Nisha awoke from a dream in the dark at 5am.
“Rachel, are you awake? Rachel?”
“Um, yeah, I’m awake now. What’s happening?”
“I had a dream where an alien child ordered Priya around. She cried and they were looking at her with those chameleon eyes. She felt alone. I helped her escape, and I woke up. What’s that noise?”
They walked outside to investigate and turned on the lights. They were astonished.
“The builder drones are getting closer,” Rachel said. “There are millions of them. We need to relocate again.”
“Yeah, we need to move,” Nisha said. “We can relocate further up the hill. I thought we might be high enough because they prefer flat ground to build their towers.”
“I alerted Mojave command about this, and they’ll be out soon to move us,” Rachel said. “I’m checking out the news now. While we were sleeping, five more large spheres entered orbit. That makes 15. Also, they built two new 2,000-meter towers overnight. Every time I think activity can’t get any more intense, I’m wrong again.”
“I thought one big sphere was enough. There’s no end to their ingenuity. I’m more anxious every day. I wish I understood their objective.”
“Hmm,” Rachel said. “I’m getting word the aliens are posting minders in the House of Commons and similar bodies in Russia, China, and many other countries. They’re keeping track of us. I’m sure they’ve mastered every human language and are monitoring our most secure communications.
Nisha surveyed the ever-expanding colony as the sun rose behind her, casting a bright light on the huge, twisted towers against the dark cumulonimbus clouds forming behind them.
“It’s the most glorious sight on this planet Rachel. It’s a super busy airport. Two or three times per minute there’s an arrival or a departure. I can’t figure out how they control the traffic. The spheres are silent other than the sonic booms and that low throbbing noise. Over there, dozens of small spheres are lined up. They come and go as easily as we use public transit. We need to track where they’re going.”
Rachel blinked to activate up her eyepiece.
“Let me find out if any recent sightings have been reported. Hmm.”
Silence.
Nisha watched her impatiently.
“What?”
“Hmm. Reports on Twitter and elsewhere indicate a sphere landed in Yosemite. The aliens got out and walked around, inspecting everything including the people. Their sphere floated around in the valley traveling close to the canyon walls. Now I’m seeing reports of spheres appearing in the Himalaya and the Andes mountains. They’ve been spotted in the redwood and sequoia forests also. They like vertical environments or at least are fascinated with them. Why would this be?”
Nisha gazed at the towers.
“Well, judging from their stocky and muscular build, the gravity on their planet must be stronger than ours. It’s likely the landscape of their home world isn’t as tall and vertical as Earth’s. They may be enjoying the scenery.”
Rachel smiled.
“They’re tourists?”
“Possibly. Why should they not be tourists? They appreciate natural beauty as we do. Earth is new to them, so they may be fascinated by Earth’s alien landscape. Plus, they’ve traveled a long way and they’ve been cooped up in those spheres for who knows how long. I assume they’ve been traveling for generations, unless they have faster than light travel, which I think is impossible. From their perspective and given unlimited energy they could travel at sub-light speed across the galaxy in 50 spacecraft years if they wanted. Accelerating at 1g. Of course, more than 100,000 years would elapse from our standpoint. I don’t think that even they have enough energy to do that. And a grain of dust would vaporize them at those speeds. I hope they’re only tourists. Maybe they’ll leave. I know I’ve always wanted to see alien life with my own eyes, but this is enough now.”
“Hey, the relocation crew is here,” Rachel said.
Within a few hours, their tent and the tents of the other researchers had been moved further up the hill about 1,000 meters in elevation. They had a more commanding view than before. The colony had grown all around them and the views had been cut off. Now they had a view of the entire colony though the tops of the tallest towers were still above them.”
“Now there are 12 2,000-meter-tall towers.” Nisha said. “They could hold 12 million inhabitants. At the rate this colony is expanding, humans will be a minority group in California in a week or two. The amazing thing is how efficiently and beautifully they use space. From certain angles, the sunlight cascades through the towers like light through a waterfall. This colony will reach a population density of well over five million per square mile. That’s about 20 times the density of Hong Kong.”
“Yeah, it’s spectacular,” Rachel said. “I still wonder what those round structures are. Energy generating stations? Spheres enter and leave there all day. I haven’t tracked them, but they are traveling to and from the ocean. The structures might be nuclear fusion reactors. They must know how to get more energy from the chain reaction than they put in to start the chain reaction. I’d love to know how they produce and store power, since they don’t seem to have the waste and recycling problems of our old fission reactors. They must be able to produce unlimited amounts of energy. That might explain their magnetic propulsion system which must be working against the earth’s magnetic field, which is weak. A lot of energy must be required to lift these enormous spheres. I don’t know how they propel their ships in space since the magnetic field of Earth is local to the earth.”
“Rachel, check this out. People on Twitter report that spheres are being sighted in the last remaining Middle East battle zone. They aren’t interfering with the fighting except when they’re fired upon. They could stop the war no problem, but they don’t. I don’t think they care.”
