The Invitation-kindle (20 page)

Through the muddled confusion of her unsettled thoughts a quiet, silent voice assures her. How could years of heartfelt love, and affection freely expressed between a mother, and her son be anything less than genuine? It’s not that he isn’t who he appears to be, but rather he is that, and very much more as well. All, she thinks, must be for the best. Her maternal instinct comes to the fore. That innate reflex of nurturing love that mothers alone are privy to sweeps all doubts aside. Ken Myers in name, substance, and spirit is and forever will be her son, the product of that lawful union of marriage between herself and her departed husband. No matter what else transpires, this remains inviolable. She feels relieved. She will trust in the belief that all will turn out for the best. What could happen? This episode in Miami, Florida, highly dramatic as it is, will end, she thinks, and things will get back to normal.

The last twenty-four hours have been an emotional roller coaster for Kathryn Myers. Perhaps now she can let go of the worry and foreboding she has felt. Like most, she was up late last night riveted to the TV, and consequently slept only a few hours.

Mrs. Myers noticed something unusual after getting up this morning. After turning on the light in her bathroom, she saw that her nose was bleeding. She can’t remember that ever happening before, but it stopped a few minutes later, and appeared to be nothing serious.

Events at Olympic Stadium have kept the world spellbound since they began. It has been nearly thirty hours since an alien spacecraft has appeared in the skies above Miami, subsequently landing and initiating an extended, comprehensible dialogue with the Vice President of the United States. Evidently timed to coincide with saturation media coverage of the Olympic Games, that unique, and unrepeatable moment of interstellar contact with another civilization had come, and is playing out in the open view of billions of onlookers. Only some understand that what they are seeing will initiate a seminal change in human consciousness, and forever alter mankind’s understanding of his place in the universe. Many believe that the unprecedented events in Miami will serve as a catalyst for constructive change, and expect some form of positive outcome.  People seem to be in a general state of perplexed amazement by the utter and singular strangeness of what they’re seeing, but for most, it is the messenger and not the message that grips their imagination. Warnings of environmental catastrophe aren’t new, but this is something of another magnitude. Even as this dramatic event is still unfolding, sketches and design plans to replicate the facial likeness of the Linesian android have begun. The image of this creature is now considered to be a saleable corporate commodity, and there are those who know that when this is over, market sales of anything Linesian will be phenomenal. Linesian clothing, Linesian sunglasses, Linesian video games, any saleable item that can display a likeness or make any sort of connection will be exploited. The market possibilities of capitalizing off of this global event are already being eagerly planned for. This creature who has travelled inconceivable spans of time, and distance to deliver its potent warning of impending environmental collapse to mankind will be caricatured and become a marketable commodity, adorning children’s lunch boxes and beach towels.

For one man, though, the prophetic words and images communicated to the people of Earth so dramatically are to be taken with the utmost seriousness. Vice President Scott Conner is by temperament receptive to new and novel sources of knowledge and scientific discovery, and finds it completely within the range of credibility that the events he is seeing before him are genuinely valid, and until shown to be otherwise, believes they should be considered accordingly. He finds it impossible to ignore the dire warning he is hearing point-blank, directly from the alien figure standing no more than ten feet away from him.

One of the most confusing aspects of the strange spectacle being played out in Miami is the inexplicable behavior of the President of the United States. Sitting patiently as if in a doctor’s waiting room, he looks completely disengaged from the momentous events taking place in front of him. Instead it’s the Vice President who is assuming the role of humanity’s interlocutor in the unprecedented dialogue that the world is now seeing and hearing so stunningly.

Mindful of his responsibility to advocate for human survival, he searches for words to ply his case. Looking upward, he sees, still hanging in the sky, the enormous image of a creature the Linesian calls
Neo homo
, a creature purported to inherit man’s future. After a prolonged silence, the Vice President asks the Linesian, “This image we’re seeing in the sky right now is a projected image. How are you doing that?”

