Trust (12 page)

        Three-quarters of an hour later we lay on the floor together, tired, naked and completely fulfilled.

        I was starting to fall asleep. I couldn’t help it. Siobhan seemed to have ten times the energy I did tonight. She buried her face on my bare chest and kissed and nibbled my skin.

        I was filled with a feeling of overpowering warmth, security and comfort, the likes of which I’d only known since Siobhan had walked into my life. There had been long, dark days just a few months earlier when I had thought that there would never be anything positive in my life again. Days when I had envisaged spending the rest of my time alone, never wanting to leave the silent isolation of my home. But Siobhan had always been waiting for me in the next room or at the other end of the phone, and I knew that all of the credit for dragging me back from the edge of the darkest abyss imaginable belonged to the wonderful girl resting in my arms. `Let me ask you a question,’ she asked suddenly. `Go on,’ I replied, forcing myself to wake up a little. `If you had the chance to travel to the alien planet, would you go?’ `Return trip or one way?’ `One way.’ `A would you be going with me?’ `Forget about me, this is hypothetical.’ `Doesn’t matter. I can’t forget about you.’

        She playfully thumped my chest. `Just answer the question, will you?’ `I’d like to go, but only if I could come back. And like I said, I’m not going anywhere unless you’re going with me.’

        How could I turn down the opportunity to travel through space? But on the other hand, was there any point in going? I had everything I wanted in Thatcham. More to the point, I had everything I wanted lying in the living room with me.

        I still couldn’t believe that I had Siobhan.

        It was impossible not to learn about the aliens. Their power and technology seemed limitless (except, it seemed, when it came to getting home) as did the amount of information available about them. I must have heard a thousand and one facts about them, but I only bothered to remember a handful.

        The footage we saw of the homeworld on Visitor Update was reassuringly familiar in many respects. The planet had rolling seas, lush forests and huge open plains. The cities seemed clean and well-ordered. Family homes were spacious and comfortable.

        The alien families themselves were similar to our own in some respects, but vastly different in others. The family group itself on the homeworld was considerably more extended than our own, with three generations living together under the same roof. There were two sexes (as I had supposed). Promiscuity, however, was unheard of. When an alien found a partner (and once the partnership had been given approval by the eldest female in the family) the two would be married in a simple ceremony and then mate. And every time they mated, bizarrely, there would be a two-way exchange of genetic information. The upshot of this biological quirk was that, over time, one alien began to assume the characteristics of the other. Any resultant offspring would, therefore, be almost identical to both parents.

        As generation after generation had come together in this way it had resulted in a lack of any strong variation throughout the entire race. There were no `black’ or `white’ aliens, there were just aliens.

        Their genetic quirks did not end there. Once their general schooling was complete, the aliens were genetically assessed.

        Their potential skill levels were then matched with any prevalent social, moral and economic need to decide upon their required vocation. In essence, therefore, it was their biological and emotional make up that decided the path their lives would take, not any personal choice.

        Having such an incredible understanding of their genes and their bodies in general, the aliens were, unbelievably, able to calculate their projected date of death (accidents and errors and omissions excepted, of course). The length of their working lives would be calculated accordingly so that there was a fair and equal opportunity for each one of them to enjoy a fixed-length retirement before passing away. I found that concept particularly hard to comprehend. How would I feel knowing the date of my death? Or knowing exactly how many working days I had before I could stop and rest? Such cold precision and knowledge would do me far more harm than good. I now preferred to do nothing for a living and I enjoyed the luxury of being able to get up and not have a clue what I was going to do or where I was going to go. I thrived on the new-found spontaneity of my life.

