The Good Reaper (25 page)

On the way to
Chara’s
room I realized I didn’t know her very well either. We had spent some time
together and never actually had a personal conversation. It reminded me that no
matter what planet you are from or what race you are, life
is
very fragile and it can change or end in an instant. I thought about all the
things I liked about Chara. I decided I would get to know her better. When I
got to her room, her eyes were open and although she looked groggy, she was
awake and looking at me. I made a few quick decisions as she tried to smile at
me. First I decided I wouldn’t tell her about Atik yet and secondly I decided
there wasn’t much point in asking her how she was doing. I knew how she was
doing. She was feeling a numb sense of dull pain in her neck and chest, masked
by the pain killers.

I was able to tell Chara what
Assistant Director Abbott had said about the religious fanatics. Chara just
listened quietly for a while before echoing my own thoughts. “Do you think this
whole thing was a mistake?”

“I don’t know Chara. I think that
even if we had waited two hundred years, it would have been the same. It will
be a difficult transition for the humans. But I didn’t expect this. I’m so
sorry this happened to you.”

“The doctor did say you will make
a full recovery,” I said.

Although Chara was sedated, she
knew I was hiding something. “What aren’t you telling me?” Her words were slow
and slurred.

I was actually thinking of Atik
but I figured I could tell her about her blood instead. “The doctors were
perplexed about your blood type,” I said. “You actually had an allergic
reaction to the universal type blood they gave you. The doctors were worried
for a while that the blood transfusion was going to kill you. They asked me if
I knew anything about your health and what nationality you were. I told them
your family was from Finland and I didn’t know anything about your health.”

“So what happens now?” Chara
asked.

“We have plenty of time to make it
to the conference in the Azores. We’ll just hang out here for as long as it
takes. Do you need me to get a message to your family?”

“I suppose they will hear
something about it on the nightly events broadcasts back home so it would be
better if we sent a direct message to my family,” Chara said. “Tell them that I
was the one injured in the shooting and that I am making a full recovery and I
will be discharged from the hospital in a few days.”

I knew right away that I couldn’t
deliver that message without modifying it since Chara was not “the one” injured
in the shooting. She was one of two and there may be some confusion so I
decided to tell her about Atik. “Chara I will need to modify the message
slightly.”

“Why, what do you mean Naos?”

“There was another shooting. I
have to be careful what we say so the two incidents don’t get mixed up. It’s
Atik,” I said. “He has been murdered. They found his body near the airport
terminal.”

Officer Flynn had become something
of a friend. He stopped by the hospital every day after his shift. When Chara
was released on the fifth day, Officer Flynn took us to the airport. When we
said goodbye I felt guilty about not telling Officer Flynn the truth. But I
knew Assistant Director Abbott was right to make up the story about us being in
the Witness Protection Program.

We still had at least a week
before the conference but we decided we would bypass all the extra traveling
and go straight to
São Miguel in the Azores. We figured we could do some
sightseeing and get to know the town of Ponta Delgada. Planet Earth was full of
surprises and Ponta Delgada and the entire island of São Miguel were yet
another amazing surprise. Ponta Delgada was quaint and bustling, historic and
modern and always beautiful. The view from the V
ista
al
Océano
hotel overlooked the great blue Atlantic.
The foreground consisted of rolling hills with white stucco buildings and red
tile roofs that swept down to the shoreline.
São Miguel was paradise.

Guests from all over the world started arriving the
following week and we were able to move from the
Océano
to the
conference center and resort.
Gomeisa and our Russian team also checked
in on a busy Monday. There was a line of people stretching out the door,
waiting to check in. Chara and I waited with Gomeisa as the check-in line
slowly moved forward. It felt odd being in a large group of Ranjisi. We did get
plenty of odd stares from the local people but I figured by now, they already
knew who and what we were. The people of the Azores were the first to know the
truth and they seemed to be taking it in stride. I figured the fact that we
looked human and we seemed well mannered and peaceful helped the locals to
accept us.

While Gomeisa was checking in I gave the desk clerk the list
of names for the Russian team and he told me they were already checked in and
gave me their room numbers. I was thinking that since Atik was gone I would
take charge. I began by calling the Russian team to ask them to meet us for
lunch. This began a series of meetings and discussions where we figured out
exactly how we were going to make our presentation to the world leaders. We
decided that instead of slowly explaining why we were all there, we would start
out shocking them.

