Ch.4-Truths
CHAPTER 4
TRUTHS
Nearly three weeks had passed since Thomas had been brought before the apparent leaders of this alien world called Talos. And much to the annoyance of several of the senators and generals the human remained adamant in his refusal to say anything more about his world and the human race. Yet while still confined to the single room of this facility Thomas's situation had made a slight improvement.
The professor that he had met on that day, Anton Varis, had slowly become the closest thing to a friend he had so far on this world. Every day the human and lion spent hours talking together about Talos and to a certain degree humans. The lion did not try to pressure him with the same questions of his world or why he was here like the senators were doing. Instead while Anton told Thomas of Talos's history and people the human returned the favor by answering a few questions about humanity. They were mainly questions about the human body or Earth's natural geography.
Today Anton was giving a small course in the written language of Talos. From what Thomas had learned the written alphabet of this world was a set of symbols, similar to some of the many syllabary systems used on Earth.
Leaning back some in his seat the human rubbed at his eyes some while the professor finished writing out another word on a large sheet of blank paper. "Hey Anton, there's something I've been meaning to ask you about for a couple days now."
"And that would be?"
"Well after you guys brought me here what did you end up doing with my ship?" And as soon as the last syllable was spoken the lion's eyes had looked up from the sheet of paper, setting down the pencil in his hand. "Well actually Thomas your ship hasn't been moved an inch from where it landed."
Leaning forward on the table, the human gave the lion a very curious stare. "Why not?"
"Well the main problem is figuring out how to properly move it to a more secure location. The other problem is that no one has even been allowed to go into the ship for fear of any...well I guess I'll just say booby traps you might have left inside." An almost comical smile came over the professor's face.
Leaning back in his seat again Thomas let out perhaps the most genuine laugh he'd had since he arrived. "I'm sorry Anton. I just didn't expect after this long you guys hadn't tried yet. Especially with how those senators keep trying to pressure me for more answers."
"Well I keep telling them that when your ready to talk you'll talk." It was Anton's turn to let out a small laugh of his own. "And naturally even General Grandell thinks that you'll want to strike some sort of deal before you share anything more with us." Anton felt the first little chuckles of another laugh approaching. Which were then vaporized as he saw Thomas just sitting there, staring at him as hard as the first time they met three weeks back.
Crossing his arms Thomas took a deep breath, "I think you had better give the general a call. You can tell him you were right in waiting till I was ready. And you can tell him he was right in believing I want to strike a deal with him and the senators. I want to meet at the ship and of course I will not object to having armed guards with us. Once we're all there then they'll get their answers."
Having said what he wanted Thomas simply remained in his seat, his eyes simply staring down at the table surface and the sheet of paper atop it. Anton in turn stared at him for several seconds, feeling as if a horrible weight were suddenly on his shoulders as he then left the room.
When Professor Varis had called him the general was ready to head out the door and to home. His wife had planned to cook them his favorite dinner. She only ever did that when they had something to celebrate or when she was worried for him. He knew he would only deepen her fears when he called to tell her he wouldn't be home tonight. Hearing her voice in such a tone only made the several other calls he needed to make that much more difficult.
Grandell considered most politicians to be minor annoying headaches on the best of days. Tonight the majority of them had risen to the level of a migraine. The news that the alien was going to finally speak but only on it's terms seemed to transform these senators into growling children over the phone. Naturally the added news that the general had already given orders to his men to escort Thomas to the crash site did nothing to improve their dispositions.
Senator Farah was especially angered by this news. He had been pressuring Grandell for weeks now to simply drug the creature to get the answers. And now to be told their meeting to make deals with it simply ended with the old bulldog having to hold his phone an arm's length away from his head while Farah's raised voice yelled out from the receiver. As soon as he had the chance he told the senator to meet them at the crash site and immediately hung up.
It was past nightfall when the last of the senators arrived. Grandell and Anton had arrived first with Thomas. By this point the surrounding area of the ship was completely fenced in with constant security patrols to keep any and all civilians at bay. Stadium lights had been erected turning night into veritable day in the late hours.
As the old bulldog had suspected Senator Farah was the last to arrive, no doubt purposely taking so long to arrive. After slamming his limousine's door shut the young senator marched directly up to Grandell, glaring into his eyes. "Where the hell is the alien?"
The old bulldog didn't even blink. Without even bothering with a verbal response he nodded his head to the parked military jeep close by. Leaning against it was Thomas with Anton standing to his right. As Farah's eyes focused on the alien, Thomas met his look with the same stern look in his eyes that Grandell gave to the senator.
Before further tension could arise, one of the other gathered senators cleared his throat to break the silence. "Well now that Senator Farah has arrived perhaps we can get down to business."
The general nodded, motioning for Thomas to come over. With the professor a step behind him the human walked up beside Grandell. As he looked over the small gathering, he took a moment to glance up at the remains of his ship. Taking a deep breath he turned his eyes back to his audience.
"As I explained to Professor Varis and the General here I've decided it's time I give you the whole story. And yes there is a favor I would like to ask in return. But in the interest of fairness I've decided to make this request only after I've held up my end of this potential bargain."
Anton couldn't stop himself from staring wide eyed at Thomas after he heard this. For a moment he wondered if the human had lost his mind. If he revealed this information before even making his terms there was no guarantee whatsoever the senators would even consider whatever request he made afterward.
A slight smile seemed to form on Farah's face as he heard this unexpected declaration. This creature was almost making it too easy for him now.
Thomas had waited a moment before continuing, scanning his eyes over the senators and judging what he could of their individual reactions. When he saw they were all waiting for him to begin he crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes now looking straight up into the night time sky.
"I suppose the best place to start is by explaining how we advanced to this level of technology and space exploration. It all started about ninety years ago or so. Back then our society and way of life was practically the exact same as yours is now. Our brightest minds were only just starting to find actual methods for us to reach the next planet in our solar system, and we sure as hell didn't have any clue as to whether or not we really were alone amongst the stars. But that question was pretty much answered the morning of July 23rd, 2018."
"Our satellites had detected it's approach as it neared our moon. It was moving faster than any meteor could. And naturally when it began to slow down and change direction upon entering our atmosphere one of the biggest questions in human history was answered. Aliens existed and they were about to land on Earth. It was as if any and all conflicts, discussions and activities had been put on pause while every soul on Earth tried to watch or follow this moment in history."
"The ship was indeed like nothing humanity had ever seen before. The people who saw it described it as an oval shaped disc but with these blade like wings extending out from the top and bottom of the ship. Naturally every one wondered just where it would decide to touch down. In less than thirty minutes after entering the atmosphere it began to slow down again as it neared the skies above the city of Toronto, a massive city in the nation of Canada. The entire world was focused on Toronto on that day as the ship touched down roughly within the city's center."
"As naive as this will sound, when the ship did touch down there still wasn't a trace of a military force. Maybe it was because humanity had wanted to experience this moment for so long, we naturally assumed it would work out peacefully. The only authorities at the landing sight were a few police officers amongst the hundreds of people. Every one of them waiting to see whatever aliens could be inside first hand."
"When the ship opened up they emerged quickly from their ship. There were three of them. Obviously nobody knew what to expect as to the appearance of these aliens but we were still shocked when we saw finally did see them. Later on we found out the name of their race is Xarian. The Xarians looked strikingly like the mythological beasts called dragons. They stand on two legs like humans and your people, but each of them are easily seven to eight feet in height and unlike the old myths they didn't have anything like wings on their backs."
"When they first emerged from the ship naturally a lot of people were scared to approach them. A very tall and very dangerous looking reptilian alien could intimidate anyone I suppose. But then some brave and probably hopeful cop started to approach them. I guess he wanted to try and start building the great bridge that would finally take humans beyond the stars. But before he could even extend his hand to them the three Xarians blew him into a bloody mess on the street."
"What followed was nothing short of a massacre. Many innocent people lost their lives that day to those monsters before a combined strike from air and ground forces finally brought them down. But even then we all knew this wasn't anywhere close to an end. Those three aliens had come from some planet of their own and nobody fooled themselves into thinking more wouldn't come and do the exact same thing those three had."
"And so through that tragedy and the looming threat of the Xarian race itself humanity brushed aside it's old enmities and grudges amongst it's many nations. The best and brightest from every corner of the globe came together to study and reverse engineer the technology from the Xarian ship and weapons. We knew another conflict with them was inevitable but next time we would make sure we could truly fight back."
"And so for fifty years we turned their technology into our own. We mastered the methods of faster than light speed, created advanced exploration satellites to aid us in safely exploring past our own solar system. We built orbital military and science stations around Earth and other planets of our solar system. And over time, the nations of the Earth worked together to create the United Earth Alliance. The UEA's purpose was to protect Earth and all it's future colonies and stations throughout space from any and all extra terrestrial threats."
"And of course once we started to explore beyond our solar system we did encounter the Xarians again. They did not take kindly to our species reverse engineering their technology, of course it seems their angry about us even being alive. But for about the past 38 years we've been at war with them. Pushing them back every time they try to come near our home solar system or threaten one of our few colonized worlds."
