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All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, incidents, and organizations either are created from the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or any person, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
The digital readout on the DVD player indicated 3:55PM, only five more minutes before the time scheduled for the special telecast. Valerie Saunderson and her children, Nick and Stephanie, clung to each other on the living room sofa and watched the TV. They were as still as statues, as their senses of sight and hearing strained to funnel every bit of information into their minds and make sense of it, as if they tried hard enough they'd come up with an answer for all of this madness. When Valerie had first heard the news several hours ago, she had doubled over from the shock of the words, her head spinning, her heart pounding. She'd since reclaimed some composure for the sake of the children, but didn't feel much better. The knot in her stomach clenched tighter. She tried to be strong and reassured Nick and Stephanie with words of comfort but all the while struggled to control her own emotions. Reports had been pouring in all day about unprovoked attacks on individuals worldwide by close associates and family members, or sometimes complete strangers. The attackers had no coherent explanation for their actions and it was mostly being written off as stress. And then suddenly people just disappeared! The latest count put the number of people who had vanished in the millions. Some experts were speculating a time distortion might have flung people into a different space-time continuum; some had other theories, but nobody knew for sure. The affected people were from every country on earth--young, old, rich, poor, famous, unknown, black, white. The reports kept pouring in so fast they couldn't tally accurate figures fast enough. One reporter speculated that by the time they were done counting the world's population, perhaps as many as a half a billion would be reported as missing. The reporter also speculated that perhaps the disappearances were due to some new secret weapon that had malfunctioned in the growing tensions in the Middle East. It had only been several years since Iran had proven to the world that they had the nuclear bomb by a test detonation on their own soil. The United States had immediately tried to push a resolution through the United Nations calling for severe sanctions and threatening force if noncompliant, but Russia and China had vetoed the resolution, tabling a motion instead for an intensive diplomatic effort and tough sanctions, though far less crippling to Iran than what America had wanted. At this, the U.S. had threatened unilateral invasion of the Muslim country, but Russia and China had boldly sided with Iran, promising full-scale war if she tried, gambling the U.S. would back down, which she did. Israel was similarly constrained by the same bellicose retaliatory war talk from the two communist nuclear powers. So years dragged by peppered with talks, sanctions, periodic threats of war from the United States and Israel, more talks, U.N. resolutions…but no real action. America’s colossal failure in the war on terror, especially the debacle known as the Iraq war, pretty much guaranteed that the world no longer trusted America’s leadership on the international scene and the U.S. was pretty much hated universally, exceptions only among most of her English speaking brother-nations and Israel. The rest of the world seemed determined to band together to prevent another Iraq situation, and the U.S. just couldn’t muster enough support to risk lone military action against Iran, which only served to embolden the Muslim country into openly continuing nuclear tests. Now, just last week, Iran announced that it was finally ready to use the arsenal of nuclear weapons that it had been stockpiling. Iran held the world hostage, as it set a one week deadline for Israel to agree in principle to vacate the Holy Land and relocate elsewhere or face nuclear annihilation. Most of the Arab countries quickly united around Iran’s leadership and formed a fragile coalition, but Israel refused to be intimidated, openly admitting what the world always suspected, that the Jewish nation also had an arsenal of nuclear weapons and would fully retaliate against any strike. The rest of the world tried to mediate through the United Nations, but as Iran’s one week ultimatum neared without even a hint of resolution, the situation seemed to quickly spiral out of control, as the major world powers took sides. The U.S., Britain, Canada and most other English-speaking nations stood firm behind Israel, while Russia, China, and Europe sided with the Arab coalition. The US went to Defcon One, Maximum Force Readiness, and Russia countered, both nations promising full release of their nuclear arsenals in support of their respective partners in the Middle East and in defense of their homelands. People all over the world started to panic and Marshall law had to be implemented virtually worldwide. Even Valerie’s hometown of Star City, Louisiana had seen an increase in some looting and a strict curfew had been implemented. The town’s population was only about seven thousand, mostly employed in the oil and gas industry, usually a docile town of mostly middle class working families where everybody knew each other, reasonable average people trying to deal with the sudden stress of the world situation. Valerie’s husband, Jeff Saunderson, a pharmacist at one of the local drugstores, had told her of the massive increase in use of anti-anxiety medication and anti-depressants over the past week. Valerie had also eventually succumbed to the pressure to medicate and suddenly felt the need to do so again. She rose from the sofa and went to the washroom. She opened the cabinet and retrieved the prescription vial from Armstrong’s Pharmacy for the anti-anxiety medication Valium 10mg. The doctor had initially given her Ativan but it hadn’t been potent enough. She went back and insisted on something stronger and longer acting. The directions said three times a day as needed, but she found herself taking as much as six a day. As she opened the vial and put the round blue pill in her hand, she recoiled a bit from her frazzled look in the mirror, bags under her deep blue eyes, shoulder length flame red hair matted and sticking to the sides of her head from nervous sweat, looking more like the unkempt mane of a wild lion than the hair of a late thirties mother of two. She poured a glass of water and swallowed the pill before trying to put on a comforting face for the kids and returning to the sofa. Pressure had seemed to lift somewhat when all of the leaders in the growing world conflict suddenly inexplicably agreed to a meeting at a secret locale for discussions. But it was several days past Iran’s deadline and the tension in the world was palpable. Everybody felt like something was going to happen soon, but nobody expected that that something would be millions suddenly disappearing worldwide. Valerie agreed the most likely explanation was that some new secret U.S. or Russian weapon had misfired. They were likely the only two powers with the capability to make such a device. Otherwise, a targeted strike would have only affected one country or group of countries in the conflict. But the disappearances seemed to be totally random. So far, only a handful of people from