***
“Good
Morning Ladies and Gentlemen. It is my pleasure to welcome John Camerie, your
President of These United States of America.” The announcer said into the mike
as he and the crowd of mews reports and journalists turned en-masse to watch
the President walk on stage. The President walked to the podium and looked out
into the crowd before he started speaking.
“There have
been a lot of stories being printed lately, accusing this Presidency of spying
on other countries. While that has been true in previous years, it is not true
now. It has been forty years since America’s War on Terror. We made a promise
when we pulled out of the Middle East to be more trusting of all other
countries, as long they afforded us the same courtesy. We chose this course of
action so we could use the money we were expending on an admittedly fruitless endeavor
to fix what was broken in this country.
“I made a
promise when I was running for President that I intend to keep. I promised to
focus more on this nation’s problems and less on other countries, because
American’s come first. The other countries can fend for themselves. They all
did fine before we stuck our noses in their business, and they will be just as
fine now that we are minding our own business for the most part. One of the
things we have been focusing on is making our science centers capable of
competing in the global market, so the gall of this journalist to say we are
using our NASA satellites to spy on other countries makes me very sad.
“NASA’s
satellites have been trained on the stars, trying to find new life out there in
the universe. Their satellites are being used to find hope. Hope that we aren't
alone in the universe, because that would truly be devastating. I have invited
the Head of NASA, Carol Raemous, to join me today to show some of the new
pictures and discoveries her satellites made in recent months. Here’s hoping
she shows my favorite new picture.”
The
President took a step back to allow the 5 foot tall Latina to take the podium.
She adjusted the mikes on the podium so she could speak into them without going
on her tippy toes. She may have only been 5 feet tall but she made an imposing
figure. She pushed her blue rimmed glasses up her pert nose, so her brown eyes were
staring down at the crowd. She had her hair up in a schoolmarm’s bun, but a few
tendrils escaped giving her a carefree look. She smiled and began to speak.
“We were
going to wait a few weeks before we shared these findings with the public, but
recent…developments, we figured why not share them now. Our Satellites have received
images from one of the long range probes we sent into space during the 1970’s.
We had no idea any of them were still operational after almost ninety years, but
the pictures and data this once sent back exceeded any of our hopes and
expectations. This probe has traveled nearly 20 light years from our solar
system. Let me put that into perspective for you Proxima Centauri the closest
star to us is 4.2 light years away from us, which is roughly twenty-three
quadrillion miles from us.
“Now we have no idea how it got
that far since it’s propulsion system should have burned out years ago without maintenance,
and there is no way they could have gotten it that far. We only started receiving
data about a month ago and it’s still pouring in so we still have A LOT of data
to pour over, but we brought a few pictures to show you. Without further ado,
let us begin,” Carol turned towards a white screen gliding down from the
ceiling as the lights in the auditorium went out.
The reporters and journalist stop
writing and cameramen turned their cameras to the pictures flowing across the
screen. As Carol spoke about the pictures of stars, and planets, and the
wonders that the probe had seen, many of the people in attendance were in awe.
They had never seen such breath taking images in their life. For many it
created a spark of curiosity about the universe that they had never had before.
Finally Carol came to the last and most impressive photograph. The crowd gasped
as they were shown an image of a planet that was blue and green. A planet that
looked a lot like Earth.
“That Ladies and Gentlemen is a
planet circling a Star just like our sun not 10 light years from earth. We have
pulled in scientists from all over the world to pour over the data we got from
the probe on this planet. The data seems to show that this planet has life a
lot like what would be found on Earth. We cannot wait until we have gotten all
the data on this planet, and we cannot wait to share our findings with the
world. This planet which we have dubbed Vulcan, may prove we are not alone in
the universe, and if the planet has sentient life we may be able to communicate
with them. Thank you very much for coming out and experiencing this with,” she
was cut off suddenly by a face appearing on the projector screen.
“You shouldn't have done that,” The
woman on the screen said. The face was beautiful in a harsh kind of way. The
woman looked to be of African descent with large purple almond shaped eyes. She
had very curly blond hair that fell below what they could see of the screen. She
had a very aristocratic nose, and a stubborn chin. Her lips were thick pouty bows, turned down into a frown.
“As long as you kept that
information about that planet to yourself, I would have left this planet alone
for a little longer. Now you leave me no choice,” she said looking around the
room. She watched as the room descended into chaos as Secret Service attempted
to cut the feed off. They pulled the projectors power but she still stayed on
the screen. They shut the power off to the entire building and still she
stayed. Finally they attempted to remove the President, but he was having none
of it. He wanted to find out who this woman thought she was.
“Who are you to interrupt this
meeting,” John asked her, “Explain yourself!”
Across the globe television screens
switched on, movie theater screens changed all showing her face and all across
the sky her face was projected. In every language at once she spoke, “I am Mura
– Jie. I am Earth’s Watcher. I have been protecting this planet since your
ancestors became sentient. I am the reason this planet hasn’t been destroyed a thousand
times over,” she looked around at all the humans staring at her, “I maybe
regretting that choice.”
She flashed an image of all the world’s
nuclear weapons being brought online with scientist trying frantically to stop
them and failing, then frantic calls to government leaders telling them of the imminent
danger. Her face reappeared, “I am giving every government on this backwater
little planet to send a male and female to represent them at the United
Nations. I am giving you forty-eight hours starting now to get them there. If EVERY
country doesn't have representation there, I will destroy the human race. Oh
and don’t try and stop your nuclear weapons. They are in my control, and they
will stay there. And remember, I see everything.” She brought up images of the
humans descending into chaos as to prove her point.
“Forty-eight hours. Time’s wasting.”