About two thirds of the international guests were there when
we made our first presentation. The resort had an indoor sports stadium that
was generally used for soccer. Even with only two thirds of the guests, the
stadium was full the first time I walked out onto the stage. My Ranjisi legs
felt weaker than usual but at least there were seven of us. We had decided that
it would be better if we introduced ourselves rather than having a human
dignitary
introduce
us. It was more impressive and
more shocking.

The stadium had an enormous high definition screen that
stretched almost half way around the stadium so some of the guests did need to
turn sideways to see the screen. But it was still a total overwhelming shock
when the first videos appeared on the screen. It began with a video of the
inside of a Tellus underground mall. The video was taken during the Tellus
“sleep time,” so there were only a few figures walking in the darkened
distance. The Telli live underground but over time they built thousands of
skylights to give the people a sense of day and night. The lighting of the
terminal and mall gradually changes from bright white to soft, dim blue as
night falls. This helps the Telli to keep a healthy sleep routine. Although the
terminal and mall looked very modern, it didn’t appear too unusual to the
guests.

The seating of the stadium included touch-screen tablets on
the back of each seat so guests could submit questions. As the video of the
mall moved along, a handful of submitted questions began appearing at the
bottom of the screen:

“Is that mall in South America?”

“Is this why we’ve been asked to come here? Are you
looking for investors for a mall in a developing country?”

“Is that Thailand or Hong Kong?”

The time had come for one of us to speak. I looked around at
the other six of us, waiting for someone to step up to the microphone. My legs
felt so weak I thought I would collapse but somehow I made it up to the podium.
“Greetings everyone.
Thank you all for travelling all
this way. I will introduce our group shortly. First I want to switch to the
next video. Before I do, I want to say that this mall is not in South America
or Asia. It is one of hundreds or perhaps thousands of underground streets,
malls and terminals of the planet Tellus. Tellus is about 21,000 light years from
Earth.”

I let that sink in for a moment. Like “the wave” at an
American baseball game, a soft rumble of laughter began to slowly swell across
the crowd. After a few minutes the laughter reached a low, dull peak and began
to subside. When it became quiet, I switched to the next video. This was my
“knock-out” punch. It consisted of close-ups of the Telli going about their
daily routines. It was difficult at first to tell that they were legally blind.
They see shapes and shades of color but they use their other senses to
function. They don’t use walking sticks or guide animals. They move slowly,
guided by their highly sensitive hearing which is believed to be stronger than
Earthly dogs. As the camera zoomed in on their boney horn-like ears, the audio
gradually faded in. Soft vowel sounds are woven into the melodic language of
the Telli which I considered pleasant enough for human opera. The Telli are
very much in tuned to audio and sound and their speech is a reflection of that.
They don’t actually sing when they speak but they always speak in musical
tones. They will generally speak in one note or tone for four or five words and
then raise or lower the note for the next four or five words. The tones are not
vital to the meaning of their words but the rise and fall of the tones are how
they express emotions in their speech. When you hear a group of Telli talking
for the first time, there can be no doubt. They are an ancient race and they
are not human.

When the video stopped, the crowd was so quiet you could hear
a pin drop. I could hear a few people off in the distance, clearing their
throats. The next video showed the surface of Tellus. “As you can see, the
surface of Tellus is a vast barren desert. The atmosphere is thin and the
surface is so hot, most animal life including humanoids would die in a few
hours if they were caught outside in the middle of the day.”

“The clever Telli have made good use of the harsh surface of
their planet by building factories and terminals on the surface,” I said as the
video panned over some of the factories. They never have to go outside. They
take shuttles, monorails and modern multi-passenger elevators to the surface.”

The crowd seemed to be interested and focused. One of the
questions submitted by the crowd caught my eye: “We’ve known about alien
visitors for years. So why is this so important to us now? Why are we here?”

I read the question to the crowd. I had their attention and
I thought it was the perfect time to begin the real discussion. “Now I would
like to introduce myself and my colleagues. I am Naos Oriel-
Achernar
.
I am 54 years old. I look pretty good for 54, don’t I?” I was trying to lighten
things up and get a laugh before continuing. It didn’t work and I briefly felt
like a comedian who was “bombing out.”

“That is because I am from the planet Ranjisan. The
gravitational pull on Ranjisan is much lower than here on Earth. On Ranjisan,
we don’t need face lifts or neck pulls. Gravity is kind to us.” Reading the
crowd, I got a sense of mixed emotions and thoughts and a few laughs. I was
merely looking at body language and facial expressions. Some of them seemed
skeptical and others seemed intensely interested.