Star City were unaccounted for. Word had been leaked to the press that the special telecast from the world leaders would explain everything. Valerie had grabbed the first opportunity she could to check with her husband, Jeff. She called the drugstore, and was very glad to hear his voice, quaking though it was. She learned that he had been one of the victims of an unprovoked attack by a longtime customer. Jeff said he was coming home early to be with them, and she hoped he'd make it in time for the telecast from the leaders of the world. Valerie held her children tightly, not saying much, waiting. She clenched her teeth in a vain attempt to remain patient and willed the time to pass quicker. Stay calm, she reminded herself. All her questions would soon be answered. They'd promised. It was all she could do to contain herself, but finally, it occurred. The TV screen suddenly went blank. After a few seconds, the picture came back. It showed the president sitting at a long table with various world leaders. Valerie recognized leaders from Canada, Russia, Europe, and several other nations. A tall handsome man with short black hair sat in the center. He was wearing a sharp looking gray suit. Mesmerized by the TV screen, they watched the President of the United States get up and stand behind a podium filled with clusters of microphones and wires. The camera zoomed in on him. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the world," the president said. Flashes of light and clicking noises danced around his head as reporters took pictures. "While I speak, this message is being simultaneously broadcast world-wide on all channels and translated into all languages." There was a slight pause before he continued. "As most of you undoubtedly know, we are here to discuss the world situation and very strange events that have occurred lately. We won't explain it ourselves, for our special guest is far more capable. We only ask that you try to listen to everything with an open mind before you react." There were several seconds of silence as he looked at his prepared speech, presumably reading a line or two, and shuffled some papers around. Then he looked up. "Ladies and gentlemen of the world, for many years mankind has seriously pondered the possibility of intelligent beings, other than humans, in the universe. But today we have undeniable proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life." The president turned slightly and faced the man at the center of the table. "I--along with the rest of these world leaders as representatives of the governments of earth and the human race--would like to formally introduce you, the citizens of the world, to Khur-ak, the Balazon, and leader of the Balazon race of beings." A stunned moment of silence fell over the press room. “Is he serious?” Nick asked. “Is our president really that brain dead that he thinks a man in a gray suit is alien?” A gasp of incredulity filled the press room, as crowds of reporters jockeyed for position in front of Khur-ak. Random clicking noises filled the air as camera flashes streaked across Khur-ak's face like strobe-lights. “Just wait and see what they say,” Valerie said. At fourteen years of age, Nick liked calling everybody brain dead. But Valerie couldn't help worrying that this was real, and that the aliens were intent on conquering the world. The president wouldn’t say something like that if he couldn’t prove it. Perhaps the broadcast was to formally declare earth's surrender. On the other hand, the president didn't seem to be apprehensive about Khur-ak's presence. His speech, tone of voice, and manner seemed to convey a positive outlook. The president began again after a suitable moment of silence. He explained that the aliens had a message to bring humans about God many might not welcome--perhaps even causing world-wide uncertainty about everything people thought they had known, to the point where humans might collapse as a race of intelligent beings. However, after much deliberation, the leaders had decided the world needed to know, as the world situation was becoming untenable anyway. He also tried to reassure the viewers with the revelation that the aliens had helped all parties in the nuclear showdown to agree to an immediate stand down of all military readiness and that further help would be forthcoming. He then talked for a few minutes about the Balazons and the benefits to mankind of contact with them, such as enormous leaps forward in science, technology, and medicine. As he started to close, a reporter jumped in with a question. "We will answer all questions in due time," the president said. "Please be patient. There are many things we would like to say, but we have agreed to limit ourselves so Khur-ak himself can give a special introduction. I would like to close by assuring everyone listening that the Balazons are a benevolent race of beings who have my utmost trust. They are not--I repeat--are not out to harm anyone, and there is absolutely no reason to fear or mistrust them. Please stay calm. We will soon address all of your questions." When it looked as if the president were about to sit down, another reporter started to ask questions, but the president insisted on patience until the end of the session. He sat down, and for the next forty minutes each member of the international delegation got up and said a few words at the podium. Mostly they expressed their appreciation of the aliens' help and affirmed their belief in the goodwill of the Balazons. "This is boring," Nick sighed as he rolled his eyes. "I want to see this guy prove he really is an ET. How much longer are these politicians gonna keep babbling?" Valerie wasn't so eager. The longer the leaders talked, the safer she felt. As long as humans were directing and controlling the program, the aliens could not be thought of as bad. If the creatures willingly submitted to a well-controlled, well-thought-out human plan of revealing themselves on a familiar household device, she figured they must be courteous enough to allow humans freedom in other areas of life. Stephanie didn't seem too optimistic either. She turned to her mother and asked, "Mom, are the aliens friendly?" Valerie imagined her face must be pale; she was sweating and licking her lips. She hoped her physical appearance didn't give away her true feelings. After she paused for a moment, Valerie took a deep breath and tried to talk in a soothing voice, but it still sounded shaky. "It appears they are friendly." It was the best she could do. She wanted to comfort her children but didn't want to lie either. When it looked as if Stephanie might ask some more difficult questions, Valerie said, "Khur-ak is going to talk now. Let's see what he has to say." Stephanie reluctantly turned her head to see more. "It's about time," Nick blurted out. "I was beginning to wonder how much longer we had to listen to this stupid preamble." The camera zoomed in on Khur-ak's face as reporters snapped photos. "People of earth, I bid you greetings in the name of the Balazon race." "He speaks English!" Valerie said with amazement. "I am communicating to you telepathically. My thoughts can travel the wavelengths of the transmission you are receiving and your mind can interpret them as verbal communication. My mouth movements will even appear to coincide with the words of your native tongue." "Cool," Nick said. "Quiet!" Valerie commanded. "I don't want to miss anything." Nick defiantly huffed once and then made sure he kept