“Who has seen this?” The man pointed at the video.
“Just the two of us. None of the others are working on new data.” Tyler's manager glanced over the piece of paper he had been handed.
“Everyone else out!” Tyler started moving towards the door at the order. You two stay here. “Tyler sat back down.”
When the last scientist had left the room the leader introduced himself. “I am captain Gregson. I need you to stay here so I can keep news of this encounter from leaking. I'm sure you understand.” Gregson was about to continue when the door opened and Kyle was escorted in by two soldiers with guns and UN insignias.
“We caught him in a closet watching a video of the incursion.” One of the troops addressed Gregson before they both saluted and left the room closing the door behind them.
Gregson glared at Kyle before speaking. “All three of you go and sit in that corner and keep out of the way. You already know too much so I'm going to have to keep an eye on you.” The officers in the room quickly set about connecting their computers to the displays around the room. On a couple of the walls projectors were put up making impromptu displays out of much of the space. Much clearer pictures of the incursion were soon painted the walls. Tyler could see a large jagged light behind about five large objects and a dozen smaller objects. It looked like several space ships had appeared with a flash.
“I thought you said nothing ever happens.” Kyle leaned over and whispered into Tyler's ear.
“I wasn't expecting this. By the way, how did you get the video?” Tyler asked Kyle as soon as Gregson moved to the other side of the room.
“I heard the soldiers coming down the hallway and hid in the closet. I logged remotely into your computer to warn you. That's when I saw that.” Kyle nodded his head towards the video still playing on the screen on the far side of the room.
“You think that they want to kill everyone and colonize our planet like in the movie?” Kyle awoke a fear that Tyler had been suppressing since he started work at SETI. Tyler didn't respond for a couple minutes.
“Of course not. They would need a lot more ships than that.” Tyler tried to convince himself. He had hardly finished speaking before a new visual feed came from one of the satellites to one of the projectors. In it could be seen an object moving rapidly across the camera field. It was definitely a ship of some type. Tyler's stomach felt like the bottom had fallen out. A new image appeared painted on the wall. It depicted a hulking shape slide into view before the screen went dark. There wasn't any doubt in anyone's mind as to what they had seen. The room was silent for a moment before Gregson barked an order.
“Start broadcasting the greeting.” An audio track began playing. Tyler recognized it as a standardized extraterrestrial greeting that had been modernized since it's inclusion on the voyager probes. He rolled his eyes at the absurdity of a standardized alien greeting.
“They actually think that aliens will understand gibberish like that?” Kyle whispered to Tyler. “We have no idea if they can even hear sound or not!” The exclamation earned them a scowl from Gregson who was busy monitoring a scanner for any acknowledging transmission.
Another of the huge ships appeared on the wall and they watched as the ship slowed and then melted from sight. Gregson continued the transmissions. Tyler saw Gregson drop the headset and began pacing the room as he kept an eye on the screens. It struck Tyler that Gregson really didn't know what he was doing. The idea that the guy who had been put in charge didn't know what to do made Tyler uncomfortable.
“There is another incursion!” One of the guys that was running a computer yelled. A moment later the image was on the screen for everyone to see. Another bright light lit up space and a multitude of black dots appeared. Gregson rushed back to the headset and listened for any transmissions. In the background could be heard the standard greeting being replayed over and over but nothing aside from random radio noise could be heard through the set. The satellite cameras were still looking into the dark but here and there could be seen a glimmer of light reflected from the sun where none should be.
“Someone turn that damned track off.” Captain Gregson was looking more and more frustrated. “This is earth’s designated ambassador to any alien race. Earth sends our greetings and we hope to open peaceful negotiations with your people.” Gregson again listened at the headset.
“I can't believe this is happening to me.” Patrick, Tyler’s manager was mumbling to himself. His eyes were glued to the wall and the random glints of light reflecting off the approaching objects.
“Please respond with an audio message. We wish to open peaceful negotiations.” Gregson had the latest transmission run through a translation program and sent out in more than twenty languages. Everyone in the room was watching the projector on the wall intently. Suddenly all the ships could be seen as they came out of the moon’s shadow. There was a collective gasp as the number of ships could be seen.
“There has to be more than a hundred of them!” Kyle was transfixed by the sight. He had hardly finished speaking when the first ships that they had seen shimmered into view. Bright points of light streaked between the ships and several brilliant flashes obliterated ships from the second fleet. Confusion reigned in the following moments. It took a moment before Tyler realized that they had to be watching an epic space battle. The questions of who and why sprang to the front of his mind.
“Captain!” I’m getting reports that this is visible from the ground in New York. One of the guy on a computer relayed the information. Gregson swore under his breath and beads of sweat began to grow on his brow as the magnitude of the situation began to dawn on him.
