Red Dot: Contact. Will the gravest threat come from closer to home than we expect? (29 page)

“My client cannot answer that question,” Edson immediately said, and gave Fitzgerald a stern look.

Fitzgerald looked down at his hands for a few seconds and then looked up at David and said, “I understand your reasoning.”

“Have you told investigators everything you know about who was in the plot and how it developed, and turned over or revealed the location of all evidence you are aware of?” David asked crisply.

“Yes. I am cooperating fully.”

“Thank you, Mr. Fitzgerald.”

After a brief exchange with Attorney General Taggart, Fitzgerald and Edson got up to leave the meeting. Fitzgerald stopped at the doorway and turned back to face David. With his attorney looking on apprehensively, Fitzgerald said, “I’m glad you are alive.”

After he and Edson walked out the door, people in the room exhaled in relief and breathed normally for the first time since Fitzgerald had started
talking. David did what looked like a quick knee bend. But there was still no peaceful resolution.

Taggart began to inform David about the legal case against the plotters. Now alone at the desk, with her short stature and elderly appearance, she looked unimposing. But she gave a succinct report with unwavering confidence.

Department of Justice lawyers had detailed the strength of the case against each of the accused, underlined the seriousness of the charges, and urged each one to confess—but no deals were offered. Each suspect, and his or her lawyer, realized a guilty verdict was inevitable. Confessing may not mitigate the harsh sentences they faced, but fighting the charges would almost certainly ensure the most severe punishment, up to and including the death penalty.

Thirty-nine people were involved in the attempted coup, including six who—like General Peoples—were not active participants or planners but knew about it or provided some assistance. Thirty-one had confessed, so far. The Department expected all of them to confess in coming days, Taggart said.

“If any of them don’t, we’ll throw the book at them,” she said, matter-of-factly. “David, do you understand the saying, ‘throw the book at them’?”

“I do,” said David, with a touch of pride in his voice. “It means you will seek the most severe penalty.”

At the end of the Attorney General’s report, there was a murmur of conversation, squeaking of chairs, and rustling of papers—but only for a few seconds.

Everyone had been totally absorbed with the fascination of meeting a being from another world, and then in following the presentations from Young and Taggart and the tense interchange between Fitzgerald and David. Suddenly, they realized that they would now learn whether the ETs would retaliate—perhaps vaporize them or destroy the whole city or country.

Claire sat rigidly upright, staring at David. For the previous two hours, she had leaned forward greedily, taking in the ET’s every word and action.
Now a wave of sickening fear washed over her, just as it did when she and other scientists discovered the real possibility of an alien ship heading toward Earth, and when she first learned about red dots.

“Thank you for presenting the information we requested,” David said in the same serious tone. “Before I left to meet you here, we in D9 devised a list of conditions that would have to be met before we agreed not to retaliate for your unprovoked attack. I have determined that you have fulfilled those conditions. We will not implement the plan we had in place in case of attack.”

“Thank Jesus,” Duggard said softly as people in the room celebrated and congratulated each other. She thought,
If I don’t accomplish anything else as temporary President, thank God for this
. But as she watched David standing in front of them with his hands together, the sobering realization hit her: She would have to tell him to go away.

I
MPORTANT
A
NNOUNCEMENT

A
s Duggard straightened
up to address the ET, David said, “There is one important announcement I have to make.” In the sudden silence, he said, “We will not continue our mission to Earth. After I return to D9, we will travel back to our home planet. With great regret, we have concluded that continuing the mission would bring too much danger to your economic and political systems, and also raises the dangers we face. I assure you, Acting President Duggard,” David said, now speaking slowly and with more feeling, “I am very disappointed that we will not get to know and learn from each other.”

Duggard and the other officials were flabbergasted. She had steeled herself for the humiliating task of admitting that Earth was not ready to meet visitors from another world. Now the ETs pulled the plug on the historic contact. Should she tell David the US government had reached the same conclusion?

As the stunned Acting President sat speechless, Binski spoke to the ET. “David, in our brief meeting this morning, we have come to appreciate you as an individual—your intelligence and your good judgment. I feel, I’m sure we all feel, that we’re on the way to becoming real friends. Add to that all that both sides could learn from inhabitants of another world, and it is terribly disappointing that we could miss this historic opportunity. However, David, we share your concerns. The crises we face around the world seriously threaten our stability and your safety.”

“Yes, David,” said Duggard, who had collected her thoughts while Binski spoke. “We wish we could have continued our contact, but we are surely glad that we at least got a brief opportunity to get to know you and learn about your world.”

Everyone in the room knew the contact was ending; the longer David remained, the better the chances were that his visit would be discovered, possibly causing widespread panic. Already four people had left the meeting, and could reveal the ET’s presence: Fitzgerald, Edson, and the two FBI agents. Still, no one in the room made a move. It was as if they all wanted to cling to the moment as long as possible. So the two NASA scientists seized the opportunity.

Claire spoke first. “David, we had all noticed in the last few weeks that you seemed to have very human emotions, and appreciate things like visual beauty and justice—things we also value. And it just seemed like you value life. Are we really that similar?”

“Well, yes and no,” David said. “We do value life. Long ago, we were in the process of replacing parts of our physical bodies with machines, which were stronger, lasted longer, and could be easily repaired or replaced. However, at one point we noticed disturbing developments. Life expectancy stopped increasing, crime rose, suicides increased, for example. Experiments with microorganisms indicated that totally replacing the physical part led either to total lack of the will to live or to irrational and erratic behavior. Our race began the long process of growing back our physical bodies until we reached a good mix of physical and mechanical parts. The experience left us with a profound respect, even reverence, for our physical selves, as weak and short-lived as they are, and with a general love of life.

“In addition, our species once almost became extinct, after a terrible war caused by ideological and other differences. That made us, most of us, more tolerant and appreciative of life.

“As for appreciating visual beauty—our senses are much different from yours. We don’t react to most of the wavelengths you call visual light; we don’t have an atmosphere on our planet that carries anything like your sound
waves. But we do have senses and a concept of beauty. In studying your visual and audio records, we transformed them to be understandable to our sense perception and to be able to communicate in your languages.

“Of course, we have a long history of social and political interaction on our world, and we have developed concepts similar to fairness, justice, and other ideas familiar to you.”

“David,” Ahmet said. “You are so friendly and easy to get along with. Is everyone on your planet like that?”

“Oh my, no,” said David. “You would find a very wide range of personalities, some of them very disagreeable. I sought and attained this position partly because I enjoy being around others. In fact, in some situations I am considered the life of the party.”

In the silence that followed, everyone looked at the motionless, faceless alien standing in front of them: a creature who resembled a trashcan with an upside-down salad bowl on top, propped up by two broomsticks. Ahmet was the first to laugh, but everyone else quickly joined in.

As the laughter died away, David said, “I told you.”

After another round of chuckles, Ahmet rushed to get more information from David. “Some of us were thinking,” he said, visualizing he and Ray sitting and talking near a red dot in the woods outside of Laurel, “that you’ve had the time and talent to develop incredibly advanced technology, but what about your philosophy, religion, and ethics? Are you just as far ahead of us there?”

David paused before answering. “We have had some teachers with profound insights in these fields, and ideas you may find enlightening or interesting, but it’s difficult to measure if we are comparatively advanced. We found some of your ideas penetrating and beautiful. I can say we have no insights so deep that they compel widespread belief or action in objective individuals or in those following other teachings. In our world, too, we must make difficult choices in our lives.

“I must add that very early on, we decided not to influence other civilizations’ values, beliefs, or political systems. There’s a limit to how much detail I can give, but there is still a lot to discuss. To start with…”

David put his hand on his Earth suit. A small door slid open, and he pulled out an object the size of a cigarette lighter. The door slid shut.

“Here we have a recording in the thirty-six languages we have been using, giving you a general view of our life on our home planet. Kind of a home movie. It will be much more clear than what we could transmit from D9. I regret awfully that we will not be able to discuss the recording with you or learn more about your life here.”

