about these weapons.” Physolan reached out his hand, and the gun was ripped from the security man’s hands, right into his. He turned it over and studied it very carefully. “It’s a kinetic weapon. Crude but I’m sure very effective I’m sure.” He gave another short laugh. He turned to look around the room and most of the people were still on the floor, but a few brave heads were peeking above the table. “I’m very sorry Dr. Untiti, but I really wanted to see this weapon in action, and I thought this would be the best way. I’m hope everyone is okay. There’s no danger. I wouldn’t let anyone in this room be injured anyway.”
All the security men were still pointing their guns at Physolan, but the others in the room began to slowly get up off the floor and take their seats, everyone was visibly shaken. Gaylord had almost peed his pants when the gun went off, and, from the smell, he was sure some had done a lot more than that. Again Physolan had shown emotion, this time both curiosity and humor, actually childlike humor. But what a very irresponsible thing to do. Someone could have been injured. Gaylord was not sure what to make of this display, but it sure supported his belief that Physolan was telepathic. He seemed to know exactly what to do to make the security man shoot him. Then it hit him! Where did the bullets go? There were no holes in the wall behind Physolan, and obviously Physolan had not been injured, there were no holes in his clothes or blood. The videotape of the meeting should explain the disappearance of the bullets.
Physolan placed the gun on the table and said in a voice that seemed inordinately happy, “I guess I’d best go now. Dr. Untiti, please just call me when you wish to talk to me again. I’m going to set in motion some of the things we’ve discussed.” There was a flash, and he was gone.
As with his previous visits, there was a flurry of activity at the UN, and Jason seemed to spend all his time attending them. This gave Gaylord a free hand to study the meeting tapes and collect some data of his own over the next few days. The video of the shooting clearly showed that the bullets disappeared just three centimeters from hitting Physolan. That was the same thickness that Gaylord had estimated for the light blue aura that surrounded Physolan, which as before did not show up on the video. The analysis of audio and Physolan’s voice was not conclusive, but it did appeared to be human.
Also, an unusual thing began to happen to Gaylord. Staffers friends at the UN that knew he was working on the Physolan visit began to come up to him to ask him for favors. The favors took the form of asking Physolan, next time he appeared, to provide a cure for this or that disease or to fix this or that problem. Gaylord found this not only unusual since it broke normal protocol, but he was somewhat disturbed by the requests. He had minimal influence on what could be discussed with Physolan and passing on personal requests would be frowned upon anyway.
Over the next several days, Gaylord began to hear of new discoveries in almost all areas of scientific endeavor. Scientist and engineers from around the world were reporting major advancements in the areas of physics, materials, chemistry, agriculture, astronomy, astrophysics, aerodynamics, aeronautics, medicine, etc. They were all incremental advancements, based on existing research, but in many cases worthy of a Noble Prize nomination. The committee will have a tough time this year picking its recipients. In addition, the information was sent to more than one recipient, so that the information could not be held in secret. Physolan was true to his word.
Gaylord met with Jason again three days after Physolan’s last visit. He was planted in his usual chair opposite Jason seated behind his desk. Jason looked like he hadn’t had much sleep nor changed clothes in a quite a while.
Jason said in a very tired voice, “The UN is completely discombobulated. They can’t even come to a consensus on what Physolan is, let alone what to do about him. Rule by committee is not very efficient. There are those that think he’s a fraud and want to arrest him, those that think he is real and want to work with him, those that think he is real but think he is here to destroy us, those that think he is the second coming of Christ or Buddha or whatever, and those that have no idea.”
“Which one describes you?”
“I belong to the last group. Plus there is no way the UN is going to get its act together enough to deal with this situation. I’ve been in meetings almost continuously over the last few days without anything to point at as a go-forward plan. Plus the member countries are off trying to make their own connections with Physolan to strike some sort of deal, though I don’t think anyone has succeeded in this. The President, cabinet members, Congressmen, Pentagon officers, State Department personnel, CIA spooks, and total strangers have been calling me for updates on what is happening and what progress we have made, which has been nada. This is utter chaos. I really don’t see much coming out of this for quite a while. You got anything for me.”
Gaylord reported the plethora of scientific discoveries being announced and the results of the video and scan studies on Physolan. He didn’t mention the people that kept asking him to put a good word in to Physolan for them. “I am sorry I can’t help your situation. All I can do is keep you informed on what is happening from the science-side and that isn’t much.”
“You’re right that your info isn’t going to help much, but I do appreciate the download. Every phone line I have is lit up, and my cell is vibrating like a dildo on ‘High.’ I guess I’d better answer one of these; I’ll give you a call when I have some free time, which may never happen.”
Gaylord rose from the chair and headed for the door. He gave a quick glance back at Jason who was now on the phone, and, for the first time he could think of, he felt sorry for him.
During the next week, in spite of the feeble attempts to keep the details of Physolan’s visit and mission from getting out, the press got hold of most of the details, and headlines around the world were announcing the arrival of an extraterrestrial alien that had come to help Earth. Most of the major news sources were understandably very skeptical and conservative in dealing with the story, but the less reputable news sources were a lot less restrained and essentially more accurate. Once the details of what Physolan had said and done were released officially, governments around the world began to receive requests for assistance from their citizens. These requests flooded into their offices through every conceivable means of communication; plus, people were crowding into their capitals to make their requests in person, directly to their representatives. People were pleading for help, ranging from a medical cure to save a son, brother, mother, friend, etc. to picking a winning lottery number. People were attempting to contact Physolan, but they did not know where to send the communiqué, so they sent them to their governments, newspapers, churches, and any other institution they thought capable of forwarding their message. In less than a week, the number of these requests had soared into the hundreds of millions and overloaded channels of communications all over the world.
Gaylord was astounded at the rapidity of these events. Within a fortnight after Physolan’s last visit to the UN, citizens were inundating their governments around the world to the point of shutting them down. And it didn’t matter if they were democratic or totalitarian; it was just easier for the latter to deal with the crowd control.
Layered on top of this, Physolan’s comments about bringing peace to the Earth were slowly beginning to have another detrimental effect on the governments. Every rebel band, suppressed (real or perceived) minority, and politically marginalized group were mobilizing their members to make their case to the UN and ultimately to Physolan for adjudication. Some groups were even planning to take action against their governments in the hope that Physolan would intervene in their favor. With the current situation, the effects of this could be devastating to the stability of some regimes.
Gaylord received a message from Jason that the UN was meeting with Physolan at 5 PM today in the same place as before. He immediately began making arrangements to have every detector, camera, and scientific measuring device, h
e could requisition, to be placed in such a way as to monitor the room. This time Gaylord was going to make sure they collected as much data on Physolan as they could.
By the time Gaylord had everything he could get on such short notice set up either in the room or near it, he went into the meeting room. All the usual suspects were already in the UN room clustered in little groups discussing what was going on and what they wanted to ask Physolan. Gaylord stood along the wall behind Dr. Untiti. He noticed that the security men were not in the room though he had seen some in the hall outside. The chairman was sitting at the head of the table staring at the alien communicator. It was clear that whatever he had to say to the members he had already said and was contemplating what he would say to Physolan. Suddenly, he pounded on the table and called the meeting to order. The attendees quieted down. This time without hesitation, he spoke at the communicator, “Physolan, we need to talk to you.”
Instantly there was a flash, and Physolan stood at the foot of the table. He said, “I would have thought you would have wanted to talk to me sooner. It’s been two of your