“This solar system is not a sanctioned combat area. I warn you earth is prepared to defend ourselves if threatened.” Tyler wanted to strangle Gregson. To be making demands and threats as two alien forces clashed above earth was ludicrous. As Tyler thought about it he came to the conclusion that the only reason aside from pure chance that aliens would want to fight over earth was if one fraction wanted to defend the planet from the other fraction. Another scenario was that both races wanted to enslave the populace or claim the planet for themselves. Of these last two possibilities, it made more sense that the fractions would want to negotiate for spoils rather than expend manpower and resources if the first option were true. If the second scenario was true it made no sense that the first alien fleet had laid an ambush rather than proceeding to the business at hand. That left the original scenario of one fleet defending earth from the second fleet. This then raised the question of why. This idea made Tyler uncomfortable knowing he had only seen a handful of ships arrive in the first group. Nothing compared to the numbers that they had seen with the second group. On the other hand they seemed to have some sort of cloak so one couldn’t believe everything that he was seeing.
“This is my last warning. Leave now or be destroyed.” Tyler was called back to reality by Gregson’s threats. This man, as Tyler concluded, had been given his position either in an honorary capacity, through incompetence or simply to get rid of him. Looking at the screen Tyler saw that most of the weapon fire was being directed to or from five different ships from the defender’s fleet. Hundreds of tiny black specs could be seen swarming around the larger vessels. Tyler saw that the second fleet appeared to have split into three groups but as of yet none of the defenders had been defeated.
“Fire a deep space missile at the nearest ship. With its obliteration, they will have to listen to us.” Gregson arrogantly gave an order to a subordinate.
“Sir?” There was hesitation and fear in the man’s eyes.
“DO it now and don’t ever question me again!” Tyler finally figured out what the captain was talking about.
“You fool!” Tyler forgot himself and jumped up. Gregson spun and crossed the intervening space with a couple rapid footsteps and pulled back an arm for a punch. Tyler threw up his arms but Gregson’s punch still made stars flash in Tyler’s head on impact. Another set of stars flashed wh
en Tyler bounced off the wall behind him. When he was able to see again Tyler saw Gregson standing over him with a look that warned of worse if Tyler or his friends opened their mouths again.
With blurry vision Tyler watched the missile reach escape velocity and move towards one of the larger ships. On one screen was a map that showed blips where the estimated position of the ships were and on the other could be seen the camera views. Time seemed to stretch on forever as Tyler watched the one big ship in the middle positively blaze with fire melting through a dark cloud that closed in on it. The fact that these ships had their back to earth further convinced him that they were defending earth. Looking back at the other screen showed that the missile was only creeping towards its target. Tyler’s head was buzzing and it felt like his nose had been broke. There was also a distinct possibility of a concussion. Finally after what felt like an age but was probably only fifteen minutes the missile closed in on its target. There was a bright flash and everything disappeared from in front of the middle ship. Weapon fire could still be seen from the other two groups but for the most part everything had calmed down. Tyler watched the missile as a countdown showed only a few more seconds before impact. He watched the other screen in horror waiting for the explosion that would indicate impact. Instead he saw a few flashes of light from the back side of the ship and the missile went offline. No explosion followed. Silence filled the room until Tyler was sure everyone could hear the buzzing in his head.
“We have another incursion.” The techie broke the awkward silence. Some of the screens flickered and showed a bunch more ships appearing. These resembled the second fleet in size and numbers. The best that Tyler could figure out was that these new ships were located nearly a quarter of the way around earth on the other side, a moment later the screen with the map updated to reflect the same thing. Tyler’s heart sank with the realization that there was no way that ships anywhere near the size of the defenders could ever intercept the new fleet. Hope flickered as the giant ships sprang into unbelievable motion.
“It’s impossible.” Tyler caught himself speaking out loud and looked over at Gregson who was simply standing and staring at the images.
“Please elaborate. What part isn’t possible?” the fact that Kyle could still have an ounce of sarcasm at this time escaped Tyler.
“Anything in a ship that size accelerating at that speed should be crushed to a few atoms thick.” Tyler whispered back to Kyle.
“What do you think is going to happen when they stop fighting?” Kyle asked Tyler in a few minutes after they had watched the ships race toward each other on a collision course.
“I think that the big ships are defending earth from the smaller ones.” Tyler kept an eye on Gregson who was still frozen in the middle of the room. Tyler though he understood the helpless feeling that Gregson must be suffering from but still to have such an incompetent man given so much power scared Tyler.
“I hope you are right. Those bigger ships beat the crap out of the little ones. I hope they can do it again.” Kyle sounded almost optimistic. Suddenly it looked like a wave flashed out from the five bigger ships. The wave was invisible but for the fact that it warped the light behind it. The strange wave coalesced on a single point in front of the third approaching fleet. Behind this point the fleet simply looked like it disappeared. Nothing looked like it happened until a severe earthquake shook the building. It was probably less than a 3.0 but for the watchers it was sudden and severely surprising. The quake continued for a couple minutes without causing any real damage.
“Captain, There are tectonic disturbances worldwide and also flooding along most of the west coast caused by sudden rising ocean levels. It looks like whatever that thing is, it has a massive gravitational influence.” An officer reported to Gregson who returned a blank stare. The officer repeated himself before Gregson appeared to understand.
“What am I supposed to do about any of that?” Gregson sounded helpless. If Tyler hadn’t know it was impossible he would have thought that he was looking at a black hole suddenly formed in the solar system.