“Let me play devil’s advocate,” Rachel said. “What do people do when they’re on safari watching lions fight with hyenas? We don’t stop them. We let things be. Sometimes we record the action for study later. They might be doing the same thing. They may follow a principle of non-interference and they want to study humans.”
“If they—,” Nisha said loudly.
Rachel made the x sign with her fingers. Nisha muted the audio of her eyepiece video broadcast.
“If they didn’t want to interfere, they wouldn’t have taken my Priya. They better realize that taking a human as a pet might be as dangerous as if we were to take a lion as a pet. They’re interfering and they’re setting things into motion which might destroy us and them as well. I’m not sure how they might be destroyed but we’ll find out. Every species has its weakness and they’re no exception. Okay, I’m un-muting now.”
“Sorry Nisha,” Rachel said. I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay. I’m upset. They don’t seem to care at all. Wait, Quinn is contacting me.”
Nisha blinked to see him in her eyepiece.
“Quinn, is something wrong?”
“Yes. I was correcting homework assignments for Sanjay when some alien visitors paid us a visit. They’re outside right now in the front yard next to their sphere.”
“Turn on your eyepiece video and show them to me,” Nisha said as she relayed the live video feed to her worldwide followers. “They don’t appear friendly, do they? At least they aren’t red. How long ago did they get there?”
“Oh, they’ve been standing like that for a few minutes,” Quinn said.
Nisha shook her head as she always did when she didn’t understand something.
“This is unusual behavior for them. We’ve seen them go in their spheres to sight-see, to intimidate, to assess our technology, and to scout for mining sites. Now they’re in front of our house. I guess they’re sending me a message by letting me know, they know where I live because I’m outspoken about them. I’m sure they’re listening to me right now and understanding every word I say. I’ll not be intimidated.”
Quinn watched them for a while.
“They’re still standing there. I’m not sure if the scary part is their physical strength, their abilities, or the way they look. I’m staying inside.”
“Yes, stay in place and go about your routine as if they aren’t there,” Nisha said. “They won’t hurt you unless you do something to them first. If you must go to the store, walk right past them, and go to the store. I’ve stood within a couple of feet from them. I even grabbed the arm of one of them. They make me anxious, but they do nothing. Quinn, I gotta go. I love you. Some alien children are walking towards us.”
“Okay Neesh, I miss you,” Quinn said, trying to hide some tears. She hid them too.
Nisha was excited to be with the alien children. She turned off the audio portion of her eyepiece video feed.
“Rachel, here they come. We need to be upbeat to get people out of their depression. They think the world is ending so I want to present them with hope.”
Nisha turned on the audio.
“Yes,” Rachel said. “Let’s find out if we can communicate with them since we played with them a bit last time. The computer is set up and the language software is ready.”
“What are they carrying?” Nisha said.
Nisha waved to them as they approached.
“I don’t know. They’re cylinders of some sort,” Rachel said.
The tallest one who took the tests and played chess returned. He brought some extra friends along. There were ten of them this time, five more than before. They seemed relaxed, in pastel shades of blue and green. They walked around Nisha and Rachel, inspecting them closely as though they were a work of art in a museum.”
“The tallest one appears to be the leader,” Rachel said. “We can work with him.”
They watched as the tall one put the cylinders on the table. They unrolled on their own.
“It’s morphing into a paper-thin video screen,” Nisha said.
The little cylinder unrolled into the size of a keyboard, but with no keys. Nisha sat down with the device in front of her.
“I’m nervous,” Nisha said as the world watched her eyepiece video stream. “I hope they don’t test my IQ, which might be 100 points below theirs. I used to think I had a decent IQ until they came along.”
The flat device activated. The small one on the table became a Standard English 3D tactile keyboard. The two-meter-wide screen displayed a photo of Nisha.
“That’s me.” Nisha said while the tallest one looked on. “This keyboard is a hologram, yet when I place my fingers inside, I can feel the keys, like haptics. I’ll type Nisha. Hmm, this might be a word association thing, so I’ll also type me, woman, and female. Oh, now I think it’s prompting me to say the words. Okay, Nisha, me, woman, female.”
Rachel smiled.
“The alien children are wiggling their tails. That might mean they’re pleased or happy if they possess emotions like ours. The wagging motion is not like a dog, it consists of little wiggles. It’s cute.”
“Yes, that is cute. Look, they’re showing a photo of you Rachel. Okay, I’ll type and say Rachel, her, woman, female, smart, beautiful. I wonder why they’re doing this game. They already know everything about us. Can you think of a reason why your picture came up?”
Rachel smiled.
“Well, I think my beauty comes from my mother’s side of the family.”
Nisha glanced up at the sky and giggled. Rachel smiled again and laughed.
“Oh, you mean about the game?”
“You think you’re so funny!” Nisha said.
“Yes. