later, although not that much later. We learned they had been watching us for some time -- millennia, actually. They'd been watching us and waiting patiently, waiting patiently for mankind to be mature sufficiently to join their federation.

  Things change.

  I'll get back to that.

  But eventually they let us know of their presence. Understand "us" is a relative term. Their ship wasn't detected until it settled into orbit around Saturn's L4 point.

  What's an L4 point? Well, that's mathematically interesting. Not interested in mathematics? Feel free to skip ahead. The Lagrange points are places in space defined by two bodies, one in orbit around the other. The sun and Earth, for instance, or the Earth and the moon. Any two-body system where one of the bodies is significantly more massive than the other has five Lagrange points.

  A Lagrange point is an orbital point where the gravitational attraction of the two bodies cancels each other, and thus they define stable orbits. It's all based on math.

  Saturn's L4 point leads Saturn's orbit about the sun by sixty degrees. The point orbits the sun just like Saturn does, at the same rate that Saturn does, although slightly outside Saturn's orbit. What is special about it is that an object can actually orbit the L4 point and remain in a stable mini-orbit within the main orbit.

  It's all based on math and physics, and I don't really understand it more than that.

  * * * *

  So, as I was saying, the aliens set up orbit way out there in space. Saturn is a long way from Earth, after all. Their approach was noticed, and one can imagine the tightening sphincters involved. But it took no time at all to determine the path the ship was on and only slightly more time to realize where they were headed. Setting up an orbit way out at Saturn is akin to pulling up in a car across the street and honking a couple of times.

  Now, if they'd headed for the moon, that would have been like banging on the door.

  But they were polite aliens. They set up an orbit within an orbit. And then they honked their horn. Or in this case, they sent a simple message, although perhaps not so simple.

  We come in peace.

  Why was this not so simple? They sent it English. And in Russian. Chinese. Japanese. German. French. Spanish. Italian. Those languages might seem to be expected. But they also sent it in Zulu, Zhosa, and Afrikaans. They sent it in Polish, Ukranian, Dutch, Swedish, and even Latvian and Armenian.

  They sent their simple message in the dominant language of every country hosting a major radio telescope. And the message wasn't sent as a single burst. No. It was sent at the time the country could have their radio telescopes pointed in the right direction to receive the message. Not that all the telescopes were pointed in in the right direction, but they could have been.

  No, it wasn't a simple message at all. The aliens were telling us quite a bit in those four simple words spoken in numerous languages. They were telling us they knew quite a bit about us. Quite a bit indeed.

  And then they waited.

  I have no idea what sort of negotiations happened. I have no idea what sort of conversations were held, but I imagine the lines between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing were burning.

  But eventually they were invited to Earth. But even then, secrecy was maintained, and the vast majority of humanity had no idea that something profound had changed.

  We absolutely were not alone.

  It was through television, radio, and internet broadcasts that most of us in the developed world learned about the aliens. The major news agencies were the first to break into whatever their regular broadcasts were. The first broadcasts occured as the aliens' lander appeared in the skies over Manhattan, circling the city twice, the otherworldliness of their craft apparent to absolutely anyone. By the time the ship settled over the grass of the United Nations complex, every news agency in the world was showing the images.

  There were no images of the aliens exiting their craft or entering the UN building, but it was ten minutes later when the Secretary-General addressed the UN General Assembly -- and all of humanity.

  Her words were simple, but perhaps also not so simple, words now etched into the minds of every man, woman, and child on Earth.

  Humanity is not alone amongst the cosmos. We have visitors who have arrived in peace, here to welcome us into their federation of people.

  That was it. That was all she said. And then, from dozens of directions, every camera in the room swiveled, and humanity received their first view of the aliens. They looked like...

  They looked like us.

  When I saw that, I was sure it was some sort of joke. They looked like us, the first aliens. And if they were dressed oddly, that was just costuming.

  But there were four of them: two men, two women. They stepped into view and then paused, giving all the cameras a good view.

  They were beautiful, the men and women alike. Beautiful and powerful, like action movie stars. And when they walked, they were amazingly graceful.

  By this time, there were a billion pair of eyes glued to their TVs, their computers, their smart phones, watching the aliens as they walked towards the dais upon which waited a clearly nervous UN Secretary-General.

  "Fake. It's just a fake." That's what we all thought. Aliens should look like aliens.

  But they drew closer and closer to the Secretary-General, and we began to see some perspective. She was not a tall woman, and so she looked up at them. And up. And up.

  They arrived in front of her, and the room was silent except for the sounds of cameras clicking, clicking, clicking.