A couple minutes passed before a bright flash enveloped the black hole and the earthquakes stopped. Several minutes passed before Gregson was able to collect himself enough to make another transmission offering peaceful negotiations. Tyler rolled his eyes then grimaced at the stabbing pain caused by the action. He got the impression Gregson only offered peace because he felt that he had no other option. It was a last ditch attempt to salvage an already lost position. Several minutes passed before a reply came. All the screens switched over while the techies muttered and yelled about losing control of their computers.
“Greeting earth peoples.” The image of what looked like a human appeared on all the screens. No one said anything before Gregson recovered enough to respond.
“Greetings unknown alien. We wish open peaceful negotiations with you.” Gregson waited impatiently for the response.
“Unknown human. I am known as Prometheus. Peaceful negotiations have already been opened.” Prometheus scowled as he appeared to look at something on his screen.
“I am called Captain Gregson. I have been appointed the diplomat to deal with relations with extraterrestrial races. From now on any communications with earth will be through me.”
“No.” Prometheus was still scowling.
“What?” Gregson looked like he had swallowed his tongue and looked at the screens aghast.
“I said no. I don’t want to deal with you. There is someone else in the room you are in that I want to talk to.” Prometheus relaxed his scowl.
“We don’t have time to argue over who talks here. I speak for earth.” Gregson tried to brush aside Prometheus’s decision. “I think a mutual trade agreement would benefit both our races. “
“Personally I don’t see how such a trade agreement might benefit me but I want to talk to the injured human.” Prometheus waited with an impatient expression.
Gregson looked around the room without seeing any obviously injured people finally his eyes rested on Tyler with his blood streaked face. “There aren’t any injured humans here.” Gregson looked confused.
“My scans tell me he is standing in the north western corner of the room. He possibly has a broken nose.” Prometheus closed his eyes and rubbed the spot between them. “I want him to be my contact.” Tyler was shocked when he realized that it was himself being referred to. He was the only person with a broken nose in the room. He slowly stood up as everyone in the room stared at him. He tentatively took a step towards the middle of the room.
“Aha, yes you.” Prometheus smiled. Tyler looked at the image and pondered the remarkable similitude to humans that Prometheus had. “What happened to your face?”
Tyler reached up and carefully touched his nose and grimaced. “I walked into a door.” Tyler felt Gregson glowering behind him.
“Just say what I tell you to and everything will.....” Tyler turned when Gregson suddenly went silent. The Captain was encased in a rippling force field.
“You are a poor lied. The security camera footage that I downloaded clearly shows Gregson punching you in the face. He will be fine but silent for the time being.” Prometheus waited for a reply from Tyler.
“Why did you want me?” Tyler had to know.
The truth is that from the footage that I saw, you were the only one to figure out that the protectorate fleet's intentions were not hostile towards earth. Besides I don't negotiate well with people that have already tried to kill me. Another thing is that I don't like dealing with diplomats and find it refreshing when I can negotiate with an honest person. Frankly we just saved earth plus I'm the one with the fleet of space ships so I get to call most of the shots.”
“I think your involvement has been seen by half our planet so some sort of relations are going to have to be opened.” Tyler reflected on the chaos and unrest that would erupt across the planet if an alien race appeared, defeated another alien race over planet earth and then suddenly disappeared.
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“You are absolutely right. I had hope to postpone letting earth know about us but that can't be avoided unless we erase everyone's memories but that would take too much work.” Prometheus appeared to ponder the idea to Tyler's horror. “Here is how it stands right now. Earth is under our protection and has been for many years. The black hole that we had to construct to protect earth did far less damage than we had anticipated. It looks like some of our agents on earth have built gravity dampers that protected the planet from most of the effects. Your orbit is still unchanged but we will have to replace the moon. Your tides will be off for a day or two until then. Otherwise we will clean up the debris from that battle and a few annual meteor showers will be the worst effects left over from today. Oh one other thing. The gravity dampening effect didn't extend to your satellites so you might have to replace a few.”
“Why are you protecting us and why do you look so human?” Tyler didn't see what else could be negotiated. The idea of agents working on earth either planning for this battle in exact detail or time travelers bothered Tyler but when he thought about it the idea of these aliens being time travelers answered both his questions.
“That is a long story.” Prometheus smiled slightly.
Chapter Twenty-two: The Well Laid Plans
This time Kiyan knew that what he was experiencing was not a dream. The realm of shadows surrounded him on all sides. Theo had told him that it was dream walking but he liked to call it shadow walking. The thing that Kiyan did not know was where he was. Most times the visions were of a single place. Finite in the reach of his senses. This time it felt like he could reach infinity if he tried. The lack of boundaries was frightening. It had the distinct feeling that if he slipped he could traverse untold distances in an instant.
Like the normal shadow walks, there were no specific details that could be discerned. Everything consisted of shadows of varying shades. There was the sense of vast emptiness and of black spheres suspended by invisible forces. These objects were collected in clusters and orbited more spheres that were pale and immense by comparison. It was then that Kiyan realized what was wrong about the universe. There was none of the shadows that he knew as life forms. Focusing his consciousness on one of the worlds, Kiyan examined it. There was movement on the surface but it was almost indistinguishable from the planet itself. There was no life on the planet.