        At seven-thirty on Tuesday evening Rob brought an alien home with him. He’d been shopping in Dreighton when he’d met the visitor. The novelty of their unexpected arrival on our planet and their unusual appearance had long since worn off, but I still found it difficult to come to terms with the fact that an alien had just walked through my front door. `This is a friend of mine, Tom,’ Rob said as he introduced me to the tall and gangly figure standing next to him. `I met him while I was in town. I didn’t think you’d mind if he came back for a drink and something to eat.’ `Pleased to meet you,’ the visitor said, confidently reaching out a spindly hand in front of him. I took hold of it and shook it firmly, staring down as the long extended fingers wrapped around my hand and wrist. `I hope you don’t mind my being here…’

        I shook my head. `No, it’s fine…’ I mumbled, still shocked. `You okay?’ Rob asked, immediately picking up on my obvious unease and surprise. `Fine,’ I replied.

        I really didn’t mind the visitor being there, I was just struggling to get over the sudden shock of the unannounced arrival. It would have been okay if I’d had a little time to prepare. It was one thing seeing the aliens on television and even passing them in the street, but in my hallway…? `There you go,’ Rob said to his new friend. `Told you he’d make you welcome.’

        The three of us stood there for a few long seconds in an uncomfortable, awkward silence. As the host (no matter how surprised or unwilling) I took it upon myself to try and break the ice. I stood to one side so that the alien had a clear view through to the living room. `Go on through,’ I said, gesturing deeper into the house.

        Rob led the alien down the hallway. Ignorant to his arrival, Siobhan stepped out of the kitchen just in time to see our guest’s wiry frame disappear through the living room door. `Was that…?’ she began to ask.

        I nodded. `Certainly was. Rob brought him back with him from…’

        I didn’t bother to finish my sentence because it was obvious that Siobhan wasn’t listening. Like one of the children of Hamlin following the Pied Piper she quickly wandered down the hall and peered round into the living room. I followed at a cautious distance. By the time I had reached the three of them the introductions were already being made. `This is Siobhan,’ Rob said. `She’s Tom’s girlfriend. Bloody beautiful, isn’t she? Christ knows what she sees in my brother…’ `She must like him,’ the alien said quietly and factually, completely misunderstanding Rob’s pathetic attempt at being funny. `Hello,’ Siobhan mumbled, uncharacteristically timidly. She squirmed and smiled like an embarrassed teenager being introduced to their favourite pop star. `So what’s your name?’ I asked from the doorway. A perfectly reasonable question. `I can’t say it,’ Rob replied.

        The alien turned round to look at me. `You wouldn’t be able to pronounce it.’ `Try me,’ I snapped. I didn’t like being told that I wouldn’t be able to do something by anyone, certainly not by an alien.

        Rob seemed to pick up on my irritation and immediately did his best to try and diffuse the situation. `I’ve been calling him John,’ he said. `You don’t mind that, do you John?’ `John’ shook his bulbous head. `I don’t mind. It doesn’t really matter. Popular name, isn’t it?’ `Used to be the most popular name,’ Siobhan said.

        The alien managed a thin-lipped smile. `Thought so.’

        `Why?’ asked Rob. `Because a lot of my friends have been given human names by the people they’ve met. Not including me I know of seventeen Johns, four Stevens, three Christophers and one Thomas!’

        That really annoyed me. I didn’t know why, but it did. `Who wants a drink?’ I grumbled. `Beers for us two please, Tom,’ Rob answered. `And me,’ added Siobhan. `Can you have beer?’ I asked, nodding in the general direction of the alien. `I’m old enough, if that’s what you mean,’ he replied, deadpan.

        The supercilious tone of his voice was infuriating. I couldn’t tell if he was intentionally trying to wind me up or whether he was just doing it by chance. I walked out to the kitchen and fetched four bottles of beer.

        By the time I returned to the living room the others had dragged three chairs out onto the front lawn. I grabbed another one (nice of them to think of me) and sat down next to Siobhan before passing the drinks around. `So, how are you enjoying yourself here?’ Siobhan asked the alien. Although she was sitting just inches away from me she had managed to angle herself so that all I could see was her back. `Are you getting used to being here yet?’

