Морган Райс
Transmission
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kevin didn’t want to take his eyes off the rock while they carried it back on a kind of stretcher, not entirely sure what to make of it as they walked it back through the jungle to their base camp. He was both excited and puzzled, caught between the joy at having found what the alien signals had pointed them toward and the surprise of it not being the great silvery spaceship that he’d imagined it might be.
It felt weird, having actually found it, even though they’d all come here to do exactly that. It felt as though it shouldn’t be there, but it was, and now Kevin could barely contain his excitement at the possibility of seeing what lay inside.
“We’ll open it up when we get it back, right?” he asked Dr. Levin, who seemed to be looking on with the air of someone waiting for Christmas.
Beside him, Dr. Levin nodded. “That’s the idea. There will be a lab waiting for us at the UN compound outside Bogota, and we’ll see what’s inside.”
He could hear her trying not to get too excited by it all. In fact, most of the scientists there seemed to be just as happy to have found this strangely smooth rock as they would have been if they’d found some kind of intact alien spaceship, bristling with advanced technology. Maybe it was just that they were scientists, and a rock seemed more real somehow to them. They were probably used to testing rocks from outer space, being from NASA, while spaceships seemed impossible to them.
Even so, Kevin was hoping that things would be a lot cooler once they opened it up. Maybe there would be alien technology inside, or messages left in it like a message in a bottle. Unless the aliens were really tiny, he doubted that there were any in there, but maybe they were that small, or they’d found a way to fit more into spaces than they should hold, or something.
Whatever it was, it would be amazing.
They walked back to the space where they’d left the trucks, and already, there were scientists there packing away their gear. It seemed as though they were as eager to get back and open up the rock they’d recovered as Kevin was. When they were getting the equipment out they’d been delicate with it, but now they practically threw it into the back of the vehicles.
“We should get into the trucks,” Dr. Levin said. “We’re almost ready to go, I think.”
Kevin nodded, starting to go back to the Jeep. He saw Professor Brewster along the way, and was going to run around him, but to Kevin’s surprise, the NASA institute’s head actually looked happy. He was practically dancing in place with excitement.
“We found it,” Professor Brewster said. “We actually found it. This is… I know I’ve been hard on you, Kevin, but it was only because I wanted to be certain of this. Ever since I was… well, since I was your age.”
Kevin could hardly believe it; he had never expected Professor Brewster, of all people, to have a childlike optimism.
He ran back to the Jeep where Ted and his mom waited. For possibly the first time since this had begun, his mother had the kind of wonder on her face that told Kevin she finally understood this, that she wasn’t just doing it for Kevin’s sake. Ted seemed a bit less obviously happy. If Ted was worried about something, that couldn’t be good. After all, he’d faced down a caiman with no problems.
It couldn’t dent Kevin’s happiness, though. All the scientists had come in with their testing machines, and he’d been the one to pick out the spot where the alien capsule sat. It felt as though it was his somehow because of that, even while it sat in a truck twenty yards away, guarded by a mixture of scientists and soldiers of different nations. It felt as though whatever happened from now on, it would be down to him.
“What do you think will be inside the capsule once we open it up?” Kevin asked.
Ted thought about it for a few seconds
“They could have sent a time capsule full of information. Maybe they’re hoping that someone out there has the technology to bring them back from what happened to them. You’d have to ask the scientists. They’d know more.”
Maybe they would. At the very least, most of them seemed to be talking about it, so that the convoy’s radios seemed alive with speculation in different languages. Kevin hadn’t heard them as excited as that since the messages began. Maybe it was the part where they had something more than a signal translated by a thirteen-year-old boy. Maybe they liked having something solid to prove what was happening.
Kevin couldn’t blame them for that. Even though he’d known that what he was seeing was real, finding the rock had been a kind of relief. It had been proof of just how much all this meant.
“How long until we’re at the UN compound?” Kevin asked. He just wanted to get there now, so that they could get on with looking.
“That depends,” Ted said. “We’ve already seen how tricky the roads can—damn it.”
For a moment, Kevin thought there must be another blockage across the road. Then he saw the ribbon of uniformed figures there holding guns.
He stared at them in shock. Kevin could hear the chatter of the others on the radio as they saw what was happening. Even Ted seemed tense. Although not surprised. He looked, if anything, as though he’d been expecting this.
“Too late to reverse,” Ted said, slowing the Jeep. “There’s too many people behind us. Looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
He brought the vehicle to a halt, turning to Kevin. “They look like Colombian military rather than one of the cartels, so this should be okay, but if it isn’t, stay here and keep your heads down. Understood?”
