Univited Guests: Part Two

I wanted to speak and tell him about how scared we…rather I was at the time, how I wasn’t sure how much we could trust someone who let other people die, but before I could form some words, he began again.

“There's so much to tell you all, but I want you to know that there are others.  You are not alone."  At the mention of others, all eyes were fastened on the speaker.  "World-wide, there are a few thousand.  Fortunately, your gene pool is diverse.  That will benefit the repopulation problem.  Now that I know about this colored material, I'll share that with the others.  If they'll let me.  You are relatively safe now.  The transports have departed for home.  Only a few scouts are left and will soon join the fleet.  A word of caution.  If you need to travel, as much as possible, do so at night.  The scouts do not fly at night and rest in orbit around the planet.  If you must travel during the day, keep yourselves as small and inconspicuous as possible.  I see some motorcycles.  That'd be considered small, not completely invisible, but less so than your vans.”

Doctor Manning, who'd been quiet all this time, spoke next.  “Sorry to change the subject, but what have you been doing all this time?  How'd you live among us and no one caught on?”

“Well, we didn’t live in caves,” LX replied, causing a brief bit of laughter among the group.  “Actually, you might be surprised.  One of my last jobs was working at NASA.  I'd like to think that I was quite helpful getting the first North Americans on the moon.”

“Wow!”  Tammy reacted with awe.

“But the Russians beat us into space,” Bruce injected.

“True,” LX continued, “but that was because of my friend here.”  LX nodded to the nearest N’davalite companion, who suddenly began to sport a silly grin.  “Perhaps I understood the conditions better than my compatriot, but I was a little afraid for the West, if the Soviets gained complete supremacy in space.  There was a certain jealousy between the two great countries, but during the years of communism, they were much more dangerous.  You have no idea how close you were to a nuclear winter and annihilation.”

“What do you know about that?” I asked.

“Having our own people in the various countries, speaking the language with perfection.  Having impeccable credentials and intelligence, we've been able to infiltrate your planet’s governments completely and in so doing, knew what was afoot, to quote Sherlock Holmes.   Then things changed.  The Berlin wall fell.  Peace seemed to be within easy reach.  Even China became more open.  Now there is a country that the world leaders needed to watch.  As a nuclear power with an unlimited supply of cannon fodder, a war with that nation would have ended things immediately.” 

LX paused for a few seconds and looked at his friends.  I took the opportunity to return to our original subject.  “Earlier, you spoke of scout ships and then only during the day, but the first night of the invasion, there were several ships in the air after dark.  So how come they aren’t flying them now?”

“Scouts are not piloting attack ships.  Those who fly attack ships are on duty twenty-four/seven, as you would say.  The attack ships are long gone, parked in the hangar bays of the mother ships.  The scouts will land and search you out, but only if they see you.  There are only a few, but you never know.   Anyway, you have nothing to fear during the night, you'll be safe.”

“I was wondering whether I should mention this or not before you spoke, but I've noticed that other than today, no attack has been perpetrated on your enemies, here at least.  This has either been a wise decision on your part or just plain good luck.  In any case, if a ship lands and a scout disappears, this will cause alarm and others will come searching for him.  They'll not stop until they find you and they will also relay the situation to the ships that have already left.  They are not interested in food.  They just don’t want any survivors, witnesses in other words.  So, do not take any action that'll draw attention to yourselves.  If you find that you have to kill them, then you'll need to destroy their ship somehow, to make it look like an accident.  There'll always be two people on board, so don’t be lured into an ambush by a lone pilot.”

“Understood,” I said.  “Thank you.”

“The maneuver that you saw us perform before we landed is our signature to you.  Any ship that lands in this manner will be friendly.  Otherwise, beware.  We will let you know when all danger is past and from what we have seen, it will be very soon, maybe just days.” 

“There are about six of us who can stay without detection.  Some of my other friends will have to go back, otherwise questions will be raised.  One other thing, we will help you, but you'll have to move from this place soon.  Our intention is to provide you with technology to protect yourself and to seek out others of your species who've been the victims of my people.  And believe me, there are plenty.”

Alone, LX and I spent the rest of the night together, while he explained to me where he had come from, and why he was so willing to be of assistance to a few humans.  LX was not flesh and blood.  He was a cybernetic creation, not human, although he did have several human qualities. He made me swear to keep this information secret, which I did.  He was an unlimited resource of information, having the accumulated knowledge of his race stored in billions of memory banks so small that they made the human mind seem gigantic in proportion sort of like the difference between a large capacity USB drive and an IBM computer of the 50's.  One point that was of extreme importance to us all, he was quite unlike those fictional captains of starships who lived by some contrived notion that they could not share technology with those lower down on the evolutionary time line.  For this, I was even more appreciative.

As day dawned, LX and his companions took their leave, needing to be somewhere other than here with us where they could tip off the scouts to our presence.  But LX promised to return as soon as it was safe.