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  “Ah, slag!” interrupted Jat, “Here come the quiz kids!”

  A pair of staffers, with serious and decidedly un-kidlike demeanors, had arrived at the group ready to ask questions. They were in a hurry, which kept the survey short and to the point. They did not seem to enjoy the answers they received.

  The more senior of the two, portly and barely fitting in his formal clothes, looked earnestly at Karden. “And that is really what you think? That this is all some sort of trick or trap so they can conquer us?”

  Karden looked back, his air of wry calm in place once more. “I don’t think they need a trick to conquer us outright. My guess is they think they have, probably do have, the power to do that quite handily. But they aren’t doing so. They are trying to convince us of something. Therefore, what they want involves our acquiescence. I think what they want is likely to be uncomfortable for us, or at best irrevocable. However they wish, or need, the pill to go down easily.”

  The staffer’s face turned a resigned, sour expression. He nodded to his younger female colleague, and they walked over to the next group.

  Tayyis smiled a knowing smile. “Why, it’s almost as if the staffers already know the answers they want from us!”

  “Which means,” said Karden, “the president and the rest have already made up their minds, and now they are just looking for confirmation and support. Lovely, and to think for a moment I tentatively thought, or at least hoped, they’d have their eyes open.”

  Jat laughed loudly, a sound Karden found something like an out-of-breath runner making an announcement through a malfunctioning microphone.

  5

  The next hour was uneventful, if an ongoing steady buzz of intense conversation can be called such. Karden, Tayyis, Jat, Neem, and Harker stuck together, discussing their thoughts on the day’s events. When the conversation began to run in circles, they grabbed a bit to eat. Only Karden and Tayyis, veteran conference-goers, had thought to snack throughout, and the others were famished.

  Shortly after they’d finished, the sound system came on again. This time, it was not the President, but the Chief of Staff.

  “If I could have your attention everyone. Thank you. I’m pleased to announce that the President and his senior advisors, in consultation with prominent world leaders, have just concluded successful discussion with representatives of the Elders. We’ve arranged for their delegation to land at Capital airport in approximately three hours. The President has graciously invited all those on the consultation, diplomatic, official, and military lists to join us as part of a grand welcome delegation. Let’s give our visitors, the Elders a welcome worthy of our nation’s, and indeed our world’s, leading lights…”

  The others looked at Karden, as if expecting a comment at that. He did not disappoint.

  “The consultation, diplomatic, official, and military lists comprise more or less everyone who is here except the hotel staff. He might as well have said ‘you lot’ and it would have conveyed the same meaning in less time.”

  The Chief of Staff, however, was continuing.

  “…the President also wishes to convey his apologies to those attendees who had flight plans out of the Capital in the near future. As you may know, ordinary traffic was temporarily grounded for safety reasons when it was ascertained the Elders were approaching the Capital. With the upcoming diplomatic meeting, traffic is now being rerouted to nearby cities until further notice. In the meantime, your stay here will be fully government funded. The President again encourages those who have been invited to attend today’s welcoming ceremony. Detailed itineraries and information on the meeting will be provided shortly.”

  “Well then, since no pressure is being put on us, I suppose we should go,” said Karden.

  Jat grinned. “Right! So now is when we go to get eaten. You guys ready?”

  What followed was a whirlwind of activity, as attendees did whatever they felt they needed to do to refresh and get ready for an afternoon outdoors. It was thankfully a fine sunny day. Karden and the others managed to undo all the government’s best money-wasting efforts by commandeering one car for all of them. The big new-model vehicles were roomy enough, though that hadn’t stopped other attendees from going in ones and twos.

  Traffic was slow, even with the government clearing a route for officials and attendees by clogging others for the city’s inhabitants. They made some desultory speculation about what the alien delegation might look like, but after a while, even that died down as the true tension of them moment began to hit them. One thing was clear though, the aliens were wasting no time.

  “They really are doing a lot of this for effect, you know, timing this meeting while we are still in awe,” said Tayyis, “That it is actually having that effect on us, I think means that, alien though they might be, their psychology isn’t completely different from our own.”

  The others had little inclination to do more than nod, except for Neem, who hadn’t heard, as he was busy generating schematics from photos of the alien weaponry.

  The airport had been cleared of all civilian vehicles, and the normal gates blocking the non-airport personnel had been opened. Military guards verified each vehicle’s ID and those of its occupants, then waived them through to service roads and out onto the tarmac itself.

  The area cleared for the alien delegation was at the crossing of several runways, the largest open stretch of pavement in the airport, in fact. Arranged around it were hundreds of seats, including a raised platform and podium for top political leaders. Technicians were busy running power and communication cables out to lights and sound systems.

  The President and some other officials were on a podium stage guarded by police, and looked to be hurriedly working on a speech. Other officials were directing setup. Despite all the promises of peace on the part of the aliens, and one could be sure, the President, there were a large and growing number of soldiers arriving, including a few armored vehicles. Helicopters buzzed overhead.

  Far above the helicopters loomed the alien ships.

  “They look even bigger in person, and I think you can see some of the weapons from here,” said Harker, softly.