“It’s a primitive trick of bending light, Mr. Conner. That’s only technical knowledge. Your question is not germane.”

“What would be a better one?”

“Perhaps one that helps to uncover the roots of human violence, since that is the greatest obstacle to a peaceful human future.”

“Not all humans are violent.”

“That’s right, Mr. Conner, and in them humanity’s promise lives, but enough are violent to keep your world in perpetual chaos.”

“We discourage violence, and have laws against it.”

“Is that the official line, Mr. Conner?”

“No, it isn’t. It’s based on our traditions of law and morality that have taken centuries to establish.”

“And they will take centuries more to reestablish once they’re lost.”

“Then why don’t you help us try to keep them from being lost?”

“The peril and confusion of your world is of your own making. Only you can choose to leave it behind. You can start by looking at the way you speak. Humans use a vocabulary that eventually weaves itself out into the reality of war and violent conflict.”

“How do you mean?”

“When is the last time you heard someone use the word enemy, Mr. Conner? We’re you shocked when you heard the word spoken by one human being to describe another?  Or did you simply accept it unquestioningly? To accept casual use of that word is to casually accept the faulty premise it implies. You speak, and think in categories that you uncritically accept at face value. Repeated human speech produces the human reality it describes. After you speak about war, tell stories about war, memorialize war, and exalt those who engage in war, is it any wonder that you eventually wage war? You are still enthralled by primitive mythologies of conquest and valor, and your slavish adherence to these archaic notions of heroism and martial sacrifice is what conditions you to irrational fear and the aggression it spawns.”

“Most human beings don’t want violence. The overwhelming majority want peace,” the Vice President says.

“Do they?”

“Yes, I believe that.”

“Then why do they flock in droves to see the countlessly reenacted scenes of criminal violence rife in your media culture? Why is the plight of so many women in your world one of abuse and intimidation? If as you say, the overwhelming majority of people in your world want peace, Mr. Conner, then why don’t they embrace peace in their own lives?”

“Peace is something we’re still striving for. The fact that we haven’t attained it yet doesn’t mean it’s something we don’t want or value. We don’t want violence in our world.”

“You traffic in violence. For you it’s a commodity, simply another commercial product that you market and sell for profit. The ubiquitous image of the physically dominant male is central in your stories, and fables. Even after all the needless anguish he brings to your world, he is given tribute, and lauded as heroic. Those celebrated action figures and military heroes that are portrayed as saving your world are in reality the greatest threat to its future.

As the Vice President pauses, he looks away for a moment and sees Ken Myers sitting between his wife, Carol, and Allen Forbes, his assigned Secret Service agent, and he also notices a change in the President’s facial and body posture, as if he suddenly remembered something of consequence. The President’s bearing and physical demeanor seems to awaken from the passive stillness that he so oddly exhibited before this moment. Hearing the President speak to his wife, he clearly hears him say to her,

“Carol, I want you to go to a hotel and get some rest. You’ve been here for over twenty-four hours now. Please.”

“When will I hear from you?” Carol asks.

“Soon, I promise.”

“Okay”

Turning to Secret Service Agent Allen Forbes, who has been with him for most of the twenty-nine hours that have passed since this unlikely drama began, the President asks, “Allen will you please escort my wife to a hotel where she can get a good night’s sleep?”

“Are you staying here, Sir?”

“Yes. Don’t worry about me, Allen. With all these Secret Service people around here, what could happen?”

“Sir—”

“Please do this for me, Allen.”

“Yes, Sir, I will.”

“Thank you. Remember, Allen, whatever happens, it’s all for the best.”

At this all three rise from their seats. As the President kisses his wife goodbye, he tells her, “I’m so glad we had that long talk this morning.”

“So am I.”

