Authors: Imogene Nix
Emerging from the bathroom, she spied her mother, standing at the end of the hall in her fluffy blue dressing gown with matching slippers, and her blonde hair sitting high on her head in soft curlers. It was the same scene every night. “Night, Jessa.”
“Night, Mum.” What else was there to say? In a funk, Jessa entered her room, before closing the door then sat down on her single bed. She breathed deeply, letting the oxygen flow through her system, before slowly levering herself down across the mattress. Her blinds were open so she had an excellent view of the star-studded sky. It was a major positive to living on the edge of town, the absence of bright lights.
“Whoever you are, I certainly hope you’re friendly,” Jessa muttered, before closing her eyes, rolling onto her side and willing herself to sleep. For some reason, an excited thrill ran through her system.
Finally, visitors from the stars.
No longer was it a figment of someone’s imagination or something from a science fiction novel. The time had come for them to have contact with another species. That was a sobering thought. The Prime Minister had sent a radio message to the ship.
God, I hope the Prime Minister didn’t act like a pompous dick.
Jessa snuggled down under the covers, waiting for the touch of sleep. Her mind wandered and she drowsed.
Her mobile, sitting on the bedside table buzzed and vibrated. Jessa muttered in the dark, groping for the device. She reached out and found the red leather covered item and dragged it to her ears.
“‘lo?”
“Jessa, it’s me. Seth. Can you come to the office at the telescope? I need you.” He sounded excited.
She squinted. “I was asleep, Seth. Besides which, I’m off duty until Saturday.” The room was gloomy and she screwed her face up into a scowl, knowing sleep would probably elude her now. “What could be so important that I need to come in right now?” Jessa pushed back the covers, swung her legs over the side then slipped her feet into her old grey slippers beside the bed.
“I can’t tell you over the phone.”
“What?” Something was happening. An agitated thrill filled her chest and for an instant her mind warred with the interest that spiked.
“Jessa…”
He didn’t need to plead. Jessa was already getting up to hunt out clothes. “Sure. Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Thanks. You really won’t regret it.” The delight in his voice was contagious.
Jessa hurriedly tapped the end call button.
* * * *
The land, so alien with hues of blue and green, grew larger as the craft descended. “Captain, do you really intend to land here? After those transmissions?”
Galan sat in his chair, watching the view-screen, hearing the concern and horror in the voice of his second-in-command. “I do, Joras. We must remember our primary objective.” He knew his words sounded unconcerned, yet he too had reservations after the tone of the communications he had received from the…what did they call themselves? Oh right, yes, Earthlings… “It’s obvious they had no imagination, calling themselves Earthlings. Especially the woman who had called herself the Prime Minister, whatever that is.” He shook his head.
“
But what did pique my interest was the other transmission I received—the young man, who had called himself Seth. He sounded like he might be a possible go-between for us. Something our people had always found helpful in the past when dealing with new planets.”
Frustration pulled at him as he rose from his seat, making his way to the navigator’s position. “How long until landing?”
“Sir, on our current course, I estimate no more than three
horanas
.” Galan nodded absently. Three
horanas
to prepare. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. “Joras, have your security team ready and fully briefed. We’ll have to treat this as an ambassadorial meeting. I will prepare a communiqué for our Liege, concerning our position and plans.” Galan turned back to his friend, rubbing a hand absently along his hairless jaw. “Joras, when we land, I need you to remain here.”
Joras opened his mouth but Galan stopped him with a look. “No. As captain, it is my right to be the one to make contact.”
Joras looked at him hard, no doubt wondering at the wisdom of his decision, then nodded wordlessly. Galan turned towards the automatic doors, and headed to his small office.
He felt the heavy burden of duty to his people. The state of the females on his planet weighed on him, like a heavy chain around his neck. All but fifty had passed through the gates of forever due to a problem of their scientists making. They had only made the discovery in the last several
jahr,
as the women died in childbirth or even younger and the few children who were born had already died in the womb.
The genes that had been cloned into their females had degraded, meaning they could neither reproduce, nor enjoy a full lifespan. He himself had felt the telling grief as his own partner, Gospah, had died in childbirth, some fifteen
jahr,
she had been among the first and the healers hadn’t known the cause. Not then, anyway. It had only come to light as the waves of loss had gripped his planet. He knew that Joras too, faced a bleak future, with his partner Doreanh passing through only three
jahr
ago, one of the reasons this ship was so ably crewed. Not one member aboard was unaffected.
The few unpartnered men of his planet needed companions and his people would die without women to share their lives.
So he and his crew came seeking potential partners for the males of his kind. At least seventy, his father, the ruler had requested, but he knew better than that. Seventy would only make the situation worse, as other men would not form a partnership. It would cause angst and anger on a planet which was quiet and sometimes even somnolent.
His small home was a rock of misery with thousands of males now with no hope of a life partner. It was imperative that they convince as many females as they could find, to both replenish the gene pools and to accept a place in their world. He hoped to at least gain agreement from the ruling government to request three hundred women to join them. His stomach churned. They may not find any women who would agree, or the government may not be supportive. All those things kept him awake at night and worried him ceaselessly. True, some men had left their agrarian lifestyle to seek a life and partner elsewhere. But for those who remained, the future was, indeed bleak—unless they were successful in this aspect of their mission.
Of course, that wasn’t the only point of the mission he now undertook. But it was one of the most urgent. They also needed diplomatic alliances with other planets, an agrarian and pacific planet was always in far more danger when it didn’t have strong alliances, his father had informed him. This was their opportunity to form one easily, or so they all hoped.
The small holographic image of Gospah, his long departed wife, greeted him on arrival in his office. His heart ached but he realised the pain had finally weathered to a dulled emotion, rather than the crushing misery he had experienced when he had first lost her to the forever realms.