  “Jat, what do you think? I’d say based on distance and perspective, they’ve got to be, what 3.33 – 3.34 long?” said Neem, not at all softly.

  “Closer to 3.35,” replied Jat.

  “And how reassuring to know so many of those friendly, defensive, weapons are pointed down here, at us,” added Karden.

  They strode on with the crowd, herded along by military guards to the seating area. In the rush to prepare, no one had bothered to assign seating, so they were free to find an area to sit together. Various officials were roaming about, and Tayyis recognized one of them, from the diplomatic service.

  “Darstens, my friend, do you have a moment?” she said in a clear, friendly, but firm voice.

  Darstens looked her way, frowned, and then came over anyway.

  “I have only a moment Ms. Lyr, but how can I help you?”

  “Do you have any idea how the aliens are going to arrive, and if there are any special preparations or precautions we need to make?”

  “I’ve been told the Elders are arriving in a shuttle craft, and landing right there in the center circle we marked off for them.” He put special emphasis on the words “the Elders” indicating adherence to what was presumably now an official term. “As for precautions, we’re taking reasonable ones, including the substantial military presence you see arriving. Everything will be fine, I’m sure.”

  “Thank you.” She replied.

  Darstens began to walk away.

  “Fine? Tell that to the aliens. Hope you like the view from a cooking pot!” yelled Jat after him.

  Another half hour of tedious waiting followed, the remainder of the crowd filed in. Attendees, officials, soldiers, and technicians took their places. Journalists were allowed this time, and arrived in large numbers. They set up a kind of squatter camp in the parking area, then individual reporters
and camera crew moved forward to the vantage points allotted to them.

  Tayyis looked around. Everything was in fact organized much like any other large diplomatic function for visiting dignitaries. Except for who, or perhaps what, those dignitaries were this time. After a while, a faint humming noise became audible, far overhead.

  The Chief of Staff darted to the podium and announced, “Do not be alarmed. We’ve been informed that the Elders shuttle is on its way down now.”

  Almost everyone in the crowd was already looking up. What they saw at first looked far closer than they would have expected. A large, roughly rectangular craft was descending. It was clearly operating by whatever sort propulsion kept the starships aloft, though it was extending small wings.

  Neem whispered to the others “Antigravity or not, I’m sure those help it maneuver better in the atmosphere. How did it get down so far so fast?”

  After a moment’s pause, he spoke again.

  “No… it isn’t that far down. That thing is huge!”

  It was an accurate observation, thought Karden, and it did not help his mood. The descending shuttle looked more the size of a surface warship than an aircraft. It was beautiful in its design, as the ships were. It gleamed in the sun in a way that suggested more of the gold decorative work of the starships.

  The shuttle slowly descended, and four other shapes followed, now low enough to see. Smaller wedge shaped craft with large wings extended, they circled around it in a protective formation.

  “Fighters!” blurted Neem in excitement. “I bet they’re designed for both space and atmospheric flight!”

  As it circled lower, details of the shuttle became visible. It was large enough to conceivably hold hundreds. It was indeed decorated like the starships, though more extravagantly. There was something else…

  “There is writing on the side of that ship!” said Tayyis. “No, I can’t tell what it says any better than the rest of you at the moment, but I’m sure that is some form of writing!”

  The alien script was angular, strong looking. Not knowing their language, there was no hope of deciphering it as yet, but nonetheless, Tayyis began hastily jotting notes in her pad. The huge shuttle slowed its descent, it activated something, creating a louder humming noise and a barely visible field underneath.

  Jat became alert, and as always when he got excited, his speech became choppier. “Actually the atmosphere distorting. Effects of their antigravity. Must be on full blast now for a gentle landing. Amazing.”

  With an effortless grace and near-silence astonishing in so large a thing, the shuttle extended landing gear, as graceful as the rest of it, and came to rest on the tarmac. The distortion field faded.

  Neem couldn’t contain his excitement. “Huge and heavy as that thing is, it should have buckled the tarmac. They’re probably still using a little antigravity now.”

  There was a long pause. A few voices whispered, the President made his way to the podium. For the most part, the crowd fell silent, waiting.

  A hatch opened, a large one, and became a ramp large enough to send armored vehicles through, or a dozen men side by side at once. The escort fighters circled silently overhead. Neem noticed neither they nor the shuttle had left any exhaust or vapor trails. Light came forth from the hatch. Silhouetted in that light, then illuminated in the sun, came things, very large things.

  Tayyis gasped, along with half the crowd. There were hushed whispers of fear, some people began to lower themselves, leaning down or into others instinctively, as if they might hide.

  Karden watched the huge shapes step out of the hatchway and down the ramp. There were ten of them, marching slowly in twos. So these were the aliens… they were huge, easily half again the height of a man, bipedal, and massively built. They wore black space suits or uniforms with bright gilt work, and carried enormous objects, guns of some kind, with what looked like multiple barrels. There was something odd about those suits, mechanical. They looked armored. There were… faces inside.

  “Power armor!” yelled Neem, who was almost bouncing in his seat, “That is power armor! Look at how they move, their proportions compared to the faces inside. I’ll bet the aliens are big, but not as big as the suits they’re wearing. And the guns! Some kind of magnetic railguns, but look at the size and the multiple barrels…!” Others glared at him, and with some effort, he quieted.