“I’ll talk to you soon, Carol. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

As Mrs. Myers is escorted away, the President watches both of them leave, and sits back down. The time is now 12:26 a.m. The Vice President’s conversation with the Linesian android that held the world in breathless anticipation with every word now falls strangely silent. Seeing the President looking more like himself, the Vice President pauses, and thinks President Myers will now take over, and so stands ready to relinquish the temporary role he unexpectedly assumed. All the viewing world seems to share this expectation as well, and tentatively waits for something to happen.

For one viewer, weariness has overcome curiosity as she sleeps quietly on the couch in her living room in front of the television. The President’s mother, Kathryn Myers, has quickly fallen into a deep sleep, and soon begins dreaming. But this dream is disturbing, dark, and vaguely ominous. For Kathryn Myers this dream will be like no other, and will haunt her for the rest of her life. It starts as she finds herself in a noisy, unfamiliar place, where animals are housed. What could it mean? she wonders. Her dream becomes clearer, and more intense as she wakes within it to find herself in a place of pain and torment. She now instantly perceives her surroundings. She finds herself in the loud mayhem of a meat packing factory, and sees a line of cattle making their slow death walk to the killing slaughter that waits for them. She sees one, poor bovine creature being pushed, and prodded, and as their eyes meet Kathryn Myers looks into the face of a creature who feels pain, who senses fear, and who desperately wants to live. The inaudible fright seen in the animal’s helpless gaze brings a heart-wrenching anguish that floods her entire being. What can this mean? She watches as the line slowly moves ahead, and is powerless to stop what will happen. Immobilizing sleep makes her a captive participant in the unfolding tragedy. She has no choice but to watch the grisly act unfold.

As Kathryn Myers fitfully sleeps on the couch in her apartment in Washington, D.C., the television no more than twelve feet from her is showing live images of her son, the President of the United States and the amazing events taking place in Olympic Stadium.  Uninterrupted coverage of the incredible scene has saturated nearly all media communication on Earth. The President, the Vice President, and an alien android creature that calls himself a 'Linesian’ are the three principal players in this ongoing drama that has so powerfully focused the world’s attention. Vice President Scott Conner has singularly carried his part in the dramatic dialogue with his alien counterpart. As the Vice President pauses, looking at the President for any sign or indication of his intentions, the temporary silence makes the three of them look almost like actors in their places on stage waiting for the director’s cue to begin, but in this drama not all of the players are obvious. There’s a fourth actor, one who is hidden, waiting, and ready. Time itself seems to have stopped, as all expectantly wait for what will happen next, but no human being could have been prepared for what they are about to witness. The time is now 12:39.

The Vice President pauses, and again looks at the President. After seeing him sitting again in the strange, passive posture as before, as if waiting for something, he continues his dialogue with the Linesian.

“You said that you offer us an invitation. What kind of invitation?”

“The invitation we offer is an invitation into your own imagination. Your own future is inviting you into itself through the glimmering possibility of intentional imagination. We’re only asking you to accept that invitation, an invitation to the invitation so to speak, Mr. Conner.”

“That doesn’t sound very practical. We need solutions to problems we face now.”

“The help you need right now is something you can only give yourselves.”

“What do you mean?”

In our models one variable could not be predicted. That is, whether or not nuclear war would occur in man’s future.”

“Why can’t you predict that? You seem confident in predicting climate change.”

“Predicting your climate is based on simple algorithmic formulations. The human factor is unpredictable. Humans are free to choose. Therefore be warned. Mankind is at the early dawn of a global environmental collapse. All you can do at this point is to mitigate its worst effects. Humanity will not survive this collapse and a nuclear war. If nuclear war occurs in the next two hundred years it will be tantamount to genetic suicide for the genus
Homo
.”

“Then why don’t you help us avoid that?”

“We can give you that help right now, Mr. Conner. If you can imagine a world free of the threat of nuclear war then be bold, and take that step. We will help you.”

“How could you help us?”

“At your request, and approval, we can permanently disarm all nuclear weapons on Earth, and relieve you and your children of this perilous threat. That can be done right now.”