“Yes,” Kevin’s mother said.
Ted looked to Kevin. “Understood?”
“Okay,” Kevin said. What did the former soldier think he was going to do? “Um… they aren’t going to shoot us, are they?”
“Probably not,” Ted said.
“Probably not?” That didn’t sound very reassuring. Kevin would have preferred “definitely not” or even “don’t worry about it.”
Ted nodded to where Professor Brewster was already making his way to the front of the convoy. “I suspect it depends on who we let do the talking.”
He jumped down, and Kevin could see a bunch of other figures moving past too, either eager to help, or wanting to show that they had some kind of authority there, or maybe just wanting to see what was happening.
That was certainly the reason he started to get out of the Jeep.
“Kevin,” his mother said. “Ted told us to stay in the vehicle.”
“I know, Mom,” he said, “but I don’t think it will make a lot of difference if there’s some kind of fight.”
“Kevin!” his mother said again, as Kevin hopped down from the Jeep and started forward. He heard his mother following after him, but he kept going. He wasn’t going to miss this.
By the time he reached the group of armed figures, they were already discussing things in a tone that sounded dangerously close to violence. Kevin had seen kids at school when they’d gone past insulting one another, and they didn’t want to back down because they thought it would make them look stupid. They always had that sense that they didn’t want to fight, that they were scared and the whole thing was stupid, but they were going to anyway. Kevin had never expected to hear adults sounding like that, but at least some of them did.
“…And I am telling you, Professor, that this is Colombia’s sovereign territory,” an older man was saying to Professor Brewster. “If this artifact had fallen on US territory, are you telling me that you would permit us to take it away as you are trying to?”
“No, of course not, General,” Professor Brewster snapped back. “Because we have the finest scientific facilities in the world.”
“Are you impugning the quality of Colombia’s scientific program?” the general asked.
“I’m saying that it doesn’t have a tenth of the resources that we do,” Professor Brewster replied.
That didn’t seem to impress the other man. If anything, it only seemed to annoy him.
“So that’s it, is it? The USA is the biggest and richest, and so we must all bow to what it wants?” Kevin saw him shake his head. “We’ve had enough of that in the past. You think I don’t recognize some of the men here from the past?”
“When we were invited,” Ted said, moving up to them. “General Marquez, I didn’t hear you complaining when we were here helping your country against the cartels.”
“And now you are helping yourselves,” the other man said.
“We made contact through diplomatic channels,” Professor Brewster said. “We told you that we would be coming.”
“But you did not wait for permission,” General Marquez said. Kevin had the feeling all of this was heading downhill fast, and he was caught in the middle of it with adults arguing around him. Adults who definitely wouldn’t listen to someone like him, and who seemed to be determined to argue and shout until it all turned into violence.
“If you’ll give me a minute, sir,” Ted said, “I’m sure I can get our president on the phone for you, and yours.”
“So that they can agree that we should do what you want in return for some minor concession, some empty promise?” the general demanded. “Our president is a good man, but this is a military matter.”
“It’s looking like it might become one,” Ted said. The strange thing to Kevin was that he didn’t raise his voice, even in the middle of a dangerous situation like that. Professor Brewster was sweating, and Kevin could feel his own nerves rising, but it seemed that the former soldier was just… calm.
It was a dangerous kind of calm, though, and it worried Kevin almost as much as the rest of it.
“I will make this simple,” General Marquez said. “The artifact you are transporting belongs to the Colombian people. We will be taking possession of it. If you attempt to stop us from doing so, you will be arrested and imprisoned. Now, step back.”
He made a move toward the first of the trucks in the convoy, obviously intending to check it for signs of anything alien.
“I can’t allow you to touch that truck, sir,” Ted said, and now, somehow, there was a weapon in his hand, pointed directly at the Colombian general.
Instantly, there were more guns pointing than Kevin had seen in his life.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kevin tried his best not to look scared as dozens of weapons pointed his way. It wasn’t easy. Most of the Colombian ones seemed to be pointed at Ted, but since Kevin wasn’t standing that far away, the distinction didn’t make much difference to him. Soldiers on their side, meanwhile, had taken the opportunity to level their own weapons at the Colombians. What had been a one-sided thing had turned into a dangerous standoff in a matter of seconds.
“You’re still outgunned,” General Marquez said. “If you fire, you would all die.”
Ted shrugged. “With respect, sir, you would die first.”