silent. "I come from a planet called Nerovan, many light years away. I am the leader of an innumerable multitude of beings like myself. We have many natural abilities humans do not possess. At will, we can selectively bend light rays and phase shift our bodies' molecules to become invisible and untouchable. We have an existence that never ceases--what you call immortality--and have been influential on earth in our wraith-like forms for millions of years: studying, observing, and guiding mankind's development as best we could. “We can also assume human form, which I am doing now so as not to unduly frighten you. But in order to prove my legitimacy, I will now cause some objects in your vicinity to levitate.” The unoccupied love seat in the corner of the room started to rise. Stephanie screamed and Valerie had to grab her and hold her tight. “Ok,” Nick said. “I’ll accept that as proof.” Khur-ak took a deep breath as if he intended to ramble off a whole list of statistics but abruptly stopped short and closed his eyes for several seconds. "I am sensing a massive tide of thought-fear pulsating throughout my body. Please, we mean you no harm. Though we are highly evolved compared to yourselves, you need not fear us. Our minds are so advanced we could destroy this planet with a mere thought if we so desired, but we will not. Does this not demonstrate we are sincere? Why would a superior enemy come to you peacefully?" Khur-ak closed his eyes again, took a deep breath, and held it, as if analyzing the aroma of some fine fragrance. Then he opened his eyes. "I can sense many are still suspicious. Let me tell you more about ourselves. Without need of mechanical devices, we travel the universe in search of life with the potential to evolve into higher forms such as ourselves. Once found, we help such life overcome the obstacles to their development so they can ultimately reach their objective--total freedom from physical constraints, what you call a spiritual existence or immortality. This is the highest form to which any race can evolve. With the attainment of such development comes freedom, peace, and joy I can't even begin to express." Khur-ak stopped speaking and his face took on a contorted expression. "Oh, how I wish I could make you fully understand the joy we, too, experience helping other life-forms attain their awesome potential. You see, we discovered your planet millions of years ago, when the dinosaurs reigned supreme. Upon using our abilities to look into the future, we predicted a ninety-six percent chance the dinosaurs would continue to dominate the planet and cause the extinction of many species, including the rudimentary beginnings of man--the ape. But the dinosaurs had no evolutionary potential and wouldn't develop higher consciousness. So, we destroyed them by re-directing a large meteorite to hit the earth, which hurled dirt and debris into the upper atmosphere, blocking the sun, destroying plant and animal life, and lowering the global temperature. But as we predicted, numerous warm-blooded mammals, including the ape, survived the harsh climate. Many eons later, you evolved sentience and entered the dark stage." Khur-ak turned his face violently to his left side as if some invisible foe had struck him. "I have just felt the pain of your rejection. In time, I hope to make you understand. The dark stage is that evolutionary period which we have found intelligent beings inevitably go through as they slowly evolve beyond their bestial natures and progress towards the fullness of virtual godhood. But they must battle against their animalistic tendencies during this time, a predisposition towards violence, selfishness, intolerance, and hatred. It is a time marked by wars, lying, stealing, cruelty, greed, and many other forms of what is generally termed 'evil.' The conduct of the evolving race becomes so reprehensible that in virtually all cases they eventually destroy themselves. My people, the Balazons, were a rare exception to survive." Khur-ak stared into the camera and shifted his eyes back and forth as if searching for some understanding from his viewers. "One of the principal ways we helped you was to implant a conscience-bubble into every human born, a type of mind implant that tries to make one believe in 'God,' right and wrong, and life after death in a good place such as 'heaven' or a bad place such as 'hell,' based upon one's behavior in this present life. Many humans believe they have no religious tendencies whatsoever, as the implant exerts a very subtle effect on their minds; yet it is usually a sufficient hindrance, for most evolving beings, to inhibit unrestrained reprobate actions." Khur-ak stopped talking and stared at the camera hopefully. Then he added softly, "Now do you understand? We chose not to openly reveal ourselves to mankind at large until humans had progressed intellectually to the point you have. Most will soon be ready to accept that there is no such thing as God. We are, in fact, the closest thing you will find in the universe to the Almighty." Khur-ak gasped and jerked backwards in his chair. After a few seconds, he regained his composure. "Unfortunately, many people are presently unable to accept this. I sense many are hurt, confused, and feel betrayed by their belief systems. But I hope the majority will accept us in time. Please let us help you. We have prepared a way to make this possible." Khur-ak leaned forward and, with as much earnestness as he could muster, said, "We are prepared to counsel privately each and every individual on the face of this planet. This is not difficult for us to do, for our kind count in the billions. If you are living in one of the poorer countries of the world, starving and diseased, we can help with that too. At this very moment, Balazon representatives are amongst all individuals on the face of the earth--cloaked and phased, of course." Valerie slowly turned her head right and left but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. A cold shiver crawled up her spine, and her stomach started to ache. She didn't like the thought of one of them in her house. "Neat, man," Nick said and jumped up. "Show yourself, spaceman! I want to get a better look at you!" He ran excitedly around the living room, as if hoping to get the first glimpse of the Balazon if he decided to show himself. "Sit down!" Valerie commanded and grabbed her son. "Don't you dare show yourself either," she said to the empty air. "I don't even want you in my house! Get out of here! Now!" Nick, Stephanie, and Valerie froze, senses of sight and sound straining above the TV, searching for any sign of a Balazon. After a few minutes, Valerie looked at Nick. "Don't do that again." "Aw, mom. Why can't we? We might as well talk to one. They're here anyway." Valerie didn't care. She might not be able to make them leave her house, but she certainly didn't want to talk to one personally. They took their places in front of the TV and continued to listen. "Our representatives will not show themselves if you don't wish to see them. If you feel more comfortable with the TV, I will continue to inform you about us through this medium alone. However, I can sense innumerable specific questions from your minds. I cannot possibly answer them all on air. I encourage you to simply ask the Balazon to show himself and he can give you the individual attention you need. At any point in the discussion, you can ask him to leave and he will obey your request immediately." He continued to