tools and materials such as Dr. Cavanagh’s intriguing black suit. He has also spoken of something they have made. I am here to tell you that I am the answer to both those riddles. For I am an Agent of the race coming to conquer you.”
What noise the room had been making, mostly only the light whisper of their breathing, stopped.
John went on, “I was part of the team sent to subdue you and mute your nuclear response to the coming attack. Not because my people believed you could win, but because they feared that in fighting for your lives you might destroy the very thing they have travelled all these light-years to claim. Your planet.”
Some of the room were remembering to breathe, but most stared wide-eyed as he went on, passionate now, “But I tell you that you can win. Because we are not united, like my friend Neal is hoping you will be. My people do not all believe in this terrible enterprise. If we have overpopulated our own planet that is no justification for taking yours. And so I was sent by the people I represent to help you. I am not a convert, I am one of the many who believe this cannot be allowed to come to pass, and I have dedicated myself to stopping it.
“But, to demonstrate Neal’s point, and to emphasize my own, I should tell you that I am not what I seem. I am but a copy, an esoteric construct overlaid with the characteristics and traits of the real me to allow me to possess this machine body that allows me to walk among you. A body capable of surviving the blistering speed with which I entered your atmosphere nearly two years ago. A body that represents some measure of what you now face.”
With that he stopped talking a moment and he bent and placed the thumb and two fingers of his right hand on the floor. He then proceeded to lift himself easily into the air, supporting his entire weight upside-down on the three fingers he had placed on the wooden paneled flooring. He ignored the gaping looks and continued talking, turning himself on his three superhuman fingers to face this way and that in a demonstration of how easy this feat was for him.
“See me. Know that I represent what is coming. I am what they can do.” He lowered himself now, supporting himself still on those three fingers, but flattening his body parallel to the floor until he lay flat, raised off the ground only a few inches, in the most impossible yoga position ever imagined. Then, with a flick of his arm, he threw himself up in a smooth arching somersault to land with alarming grace on his two feet once more.
Facing them normally, he now said, “If you think for one moment that this is something that can be ignored, I warn you that you doom everyone you love to certain death by doing so. You must resist. You must devote yourselves to defending this earth. I will help, and there are others who share my beliefs aboard the coming Armada even now, waiting to sabotage some measure of its strength. But do not think we can come close to stopping them alone. We must all stand together.”
The room was with him, completely, they were transfixed, and so he said his final piece: “You should know, also, that even as we begin to prepare for the greater fight ahead, we must also address the remnants of the threat that still walks among us. For I did not come alone, and my colleagues are just as capable as I, and harbor nothing but ill-will toward you and your kind.”
They all recoiled. John raised his hands placatingly.
“Now, we believe two of my colleagues are already dead. One more has joined me, his will for genocide ebbed from him by his time living amongst you. But four other Agents still hide amongst you. And we must find them. They carry terrible purpose and awesome power, and they must be destroyed if we are to have a chance in our enterprise.”
Into the silence, a question came unexpectedly, “Where is this … friend of yours? Your ally.” came a meek voice, it was the Japanese ambassador.
John paused, and many
What noise the room had been making, mostly only the light whisper of their breathing, stopped.
John went on, “I was part of the team sent to subdue you and mute your nuclear response to the coming attack. Not because my people believed you could win, but because they feared that in fighting for your lives you might destroy the very thing they have travelled all these light-years to claim. Your planet.”
Some of the room were remembering to breathe, but most stared wide-eyed as he went on, passionate now, “But I tell you that you can win. Because we are not united, like my friend Neal is hoping you will be. My people do not all believe in this terrible enterprise. If we have overpopulated our own planet that is no justification for taking yours. And so I was sent by the people I represent to help you. I am not a convert, I am one of the many who believe this cannot be allowed to come to pass, and I have dedicated myself to stopping it.
“But, to demonstrate Neal’s point, and to emphasize my own, I should tell you that I am not what I seem. I am but a copy, an esoteric construct overlaid with the characteristics and traits of the real me to allow me to possess this machine body that allows me to walk among you. A body capable of surviving the blistering speed with which I entered your atmosphere nearly two years ago. A body that represents some measure of what you now face.”
With that he stopped talking a moment and he bent and placed the thumb and two fingers of his right hand on the floor. He then proceeded to lift himself easily into the air, supporting his entire weight upside-down on the three fingers he had placed on the wooden paneled flooring. He ignored the gaping looks and continued talking, turning himself on his three superhuman fingers to face this way and that in a demonstration of how easy this feat was for him.
“See me. Know that I represent what is coming. I am what they can do.” He lowered himself now, supporting himself still on those three fingers, but flattening his body parallel to the floor until he lay flat, raised off the ground only a few inches, in the most impossible yoga position ever imagined. Then, with a flick of his arm, he threw himself up in a smooth arching somersault to land with alarming grace on his two feet once more.
Facing them normally, he now said, “If you think for one moment that this is something that can be ignored, I warn you that you doom everyone you love to certain death by doing so. You must resist. You must devote yourselves to defending this earth. I will help, and there are others who share my beliefs aboard the coming Armada even now, waiting to sabotage some measure of its strength. But do not think we can come close to stopping them alone. We must all stand together.”
The room was with him, completely, they were transfixed, and so he said his final piece: “You should know, also, that even as we begin to prepare for the greater fight ahead, we must also address the remnants of the threat that still walks among us. For I did not come alone, and my colleagues are just as capable as I, and harbor nothing but ill-will toward you and your kind.”
They all recoiled. John raised his hands placatingly.
“Now, we believe two of my colleagues are already dead. One more has joined me, his will for genocide ebbed from him by his time living amongst you. But four other Agents still hide amongst you. And we must find them. They carry terrible purpose and awesome power, and they must be destroyed if we are to have a chance in our enterprise.”
Into the silence, a question came unexpectedly, “Where is this … friend of yours? Your ally.” came a meek voice, it was the Japanese ambassador.
John paused, and many
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