“David,” Claire said, “we understand that you don’t want to influence our beliefs, but your arrival has shaken some of our core assumptions. And it’s caused a lot of unrest and anxiety. Do you have any advice for us?”

The ET paused for a long time. Finally, he said, “The fact that intelligent life from another planet has appeared should not trouble you. Before you knew about us, you had your ties of family, friends, countrymen, and wise, religious, philosophical and political teachings that served you well. That did not change. You still have them.” Speaking more slowly, David said, “Now you know that others, far away, have ties and teachings much as you do.”

Ahmet and Claire ached to know more about the ETs’ philosophy, ethics, and religious ideas, but time was running out, and they had to ask David about D9’s incredible technology.

Ahmet said, “David, the technology you have that enables you to transmit information, like radio waves, and even to transport matter instantaneously makes our physicists’ heads explode. What is the science behind that?”

“I’m sorry,” said David, “but we have a firm policy not to give alien civilizations information that would substantially advance their science or technology. Big leaps forward in those areas can be disruptive enough, even if they come naturally. Plus, such knowledge may give an unfair advantage to more wealthy and advanced groups or nations. And frankly, as you have seen, even we haven’t mastered all of our technology.”

Ahmet leaned back in his chair in dejection, but quickly sat back up and asked, “Have you found other intelligent life—or any other life—in the galaxy?”

David said he was not allowed to answer that question, either, and Claire pressed on.

“Well, can you tell us what the red dots are, and why you sent them?”

“Ah, the immediate purpose was to demonstrate that we did not intend to use superior technology for harm by sending these benign dots to every corner of the Earth,” David said. “We were badly mistaken. As for our longterm purpose, come outside with me, where we have more room, and I will show you.”

As David walked briskly to the door, everyone else stood slowly and stretched their legs to recover from sitting for two tense hours of negotiations. Then they put on their coats or sweaters against the chilly wind. Outside, the sun snuck through a few gaps in the dark gray overcast sky, and David found an open space on the runway. Then he pulled another cartridge from his Earth suit.

A red dot about four feet across soon glowed on the tarmac.

“So that’s it,” said Duggard.

She and Admiral Young looked on wide-eyed, in the same limp amazement as millions of others around the world who’d seen a red dot for the first time. David let the group take in the red dot for a few minutes.

“Okay, spill it, David,” Ahmet said, breaking the silence. “What are they?”

David replied, “They are our gifts to you.”

Claire’s jaw dropped open. She had told Sammie the dots were “gifts from the spaceship” when they first appeared. But she actually had no idea what they were, and was only trying to reassure her son.

“In the future, when you have advanced far enough to understand the science and technology we are using for travel and communication, you will be able to open the gifts. We think that by the time your scientists around the world have cooperated to reach new levels, you will also have made significant advances socially and politically that will allow you to be more tolerant and understanding.

“When you have applied your advanced technology to each one of the red dots on Earth, they will all open to reveal gardens to delight your senses, and vast libraries filled with our best works of literature, history, biology, art, and every other field—all accessible in your local language. I will show you.”

David held the cartridge in his right hand and added, “This will also replace the corrupted programs now in the red dots with clean programs. When you unlock the red dots, it will also be a signal to us that we may return.”

The next second, the dull, gray skies and shabby warehouses vanished. A gorgeous azure sky with a few perfectly white clouds topped a meadow of rich green grass dotted with purple, red, and yellow wild flowers and surrounded by a forest of stately oak trees. A warm breeze gently massaged the skin and brushed the ears. Cheerful birdsongs and the fragrance of the meadow flowers drifted in. And to Duggard and the others, it seemed this whole three-dimensional scene held another scene inside. It was as if the meadow could be seen on the surface of a box and they could see inside the box to view bright pink and violet clouds on the horizon of a sunrise on a great expanse of calm, blue ocean. In front of them, the surf washed rhythmically on a sandy beach, with tall palm trees leaning over the beach from lush jungle foliage and flowers.