talk, explaining more about themselves and their reasons for unveiling to the world. Valerie began to feel rather silly. Nick and Khur-ak were right. The Balazon was in their midst anyway, so she might as well talk to him. If the Balazon had wanted to do her family any harm, he certainly could have done it by now, and she had many questions she wanted answered; they still hadn't explained why so many people had disappeared. She couldn't totally shake the nagging fears from her mind, but after several more minutes of deep contemplation, she decided to do it. She was working up her nerve when Nick turned and pleadingly looked at her. "Please can we talk to one, Mom?" he begged. "What harm could it do?" "OK." "OK?" Nick said as he raised his eyebrows. He looked surprised but certainly didn't argue. "I don't think I want to," Stephanie said. "I'm scared." Valerie had to hold Nick's younger sister and comfort her. "It's going to be fine. I'll make sure nothing bad happens." They sat on the couch, Valerie in the middle, children on either side. Together, they held the remote control and pushed the Off button, a symbolic gesture of their unanimous decision to initiate personal communication. Then Valerie gave the invitation. Jeff Saunderson drove his Honda Prelude to work slowly so as to avoid attention from the military vehicles that roamed the streets of Star City, tasked with keeping order in one small town in one big nation that seemed to be loosing its grip on normalcy, as nuclear brinkmanship over a small plot of land in the Middle East seemed destined to consume the world in an atomic fireball. His workplace was only several blocks away and he usually liked to walk for the exercise, but with the world situation as tentative as it was lately, he figured it was safer to drive. Some looting and assaults had already taken place, proving the police presence was there for a reason. He parked in the designated employee area and entered Armstrong’s Pharmacy. The pharmacist-owner, Allan Armstrong, greeted him in the dispensary with his usual somber look of late. Allan was very much into world politics but a rather pessimistic personality, and he didn’t hold out much hope for a solution to the world situation. Jeff was more positive. He believed the emergency secret talks with the world leaders would prove something out soon. “Do you mind if I go home early?” Jeff asked. “I want to be home with Valerie and the kids for the special worldwide telecast at four o’clock” “That’s fine, Jeff,” Allan said. “I’m closing the store early anyway. I want to be home too. I think everyone in the world is going to be glued to the tube so there’s no use having the store open.” “It’s not the end of the world as we know it. I believe something will work out.” Allan grimaced as he left the dispensary and mumbled, “I hope you’re right.” It was just a few minutes past nine and no customers were in the store yet, so Jeff slipped away to the staff room to grab a coffee. He poured himself a steaming hot cup and tasted it, nice and strong, just the way he liked it. He returned to the dispensary and was greeted by several customers with prescriptions for the latest trend, anti-anxiety medications and anti-depressants. He filled the prescriptions, counseled the patients, and plodded along the rest of the day, doing his best to do his job and not think too much about all the madness in the world of late. The pace was brisk, a bit busier than normal, which was good and helped the hours pass more quickly. The sooner his shift ended the better, as he was anxious to get home and watch the special broadcast. Allan relieved him for a quick lunch, and when Jeff returned to the dispensary, it was a little past one o’clock. Clarence Althouse came up to the counter, a longtime and very good customer. “I need another month’s supply of everything,” Clarence said. “Sure,” Jeff said and pulled up Mr. Althouse’s file on his computer. “And this too.” Clarence placed a new prescription on the counter. Jeff went and picked it up and read the name Zyprexa 5mg and the latin abbreviations for 30 tabs and to take 1 tablet daily. “I’ve been a little strange lately and the doctor said this would help.” Jeff nodded with understanding and tried to appear soothing. “Many people have been having problems coping lately.” However, beneath his professional demeanor, Jeff couldn’t help but be a bit shocked. Zyprexa was an anti-psychotic and Clarence had always seemed the most level headed person he had ever met. The brain was a mysterious organ to be sure, and the stress of late was definitely producing strange fallout among people, but Clarence was the last person he would have picked to lose touch with reality. Clarence fidgeted with his hands in his pockets and started to say something but then stopped. Jeff had known Clarence for years and had counseled him on many personal issues. He could tell Clarence wanted to say something else. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Jeff asked. “Anything else you’d like to talk about? I’m not very busy right now and we can go around the corner to the semi-private counseling area?” “Thanks, yes, I’d like that.” Jeff went around the corner to the half-enclosed counseling counter. Clarence met him on the other side and came up close to his face and whispered in low tones. “I was admitted to the hospital a few days ago. The doctor said I had a psychotic episode with hallucinations but I still can’t believe it was all in my head.” Jeff nodded his head. “It’s a stressful world situation right now, a lot of uncertainty. You have nothing to feel ashamed about--“ “You don’t understand! I don’t think I was hallucinating. I know what I’m about to say sounds goofy but—“ Clarence shook his head, obviously reluctant to say more. Jeff prodded him a bit and finally Clarence let it out. “I was abducted by aliens…at least I think I was. I mean I have a memory of it, but the doctor says I can’t trust my perceptions.” Jeff thought he was prepared for anything Clarence might say, but still found himself momentarily taken off guard. He hadn’t expected that. “Please, tell me more,” he said in a soothing professional manner. “Not like in the movies. You know, the short grey beings with big eyes. These guys were like tall skinny versions of humans, with bald heads, and made out of something like pure light. I tried to touch one and my hand went right through it. They took me aboard their spacecraft and started zapping me with electrodes. The pain was excruciating but I couldn’t move or scream. One of them said, ‘This one is going to kill you,’ but before he could zap me, another alien started fighting with him. I don’t remember much after that but it’s all still so vivid in my mind…” “Psychotic episodes always seem very real but they’re not.” Jeff paused, waiting for Clarence to counter with something else, but Clarence just stared at him. His face slowly took on a contorted expression and he snarled. Jeff sensed an aura come over Clarence that he couldn’t explain, something eerie and foreboding that instilled an instinctive fear in Jeff. Clarence’s face twitched and he snarled again, like he was fighting himself, and Jeff feared Clarence might be having another psychotic episode right in front of him. “If aliens unveil and say there is no God, do not believe it,” Clarence said in a raspy voice. “Excuse me?” “Sacrifices must be made to prevent the unveiling. Prepare to die human.” The attack came suddenly, from the left and right, Jeff