Tomiko stood to join him, attempting to hold him in her arms, but he shrugged her off. Nothing was said for a very long time, and she finally walked away. All that had happened to him since the day that he'd meet Tomiko was turning over in his mind. Thinking back, he could remember how smitten he'd been with her from the first time that he'd seen her he'd been like a tongue-tied school boy. Had he given it any thought he would have seen how out of character it was for him, but he hadn't given it any real thought. Then came his decision to go to Japan, he'd made it with no hesitation, he'd just said yes. At the time he chalked it up to the fulfillment of his dreams for his power supply and the way he was feeling about Tomiko, but now he just didn't know, it was so unlike him. Dylan turned to look at her, his eyes filling with tears, he needed to know the truth. “You're one of them, aren't you?”
She didn't react right away, then she turned to look at him. For a long time she said nothing. After what seemed like an eternity, she spoke, “Obviously, you figured it out. Yes, Dylan, I am.”
They just stood looking at each other, neither one speaking. What was there to say?, he thought to himself. He'd fallen in love with Tomiko, and now he saw that he had been led down that path by her. Did she have any real feelings for him, or was it all a show? She had controlled him – no, that wasn't a complete truth – he had been a willing participant for most of it. He asked her, “Was any of it real?
She walked towards him, and stopped without making any effort to reach out to him. “I had a job to do, and I did it. It wasn't entirely without pleasure, but I would have done the same thing if you were repulsive to me. Don't you see, Dylan, the survival of my race, our race, is more important than any personal feelings that I might have.”
Looking into her eyes he could not help but think that she wasn't the one that he'd fallen in love with. There was a hard set to her face, and he had to turn away. “I didn't give if much thought at the time but now I see why I was disturbed by your comment to me on the phone after Robert died. There was no way for you to know his name, I never mentioned him to you. I guess that I should have suspected something, but I guess that I heard what I wanted to hear.”
Her voice was soft, almost gentle, and she said, “I remember. I mentioned Robert by name before you told me who had died. That could have been unfortunate, but you were too distraught and the moment passed. When I met you at the airport, I made sure that it didn't come up again.”
He turned to look at her, and gave her a sad smile. “I should have wondered about that, why would the head of an international company come to meet me? At the time I just hoped it was me but now I can see the real reason, you were making sure that I stayed in line.”
“You can't tell me that you didn't like certain aspects of our relationship, can you?” The look on her face was cold and calculating. Any mask was gone.
“Sex – I won't say love making – was just another tool to keep me in line. You deserve an academy award; you had me convinced, totally fooled.” He felt bitter and used.
“That isn't completely true, I enjoyed it. You really are quite good. That, and there were other, more important, considerations.”
“What are you taking about, what other considerations” She had his attention, his spine was tingling a warning note.
“I said that the most important thing was to ensure the survival of the race. Do you really think that we would take the effort to breed someone like you without trying to continue your genes?”
He looked at her, searching her face for an answer yet fearing what the answer would be. He felt like a fool, what had made him feel like he was so irresistible, that he was god's gift to women? It had all been part of the plan. “Are you pregnant?”
“Tomiko.” The question remained unanswered as they both turned toward a new sound that had intruded on them. Dylan looked at the newcomer and somehow he wasn't surprised. It was Donald Mason. He walked into the glen and stopped beside Tomiko. There was silence as Dylan waited for him to say something.
Looking at her he said, “Would you mind if I continued?”
She smiled, and placed her hand on his arm, “No, please continue, father.”
Mason looked at him, finally, as if having found the words that he was looking for, he said, “Dylan, there are other concerns here that transcend the three of us.”
“Really, like what? What could be so important that it cost the lives of my best friend and the people that I work with? Please tell me, I'm all ears.” He was almost shouting the words out at them in his frustration and anger.
“It is about our race and its survival. Don't you see how important it is for us to continue no matter what the cost?” Mason's voice was imploring, almost begging to be understood.
Dylan looked first to Tomiko, then back to Mason, before he spoke. “This isn't the first time a group has used that reasoning. What makes the Draconian's that much more important than anyone else? The slave owners in colonial America used it and it didn't make sense then. Hitler used it and we all know how that turned out. Excuse me, but I would like to go to my room, now.”
Chapter 42
They were leaving him by himself and that suited him just fine. His emotions were a jangled mess and he didn't believe that he would ever feel normal again. Tomiko no longer shared his quarters, after the events of the previous evening he did not want to be in her company. He'd truly loved her and to him their love making had been an expression of his feelings, but to her it was a means to entrap him and a breeding exercise. He'd been lied to at every turn and he felt betrayed. He'd finally agreed to make the power supply, there wasn't any reason not to make it and it was the only thing left in his life that made any sense, but he still had questions that he wanted answers to.