“Gospah, I hope to bring happiness to the men of our planet. But in all I do, it is in memory of your loss.” He’d said the words as he had every day of the long journey, making a deep obeisance as was required by their belief system. Today he wondered if it was time to let her go, after all these
jahrs.
With that thought still burning in the back of his mind, he headed to his desk and replayed the transmission from the Prime Minister on one of the continents from Earth.
“Of course, you will need to present yourself to our facilities for negotiations and testing.”
Her tone had been condescending and irritating. But he needed their help so he had to accept it. For now anyway.
He snorted, raising his cup of hot brew. They had obviously never left their home, except to check out their small moon, but this section of the galaxy was a backwater anyway, so no wonder no other species had attempted any form of contact. Otherwise, they would have been aware that they were in no position to make such demands. No, all he had to do was check their technology to see they hadn’t evolved very far. He contained his thoughts, he needed these people as allies for their small planet, so maybe he shouldn’t focus on their shortcomings.
He snorted again. This would be just the first of many visits from such beings as them, once their position was known. With that knowledge, he prepared a memory cube of information he would hand to them, containing specifications for ships and energy systems. He added a copy of the agreement all known planets had agreed to, showing the courtesies and acceptable requests governments could make of other bodies, with a smile.
* * * *
“Seth better have the coffee pot on,” Jessa grumbled as she slowed the car to a halt. She hopped out, into the cool late night air and crunched across the gravel before entering the facility. “Seth?” she yelled, wincing as her voice reverberated in the emptiness.
“Yeah, I’m here.” A head emerged from the room beyond. He waved his hand. “Come here…be quick.”
Filled with a mixture of excitement and misgivings, Jessa quickly stepped towards him, searching for signs of the coffee pot and on spying it, grabbed a mug. She poured a drink, before adding milk from the small fridge. “Ok. I’m here now. What?”
“They are going to land here.” Seth jittered around, grabbing her attention with his wild movements and gyrations.
She stared at him.
Who? Who is going to land here?
“I made contact on unsecured channels. Look!” He waved his hands.
She watched slack jawed as the transmission auto-extracted before her eyes. The information streamed across the screen and she made some quick calculations in her head.
They are going to land here. In Parkes! Near the telescope.
“Holy Mother of God. What have you done?” she whispered the awed words, even as the reality of the situation hit home.
The enforcement bodies would have known and would no doubt arrive any time now. This was worse than last time, when Jace had taken advantage of her. This time no doubt the police and officials would think she had done the wrong thing, because Seth wouldn’t have this information if he hadn’t somehow managed to contact them.
She winced, remembering the believable information Jace had fabricated, that she had been stupid enough to allow him access to a secured location. Jessa gulped, fearing that it would be infinitely worse this time, if the authorities had the wrong idea about her and whatever actions Seth had taken.
“Oh man…what if the police arrest us? ASIO? Jeez, I bet even the CIA and Mossad have someone on the way here right now. That’s before you even consider MI5. You’re mad! And I’m in deep shit!” She backed away even as the sound of sirens filled the air from outside. Her stomach roiled in anticipation of the scenes ahead. “I can’t afford to get in trouble again, Seth. You of all people, knew that!” The accusing words flowed from her mouth before she could stop them and he looked at her, hurt. She sighed heavily.
“I thought you would want to be involved in this? It’s not every day we make first contact.”
She closed her eyes. It was too late to extricate herself now. All she could hope was that Seth was more honourable than Jace had been. And told the truth convincingly enough. Head aching with the reality of his ill-conceived actions, she bowed her head and listened to the sounds of movement from outside. The door burst open with a thud and her eyes reopened. The police entered, guns held in front of them. “Freeze!”
The policeman from her youth, Detective Inspector Chalmers, looked at her and she shrugged uselessly. What else was there to say?
I’m here, someone had made contact and I have a history.
* * * *
The questioning just went on and on.
“Honestly, I was in bed and didn’t know anything until I got here. Seth called me. You can see that on my phone. I wasn’t involved.” She leaned in, focusing on the hard faced man sitting opposite her. With an aching head and people coming and going constantly, she knew she was close to breaking down. Many of the officers stalked around talking on tiny mobile phones, some making angry requests for information and equipment from whoever they spoke to.
They remained in the little office listening to her explanation with interest. Chalmers’ voice grew more strident as it became clear that the ship would soon arrive, and even with the threat of recriminations, she had to admit to a small degree of excitement building up again deep within her. To be there when first contact was made was something she’d remember forever. She gasped slightly at the thought.
The ground started to move, a shuddering beneath her feet, and the walls rattled. Things on the table shook, and a roaring sound enveloped them and grew louder. One of the policewomen hurried to the television perched on the wall and turned on the news channel. “Look, sir! They’re here.”
Jessa watched the television, amazed as the large ship descended in the field outside the observatory. It was long and dark, perhaps best described as cigar like, with several small thrusts slowing their descent. She couldn’t see any windows or viewing ports, but perhaps they were at the top. The police had been unable to keep the media away, and the live broadcast was sure to be a winner in the ratings, Jessa mused. The deafening roar of engines stopped, the ship itself held steady above the ground while large stubby black legs deployed slowly from below, with a loud metallic screech. She absorbed each piece of information like a sponge, her eyes widening as it finally touched the earth and the thrusters stopped.
Silence.
The blue line of police edged closer to the reporter, backing up while everyone else waited in silence. Jessa held her breath along with everyone else in the room. At the bottom of the ship, a light shone and a platform emerged, showing fifteen people by her count. Well, they could have been people, except their skin was coloured like a weirdly shining rainbow.