  The aliens may have looked like us, but they were clearly not human. No human had ever stood so tall. They were taller than basketball player tall.

  The UN Secretary-General held out her hand. And one by one, the aliens offered a hand clasp with her, one tiny human hand engulfed inside an alien hand.

  And then she stepped aside, as did three of the aliens. One of the females stepped into place at the speaker's lectern. She looked around for a moment. And then she waved her hand in front of her, and symbols appeared in the air in midair. It looked like subtitles added by the television station, but in the footage viewed from other angles, it was clear the symbols truly were floating in the air before her.

  They were symbols never before seen on Earth.

  She opened her mouth and spoke, words never before heard on Earth.

  Then she paused, and the symbols changed. And those symbols I recognized, even if I couldn't read them. They were Chinese. She spoke again, just a few words. There was a pause, and then the symbols shifted. I could read them. Español. Spanish. "Venimos en paz." She paused. The symbols changed. English. "We come in peace."

  She spoke for an hour, language after language after language.

  Some stopped watching. Most did not.

  It was clear when she finished. The symbols faded. She looked around. And then the symbols returned, in Chinese. She spoke again, this time longer. She paused, and then the words announced Russian, an
d she spoke again. She spoke for perhaps five minutes this way, touching only the major languages this time, but skipping English.

  But then the symbols announced "English", and she began speaking, her accent of middle America. That surprised me. I would have expected a British accent, or if she was speaking based on the number of human speakers of the language, perhaps an Indian accent. But no, she spoke with the accent of middle America.

  I have spoken our main message. We come in peace. But there is more to say, and as this assembly is in this place on Earth, it is agreed I will speak in the dominant language of this land.

  There is no cause for panic. We come in peace. Our arrival signals a new period of health, prosperity, and happiness for all mankind. We represent change, and we recognize change can be frightening and is not always welcome. But we seek only to better the lives of all of you.

  She paused for a while, looking around. Then she held her hand out to the Secretary-General, who accepted the offer and moved to the alien's side. The differences were readily apparent. The two stood for a moment, and then the alien began to speak again.

  Four of us come today. We are chosen for our experience but also for our appearance. The spacefaring races are many, and we come in a vast array of shapes and sizes.

  Then she knelt down, and even kneeling, she was taller than the Secretary-General.

  We are not the only race with a resemblance to humanity. And, in time, you may meet others.

  And then she smiled, and her teeth were clearly not at all human. They were sharp and pointed, and then her tongue flicked from her mouth, a tongue at least a foot long and forked like a snake. The Secretary-General startled for a moment, then stilled.

  And yet, there are differences. Perhaps these differences shock you. Perhaps they frighten you. Perhaps our size frightens you. Perhaps these other differences frighten you. We would hope they would not. We would hope to calm your fears.

  For we come offering peace.

  Then she stood, and the Secretary-General moved away again. The woman looked around the room. Later we would see video of the reaction of the audience, the deeply varied reaction, but at that moment, every pair of eyes watched the woman.

  The symbols changed to the alien symbols. She spoke a word. And then the symbols changed back to English.

  That is my name in my language. It is the name of a flower that grows on my planet. I imagine the sounds will not fit inside a human throat, and so I choose a name from Earth. I hope you will call me Amaryllis, a flower of Earth.

  Before her, the symbols shifted, and instead of words, we saw an image of a lovely, pale purple flower resembling a lily. The image lasted for several seconds before returning to the word "English".

  We are here today as representatives of a federation of spacefaring peoples. We wish to invite the peoples of Earth to become associate members of our federation with all the rights and responsibilities implied thereof.

  What does this mean?

  In the weeks and months ahead, we will discuss the details with your leaders. But we offer technology. We offer the technology to produce and store good, clean energy, and assistance in your transition from your current, dirty methods. We offer the technology to purify water, more than ample water for all humanity. We offer to teach you to produce sufficient food for every man, woman, and child on your planet. And we offer to help your doctors and researches eradicate the sicknesses and diseases that plague mankind.

  We offer to help you control your population, so as to avoid further overpopulating an already full, precious world.

  We offer to help eliminate strife between peoples so as to achieve a safe, peaceful life for all living upon your planet.

  For today, we offer two simple gifts. The first is a treatment plan to address the ravages of age upon the human brain. We are disseminating this gift through a familiar method: simple electronic mail to your hospitals, delivered via your human computer network. The mail arrived even before I began to speak.

  And the second gift is music.

  She paused, smiling, then opened her mouth and began to sing. And if there was any remaining question regarding her alien nature, the sounds that emanated from her throat should have been proof.