The door opened, and Mason stood looking at him. “Would you mind coming with me?”
Dylan didn't bother to look up, but simply said, “Sure.”
He followed Mason out of the door and down the hall. They stopped at the same room and the door slid back to reveal the same table and chairs sitting in one corner, Mason sat down in one of the padded chairs, tilting back in the seat. Dylan took the seat across from him, he wasn't going to make this any easier for him, he just sat there. Finally, Mason let out a sigh, and spoke. “I understand how you feel, but you must understand how different it is for us. We think in terms of a whole race and lifetimes that are measured in centuries, and not just individual desires or wants. We don't have regular lives and when you live as long as we do your priorities must be for the long term. You will understand that as you see your life extended. Tomiko does care for you, but she was working toward the greater good of our race.”
Dylan looked across at Mason. He asked, “How long will I live?
Mason shrugged. “Barring any accident, and with good health, you should live well into your 5th century. You could live even longer.”
“You look like you are in your early sixties, when do we start showing our age?”
“That depends on the individual. I look like I am sixty, and I could remain this way for another fifty years before there is any discernible change. That is why we don't stay in one place for very long.” He smiled at Dylan, before continuing, “The Short-lived creatures of this planet would distrust and hate someone who lived such an extended life.”
Dylan wanted to ask, but couldn't. Mason must have guessed his question because he said, “Tomiko is not quite 87 years old.”
Dylan smiled ruefully. “She looks no older than me. What do you do if someone suspects that you're different?”
“If we can't deflect their suspicions? Usually, we move on. That is why it is so hard for us to have any lasting relationships. If we chose someone that is short-lived we will eventually lose them, if we chose one of our own we double the deception and the chance of discovery. It makes keeping our identity hidden very difficult. We must live our lives behind a mask.”
“So, are you her biological father, or just someone she is close to?”
“I am her biological father. Before I was Donald Mason I was Eric Samuelson.”
“You are the founder of Samuelson Ltd? You supposedly died climbing Mt. Everest, and how could Tomiko be 87 and look 30 without someone suspecting something strange was going on?”
Mason looked at him, then said, “It was all arranged. Tomiko was living in the United States under a different name until I needed to move on. No one knew of her existence. When it was time, she came back to Japan and I introduced her as my daughter who had gone to college in America. I lived a very private life, and her mother died in childbirth, so there was no problem selling the story. She was trained to run the company, and then I had my accident on the mountain. We went up during a storm, and I used a GPS to locate the people that were waiting to take me away.”
“Your Sherpa guide was found frozen to death. Doesn't that bother you?”
“You still don't see that the greater good is what's important. The life of that guide is nothing when it is compared to the survival of the race.”
“The race? You know, I can see you as an SS General, isn't that the way that they thought? Life was cheap as long as it wasn't their life.” He knew he sounded bitter and maybe he was, but it seemed to him that all life was important, that all life mattered.
“I believe that by the time we depart you will understand the greater good. The Draconian civilization will have been saved, and its glory restored.”
“Let me ask you,” he said, “when all your ships go flying into the air at this gathering, don't you think that the rest of the planet is going to sit up and take notice?” Don't you think they will do something about them?”
Instead of answering, Mason got up and walked to the bookshelf. He looked through the shelves for a moment, apparently searching for a particular volume. Finding the one he wanted, he crossed back over to the table, and sat down again. Placing a large book on the table, he asked, “Have you ever heard of the Brookings Report?”
Dylan thought for a moment. “No, I can't say that I have. What about it?”
“The actual name of the document is Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs. People like NASA's Jack Oppenheimer and the anthropologist Margaret Mead consulted on it.” He flipped through the pages, and finding the one he wanted he began to read, “Anthropological files contain many examples of societies which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways. The consequences of such a discovery are presently unpredictable...” Running his finger farther on down the page, he continued;
“How should such information be presented, or withheld, from the public? If super-intelligence is discovered, the results become unpredictable...”
Dylan looked at Mason, “I don't understand what you are getting at. How does this relate to the US. Blasting your ships from the sky? Do you really think that they will cringe and hide?”