  The alien soldiers in their power armor divided into two lines, one filing to the left of the ramp, and the other to the right. They held their gigantic guns in a way that, while not pointed at the crowd, certainly suggested what they could do if they were. If they wanted to achieve intimidation, they’ve got it, thought Karden.

  After a brief pause, new shapes emerged from the ship. A formation of what looked to be more troops, ten of them, but this time in elaborate ceremonial-looking black uniforms rather than the massive suits of armor, and carrying what he guessed were rifles. Behind them came four more, carrying large flags. All of them marched slowly, solemnly, in perfect step.

  Karden studied the flags. They were dark blue, and held a silver design of a ragged spiral, surrounded by an upturned almost-complete circle made of small branching oval shapes. Unlike the long thin streaming banners of the national flags he knew, these were square, and hung from silver bars at their tops, connected by chains to the flagpoles.

  “I think that symbol might be the galaxy,” said Karden, “but I can’t understand the design surrounding it.”

  However, Jat wasn’t paying attention to the uniforms or the flags. “Watch how they move. Measured and precise. That precision can’t hide the power in their steps. Seem used to stepping against more resistance. Higher gravity. No breathing gear. Must have atmosphere similar to ours.”

  More were emerging now, as the others filed with slow dignity into formation. First were a small group of figures in more elaborate versions of the black uniform, with gold boards on their shoulders. Next were two in blue clothes of looser and simpler design, flanking what could only be their promised ambassador, a figure in rich blue robes, seated on a floating chair. Behind him came fifteen more aliens in somewhat simpler robes of various colors and designs, and finally another ten soldiers.

  It was quite a show, a bit of propaganda through pageantry, thought Karden. That they thought and acted along such lines certainly supported Tayyis’ view that they couldn’t have minds completely alien. Then, Jat’s comments got Karden to looking more closely at the aliens themselves. Despite his efforts to be open-minded, it was hard to reconcile the beauty of their pageantry and vessels with what he saw.

  In a sense, they were closer in appearance than he might have expected. Their complexions were much like people, in the tan-brown range. No green or shiny gray aliens here, it seemed. However, even without armor, they were brutal looking. They were a good deal taller on average than people, with thick sturdy torsos, and long, frighteningly powerful arms. Their legs were relatively short and stumpy. Jat was probably right about being from somewhere with higher gravity.

  Worse though, were the tufts of bristles, like the hairs of some insects. They could be seen on the crowns of the heads of those not wearing helmets, in varying colors of black, brown, copper-orange, yellow-gold, and grey. They had more such hair in a horizontal line over each eye, and, disgustingly, two even had it around their mouths and jaws.

  The jaws themselves were disturbing. They were strong looking, built for rending and chewing who knew what, though the mouths they formed were small. Karden was dimly aware of Tayyis commenting on what this implied about their vocal abilities. What he guessed were their ears were tiny, round, and shriveled looking as if left in the sun too long. Worst of all however, were their eyes. White rimmed, deep set under their hairy brows, with only single thin eyelids, they seemed to glare at the world with the promise of violence.

  The ambassador rose from his chair. “He?” reconsidered Karden. The ambassador might be male, female, or something else. It was impossible to know. Karden settled on �
�it” for now. The ambassador reached the base of the ramp, stopped and raised its hands in a gesture that was likely meant to draw attention without seeming threatening. They were thick hands, strong-looking, with five short, stubby fingers.

  Karden looked down at his own hands and their seven slender fingers. He’d never thought of them as particularly graceful. He imagined how he might look to the aliens – a small, thin, long-legged thing with large purple and gold eyes, two layers of eyelids, and a low finlike crest on his head. He looked at Tayyis, with no crest, but instead the delicate wing-like edges on her ears that marked her as a woman.

  He realized how unprepared he’d been for seeing the aliens, real living aliens. He’d imagined them as ravenous monsters, or as people in different clothes, but there they were with forms somewhere disturbingly in between, and minds no doubt as complex and imaginative as his own. He criticized himself harshly for his reaction to their appearance, which was in fact their least relevant characteristic, and pondered in brief melancholy what it meant to be human.

  These aliens, with their brutish forms and their beautiful ships, their benevolent words and their display of weapons… they wanted something, but what?

  6

  The alien ambassador was distinctive looking. His dark blue robes were heavily decorated with patterns of silver, and on one of his fingers was a ring with a large silver disc bearing the designs of their flag. The bristles on his head were white, and if the lines on his face meant anything, he was older than the others. As he opened his mouth to form words, the voice was that in the earlier message. Karden could not help but notice, even at a distance, the large square white teeth.

  “People of this world, honored President Vhel, and the leaders assembled here, we greet you with open arms, a gesture that among us means friendship and welcome…”

  “Open except for the ones holding those weapons!” snorted Jat to the usual nearby demands for silence.

  “I am Ambassador Margaux of the Galactic Protectorate, duly appointed by the Galactic Central Presidium with full diplomatic authority. I am here to begin a great conversation, a journey of discovery for us both, and to open a path before you.”