Beyond the Sky: Chapter 16
Instinct and Armageddon
“But—” Takji sputtered, trying to wrap her head around the alien’s words. “That’s impossible! One species for an entire world?” It simply did not, could not, make sense! “What about him?” She pointed to the three-sided alien, Ollie.
“My species originates on a different planet than humanity,” he replied. “Our first contact with them took place a century ago.”
“Then who filled your skies, your seas?”
Arthur Benson repeated the shoulder motion. “Animals. And then us, with machines and technology. Before we found you,” he gestured to the window, “we thought there could never be more than one species per planet, that if by chance multiple happened to develop at the same time one would outcompete the others and drive them to extinction. We don’t know everything; we still have a lot to learn.”
Takji said, “And that’s why you’re here, to figure out why our world’s like that?”
Benson raised a finger. “You’re starting to catch on. Though we evolved alone, we’ve met many others since we expanded into space. Perhaps there’s something you could teach us about building a proper, harmonious multispecies society.”
Takji looked down at the clean black floor, then glanced at the window. “You haven’t really come to the right place.”
“Agreed,” the Cepic girl, Velli, added. They gave each other suspicious looks.
“Well, I can hope it gets better.”
Takji cast a nervous glance at Velli before turning back to the window. A world of one species had been an occasional philosophical experiment in her tutoring, same as alien visitors—Sir Prespik always had his head in the clouds. Until now, she’d refused to accept the truth, convinced herself this was all a very, very, very strange dream, but now... Only an alien could say that, it was just too different. “So this is really a spaceship? How is there gravity?”
Benson explained, “The same repulsor effect we use in our deflectors and vehicles, tuned to impart a force inside the crew cabins.”
She didn’t get it, but a look of realization came over Velli’s face. What had she seen?
“So the Black Triangle, that was you? Spying?”
He shook his head. “Surveying, and testing your awareness, to see how you’d respond. You’ll notice we’ve not once attacked you.”
Velli shouted, “What about those Burrowers you took?”
Takji squinted. Yes, she’d heard something like that from the Governor. A Slee den dropping from contact, then handfuls of workers popping up disoriented in the desert. Most still missing; she’d suspected slavers grown greedy.
“That wasn’t us,” Benson replied. “We were trying to find what happened to them, same as you.” He went back to the display-glass and spread out its pictures. “We are concerned, in short, about the direction of your society, and fear you may soon destroy your civilization.”
“This is not news to us,” replied Takji.
“Yet your nations still posture with vast numbers of these weapons, making only token gestures of peace.”
Velli replied, “They say that between them, Mespreth and the Amalgamation have enough warheads to destroy the world a hundred times over.”
“We need those to defend ourselves!” Takji said. “That’s all that stands between us and another Long War!”
“That being the conflict which depopulated this area, here?” Benson tapped the display-glass, called up a map on which a thick land-bridge below the Middle Sea flashed yellow.
“The Forsaken Lands. Do you have any idea what that war involved?”
“I think we’ve pieced together enough. Duration, fifty years, one to two hundred million deaths, weapons evolving from steamships and breech-loading rifles to jet bombers, observation satellites, and, finally, nuclear weapons. Their use ended it.”
“Then you know the next would be even worse.”
“And if your strategic deterrence breaks down? How many atom bombs do you have? Ten thousand, twenty thousand? When the ash settles, you will wish it had only been that bad.”
“We won’t fire first.” Takji let the words slip out. Officially, her father was ambiguous about that, to keep the Malgies in line, but everyone knew a first strike was suicide.
“But are your warning systems reliable? Will they report a launch in error? Might a missile commander go rogue?”
She bristled at the insult to the King’s Own, then recalled with trepidation the two false alarms this year alone. One, hobbyists with model rockets. The second, unexplained.
“So, you want us to dismantle our missiles?”
“Or at least greatly reduce them. You can achieve minimal deterrence with only a few hundred on each side.”
“Why? You come here from space filled with such concern for our future?”
Arthur Benson spread his hands. “I like to think we’re altruistic. Each species we discover, every civilization, has its own unique insights and ways of viewing the world. We don’t want to lose yours, and would save you, if we can.”
“From ourselves.”
Another yes-head-bob. “A common problem on many planets. A species’ instincts, inherited from its evolution, almost invariably conflict with proper management of a technological civilization. We are here to make contact, in the hopes of helping you through that.”
Takji’s head spun. “Contact? As in...”
“Public revelation of our presence. I brought you here to help with it. I’d like you to be our guides, in a word.”
Made sense enough, Takji thought. Mespreth did similar in its interactions with barbarian cultures. Though it rarely went well for them, she realized with growing dread.
“I’ll do it,” Velli replied. “On one—two conditions: Free my family, and drive the Slavers—” she pointed to Takji “—from our homeland.”
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