Mason was undeterred by the comments. He smiled at Dylan, pausing for just a moment, and then continued, “In 1940 psychologist Hadley Cantrell released a book entitled The Invasion from Mars: A study in the Psychology of Panic. It was about a radio broadcast that had taken place in 1938. On Halloween night of that year an actor and film director named Orson Welles broadcast what was billed as a live event, the radio report of an invasion from Mars taking place all over the United States. In actuality, it was a play based on the book War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. An announcement was made prior to the broadcast, but the program sounded so real that it had caused panic throughout the country. Cantrell's book said that the broadcast was really an experiment to see how people would handle reports of Aliens suddenly among us. Supposedly, the nation failed the test; there was panic in the streets, and people believed that the invasion was real.”
“Don't tell me, you were Orson Welles. You've lost some weight.”, Dylan answered sarcastically.
Mason just smiled again. “No, and he wasn't one of us, but don't you see? When our ships launch, the world will be paralyzed by fear at first, and that will be long enough, nothing this planet has can follow us into space. We will be gone before this world can react to us leaving.”
“Too bad.”, came the response.
“I don't understand you feeling the way that you do, I had hoped that your decision to help us was an indication of a change in your thinking.”
“Oh, my way of thinking has changed, but not how you would like it to, I am going to help you to get rid of you. I don't want to be part of your master race, and I will not go with you. I just want you off my planet.” Dylan had come to that determination, and felt adamant about it.
“Whatever your reason, I am glad that you are going to help.”
“So, what do I call you - Donald Mason or Eric Samuelson? Not that it's all that important.” He was trying hard to not be disgusted, but it wasn't easy, dislike and displeasure were palpable.
“I think Mason, that is how you know me and I am comfortable in that guise.”
“So, I am assuming that this facility is Samuelson Ltd. That explains the atrium, fixed up just like home.”
Mason smiled, “Yes, it is like our home, at least that is what I have imagined. The seed for those plants have been passed through many hands, and have come to us in our role as the keepers of our race. The seeds of the various plants have been collected here over the past few decades, and we will take them with us. We will be able to restore the surface flora.”
Geisha Girl came in with lunch, and for a while nothing more was said. Dylan's thoughts were on the direction his life had taken. His Solving of the password problem had given way to the revelation of Aliens, breeding programs and his own dubious heritage, and the falling out with Tomiko. Yes, the thought, he would help them, but only to get rid of them.
“I should get started on the design for the nanocircuits. I will need some high-end Cad software, and it would be helpful if there was someone to assist me that understood basic physics. I am assuming that we will be working here?”
“Yes, you have already met Dr.'s Yamato and Toshiro and they will be assisting you. We will also be going to the site of the control ship for that is where the power supply will eventually be installed.”
Dylan blinked, and he felt the bile rise in his throat. He had been studying the translated manuscript and had learned much about the technology of this ancient race. It had all seemed familiar, almost old school, but not unlike what Dylan was used to. He could see how these aliens had guided development of his world. None of the technical issues were the problem, he felt confident that he could make his power supply work in the ship, the problem was the location of that ship – Yonaguni. He couldn't go there, it was under water.
“I know what you are thinking, and I understand your feelings, Dylan, but you will have to overcome them. That is where the power supply must be built, and that is where you must go.”
Chapter 43
Later that day Dylan was shown to a lab and found Yamato and Toshiro waiting for him. He didn't even ask what part they played in all this, he didn't care. “What kind of a system will we be using to create my circuit boards?”
“We have the latest in Photolithography equipment, Doctor”, said Yamato, “I believe that you will find it adequate to your needs.”
“I must say, Doctor.”, interjected Dr. Toshiro, “We have gone over your existing power supply and it is truly an amazing device. Your circuitry is incredibly advanced beyond anything we have seen and I do not believe that we could not hope to duplicate it within five years, if at all. I congratulate you.”
Dylan said nothing in response, and instead walked around the lab reviewing the various equipment. For the process of creating the highly miniaturized circuits they would need the best equipment that was available, and most of what he
saw here bore the name Heidelberg. Heidelberg Instruments was a global leader in design, development and manufacturing of complex laser based maskless lithography systems and their customers included many of the major global nano and micro technology companies working in that field. He was impressed. Coming back to face the two he said, “The architecture we will be building combines circuits that have redundant logic gates and inter-connections with the ability to reconfigure themselves. The redundancy lets the circuit identify problems and avoid them. It also allows for errors within the logic gate to obtain the correct result. We will use photolithography. The process selectively removes parts of the thin film off of the substrate, using light to transfer a geometric pattern from a photomask to a photoresist. It is then engraved onto the material underneath the photoresist. OK Doctor's, let's begin.”