Alien Caller (24 page)

Despite that,
before they left the technologists were planning on buying a truck
load of the latest generation chips and re-engineering them. There
was every reason to believe they would actually surpass Leinian
computer processors by then, and when properly used, would help to
improve their own society. Also, the speed with which the industry
was developing almost ensured that even afterwards they would still
keep coming back and buying them. Though as Cyrea had pointed out
at great pain, it wouldn’t be theft. When the humans finally
arrived in space, the Leinians would give them full credit for the
technology they had developed. Plus, for the moment they were
buying them anyway with gold, thereby supporting the local
community. Which explained why the local computer shop was now
looking so flash.

So it had
continued as group after group within the party had discovered
things about the humans that had never before been found anywhere
else. Things that rocked their understanding of life and evolution.
The physicists early on had learned of Einstein’s theory of
relativity and the subsequent theoretical work that had been based
on it, and immediately dismissed the Earth’s potential for space
travel within the foreseeable future. For, as long as they
considered space and time malleable, and somehow dependent upon
velocity and gravity, the humans would be stuck on Earth. They
needed a whole new mindset. Or rather an old one. Thus the party
had thought that at least one of their questions was answered.

Then the
internet had intruded on their smugness and they discovered that
many other physicists had moved away from that paradigm. There were
some physicists who still believed strongly in a Newtonian
universe, old hat as it might be, and spent their time trying to
explain the results in those terms. While they too were off the
mark, still, some of their speculations were much closer to the
truth. Space flight for humanity could be either a few years away,
or a few centuries, depending.

Finally the
sociologists had had their chance. Pushed into the background for
three, nearly four long years, forced into doing much of their
research from their home world based on the transmissions the ship
sent them, they were rearing to go. Intensive interviews with the
locals, detailed survey work, exhaustive comparative cultural
analysis - they were prepared for it. But barely had they begun to
take their bite of the cherry when they suddenly discovered that
they had no idea where they stood.

The humans
would not fit any models that they could explain. They were neither
logical nor irrational. Neither communal nor individualistic. They
both loved and hated their own people. For some a simple shade of
skin colour was enough to cause absolute detestation; for others
race was nothing at all. For some religion was the definition of
difference and intolerance. For others it was the reason for
inclusion and understanding. Politics, history and sex were also
confusing dimensions.

The
sociologists had spent their first three years simply being shoved
into the background by the others, and then, when they finally had
their chance, they found that they knew less than they thought.
Their best guess was that at present, the humans were unable to
become part of the Interstellar Community or be given any advanced
technology. Some countries would launch a war to stop it, while
others would retreat into complete denial of the presence of other
worlds, other life forms. More would choose to openly welcome the
Leinians, while covertly trying to steal every technology they
could. But that was as a race. As individuals, they were much more
tolerant.

Many individual
humans, perhaps even the entire race as individuals, could all
adapt very easily and well to life among others. They had an
incredible ability to accept new things, to grow, adapt and learn.
Perhaps that trait would be their most useful in the years to come.
But coupled with it was the way they managed to throw that same
tolerance away the moment they became a tribe. It was then that
prejudice raised its ugly head. Intolerance, bigotry, paranoia,
suspicion, mistrust; all seemed to be almost non-existent in most
individuals, and overwhelming in groups.

For the first
time in all their years of study of new races the Leinians were
actually stumped. But they had a job to do. They had to work out
how to deal with humanity when they arrived in space. Somehow. And
so they were considering a cadet programme, with humans being
brought aboard in small groups to acquire the skills needed to live
peacefully among the other races, and to bring them back to Earth.
It was something that had never been tried before, and if they ever
did do it, it would be decades or centuries away. But they also
feared that if they didn’t, the humans would arrive by themselves,
and that could well lead to disaster.

To that end
hundreds more locals had been contacted and brought into the fold,
and the results to date had been a spectacular success, if a
security nightmare for Cyrea and her bosses. Not one local out of
that number had so much as dreamed of either contacting the
authorities or attacking them. And as for prejudice or fear, they’d
found nothing. Thus far the most extreme reaction they’d had was
from Mrs. Stenson, another of his neighbours, who’d discovered a
whole new allergy. She was allergic to Leinians. But then she was
allergic to most animals, bee stings and an awful lot of food
groups as well, and their doctors had been successful in
desensitising her.

Their findings
might have shocked the Leinians but David found he could understand
them perfectly. People, on their own were usually much more
reasonable than you would expect. Religious bigots would happily
chat with those they called sinners, white racists would work with
black men and Jews. Even gang members on their own were generally
okay. Put them in two’s and three’s and things often started to
slide, as a few felt they had to show off to each other. In small
groups one always had to dominate and it was about then that people
not part of the group became rivals and outsiders instead of simply
other people.

But it was when
they formed larger groups that the problems really began. It was as
though the one or two bad seeds somehow managed to sway the rest,
overcoming the moderates’ views and pushing the extremist
positions. He had seen it too many times. One powerful bad egg
whether a bigot or a bully, somehow managed to sway the rest to his
views. Throw in some religion a dash of politics and some good
old-fashioned racism, and things went downhill rapidly from
there.

Personally
David liked the idea of a cadet programme. It seemed an intelligent
way to approach the problem. But he could also see it having its
own complications, as he’d told Cyrea sadly. Not the least of which
was that the cadets themselves, once they were identified, would
start to be considered as an outside group themselves. Sooner or
later the prejudice, bigotry, fear and intolerance would apply to
them as well. Better he told her, to remove all the decent people
in small family groups that they could, and never let the rest
leave at all.