  She sang for several minutes, and tears were crawling down my cheeks long before she was done. Tears were crawling down a half billion cheeks long before she was done.

  Then she finished with one long, quavering note before closing her mouth, bowing her head for a moment, and then smiling at us.

  We come in peace. There is no need for panic. Over the next weeks and months, we will discuss with your leaders the details of our offer. And in the end, if we are asked to leave, we will leave.

  But we hope we will be invited to stay.

  We hope you will accept our invitation and our offer.

  She smiled again. Then the symbols changed to the first symbols, the ones we now understood represented her native language. She spoke briefly, words none of us understood. But she smiled, her hands clasped over her heart, and she offered a small bow.

  And then, without further ceremony, the four aliens strode from the meeting room, and a few minutes after that, their craft lifted from the grass.

  Cameras followed its progress as it rose into the air, but faster than one would have thought possible, it disappeared into the heavens.

  * * * *

  Negotiations took time. There was panic, but far less than one might have anticipated. There were rumors, no end of rumors, with this person or that person claiming to have inside knowledge of the negotiation details. But the official words were sparse.

  But then there was an announcement, again made from the UN General Assembly.

  Humanity was to accept the aliens' offer. The leaders of the major countries of the world all spoke.

  And then Amaryllis spoke; she spoke very briefly. She smiled and said simply, "Welcome to the federation."

  All that was seven years ago.

  Testing

  As I said, all that was seven years ago. The aliens were true to their word. They were giving us technology very cautiously, and it was understood their gifts were limited. Mankind was clever, and when we reached the stars, it would be through our own discoveries.

  But already, all people on Earth had access to clean, wholesome water. All people on Earth had ample food. Starvation was history. The worst sources of pollution were being decommissioned, one after another. Internal combustion engines were no longer produced by any factory on Earth. We had barely begun to reap the benefits of the technology the aliens shared with us, but already the air was cleaner, the water safer, our bodies healthier.

  But there were costs. When the aliens offered to help us control our population, they hadn't told us how. Their method was quite pragmatic.

  It became impossible for a woman of Earth to become pregnant without a hormone injection, a hormone very carefully controlled by the aliens. Oh, they weren't stingy with it. Any woman who wished to become pregnant could do so. Twice, and only twice. The aliens did not explain to us how they achieved this, and so of course, rumor abounded.

  The outcry was long and loud, but in the end, there was nothing humans could do. And so in some circles, the aliens were hated, but most of us were far more pragmatic.

  There was another cost, a second cost. The aliens did not explain why, but they required every human between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five to undergo testing. It was not optional, although they allowed our human governments to organize the initial herculean effort.

  * * * *

  I knew it was coming. I held the envelope in my hand, understanding what it was even before I opened it, but unsure of the implications. Finally I opened it.

  There were several pages, but in the end, it was simple. I was to contact one of the testing centers and schedule my appointment. I had two weeks to make the appointment. If I failed to schedule the appointment, I would be located and arrested. If I failed to make my agreed appointment, I w
ould be located and arrested. If I required assistance, it would be provided. I need only ask.

  I could call the testing facility using the phone number provided, or I could register via the Internet.

  I didn't wait. I didn't see a reason to wait. Normally I would have taken the electronic approach, but I decided I wanted the human touch. I made the call.

  I thought I'd be stuck in electronic phone call hell. Instead, the number was answered by a friendly, female voice.

  "Federation testing," she said cheerfully. "My name is Marla. Are you calling for a testing appointment?"

  "I received a letter," I explained.

  "Of course," she said. "Do you have your letter now?"

  "Yes."

  "Excellent. There is a number specific to you. It appears right below the phone number you dialed. Do you see it?"

  "Yes." I read off the number and then provided my full, legal name and address.

  "Excellent. Very good, Ms. Fletcher."

  That's me, Sapphire Fletcher, at your service.

  "Before we schedule your appointment, do you have any questions for me?"

  "No." Some of my friends had already been through their testing, and the tests were well-discussed, both between friends and in all the different venues of communication. Talk show hosts brought the recently tested onto their shows to discuss the process. News people talked about the process. Everyone talked about the process. I knew what to expect, or thought I did.

  "All right. Some people have questions; some don't. Your appointment must be within thirty days of the date on your letter. You must arrive between one and three PM local time, and you will remain overnight. Most tested leave by noon the following day. Occasionally, although it is rare, some candidates finish far sooner. Even more rare, some candidates require a second day of tests. We ask everyone to accept the possibility of a 48-hour testing period. Your employer is even obligated to give you three full days of paid vacation beginning the morning of your appointment."

  "I understand," I said. I knew it was typically one day; I didn't know it could go for two.