I proceeded to introduce the rest of the Ranjisi group.
“Gomeisa Oriel-
Angetenar
is a well-known cell disease
specialist on Ranjisan. His Earth name is Gary. Gomeisa stood up for a second
and waved to the crowd. Chara Arial-
Ophiuchus
is a
disease specialist. She is famous on Ranjisan for helping to eliminate several
infectious diseases.
Turais
Oriel-
Torcularis
is our government representative from the Council of Provinces (CP) in the
capital
Maasym
.”
Turais
stood up and took a shy human-like bow.

“
Enif
Arial-
Zavijah
is also from the Council of Provinces (CP) in the capital
Maasym
.
I guess you would call
Turais
and
Enif
over-paid politicians,” I got another laugh from the crowd. “
Azha
Oriel-Canopus is a famous cell disease specialist and
Mesarthim Oriel-
Matar
is a renowned infectious
disease specialist.”

“What is your specialty?” or “What do you do?” read the next
dozen lines on the scroll on the bottom of the big screen.

I thought quickly and decided to go for another laugh. I
wasn’t sure how the jokes affected the audience but they did help me relax a
little. “I’m what you would call here, an ex-con.” I got a few laughs but
mostly the crowd grew quiet.

“I came here a few years ago to observe human behavior and I
broke Ranjisi law by helping to cure a cancer patient here. I was arrested and
sentenced to three years in prison back home. But the details of the case prompted
our government to renew discussions about making our presence here on Earth
public. When they decided to proceed with Phase III of our program, they
released me.”

Several variations of “How is the cancer patient doing now?”
scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

“She has been permanently cured. She is fine. Much of what
we wish to share with you
are
our medical
advancements. In fact, we have brought with us, a cure for one of Earth’s most
deadly and contagious diseases. There is no need to worry about biological
contamination since this and many of our disease treatments are not biological.
They are what you might call,
nanorobobiotic
. That’s
kind of a simplistic explanation.
In due time, the smart
people like Gomeisa and
Azha
can explain it much better
than me.
But first I want to continue with our overview of
extraterrestrial life forms. What I can tell you here today may seem
overwhelming but it is just the tip of the iceberg. We only know of four alien
races, plus humans and Ranjisi. There are currently four races in our alliance.
As soon as the human race is with us, there will be five. That is our purpose.
That is why we are here.” I let that sink in for several long moments.

“Are the Grey aliens with the big eyes part of your
alliance?” several similar questions scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

“Why do you look like humans?” scrolled across the bottom of
the screen.

“I’ll get to the Grey aliens with the big eyes and more
about our own biology. But first I want to tell you about the other two races
that are part of the alliance. Earth is located between what your scientists
refer to as the Orion and Cygnus arms of the Milky Way. Ranjisan is relatively
close, located near the edge of the Sagittarius Arm. The planet Tellis is
closer to the center, within the Norma arm. Our other friends and allies are
located closer to the outer edge of the Milky Way in the Cygnus arm. Finding
the twin planets of Ophiucha was an extraordinary discovery. Ophiucha and
Aegialeus exist within the same solar system.”

Remembering how I had explained the unique and wonderful
relationship between the Ophiucha and the Aegialeus to LeAnne, I rambled on
about how kind and peaceful the superior Aegialeus were. I found I could talk
about the Aegialeus for hours but the questions scrolling along the bottom of
the monitor all seemed to point to curiosity about the Greys. I knew it was a
justified curiosity. The Greys were there on Earth, they were very creepy and
no one knew what their real intentions were.

“I can’t tell you a great deal about the Greys. They are
from very far away. We think they are from what you call here, the Andromeda
Galaxy which means they travel over 2,500,000 light years to get to Earth. So,
we know that they are technologically much more advanced than we are. It makes
you wonder, how long does it take to travel that far? We can only imagine what
kind of world they live on that has made them so odd and non-humanoid. They did
come to Ranjisan many years ago but they were only seen for a few years. For
some reason, whatever it is they are looking for, they did not find it on
Ranjisan.”

“What is it that they are looking for?” scrolled across the
bottom of the screen. It seemed many of the attendees were more interested in
the Greys than on the purpose for the conference.  But I guess I couldn’t
blame them. The Greys are
an alien race that have
apparently violated the human race in many ways.

“I’ve read much of what your UFO researchers have written
about the Greys. I think we are in agreement as far as their purpose for being
here. We think they are a very ancient race, perhaps existing for billions of
Earth years. We think they may have either evolved naturally or by some tragedy
of their environment which has resulted in an inability to reproduce. That is
why we continually hear about humans being abducted and being subjected to
examinations and experiments centered
around
human
sexuality.”

“Are their intentions regarding the human race hostile?”
scrolled across the screen.