        I watched John the alien and smiled inwardly as he struggled to open his bottle of beer with those long, slender fingers.

        Siobhan reached across, took the drink and did it for him. `I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying it,’ he answered, sniffing and cautiously sipping his beer. `It’s adequate for now.’

        He shuffled in his seat, looking distinctly uncomfortable. His body was too long for the seat. `Looking forward to getting back?’ `Of course I am.’ `You must miss home,’ Siobhan continued. `I do,’ he replied. `I knew I was going to be away for a long time, but this is going to take much longer than any of us expected.’ `So what exactly happened?’ I asked.

        `What? Happened when?’ `When you were out there on your ship. I can’t imagine what could have happened to cripple something as big and complex as your ship.’ `We were mining minerals in an asteroid field and we were hit by debris.’ `Debris!’ I exclaimed. `Fucking hell, must have been a bloody big bit of debris to do so much damage.’

        He fixed his baby-blue eyes on mine. `It was.’

        His voice was icy cold and devoid of all emotion. Although I had no way of knowing whether the aliens normally used the same expression and intonation in their voices as we did, I sensed that was his way of telling me to piss off.

        While I stared at the alien and wished that he would fuck off back to wherever it was that he had come from, Rob and Siobhan continued to bombard him with a barrage of questions. `So how did you feel when you stepped out of the ship?’

        Siobhan wondered. `What were your first impressions?’ `First impressions of what?’ `Of everything. What did you think of the planet, our cities, our people?’

        He thought carefully for a few moments and finished his beer.

        He was drinking at an impressive speed. I had only just started mine. `If I’m honest,’ he began, `arriving here was a very strange experience.’ `Strange?’ I asked. `In what way?’

        He thought again before replying. `Strange in that being here is like being in a living history book. There are some major differences between our planets and our people, but generally your technology and way of living is similar to the standards we had on our planet a considerable time ago…’ `When you say considerable,’ I interrupted, `just how long are we talking about?’ `You are about three hundred years behind us.’ `You’re that far ahead?’ Siobhan gasped. `We’re that far behind?’ I mumbled.

        He nodded. `Approximately.’

        A moment of silence passed while we all individually stopped to consider the alien’s apparent superiority over our race. `So what did you do on your ship?’ Rob asked, effortlessly restarting a conversation which I silently hoped had finished. `I worked in the Storage and Gradation team. I looked after the machines that graded the ore before it was passed to the refinery.’ `The refinery?’ I said, surprised. `Bloody hell, just what did you do on that ship? I thought you just mined for whatever it was you needed and transported it back to your planet.’

        He shook his head. `Because we’d used up pretty much all of our planet’s resources we had to start mining further and further afield. And because of the length of time it took us to travel to these places, we prepared the ore en route so that it was ready for use when we got back home. That also avoided polluting the planet with the by-products of our operations.’ `So you just polluted space instead?’ I snapped.

        He nodded again. `That’s right.’ `So how did you do it? How did you mine? Did you have machines with hammers and pickaxes or…?’ `We took most of our minerals from asteroids and small moons. We’d locate the source, attach the ship to it and then extract whatever it was that we needed to take.’ `You mined asteroids?’ Rob asked, his eyes like saucers. `Jesus, how dangerous is that?’ `Dangerous enough to mean that I’m sitting here with you tonight,’ he replied. `The asteroid we were working on had an undetected flaw. Our machines tapped into the wrong place and the whole mass disintegrated.’

        ‘Disintegrated?’ I pressed. `Exploded,’ he explained. `That’s where the debris I was talking about came from. It damaged the engines and breached the hull.’

        I nodded and thought for a second.

        `So where exactly did you stand on board?’ I then asked. He didn’t answer immediately - did he think I was asking where he physically stood on the ship? I elaborated. `There are about three hundred and seventy of you here, right?’ `Correct.’ `So how far up in the chain of command are you? Do you sit at the captain’s table or are you…?’ `Am I what?’ `Bottom of the heap?’