He moved so that the general was between him and the other Colombians.
“You think I care about that?” General Marquez demanded. “Something like this is more important than you, more important than me, and I still have superior firepower.”
“Then it’s a good thing I called in air support,” Ted said.
“You’re bluffing,”
But Kevin could hear the sound of rotor blades in the distance, and it seemed that so could everyone else. It should have made him feel safe, but as far as he could see, it made the whole situation more dangerous. It just increased the number of people who might decide to open fire at the wrong moment.
Sure enough, a helicopter came up over the trees, looking angular and spiked with weapons. Kevin found himself thinking of the phone call Ted had put in earlier. He’d expected this to happen, or at least something like this. He looked up at it, then around at all the men with guns pointed at one another. Another few seconds, and there might be bullets flying everywhere.
So Kevin did the only thing he could do, and stepped between Ted and the general.
“Get out of the way, Kevin,” Ted said.
“You should move,” General Marquez agreed.
Kevin shook his head. “No.”
“Kevin!” his mother yelled from further back, but a couple of the researchers caught her arms as she started forward. “Get away from there!”
Kevin didn’t move. He looked from Ted to the Colombian general, staying between the two of them while above, the helicopter hovered in a constant threat.
“You’re both being idiots,” Kevin said. It wasn’t how you were supposed to speak to adults, certainly not ones who were that heavily armed, but as far as Kevin could see, it was only the truth.
“You don’t understand what’s going on here, Kevin,” Ted said.
“He is right,” General Marquez agreed. “You do not understand the implications of this.”
Why did adults always think that they were the only ones who understood things? Why did they think that kids like Kevin were stupid?
“You don’t want a bunch of people from outside Colombia coming in to take what’s yours, or to tell you what to do,” Kevin said, “because you think it’s like them saying that they’re better than you. And Ted doesn’t want to give up the capsule partly because he thinks that we’ve done most of the work of finding it, partly because he thinks it will make us look weak if we let it go, and partly because he has orders and he’s the kind of person who will follow them no matter what. It’s all stupid.”
Ted cocked his head to one side. “Kevin’s not entirely wrong. I do have orders.”
“And I don’t want to see Colombia insulted by having this artifact taken by the Americans,” General Marquez said. “You have already interfered in our country too much.”
“So you’re both just being stubborn,” Kevin said. It felt wrong, talking to the two adults like this, but it was just the truth, and anyway, if he didn’t, they were probably all going to be shot. It seemed like a good reason to keep going, so he gestured to the scientists. “Look at all the different countries here working together. If they can do it, why don’t you?”
“What do you suggest?” General Marquez asked.
Kevin had an answer for that, at least. “We were going to take the capsule to some UN place…”
“The WHO center there,” Ted supplied.
“So why not do that?” Kevin asked. “It would look as though it was all happening because you allowed it, and you could be there when we opened it up. Everyone would see it.”
“Including the cameras,” Ted said. He lowered his weapon. “I hear you’re thinking of making a move into politics, General.”
The general was quiet for several seconds while he considered it, and Kevin thought he understood some of it now.
“It wouldn’t make you look weak,” he said. “It would make it look as though you were responsible for giving this to the world. This was sent to Earth, not to one specific country. It’s for everyone. It’s not something that anyone can own.”
General Marquez thought a little more, and then nodded. “Very well.” He called out to his men in Spanish, and they lowered their weapons. “We will accompany you to the UN compound, and we will watch this artifact opened up there. You have been very brave, young man.”
Kevin felt a flush of pride at that, although one glance back at his mother’s face told him just how much trouble he was in for putting himself in harm’s way. Ted put an arm around his shoulders, leading him back toward the Jeep.
“Well done,” he said, “but don’t ever do anything that stupid again. We could have all been killed.”
They could have, but they weren’t. Better than that, as the trucks started to roll on again in their convoy, they were going toward a place where they might finally find out what it was that the aliens had sent to Earth from their world.
“We’re going to get to open the capsule,” Kevin said. He couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice.
“We are,” Ted agreed, and for once he sounded almost as excited as Kevin. “We’re going to see what the aliens sent us.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Kevin kept his eyes on the truck that held the capsule all the way back to Bogota. He felt almost like, if he took his eyes off it for a moment, one of the different groups that had spent so much time arguing over it would try to take it.
“It’s not going to disappear,” Ted said. “You did a good job convincing everyone to work together on this, Kevin.”
Kevin wanted to believe it, but the capsule had almost come out of nowhere, hadn’t it? Why wouldn’t it find a way to disappear the same way? Why wouldn’t they be left staring at an empty space, just as they hoped for all the secrets that the aliens had prepared for them?
“It will be okay, Kevin,” his mother said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve already done the hard part.”
Kevin understood that, but even so, he watched the truck. It wasn’t just about wanting to make sure nothing happened. It was more the promise of it, and the need to wait. It felt like waiting for Christmas morning and a trip to the doctor’s office, all rolled into one. He didn’t take his eyes from it until he could see Bogota up ahead.
“The UN facility is just a little further,” Ted said, pointing.
The building ahead of them looked about fifty years more modern than most of the buildings around it, built of glass and steel, while the houses that surrounded it seemed kind of quaint and old-fashioned. There was a compound around it, complete with soldiers in blue helmets. They made no move to stop the convoy as it rolled toward the compound, and Kevin guessed that the people in it must have called ahead to let them know what was coming.
That meant that there was no chance of bringing it there quietly. Already, UN staff were standing there, looking at the convoy as it pulled in, while Kevin could see what looked like reporters stuck behind a barrier, barely being kept back by the presence of the soldiers. They pointed cameras, and flashes went off as the convoy ground to a halt. Kevin dared to breathe a sigh of relief. They’d made it here. They had the capsule.
He watched as a group of strong-looking researchers carried it inside, covered with a blanket so that the cameras wouldn’t see too much of it.
“I wish they didn’t have to hide it away,” Kevin said.
Ted looked from the capsule to the cameras. “Something tells me that they won’t be able to do it for long. Come on, let’s go inside.”
Kevin hopped down from the Jeep and then set off with Ted, his mother, and all the others into the UN compound. He wasn’t surprised to find more reporters, who had obviously decided to give up the chance for a first picture to be in a better position to shout questions once everyone got inside.
“Is it true?” one shouted. “Have you found an alien spaceship?”
Professor Brewster seemed to think it was obvious that he should answer, stepping forward to do it. “Hello, I’m Professor David Brewster of NASA. We have found something out in the rainforest, but for the moment, we’re not able to say exactly what it is. My people won’t be answering any questions about it at the moment, but there will be a press conference shortly, where we will be publicly examining the artifact that we found.”
The press continued to fire questions his way, but Professor Brewster ignored them, walking toward the compound’s main building. Kevin and the others hurried to keep up with him.
“We’re really going straight into a press conference?” Dr. Levin asked. She didn’t sound unhappy about it to Kevin, just surprised.
“Things have progressed quite quickly,” Professor Brewster said. “Arguments about who got to work on the rock were becoming quite… vocal.”
Kevin had hoped that after everything on the road, the scientists might be able to get along better than that.
“It was decided that the only way to prevent further issues is to deal with the situation here. There will be a press conference to announce it, and, since so many of my colleagues are pushing for it, we will be seeking to cut into the rock to discern the contents.”
“You’re actually going to open it?” Kevin asked. He hadn’t been sure if they would or not.
“Under strictly controlled conditions,” Professor Brewster said. “We can’t risk potential contamination, either of the rock or the surrounding environment. The room in which we perform the opening will be a sealed space.”
He went off to organize it, and Kevin could feel his excitement building.
“They’re actually going to open it,” he said with a grin. That was so cool.
“And we get to be a part of it,” Dr. Levin said.
“Will they need Kevin to be a part of the press conference?” Kevin’s mother asked.
“Probably,” Dr. Levin said. “He deserves to be, don’t you think?”
Kevin’s mother nodded. “He does. After all this, he does.”
***
The press room was a big conference room, obviously designed to hold large numbers of people. Even so, it felt cramped as Kevin entered it, so packed with reporters and researchers that it was almost impossible to squeeze through them all. A screen had been set up on the far wall, showing a white-walled laboratory, in which the capsule sat on a metal table, flanked by a trio of researchers. They wore white plastic suits that Kevin guessed were to stop them contaminating the capsule. They wore face masks too, and goggles.
At the front of the conference room, there was a long table with a variety of serious-looking men and women sitting behind it. Kevin recognized some of them from their expedition, and General Marquez was at the center of them all. Kevin, Dr. Levin, and Professor Brewster went up to join them.
“Thank you for coming, everyone,” Professor Brewster said. “As you probably know by now, we have recently returned from a scientific expedition into Colombia’s rainforest. During that expedition, we located the object that you can see.”
“What is it?” one reporter called out.
“Where did it come from?” another demanded.
Professor Brewster paused before he answered that. Kevin wondered what it must be like for him, having to say something that sounded impossible, even as he knew that it was true.
“We have reason to believe that this rock is a capsule sent by an alien civilization,” Professor Brewster said.
Gasps came from around the room, and all of the reporters started to ask questions at once. Professor Brewster raised his hands for silence.
“You will be aware by now that NASA has been receiving communications from an alien civilization,” he said. “These have been decoded by Kevin McKenzie, and based on them, we were able to locate this… object.”
He gestured to Kevin, and almost instantly, Kevin found himself blinded by the flashes of dozens of cameras.
“With the cooperation of the Colombian government, and an international team of scientists,” Professor Brewster went on, “we recovered the object and brought it here.”
He made it sound as if it had all been a lot more peaceful than it was, but Kevin guessed that was the story that they all wanted to tell, of working together and helping one another. It didn’t seem like a bad story, if it encouraged people to actually do it next time.
“We are going to perform preliminary tests on the object,” Professor Brewster said. “And, subject to the results, of course, we will open the capsule in line with the messages we have received.”
Again, a buzz of excitement ran through the room. One certainly ran through Kevin. All this talking was frustrating now. He wanted to get to the point where they actually opened up the capsule and saw what was inside. He tried to imagine what would be in there, but the truth was that it was impossible to imagine. There could be anything from information coded on a hidden supercomputer to vials of living material… anything.
“Kevin,” one of the reporters shouted. “What do you think all this will mean? Will you keep getting messages? What impact do you think it will have on humanity?”
“I don’t know,” Kevin answered. “I guess… I guess I’d like this to be kind of a new start for people. If we know that there are aliens out there, I guess we’ll have to think about who we are.”
There would be so many changes in the world, and the saddest part of it was that he probably wouldn’t be there to see most of them. Even that thought couldn’t push aside the excitement. He wanted to see what was inside the rock. He thought just about everyone did, by then.
“If there are no more questions,” Professor Brewster said, “we will commence the process of testing.”
He signaled to the scientists on the screen, who started to work with devices Kevin didn’t know the names of. Kevin found himself holding his breath while they did it.
“X ray seems inconclusive,” one of the scientists said. “It might be solid, but it’s hard to tell what a normal result should look like for an object like this.”
“Spectrometry suggests a composition consistent with a beyond Earth origin,” another said. “Similar to several meteorite compositions on our database.”
Kevin felt his hopes rise with that, while another ripple of noise went around the room. It seemed that the reporters there wanted to find out what was inside the capsule just as much as he did. Or almost as much, at least. Kevin couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to know as much as he did then.
“Given our preliminary data,” Professor Brewster asked the scientists on the screen, “is there any reason why we should not attempt to open the object?”
To Kevin, he sounded like he was trying to sound as calm and authoritative as possible. Kevin mostly just wished that they’d hurry up. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could sit there, waiting for them to do the one thing that they all knew they wanted to do.
“There are no obvious dangers,” the scientist on the other end of the video link said. “The structure of the rock appears sufficient to survive the process, and the appropriate safety precautions are in place.”
It sounded like a very long-winded way of saying that they could do it, to Kevin, but the main thing was that they were saying it.
“Very well,” Professor Brewster said. “Begin cutting into the object.”
He nodded to the scientists on the screen, and they went over to the rock, clamping it in place so that they could work on it. One came back with an electric saw that looked too big for one person to hold. It looked like the kind of thing that could cut through concrete or metal with ease.
Kevin half-expected it to bounce off the surface of the rock in spite of that. He thought that an alien capsule tough enough to make it all the way from the Trappist 1 system should be tough enough to stand up to a saw.
The saw bit into it, though, sparks and dust flying as it chewed through the rock.
“We’re getting some resistance,” one of the researchers said. “We might have to switch to a heavier blade.”
They kept going, first making an incision around the rock as if expecting it to fall open like an Easter egg the moment they did so, then plowing into it with the saw when that didn’t happen. They kept going until dust almost filled the screen, only clearing slowly, showing two halves of the capsule split neatly.
Kevin stared at that image, and he guessed that everyone else there and around the world was staring in that moment, trying to make sense of it. He looked at it until his eyes hurt, trying to pick out the details that would tell him what the aliens had sent to them. What was inside the capsule? What had been so important that they’d sent it light years away, to a completely different world?
He stared at it in hope first, then in disbelief.
What he was seeing simply didn’t make sense.
