Here to Help

some major equipment.”

  Jason said, “Thanks for the report even though it doesn’t say much. It looks like it’s about time to see if the subject of your report is going to destroy an island. The news media has cameras watching the island from a safe distance, and we have at least three Earth-viewing satellites latched onto it.” He picked up the remote and turned up the volume on the large television inset into one of the bookcases along his office wall. A view of the island was being shown on the screen, and the commentator was announcing that the island was called Hildemann Island after the scientist/explorer who found it 213 years ago roughly 800 kilometers northeast of Hawaii. It was almost perfectly round with a circumference of about 3 kilometers and uninhabited. The network was showing the island simultaneously from four angles, two of which were views from satellites. The other two must have been taken from ships using telescopic cameras.

  Jason and Gaylord silently watched the screen as the last seconds ticked off toward 10 PM. As the second hand reached vertical, the island on the screen was bathed in a bright light; then instantly replaced by a rapidly expanding white cloud. There was a loud sharp sound, like thunder, that followed several seconds later. What the scientist would find out later was that the top kilometer of the volcanic mountain that formed the island had been broken down into its basic elements, oxygen, silicon, aluminum, nitrogen, etc. The only side effect had been a large cloud of steam that dissipated after a few hours. There were no tsunamis or seismic vibrations. An island consisting of millions of tons of material was gone in less than a second.

  “Well that tears it,” exclaimed Jason. “I thought he was bluffing.”

  “I didn’t,” Gaylord whispered.

  “I’m sure there’s going to be a call for a meeting of the Security Council very soon, regardless of the hour, followed by another meeting with our alien benefactor.”

  “There was one other item that I wanted to fill you in on. That communicator that Physolan left to the SG was thoroughly investigated.”

  “Whada they find?”

  “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It is just a piece of metal, nothing more. They CAT scanned it, X-rayed it, and did every test they could think of without destroying it and found nothing. It is just a piece of common stainless steel. If it’s capable of communicating with anyone, we have don’t know how it works.”

  “I guess we’ll find out soon if it works. I want you to check on this island’s disappearance and get me any science data coming out on this guy.”

  “Will do. Good luck.”

  With that Gaylord got up to leave. Jason’s phone was ringing before Gaylord could leave the room.

  The Security Council held an emergency meeting that night to discuss how to respond to Physolan. After extensive and heated debate, it was decided to ask Physolan a series of questions submitted in writing from the members to the SG, who would filter the list. The meeting with Physolan was set for noon the next day, so all the questions would have to be submitted, screened, and compiled by then. Gaylord, who would learn what was said at the discussions, was not too surprised to hear that several members still did not believe Physolan was who he said he was. It was a hard thing to believe in an alien entity.

  All the members of the Security Council were present and seated in their respective chairs in the council meeting hall at noon the next day. Security men were standing along the walls and spaced every three meters. The aids and consultants were seated just behind their delegates. The SG was seated at the head of the table, holding the shiny communicator. He obviously wasn’t sure what to do with it and somewhat sheepishly brought it up to his mouth and said, “Physolan, we would like to talk to you.”

  Seemingly, before the sound of the SG’s voice had faded from the room, Physolan appeared at the opposite end of the table. Same entrance, same grin, same suit. “Hello everyone, I guess my little demonstration worked.”

  Dr. Untiti replied, “You could say that, and I wouldn’t call it ‘little.’ I asked you here because we wanted to ask you some more questions, and I apologize that some of these may be repeats of the questions we asked earlier, but we wanted to be more formal this time.”

  “I understand, ask away,” he said as he sat down at the foot of the table.

  The East Asian Union was one of the international economic entities that had grown up in the wake of the success of the European Union and was dominated by the Chinese. It’s representative asked the first question: where exactly did he come from, what star system? Physolan would not elaborate any more than to say that it was a binary star system in our constellation, Lyra. Then Jason spoke for the North American Union and asked by what technology did he come to Earth. Physolan explained that the technology was far beyond the Earth’s ability to comprehend and did not see the pointing in wasting their time in the fruitless effort of trying to explain. The Indian delegate from the West Asian Union asked him how long it had taken to get here. Physolan explained it had taken about 2000 of our Earth years to make the trip, but he added, “of course, it was only a little over a year to me.”

  All the aids and consultants were either writing frantically on their electric notepads or talking softly into their recorders. Gaylord was not writing down anything, but he was making mental notes as he watched Physolan. Gaylord had developed the ability to make notes in his head that he could recall accurately later. It allowed him to use his powers of observation without having to look down at a note pad to write.

  Dr. Untiti asked, “What is the extent of your power?”

  Physolan responded, “As I mentioned before, my ship generates more power in one minute than your whole planet can in one year. I have enough power to actually move the Earth from its orbit. For all intents and purposes, at least to you, I have limitless power.”

  Those words stopped all the conversation in the room, and a dead silence settled on the room for several seconds.

  The silence was broken by the European Union delegate from Germany, “And what do you plan to do with this power, with respect to Earth, I mean.”

  “As I have said a number of times, I want to help the people of your planet. I’m here to help you.”

  No one laughed this time.

  The Australio-Asian Union member spoke up, “I assume this means providing us with technology to improve our standard of living, such as health, power, ecology, etc.?”

  “Exactly. But I will tell you up front I will not provide you any technology that is too far beyond your current understanding. I provided the cures for cancer and malaria, because you were already very close to finding the answers for yourself, so I just gave you a boost. I will not provide technologies such as interstellar travel or teleportation because you are at least a century away from their discovery and would not have the equipment nor infrastructure for handling it.”

  Jason asked, “So you’re going to dole out what you think we can handle? Is that it?”

  “Exactly, I’m glad you understand.”

  “I guess you’re not really familiar with the concept of sarcasm,” Jason quipped. Gaylord knew this last statement was not true, especially if Physolan had telepathic abilities. “Is that all you wish to do?”

  Physolan’s eyes seemed to shine slightly brighter. “No, again as I mentioned before, I want to stop all the wars and major conflicts on your planet and to help establish world-wide democratic institutions and peace.”

  Jason responded, “I think you’ll find that Earth countries do not appreciate someone else interfering in their affairs, especially when it comes to killing their fellow man.”

  Physolan watched the faces of the delegates as Jason said this, and Gaylord believed he was determining how many of them agreed with Jason’s comment. “Well, I don’t mean to be blunt, but I don’t think they are going to have much choice. I thought that everyone on Earth abhorred warfare and that an end to conflicts was one of the goals of the UN. But, I’m not getting that impression right now.
”

  Some of the delegates took up the same theme about interfering in the internal affairs of countries not being a good idea, but Physolan seemed to be only half listening. As Gaylord watched, Physolan’s gaze came to rest on a security man standing about three meters away from him. Gaylord could tell the man was nervous but wasn’t sure why Physolan was singling him out for scrutiny. Suddenly Physolan cut off the discussion, “I guess we have covered enough for today, and, like me, I’m sure you’re all tired.” Gaylord knew he was lying about being tired. “But there is something that I’m very curious about.” As he said this, he stood up very quickly and exclaimed, “I have a gun and I’m going to shoot the SG.” He reached inside the label of his jacket as if reaching for a gun. All the security men drew their handguns and went into a broad stance with two hands on their weapons, all pointed at Physolan. Suddenly and very, very loudly, two shots rang out, and everyone except the security men hit the floor, screaming as they dove. The person that had fired was the security man that Physolan had been studying. The shots were fired point blank and could not have missed.

  Physolan stood there without a change of expression, then started laughing. He had a shrill laugh that did not seem quite human, though a close imitation. “I have been really curious