only having a blurred impression of Clarence’s arms but feeling repeated blows across his face. Jeff instinctively threw his hands up and blocked Clarence’s arms. He pushed Clarence back and ran into the dispensary to grab the phone so he could activate the emergency pager system. From his new vantage point sprawled on the floor, Clarence snarled as he rose, eyes fixed on Jeff. Then he leapt bodily into the air, covering the few feet between them in seconds, grabbing Jeff’s collar with one arm and struggling for the phone receiver with the other. Jeff kicked Clarence in the gut and knocked him to the floor again, granting him the precious seconds he needed to dial the store pager number and screamed into the telephone receiver. “Help! Code 44! Pharmacist being attacked!” Clarence was back up on his feet but Jeff slipped past him and out the side dispensary door. Jeff’s heart was pounding as he rounded the corner and made for the staff room, where he was sure several male staff members would be able to help him subdue Clarence. But Clarence was too fast, quickly coming up behind Jeff and grabbing him by the neck before he even made it past the cough and cold section. They tumbled together into the shelves, knocking bottles and boxes over themselves as they wrestled to the floor. Plastic bottles of cough syrups broke open as they rolled over and over, each roll staining the floor and their clothes with colorful mixtures of purple and blue. Clarence wrapped his hands around Jeff’s neck and began choking him. Jeff tried to pry Clarence’s hands off but his grip was too strong. He couldn’t breathe and started seeing stars and black spots. He felt as though he would black out soon. But suddenly, he was free. He opened his eyes to see a young woman standing over him with a confident smile on her face. “My name is Monica,” she said. “Everything is going to be alright. He won’t harm you now.” Jeff was stunned at how this young woman had seemed to save him so quickly and easily. His eyes had been closed so he hadn’t seen a thing, but Clarence now lay on the floor, docile and merely mumbling some obscenities. “How did you do that?” Jeff asked as he coughed and breathed in deeply. “Your friends are coming,” she said. “They will help you. I must go now.” Then she simply disappeared before his very eyes. Jeff wondered if he was now having a psychotic break, wondering if he’d imagined the whole thing. Allan and several others came running out of the staff room. “Are you ok?” Allan asked. “What happened?” “I think so. That customer just attacked me for no reason.” As Jeff pointed at his attacker, two male staff members went over and picked Clarence up and held him firmly. They were young, strong stock boys, about 16 and 17 years of age. “Take him to the staff room and hold him,” Allan ordered, and his staff complied. Allan helped Jeff to his feet and led him to the staff room also, where he covered him in a blanket, poured him a cup of coffee and said, “Take as much time as you need to rest. I’ll cover you for the rest of the day. Just go home, Jeff.” Then Allan made two calls, one to the police and one for an ambulance for Jeff, and left to cover the dispensary. The police arrived within minutes. The officers questioned Clarence, who still seemed dazed and confused about the whole incident but starting to come to his senses. “I’m so sorry Jeff,” Clarence said. “The aliens took over my body. It wasn’t me!” The officers didn’t waste much more time trying to question Clarence. As soon as he started babbling about aliens, they seemed to close their minds to further inquiry. “He obviously needs medical assessment,” one officer said to Jeff, as the other handcuffed Clarence and took him away. Jeff nodded but felt rather hypocritical, as he knew the officers would probably refer him to medical assessment too if they heard him say a young woman named Monica single-handedly rescued him and then disappeared right before his very eyes. He wasn’t sure they would be wrong to do so either. Jeff agreed to the police request for a written statement, but didn’t offer details about Clarence’s recent medical history. Such information was confidential and would have to be obtained later through proper legal means if needed for defense. However, given Clarence’s recent psychotic episode, Jeff felt certain no charges would stand up in court. He couldn’t see himself laying charges anyway. Jeff was just glad it was over. Allan’s voice boomed over the pager system, indicating Jeff had a call on line one, and Jeff went into Allan’s office to pick up the phone. It was Valerie. They exchanged strange stories, she telling him about millions of people disappearing all over the world, and he telling her about his strange attack. At least he knew he wasn’t crazy now, seeing as how disappearing people suddenly became a common occurrence, but he didn’t buy Valerie’s explanation that the cause must have been a misfire from some new super-weapon. Monica had said she had to leave and then did so. Her disappearance was volitional. He began to desire some of those Valium pills that Valerie had been taking lately. “When are you coming home?” Valerie asked. “Just as soon as the ambulance guys clear me. But I feel fine. I’m sure it won’t be long.” “Get home as soon as you can. I’ll feel better watching the four o’clock telecast with you.” Jeff confirmed he’d be home as soon as he could and hung up the phone. A bright light flashed. Valerie instinctively shielded her eyes as a gush of warm air pelted her body. Dancing stars of every color replaced her vision, the kind produced if one squeezes one's eyes together too hard and too long. She started to get frightened and wondered if she and the kids had done the right thing by requesting that a Balazon show itself. Soon, however, the light display faded. When she dropped her hands, she saw a being that was semi-transparent, whitish-yellow, taller than an average human, with skinny body and extremities and long fingers. Its head was narrow and the face, though similar to a human's, had stumps for ears, slightly larger eyes, and no hair. It also seemed to have female facial features. Nick and Stephanie stared at the Balazon. "My name is Acin-om," it said. "How may I assist you?" Stunned and unable to speak, Valerie stared at the Balazon too for several seconds. Then she hypnotically said, "Please sit down." "Thank you," Acin-om said, and sat in a leather chair across from the couch. All four were speechless. Even Nick seemed to be too overwhelmed for words. After a while, Acin-om spoke. "I am neither female nor male." "Um...what was that?" Valerie said as if snapping out of a daydream. "I am neither female nor male. You were wondering what sex I was." "Oh...I'm sorry." Valerie looked away, slightly embarrassed. "No need to apologize. You simply do not understand my people cannot sexually reproduce. We can only duplicate ourselves by helping other beings evolve to a higher plane of existence. That is why we are so concerned for you humans. You are like our children, so to speak." "Yes," Valerie said slowly, trying to remember the words Khur-ak had used. "I guess this mind implant of yours didn't work as well as you thought." "No," Acin-om admitted. "People used their creative imaginations to add to what they sensed from the implant and developed all types of religious systems, everything from the ancient beliefs in the Egyptian, Roman, and Greek gods to the more modern philosophies of Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, and Sikhism. These religions are often violently opposed to each other. Others are extreme and cruel, even involving rape, torture, and burning of babies on altars." "Are you saying Christianity is merely another human attempt at explaining God?" Valerie asked. She had never been a diehard believer anyway, but the thought was still a little disheartening--sort of like when she was younger and woke up to catch her mother putting a quarter under her pillow, glad she finally knew the truth about the tooth-fairy but sad her mother had lied. She would have preferred to remain ignorant until she had grown up and out of simple beliefs on her own. "Not exactly," Acin-om countered. "Christianity is not merely a human invention, for we have expended a personal effort in creating it. We had to come up with some way to try and curtail your wild imaginations from totally corrupting what we were trying to do. So, we decided to try to create a more vivid depiction of what God might be like, if he did exist. We guided the development of a nation called Israel and inspired various individuals such as Moses to write down the Scriptures, giving more appropriate definitions of God, his laws, principles for living, and worship ceremonies." "Wow!" Nick suddenly said. He had been uncharacteristically quiet for several minutes. "You inspired the Bible." "Yes," Acin-om said. "We had hoped Israel would influence other nations to worship and obey the types of directives we had given them." "I guess the plan didn't work too well," Nick said. Valerie thought Nick must be referring to the centuries of moral depravity the Bible writers had recorded the Israelites had done. "No," Acin-om replied. "We have found humans to be exceptionally rebellious, self-centered, and self-seeking." "But how did you inspire people to write and do all those things?" Nick asked. "I didn't know they had pencils or paper when Adam and Eve were alive." Acin-om smiled. "They didn't. The events recorded in the Bible weren't written as they happened. In fact, there were no organized Scriptures until Khur-ak appeared to and instructed Moses what to write in the first five books of the Old Testament around 1400 BC. Previous to that, any knowledge of our involvement with humans was passed on to others by oral tradition because for the first few thousand years we were mainly involved in people's lives in a very secretive way--influencing them subconsciously through the conscience-bubble and inflicting guilt if they disobeyed. But, as I said, it was quite difficult to control people reliably and consistently through this means alone, for they simply didn't listen very well, and the promptings of the mind implant were subject to human interpretations and feelings. You needed more definite guidance. "So we carefully thought through the best way to appear to humans physically and influence them further--by pretending to be God. In the case of other Old Testament writings, Khur-ak again appeared and talked to some of the authors. At other times we spoke through prophets, dreams, visions, or disguised as angels. Rarely, though, would we appear visibly because you were not ready for such a thing. We were usually either revered or feared--neither of which we wanted for we are merely the same type of creature as yourselves, but much older." "Just a minute," Valerie said. "This doesn't make sense. Whether humans revered you or feared you, either way they would obey you. Why didn't you just appear to people physically and command them to behave with civility." Valerie realized she sounded like a doubter, but inside, started to feel less and less like one. She simply desired to understand. "We considered it, but our future forecasts showed there was virtually a one hundred percent chance such action would have led to man's extinction around 1000 AD." Valerie wrinkled her left eyebrow up in a thoughtful pose. "Are your forecasts always right?" "No." "Then how could you be sure it wouldn't work?" "We couldn't, but we weren't willing to take the chance. From our observations of human nature, we believed the forecasts were correct in this instance." "Why?" "Because, as you humans are fond of saying, familiarity breeds contempt. If we were constantly visible, commanding everyone to obey us, it wouldn’t be long before the novelty of our existence would wear off and people would start openly challenging us. We have observed that humans have an exceptional hatred of domination and have a strong desire to govern themselves. If we had tried to rule this world with an iron hand, pretending to be gods, it would work for awhile, but eventually people would rebel, forcing us to either destroy everyone, or leave--of course we would have chosen the latter. Once gone, any possible influence a belief in God might have once had would be minimal. People would realize they could rebel against us 'gods' and triumph, and they would assume the same would hold true after death. Your extinction would then be pretty much a certainty. "Instead, we decided a form of human self-government, built on basic laws and principles of a mysterious 'God' would be best. We had observed that this, combined with a conscience, and the fear of what will happen to oneself after death, was the best possible behavioral control mechanism for humans." "I see," Valerie said, a bit of resentment swelling up in her voice. She was beginning to dislike the realization that the Balazons had subtly manipulated humans for thousands of years. "The ancient world was a very sensuous and violent place; the reason you didn't destroy yourselves long ago was because you simply didn't have the technological capability to do so. We looked ahead to this present time and saw the danger of a human race with a lack of more precisely defined moral guidance. So, before we appeared to Moses, we took our time and carefully thought through every contingency that came to mind, ironing out all the little details and deciding exactly what we wanted to do with this idea of 'God.' For the past several thousand years, we have more or less accomplished our objectives. There was some inevitable divergence from the road we wanted to lead you, but for the most part, we have been able to deal with them." "Then what did you do?" Nick asked. "We created the idea of a loving but just God, the perfect balance between love and forgiveness for repentant sinners on the one hand, yet vengeful dispenser of horrible punishment for evildoers on the other. But we knew humans needed something more authoritative than just another set of sacred writings to get them to listen. We saw that even though we might give you written laws such as the Ten Commandments, humans nevertheless wouldn't fully understand or obey them. You needed a powerful human personality to live life as an expression of these ideals and explain them to you." Acin-om paused before continuing, as if expecting a reaction of some sort. "Khur-ak decided that when he felt the time was right, he would take on human form and try to authoritatively pound home the necessity for commitment to such things as love, forgiveness, good thoughts and actions, and in the process, die in such a dramatic way that humans would know a higher power loved everyone dearly. Khur-ak would try to do away with strict obedience to the external laws we had given humans earlier as a rough guide, and try to inspire people to live deeper lives of true goodness. In order to lend credence to the Scriptures and to prepare people for his arrival, right from the first few pages of the Bible we dropped hints, clues, and prophecies of Khur-ak's imminent appearance; we manipulated events to make sure these and all other prophecies came true. Even the religious festivals we instructed Moses to initiate, such as Passover, and the animal sacrificial system for sins, were types and shadows of our leader's future role in human affairs." Valerie's mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened. She understood the implication. "I don't get it," Nick said. Acin-om said plainly, "Khur-ak took on human form, born of the virgin Mary, and became the Biblically prophesied Messiah: Jesus Christ." Now they both stared at Acin-om. The Balazon waited for a few seconds to let everything sink in before continuing. "Starting life as a human baby, he had no recollection of his life as Khur-ak, or of his mission on earth. Slowly, throughout his life, his memory returned and we revealed ourselves to him personally to explain things further. By the time Khur-ak, or Jesus Christ if you will, reached the age of thirty, he was fully aware of who he was and what he must do. To lend validity to his message, we performed many signs and miracles for him from behind the scenes: healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the poor and hungry, and the biggest one of all--coming back from the dead himself. These things seem supernatural to humans, but to us they are relatively simple to do. Ever since then, we have recruited and helped humans from behind the scenes to propagate the message Khur-ak came to bring. We couldn't do this openly ourselves or it would have destroyed the illusion of mystery, and a few sharp individuals might have figured us out. Throughout your history, we have limited our supernatural interventions for the same reason." "You tricked everyone," Valerie said, half-sounding offended. She was increasingly finding the idea of being lied to and manipulated insulting. For approximately two thousand years, one of the great faiths of the world, and the founding religion of many of the free-world democracies, was one big lie. Acin-om nodded her head in understanding. "I sense you are feeling uneasy. What we did, we felt we had to do in order to ultimately help mankind. A short-term illusion back then could potentially yield attainment of so much more than a human being could ever have desired on earth. It all depends on whether or not you humans will accept us. "At first, if necessary, Khur-ak had intended on going through with the original plan, which was to fulfill Bible prophecy about Jesus Christ coming back to set up the Kingdom of God. We made the prophecies concerning the timing of his second coming specific, yet vague enough, as to be able to be applied to any generation since he ascended into the sky in front of many witnesses; we had hoped the threat of Jesus’ possible second coming at any moment to judge the world would coerce people into obeying their conscience-bubbles and the laws and principles set forth in the Bible. But if it didn't, Khur-ak would have come at the last possible moment, when humans were about to destroy themselves. Our leader would then have pretended to be God and forcefully established a peaceful and fair new world order. We had hoped Khur-ak would be able to reign until humans had evolved beyond the need for such tricks. "However, the desire to govern yourselves is even stronger than we had first thought. Our forecasts gave us good reason to believe humans would not accept Khur-ak's rule, but that we'd have a better chance if we unveiled. To psychologically prepare you for this day, for decades we have slowly tried to validate the reality of extra-terrestrial life by mysterious personal and public appearances of UFOs and aliens. Humans naturally built on these themes in literature and broadcast media to better prepare you for our unveiling." Valerie thought about this for awhile. Sometimes even friends and relatives had deceived her before in life, and she had gotten over it--their motives hadn't even been pure. Her ninth grade "friend" Lisa had told her Scott, Valerie's boyfriend at the time, was philandering, which led to their breakup. Later she had found out Lisa had lied so she could date Scott. She remembered what she had said when Stephanie was very young and kept playing in the streets despite repeated warnings to the contrary. She had intentionally lied to her daughter, trying to frighten her into obeying, by saying the boogie man liked to kidnap children who played in the streets. It worked. At least until she was old enough to question her mom about this doctrine, Stephanie never played in the streets again. By then she understood why her mother had lied--and forgave her. Valerie's motives had been pure, though her method had not been totally honest. But it was justified under the circumstances, for love had motivated her to lie. Valerie suddenly felt like a five-year old. She was beginning to understand how much these Balazons really cared for the world, realizing all the trouble, time, and effort it must have taken to get humans this far. She quickly cast away any childish resentment and embraced the parental care of Acin-om and her kind. "I'm sorry," Valerie finally said. "I know you were trying to help. I shouldn't feel resentful." "That's OK," Acin-om replied. "I just wish everyone in the world could be as open and accepting of us as you are. Then we will be able to help everyone to have a better life now and ultimately immortality." However, there were still some important questions to be answered. "Why did so many people vanish? And why did you attack my husband?" "Because of a Balazon named Xsalma," Acin-om answered immediately. "It's always difficult to decide when to reveal the truth about ourselves to an evolving civilization. For instance, we unveiled to the Gerutniks of the Spiral Belt Galaxy during the eight thousandth year of their dark stage, but they were still too immature, and ended up destroying themselves with nuclear weapons. Some Balazons began to have severe doubts that humans were ready for the unveiling, and their leader, Xsalma, started a movement to prevent it. In an effort to force Khur-ak to reverse his decision, for years now Xsalma and his small band of supporters have been terrorizing humans in all sorts of strange ways." "I don't understand how scaring us could cause your leader to change his mind," Nick said. "Xsalma hoped Khur-ak wouldn't unveil if the world was afraid of us, so has been sowing fear of aliens for decades, almost as long as Khur-ak has been trying to allay people’s fears of extra-terrestrial life.” “Ah,” Nick said. “That explains why there have been so many negative accounts associated with UFOs over the years. Cattle mutilations and such.” “Yes,” Valerie said. “I remember watching a documentary detailing the alien abduction phenomenon, where people are brought on board a spaceship and terrorized, and assaulted, subjected to experiments, had mysterious objects implanted in their brains, pregnancies inexplicably terminated as fetuses disappear. Really strange stuff.” “Yes, these types of incidents originated from Xsalma,” Acin-om said. “But Khur-ak sanctioned most of the more benign accounts to prepare you for open contact-- mysterious lights in the skies, UFOs toying with fighter jets, crop circles, and such.” Valerie shook her head in disbelief. “How can such obviously advanced and capable beings as