The Visitor (28 page)

The two bovs accepted to be fed, and even demonstrated a good appetite. Thirty days had passed since they were reunited in the cage. Loyalty was still in gestation. Both would keep traces of their physical and psychological traumas, but they seemed in perfect health. During this time, they had been exchanging gestures of tenderness and even mated several times despite Sneaky’s casts. With more than a little twinge in her heart, from the idea of soon not seeing them anymore, Akkaliza decided it was time for their release. She wanted to give them their freedom near the place where Akkal had shot Sneaky. To avoid sedating them once again, she hadn’t found another solution than to transport them inside the cage to that destination.

*

Ikkillu energetically refused the fifty-one per cent of the shares that Akkal had committed to offering her; it seemed like that he was wanting to give her the worst of illnesses. Anyway, Nature Foods, Ralchadomac and all food production companies based of animal resources, especially in the bovine sector, had become worthless.

From one day to the next, a huge demand for plant food appeared on the market. Okkala had presented Ukkuulaae to her brother because he was looking for partners to be among the first to meet the new requirements. The meeting went well. Ukkuulaae and her companion were very enthusiastic and they knew a lot of other small producers who would be happy to convert.

*

Standing in their cage, Etos and Mahisa watched the landscape passing by. Etos stood holding a bar with his left hand while his free arm squeezed Mahisa’s waist.

She couldn’t chase off some apprehension from her mind, but the serene attitude of the one she loved reassured her. Gentle Lightning was near them, in the hollow back of the monster with four round legs, on the other side of the standing branches. Etos trusted her; he had no idea what awaited them, but he didn’t foresee anything unwelcome.

At times, Mahisa recognized some of the places from the path she took to find Etos.

*

Standing in the bed of the truck next to the cage, Akkaliza held onto the bars with four hands. Her heart was aching. The time had come to free the two bovs. She was sure that she had managed to gain their trust and even somehow their affection because they were letting her pet them; even Loyalty.

Her brother was driving. He had offered his help, because he knew his father’s hunting grounds, a father who now had destroyed and thrown away his rifle. Sitting near Akkalo, Okkala was also taking the trip. The two bovs had had time to get used to the presence of both of them, even though they trusted them much less than Akkaliza.

*

The four round legs stopped running. Mahisa and Etos recognized the place perfectly.

“
Gentle Lightning brought Mahisa and Etos in their forest,” said Etos.
 

“
Yes!” said an enthusiastic Mahisa.
 

Neither of them suspected that they were going to gain their freedom. They heard two clunks, the four round legs trembled slightly and two other lightning-slayers showed themselves. Mahisa had noticed that they had gone inside the head of the monster that runs by rotating its feet and that they just had come out. They walked a bit and seemed to expect something from Gentille Lightning. She began to manipulate something mysterious while whistling. Mahisa felt Etos taking hold of her hand. Both were very surprised to see the gate of standing branches open in front of them. Etos turned towards Gentle Lightning and stared for a second into her eyes. When he heard her beak vibrate, he had the intuition that maybe it was her way to show her sorrow, that somehow it was as if she was crying. So, he went out holding Mahisa by her hand and approached Gentle Lightning to give her a pat on her head, right next to her ridge. Of course, that was the first time that he did such a thing. Mahisa was very impressed. Though he hadn’t done that for this purpose, he was happy to swag a little to dazzle her.

He then turned a distracted glance to the other two lightning-slayers, and next, after a last slightly wet look at Gentle Lightning, he walked into the forest holding Mahisa by her waist.

*

Akkaliza soon lost sight of the two bovs; they were reabsorbed into the forest. Her beak was vibrating a lot. Akkalo and Okkala each put an arm on her shoulders to comfort her.

“
Did you see that?” she asked. “He petted me before leaving.”
 

Her voice was strained by emotion and punctuated by vibrations of her beak.

“
You're certainly the first uma in the world to be petted by a bov,” said her brother.
 

“
He expressed his gratitude to you. He certainly wasn’t indifferent.”
 

In the pickup, on the way back, Akkaliza thought aloud:

“
In any case, it’s thanks to bovs from outer space that all ends well for Sneaky and Loyalty.”
 

“
Certainly, certainly!” replied Okkala. “But also thanks to other people I want you to meet. I'll invite them to thank them and to introduce them to you.”
 

As usual, Okkala’s miso lentils were delicious. Ekklamisa, Ikkarix and Ukkosal weren’t holding back their praise.

Akkaliza was thrilled to learn so much about the mysterious machine that had travelled in space that in terms of time and distance was impossible to imagine.

“
Even when I try to focus,” she said, “I can't grasp the sheer size of such numbers. A million years…”
 

“
Speaking of that, we learned where was the exact origin of the Visitor,” said Ekklamisa. “Before that we were only guessing.
 

Three 'Oh yes!...?'s greeted this statement.

“
It seems the craft came from the third planet of Ellios. A star located about sixty-five light years from us. It's a very small star as compared to ours.”
 

Three more 'Oh yes!...?'s indicated their astonishment.

“
Yes, it's only a little less than a million and a half kilometers in diameter.”
 

