The Sixteen Galaxies Read online

  “Indeed,” Hiram said. “I know the truth of that.”

  “Sadly,” Nuthros continued, “That discrepancy is not the only one. Your level of technology is also far ahead of your sense of environmental responsibility. That is the issue that promises to be your downfall.”

  Hiram sighed softly. “The sad thing is, we know the planet is in trouble, but we can’t agree on how to fix it.”

  “Humanity is not unique in its failure to develop at the correct levels, Hiram. Earlier in universal history, 98 percent of all sentient societies failed to develop successfully. Every one of those that didn’t get the balance right perished by their own hand. Now, that same figure is under 93 percent. This is due to the institution of the Council of Universal Harmony, of which I am a member. We monitor planets as they approach the point of integration with the Sixteen Galaxies, hoping to covertly prevent divergences from a peaceful transition.”

  Hiram sat up straight. “Covertly prevent? You mean you’ve influenced us?”

  Nuthros grimaced. “That was not a very good choice of words. My interference has been as subtle as possible, of course. But, humanity’s inventiveness has brought civilization on Earth to the brink of destruction a number of times. Each time, I have managed to divert the calamity and avoid discovery. This time, knowledge of my presence was unavoidable.”

  “If you’ve guided our affairs for the last 2,500 years, why do we now face our imminent demise?”

  “Don’t get me wrong, Hiram, our assistance has always been minimal. We are prevented from much interference in any planet’s development by our consciences. The slightest push can cause loss of life, something we must avoid. We simply search out right-minded individuals and put information in their hands that might impel them to take action.”

  “Like me, for instance?” Hiram asked.

  Nuthros shook his head. “Not you, my friend, not you. You needed no assistance in that department, you were doing fine without it. No, there are others we have tried to nudge in the right direction.” He looked down at the floor. “Some were successful, but many were not. In the end, it was not enough. It was nowhere near enough. The council has deemed Earth a special case, and it was agreed I should take more direct action.”

  “So you’ve never done this before? Appeared in person and offered help, I mean.”

  Nuthros shook his head. “No. We are in what you would call uncharted waters, Hiram. The chances of success are minute. We believe your unique inventiveness is a direct result of your combative and aggressive mentality. Almost a side effect, as it were. Your constant warfare has pushed technological development incredibly hard. That same aggressive nature means Earth’s people are difficult to guide. That is why I have enlisted your assistance, to try to bridge the gap and avoid rejection.”

  “Why not use your technology to simply take over and force us into line? So many species that might have been saved. Pardon me for saying this, but how can you absolve yourself from responsibility for the demise of all those species in the past?”

  Nuthros sighed gently. “Imagine for a minute that I did that, Hiram. Took on the mantle of what you tend to call a god, declared mankind’s self-rule at an end and forcibly coerced you into synchronicity with the Sixteen Galaxies.” He leaned forward. “Would it still be the human race?”

  Hiram sat and thought about that. In the end, he shook his head.

  “No, it would not.” Nuthros said. “We learned, very early in history, that every race requires self-determination to define it. Remove that privilege, and we force people down a path they would not have otherwise taken. Our society would be filled with people motivated by self-preservation, rather than sincerity. Every sentient society must reach the point of integration on their own.”

  Hiram frowned. “Then why interfere this time? What makes us so special?”

  Nuthros gave a short laugh, but sobered straight after. “I’m sorry. Let me explain.” He brought up the model of the Sixteen Galaxies again. He manipulated it until a single galaxy was brought into the foreground. “You call your galaxy The Milky Way. However, we call it the Alpha Galaxy. As we have extended the galactic community, it has not been done merely for the sake of exploration. We have always had a goal. That goal was to find the origin of all life. Alpha was the sixteenth galaxy to be added to the community. All our research points to this galaxy as the origin of sentient expansion. We discovered five planets with sentient life. One planet was near integration, the other four were well on the way to self-annihilation. Then we found a sixth planet; Earth.” The model disappeared again.

  Hiram sat and contemplated it all. “Are you saying we are the original sentient species?”

  Nuthros shook his head. “Not quite, my friend. But, we know the sentient species that originally colonized the galaxies originated on Earth. Many millennia before what you know as your people existed.”

  “So,” Hiram said, “We evolved as a secondary species. Is that why we failed to make the cut this time around?”

  Nuthros regarded Hiram with a sombre expression. “You have not asked me why I look like you, Hiram.”

  Hiram raised an eyebrow. “You mean…”

  Nuthros nodded. “Humanity as you know it did not evolve, Hiram. A clever theory, but quite wide of the mark, in your case. We do not know how the very first sentients came to be; it was a long time ago, after all. Indeed, I am yet to find any evidence of them on Earth at all. However, we have good reason to believe that humans are the direct descendants of The Originals; the sentients who seeded the galaxies. Your ancestors descended from the ones left behind.”

  Hiram took a long drink. He sat and stared at the Earth. Our home, he thought. Also the original home of all sentient life. And we have just about destroyed it.