Suggesting such
a thing was almost a betrayal of his own people, but it was also
true. Let those that could adapt and live among them do so, and
then when that exodus was complete, and if they thought it wise,
use the society that they created as a template to change the
Earth. To reshape it into a truly interstellar society. Not
piecemeal, but in one continuing drive until even the most
recalcitrant were persuaded.

Human beings
were fine but human society was a nightmare. If humanity was to
live at peace among the stars their society would have to be broken
down to the bare bones, and then carefully rebuilt from the ground
up. And unfortunately, it wasn’t just some people who would have to
go through the transformation. It was all of them.

If the
religiously intolerant would have to discover tolerance, the
prejudiced learn equality, and tyrants learn humility, the
capitalists would also have to be reined in. Exploitation of others
couldn’t be allowed. Greed might have its place on Earth, but among
the stars it would have to be service to society that dominated
humanity’s new way of life. Democracy too was a fine system of
government, but it needed fixing. When political parties started
owning it and preventing other voices from being heard, that too
was unacceptable. It couldn’t be allowed to be accepted by only a
few countries either. Everybody had to have the same right to be
heard. Men, women and aliens.

New laws would
have to be enacted, and new ways of thinking brought in. It would
be a long slow business, beginning from the very start of school.
Children would have to be taught that other people who hopped,
crawled, slithered or flew, had exactly the same rights and
responsibilities as them. But at least he knew children could learn
such things. It was their parents who would be the problem. And the
world they had created.

Though he
didn’t say it too loudly, David was becoming more and more
concerned about the impact on the world if and when the Leinians
were found out, and the one thing he was sure of was that sooner or
later they would be. Cyrea’s accident only highlighted one of the
potential risks. A greater one was one or other of the intelligence
agencies doing some research, for the Leinians had already made
significant impacts on the local community. Better health, the
bio-remediation of a dangerously polluted lake, the opening of a
spent gold mine which was now producing more than ever with no
staff, and no doubt awaiting federal health and safety
inspections.

Each of these
events on its own could be explained, but taken together they
formed a pattern. One that might not make sense to anybody for some
time to come, but still enough of an oddness to register on several
databases. He’d told Cyrea that, and even as he shopped she was
going to speak with her superiors about it. Perhaps, he hoped, they
could cut back on some of the excesses of their impacts thereby
delaying the inevitable. It would not however, prevent it. Even if
they packed up and left right then, he knew it would not prevent
discovery. Nothing would any more.

Therefore as he
told them, it was vital that they prepare for that day. Not just
for the agents who might come and perhaps create problems for them,
along with innumerable tourists who would ride into Redwood Falls
in their droves just to catch sight of an alien. Not even for the
locals who would become their victims. But for the rest of the
world who would be shaken to their core by the news. The financial
markets, the United Nations, a thousand religious sects, some of
whom actually awaited alien landings as the sign of the apocalypse,
the internet which could actually collapse under the data-streams
that would be demanded of it, and so forth. All would be
vulnerable, regardless of the peaceful intentions of their
visitors. Though he no longer had any doubts that they were
peaceful.

But if he, an
agent with knowledge of the most secret of black box operations had
been shaken, he had no idea how the rest of the world would react.
And though the Leinians didn't want to admit it, they thought
they'd be gone first, he was sure that day was coming.

In desperation
he was beginning to prepare a crude impact assessment of what that
news would do to the world; not to stop it, but merely to try and
help them minimize the damage. It was only a project in its
infancy, and Cyrea was carrying his first draft back with her even
then, but he could see at least some of the pitfalls ahead and was
planning for them.

The markets
could be stabilized by an immediate announcement that no new
technology and no large amounts of mineral resources would be
released by the Leinians and that the Leinians also wouldn’t be
purchasing any companies. The religious sectors needed to be
appeased with a flat statement that the visitors were not here on a
higher mission from God and that they accepted all religions
provided they lived in peace. The health sector, though in many
ways it was wrong, would be bolstered by the knowledge that they
weren’t being replaced with advanced medical technology and so
forth. It was only a beginning, but he hoped it would be a good
start.

Governments of
course, were more tricky. Some would perceive the Leinians as a
threat no matter what they said. Others would take it as a western
imperialist plot since they had landed in America. Some would want
their technology for themselves, others would want their immediate
expulsion and if possible, destruction. The governments were the
next stage of his project, and one he wasn’t looking forward to, if
only because he knew what a complex mess it would be. What might
appease some would infuriate others.

The only
solution, though the country would call him a traitor for even
suggesting it, was for the Leinians to insist on dealing directly
with the United Nations. As a body they might not be the most well
organized or cohesive group in the world, but they were the only
ones with the ability to speak on behalf of all nations, and the
only group that could hold the respect of everyone else. They had
the mandate that no one else could claim.

Though it might
be considered as both self-serving and a form of insider trading,
David had also felt the need to grab up plenty of shares in the two
largest chip manufacturers, figuring that if and when the Leinians
were found out, they were one of the few stocks that would go up in
value. Perhaps a long way up. The news alone that the Leinians
valued them should see to that, even without the extra sales. The
rest he had reinvested into blue chip companies with large asset
bases, figuring that even if they didn’t make a large profit now,
their assets ensured their continuing value and his financial
security.