“
How about that!” exclaimed Akkaliza. “It seems to me that it’s already huge. How big is ours then?”
 

“
Denalbara has a diameter more than sixty million kilometers.”
 

“
So, the bovs who created the Visitor live, I mean ‘lived’ around this tiny star!” said Ukkosal enthusiasticly. “Can you see this third planet? What does it look like?”
 

"No," replied Ekklamisa. “Our current astronomical instruments don’t allow us yet to observe planets around other stars. We can only detect their presence indirectly. Among other things, thanks to the small variations in luminosity they cause in front of their star.”

“
I see... And how do you know with certainty that this craft really came from the vicinity of this star... how’s it called?”
 

“
Ellios. In truth, we haven’t discovered it. We’ve learned that from the Visitor’s designers themselves.”
 

Three ‘Oh yes!...?’s wanted to learn more.

“
Yes,” replied Ikkarix. “The information was on the plaque. Very brainy guys eventually were able to read it. The position of this star was given relatively to the center of the galaxy and 14 pulsars.”
 

After having asked and learned what were pulsars, coming to the dessert, Akkaliza guided questions in another direction:

“
We certainly can’t imagine the level that the Ellios bovs have achieved in a million years, but do we have an idea of where they were at the time of the launch of the Visitor?”
 

“
In fact,” explained Ekklamisa, “we reassessed the duration of the trip to, not one, but two million years. That said, with such orders of magnitude, it doesn't really matter.”
 

“
Indeed!” approved Ukkosal. “Already, anything more than ten thousand years only means a long time for me. It’s really hard to see a difference between one hundred thousand and a million years... So?”
 

“
So, what we can say, is that two million years ago, their technology, that of the Visitor in any case, had a few decades of delay with our current level. Engineers  studying the computing hardware of the craft came to that conclusion.”
 

Three 'Oh yes!...?'s revealed their surprise.

“
Amazing!” said Akkaliza. “I would give anything to know the social, ethical and philosophical level they had.”
 

“
That! "replied Ikkarix," we have no way of knowing.”
 

He looked at Ekklamisa to add:

“
Except, they were perhaps still a bit sexist, my boss pointed that out to us, noting that on the plaque the male raises mysteriously a hand while the female is quite passive. But this is just a guess. You will be able to study these drawings at leisure also...”
 

Two Space Agency’s employees exchanged conspiratorial glances at the end of which Ikkarix stooped to pick up a small bag that he had put against a leg of his chair. He took out three golden metal plaques that he placed on the table.

“
We have something for everyone,” he said. “These are perfect reproductions of the one that’s still on the Visitor currently in the cargo bay of the shuttle in orbit.”
 

Three ‘Oh yes!'s warmly showed their enthusiasm.

After repeating their thanks in different ways, each examined their one, made comments and asked questions.

“
I wonder how your guys managed to understand these mysterious symbols,” said Ukkosal.
 

“
It would be hard to explain,” said Ekklamisa. “Ikkarix and I would probably never could.”
 

“
They’re naked,” noted Akkaliza. “Do you think that they lived with no clothes?”
 

“
We have no idea.”
 

“
The female has no sexual organ,” observed Okkala. “And she’s the only one to have long hair on her head.”
 

“
Yes. And the male has no hair on his face,” said Akkaliza by rubbing her crest with a puzzled look. “It might be a race made like that.”
 

“
We came to that conclusion too,” said Ekklamisa.
 

“
I would love to know if them too, they shared their world with other creatures,” said Akkaliza pensively.
 

“
That seems most likely,” said Okkala. “I don't think that life can spontaneously generate a single species wherever that may be.”
 

“
In that case, I hope they have treated the creatures living around them on their world with more umanity than us.”
 

“
You mean with more bovity,” corrected Okkala laughing. “Alas! I guess that in that respect, they couldn’t have been worse than us.”
 

The next night, Etos led to Mahisa into the clearing. He hugged her with strength, but very tenderly against him and looked up to the heavens; he looked up with respect to flickering gods of the forest. He thought that they must have seen them, he and Mahisa, stand up to the lightning-slayers and that they must certainly have helped them a little to reward them for such courage.

 

On March the 3rd, 1972, NASA launched the probe "Pioneer 10" with an Atlas-Centaur D rocket. (It was followed by its twin "Pioneer 11" launched on April 5th, 1973.) These two spacecraft were dedicated to discovering what was going on beyond Mars because it had never been done before.

So, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to go beyond the orbit of Mars in 1972 and then to pass near Jupiter in 1973. It took ten more years to reach Neptune, since it crossed its orbit in 1983. It continued its fantastic journey in the direction of Aldebaran, a star much bigger than the Sun located at 65.23 light-years from Earth. Pioneer 10’s relative speed referenced to the Sun was then of 12.224 km per second, or 44 006 km per hour, or one million kilometers per day. The distance to cover between the stars is such that even at this speed, a duration of 2 million years is required.

Attached to Pioneer 10 was a metal plaque, of gold anodized aluminum, on which information was etched for the use of potential alien beings. Behind a couple of naked humans, the probe itself was represented to provide a reference scale.

A drawing and symbols gave information about the origin of the spacecraft.