  Nuthros sighed. “The decision to intervene was not made lightly, Hiram. We have little choice in the matter. Humanity is in the process of wrecking the birth planet of all sentient life in the known galaxies. If we are ever to get to the bottom of our origins, the Earth must be preserved. However, we cannot forcibly halt the destruction of the Earth, without taking the lives of a race who are, effectively, the most direct descendants of our ancestors. Additionally, a very undesirable side-effect would be to fundamentally corrupt who WE are. The Sixteen Galaxies could not forcibly intervene, even for the ‘greater good’, and remain stable.”

  “So we are the leftovers. Were we left behind because we were inferior? Is that the root of our problem?”

  Nuthros sat with his eyes closed, and Hiram wondered if he had said something to offend the alien. After a few minutes, Nuthros stirred. “Please accept my apologies, Hiram. The council is concerned about the time this is taking. However, we’re in agreement that you need to know more.”

  Hiram blanched. “The council is listening? How can you communicate so quickly?”

  Nuthros held up a hand. “Not yet, my friend, not yet. Too much to explain, and we have limited time.” He sat back. “Over 200,000 years ago, there were just two groups of people on Earth. We have no idea what the first group called themselves, but we refer to them as The Earthbound. The other party we know as The Originals. The Originals included nearly all the intellectuals Earth had at that time. Philosophers, artists, physicians, and scientists. They were a peace loving people. Thanks to them, humanity was on the cusp of space exploration in a meaningful way. Not probes and robots, but actual interplanetary travel. They had already colonized the moon, Mars, and constructed orbital colonies on many of the planets in the solar system.”

  Nuthros sighed deeply. “The other faction, The Earthbound, developed from a movement that opposed any and all space exploration. They felt it was not man’s place to leave the planet. To them, space travel was akin to heresy, and doomed to certain failure. They began to persecute The Originals and oppose their work. The Earthbound grew in number and gained political power. Eventually, The Earthbound banished The Originals from the Earth. The Originals spent the next few centuries developing as a
people off-world; they never set foot on their home planet again. They knew they couldn’t return to Earth, so they decided to take it upon themselves to explore the universe. They constructed huge motherships, able to carry many tens of thousands of people each. It would have taken hundreds of your years, Hiram. They mined the asteroid belts, moons and planets to obtain the materials they required.”

  Hiram shook his head slowly. “It would have been incredible to see. Such dedication.”

  “Indeed,” Nuthros replied. “We don’t know the exact number of ships that left the solar system, but we have found evidence of at least fifty in our galaxies. Unfortunately, very little is known about these ships. What we do know is that they were massive but primitive craft; huge cylinders that rotated to provide gravity. They must have wandered the galaxies for tens of thousands of years. The populations on those ships would have grown beyond the ship’s capacity, no doubt. Therefore, every habitable planet they came across, a small colony of scientists, engineers and so on was established. Then the ship would move on, leaving the colony to fend for itself.”

  Hiram frowned. “So they either developed a community, or died out? Why didn’t they stick together?”

  Nuthros shrugged. “We don’t know. We believe the intention was to harvest resources and build smaller spacecraft to re-establish contact between the planets. Unfortunately, that never happened. Some colonies likely died out, as you say. But, The Originals were inventive, creative and determined, just like their descendants here on Earth. Many planet’s populations grew. However, on each and every planet, knowledge of their origins slowly faded with the passage of time. The technology was lost over time, too. They devolved, separated, reached a low-point and then commenced to develop again. Eventually, after many thousands of years, the first planet reached the point of interstellar travel. Slowly, more planets were discovered with humanoid sentient life on them. It seems likely that tens of thousands of planets were colonized. Sadly, as I told you before, nearly all of those races failed to develop at the right balance and died out when they rendered their planet uninhabitable.”

  “So how did you find out the story of The Originals?”

  “By the time we started to explore the universe, all records were lost. It was only when similar races of sentient species were found on quite a few different planets, that it was realized there must be a common ancestor. Everywhere we went, the only sentient life was humanoid. As new planets were discovered, the odd piece of ancient technology or data was found. Thus, we slowly built to our current understanding.”

  “So,” Hiram said, “Back on Earth, The Earthbound descended into chaos.”

  “They destroyed themselves in the way of most of the new planets, yes. But, unusually, a few survived. Those survivors are your ancestors, Hiram.”

  “So we inherited their warlike ways.”

  “Indeed,” Nuthros agreed. He paused for a moment. “There is still a question mark over how they survived. No other planetary population ever has. Every other race either developed to the point of space travel, or destroyed themselves.”

  “But, why did they always destroy themselves?” Hiram asked. “It just doesn’t seem logical that, out of all those thousands of planets that never made it, not one species had the sense to survive; maybe devolve and re-develop a second time.”

  Nuthros nodded. “It does seem to be an anomaly. All sentients seem to have an inherent flaw that sees them somehow accept their fate once a certain point is reached. A kind of resignation that we don’t really understand. However, our studies show that, every time people were left behind, they died out. Often, they took their planet down with them. The Earthbound are the only exception, so far. It could be that their survival is somehow linked to the fact that Earth was their home planet, but we just don’t know.”