Thomas stopped for a moment, taking a slow and deep breath as he rubbed at his eyes for a moment. "Which basically brings me to now I guess. I am...or rather was..the second in command of this ship. Our captain was away to attend a meeting at Alliance command when we received news of some strange anomaly within the Alpha Centauri system. Since it was within Alliance controlled space we volunteered to examine it. But once there it completely took hold of our ship. The rest of my crew barely managed to escape before it was pulled in and myself along for the ride. The rest you obviously know. I'm not sure how the anomaly sent me here, or where your area of space even is. For all I know this is an entirely different galaxy from the one humans and the Xarians are from."
Even General Grandell felt as if he needed to lie down. Everything this human had told them was beyond anything they could have predicted. Anton almost looked as if he could pass out from this flood of information.
Thomas placed his hands into the pockets of his pants, giving these people time to try and process all of this. Again his eyes looked up for a moment, gazing up into the endless sky above him. He wondered just how far he truly had gone from everything he had known.
He was snapped back to it though as the gruff voice of the general spoke to him, "You say you are at war with these...Xarians, correct? What happens then when and if your race comes looking for you?"
Thomas looked right into Grandell's eyes as he answered, "I highly doubt they will. Even before my ship disappeared into the anomaly most of it's systems had been destroyed. Any chance of the Alliance being able to try and track it down is basically non-existant. Which actually leads me to my request in exchange for what I've just told you."
Thomas turned back to the senators now. As they met his gaze it seemed as if something had changed within the human's expression. His dark colored eyes looked almost nervous as he spoke, "My ship is damaged beyond any hope of actual repair and as I just said I have no way of bringing a rescue. So with your permission senators I request to become a citizen of your world and live among your people. I will abide by your world's laws and customs of course. I know this is indeed a large request, but I really do not wish to spend the rest of my life locked away in an underground military complex."
Farah felt sick to his stomach at even hearing this. There was no way in Hell he would ever allow this alien filth to live among the people of his world. But before the young jackal could even step forward one of his fellow senators spoke out, "I feel we should put this to a vote."
This idea was quickly supported by quite a few of the gathered senators. Though the urge was incredibly strong Farah knew speaking out against this vote here and now would be extremely foolhardy at this point. And so he simply remained silent as Senator Alence walked up to Thomas. "The senate has agreed to put your request to vote in exactly one week. Do you have any objections?" The human simply smiled to her, shaking his head at her question. "Of course not."
With the human's consent to the vote the senators took their leave, returning to their homes to rest and begin their individual considerations of this situation. Anton and Thomas were en route back to the complex, escorted by Grandell and his troops. Anton had hundreds of new questions added to the already large number he had wished to ask Thomas. Yet as he saw the human staring up into the night sky through the car window he decided his questions could wait.
Five months had passed since the alien ship had crashed into the city. The senate had finally brought in crews to aid the military in disassembling the ship and getting it out of the city park.
Jezelia sat in her living room, deciding to spend the afternoon indoors today since her sister was still at work, letting the lapine have the house all to herself. Sipping from her glass of ice water she picked up her television remote, turning the power off.
Standing up she let out a soft groan as she stretched her body back. Almost every channel was still talking about the ship, yet there was still nothing about the alien itself. Ever since she had managed to see it that day Jezelia had wondered what had happened to it. She often prayed that the military and senators hadn't hurt it..or worse.
Jezelia was dragged from her thoughts as she heard several car doors opening and shutting outside her open window. Looking outside she spotted two cars parked by the sidewalk outside in front of the next door house. It had been for sale on the market for some time but most people didn't seem interested anymore in these victorian style homes nowadays.
As Jezelia saw what looked like the realtor and a couple smartly dressed people getting out of the first car she shrugged her shoulders. She figured they were just some folks touring houses today. She made her way into her kitchen to fix some lunch, shrugging away the momentary distraction.
Outside the neighboring house the second car's doors opened. Anton emerged from the driver's side, while the passenger door opened after he walked around and nodded to the other individual inside.
Stepping out of the car he was concealed from head to toe. A phedora, high collared trench coat, gloves and dark sunglasses sadly were necessary for the time being. As he and Anton walked up to the opened front door of the house the lion smiled over to his friend, "Well it's in a good location at least. But I'm still kinda surprised you wanted to find a place like this to live in."
Once inside Thomas just chuckled, sliding the sunglasses off his face. "Well since I'm helping you guys understand the technology of my ship most of the senators were more than willing to help me get a place like this. And besides I've wanted a house for a long time after spending so much time sleeping in small military quarters and ships. Let's just hope the neighbors won't mind having someone like me around when the Senate has their big press conference next week."