yourselves fail to come to some sort of agreement about open contact before now. I mean, UFOs and alien abductions have been reported since before I was even born!” “Actually, it has been a very short period of time from our perspective. On our plane of existence, we experience time differently than you do. As a rough analogy, you could say 1000 years from your perspective only feels like one day in our perception of time. Since we only started intense UFO activity shortly after World War Two, it has been a very short span of time to us.” “Wow,” Nick said. "So all these decades of mysterious UFO encounters from our perception of time, converted into your time, would be about..." Nick tilted his head to one side somewhat, and his eyes rose to stare at the ceiling. "Hmmm, let's see, I'm usually pretty good with math in my head..." “A little under two hours from our perspective,” Acin-om said, saving Nick the bother of the calculation. “Right, I was just about to say that.” “As the moment of our unveiling drew near, Xsalma’s followers began intensifying their efforts and started assaulting people at random, but especially concentrated on those who were socially influential: newspaper and TV reporters, politicians, movie stars, and powerful businessmen. They even attacked Jeff because of a potential connection to somebody important." “So to you guys a million years of your working with humanity would seem like a little under 3 years work seems to me,” Nick said, obviously still fascinated with the time differential calculations. Valerie ignored Nick’s obsessive comment and tried to imagine who Acin-om was referring to. Then it hit her. "Of course! Jeff's friend, Brian Ferster." "Precisely. He could've turned people against us if he'd used his investigative television program to do a report on the danger of our kind." "I'm sure Jeff would've called him too," Valerie said as she slowly took in everything Acin-om said. She paused for a few more seconds. "But how could Brian do an expose on the Balazons who hadn't yet shown themselves?" "He couldn't, but Xsalma had hoped to make our leader reluctant to go through with the unveiling by making sure it would be difficult to win people's trust if he did." Valerie nodded her head. "His plan may work yet. Humans can be very unforgiving. What exactly did Xsalma do to all those people who disappeared?" Acin-om looked at the floor, seemingly ashamed to answer. "Since their initial attempts were relatively unsuccessful at reversing Khur-ak’s decision, Xsalma and his followers increased their efforts further: they randomly vaporized a total of about a half a billion people all over the world. But you must understand! Xsalma did care, even though it may seem he showed it in an inappropriate way. He believed killing millions of people now could save your entire race if it prevented the unveiling. “Besides, our future forecasts showed a high probability that nuclear war would ensue in the Middle East standoff, which would have resulted in even more deaths than what he did. Xsalma believed some would survive a nuclear war, so better to delay open contact. Khur-ak thought it more likely your entire race would be obliterated. The data from our future forecasts was inconclusive, so not very helpful either. It was a difficult decision, but Khur-ak gambled that it was less dangerous to unveil now." "What's so dangerous about showing yourselves?" Nick asked with child-like innocence. "Many humans would rather die than welcome us as friends. Many will be suspicious, thinking us horrible invaders out to kill them, especially after what Xsalma did. Many others may be tempted to live hedonistic lifestyles because they no longer need fear death. But you must control yourselves or you may not reach the exultation stage. Unfortunately, the only way of controlling some would be to destroy them, which we do not want to do." "What's the exultation stage," Valerie asked. "If a race of beings can survive long enough, they will enter exultation--the final stage I am now in and always will be: immortality." Valerie thought about this for a moment. The story made sense, and a part of her really wanted to believe Acin-om. Her dad had been a preacher while he was still alive, and had always told her humans were the only intelligent life in the universe. Valerie silently disagreed, although she didn't say anything verbally; she didn't think anything in the Bible contradicted at least the possibility. The narrow-mindedness her father seemed to exude on this point probably fueled her mild discontent with religion over the years. She never wanted to become as close-minded to scientific possibilities as her dad had always appeared to be. She never wanted to be accused of checking her brains at the door just because she had a belief in a God. Now to see undeniable proof of alien life before her eyes was something extraordinarily exciting. As an adult, Valerie still went to church the odd time, more for social contacts and to make friends though. She had long since had too many questions about religion to take it all too seriously, and tried to encourage her kids to think for themselves and find their own path about faith. "It still seems a rather extreme way to try and ‘help’ us," Valerie said. “Could Xsalma think of no better solution?” Acin-om looked down at the floor with seeming regret, then up again. "You must understand. Occasionally some Balazons disagree with our leader about how best to serve an evolving civilization. Xsalma was bound by the highest law, love, to act as he thought best. In cases such as these, we must appeal to the Council, a board of super-beings that live in the center of the universe. "The Council members are made up of exultation entities who have willingly merged their very essences into one mass of collective energy; they are very powerful and wise, and all Balazons willingly submit to their judgments. I, or any of my kind, can join the Council after 100 million years of service and experience in the field as an exultation worker. Most of us aspire to join the Council someday. It's the highest form of office in the universe." Acin-om shrugged. "Anyway, we took the conflict to the Council to consider the matter and a ruling was to come down before four o'clock, the time scheduled for the unveiling. Though we were confident the Council would rule against Xsalma, we had to respect his right to do as he deemed right. Until then, Khur-ak sent me to guard Jeff. I appeared to him as a human female named Monica and preserved his life on several occasions." "I see," Valerie said. "We hope to prove our sincerity. It was a calculated risk to reveal our existence after what Xsalma did, but we knew it was very important we do something soon." "With your help, our odds of surviving are better?" Valerie asked. "Much better, but there are still risks. There is an all too real possibility humans will reject us and force us to leave. If that were to happen, mankind is almost certain to become extinct. Without our help, this world conflict will likely spiral into something like your two world wars, and threaten your entire existence." Valerie nodded in agreement, considering the logic and wisdom of all of Acin-om’s words up to this point. It was a lot to take in. If you've read this far, I hope you have enjoyed it and would like to read more! There are many more exciting revelations to come, and the action picks up from this point on.
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