  Hiram contemplated the magnitude of it all. He was staggered. He could appreciate why the Sixteen Galaxies decided to make all these exceptions in the case of Earth. What he couldn’t see was that humanity would accept the kindness, any more than their ancestors accepted the peaceful, advanced and gifted people of their day. He smiled at the similarity between The Originals, and the founding fathers of his own nation. Seeking a new home in order to escape the persecution of others dissimilar to them.

  “Okay,” Hiram said. “I have to act as liaison between you and the people of Earth, to steer them off this track. If I fail, then the Earth will be destroyed.”

  Nuthros nodded. “Rendered uninhabitable, yes. It will not happen for many decades, of course. But, unless you drastically correct your present course, and do it now, it will not matter how much you reform later, because it will be too late. If the changes do not happen within two years’ time, your demise will be unavoidable.”

  Hiram sat back and closed his eyes. “This isn’t going to be easy, is it?”

  “No, my friend,” Nuthros replied, “This is not going to be easy at all.”

  3

  President of the United States Wilson Dexter sat on the sofa in the Oval Office with his hands folded in his lap. He meditated on the best way forward. It wasn’t every day an alien appeared out of nowhere and declared the Earth a terminal case, abducted a United Nations diplomat, and then disappeared again. Worst of all, footage of the whole thing had made it onto the internet, where it shot to the most viewed clip within hours. It had taken two hours to gather his top advisors together.

  White House Chief of Staff Nathaniel Smart rubbed his forehead. “I need some direction, Mr President. We have to handle this right or the country goes off the rails and we won’t get it back. Every lunatic faction in the country, from religious zealots to survivalist nut jobs, will jump on the bandwagon.”

  The President looked across at a heavyset man in a dark blue suit. “Mick? We have nothing to stop this alien making waves?”

  Director of National Intelligence Michael Cromby shrugged. “We’re completely blindsided. This guy popped in and out of a fully secured general assembly session like he was grabbing some milk from the store. We had no indication of a vessel anywhere near Earth. If he’s got one close by, we’re unable to detect it. He could appear next to me right now and we couldn’t stop him. So, barring a miracle, we can have no control over his contact with the public in the future, I’m afraid.”

  The President sat up and looked across at his closest advisor. “GDR, what do you recommend?” George D Roberts had been with Wilson Dexter since he had campaigned for state senator fifteen years ago. He had never failed the president before, and Wilson sincerely hoped he wouldn’t fail him now.

  “Well,” the man everyone called GDR said, “Why don’t you just tell the country the truth?”

  Secretary of Defense Nathan Shorten nearly choked on his coffee. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  The President held up a hand to cut the Secretary of Defense off. He nodded to GDR. “Carry on, please.”

  Roberts continued. “The alien, this Nuthros character, said he was taking Hiram to have a discussion, that’s all. He’ll doubtless return Hiram unharmed and Hiram will tell us what this man wants. Like the alien said, with the tech he has, if he meant us harm, he would have just gone ahead and done it. All we have to do is make it known that we’re happy to listen to any advice this alien may give us, and will consider any help he offers. If we remain calm, the country remains calm. Hell, this guy might actually be able to do what we can’t, and save the world.”

  Nathan Shorten scoffed. “Come on GDR, things aren’t that bad.”

  George D Roberts had very little time for the Secretary of Defense. The man was far too arrogant and narrow-minded for his liking. Shorten was not a leader, he was a cunning politician and that was all, at least in George’s eyes. Shorten didn’t care about planetary longevity, he just wanted to spin it so he could keep his job for as long as the Earth lasted. George tried to rein himself in as best he could. “Things are indeed that bad, Nathan, and you know it. Nothing that alien said was untrue. It was just u
nfortunate he up and said it for everyone to hear. Then again, I doubt that was unintentional.”

  President Dexter nodded. “I agree. He pushed it into the open, and very deliberately, too. Any hope we had of keeping a lid on this thing vaporized the moment he appeared and hung all our dirty linen out to dry. We can count our lucky stars he didn’t go and start to lay out facts and figures, we’d be under martial law already if he had. No, George is right, we have no choice but to play this one straight and true. This Nuthros character has control, so we have to ride along and stay calm. Let’s write it up and call an immediate press conference.”

  *****

  Harold Parkhurst ushered Agent Ronald Baxter into his office and closed the door. “Take a seat, Ron. How you doing?”

  Baxter just shrugged. He’d attended Nicky’s funeral, such as it was. Nicky was like most agents; a loner at school, parents divorced, no real life outside work. The memorial service had been small, no family he could discern, just agency people, and a plain coffin. He’d shed a few tears, but he couldn’t decide if they were for Nicky, or for himself and his dark little world.

  Parkhurst sat down behind his desk and pulled out a remote. Baxter gave an involuntary flinch. Parkhurst winced and set the remote down on the desk. “Sorry, totally forgot.” He eyed the agent carefully. “You sure you don’t want some more time off?”

  Baxter shook his head. “I need to work, Harry.”

  “Right. Well, the bomber, one Michael Turner, is still in hospital with concussion and a gash on the forehead from the pistol-whip you gave him. How you managed not to shoot the little freak is beyond me.”

  “It wouldn’t have brought Nicky back, Harry. Besides, it would have been my career; the chopper was too close.”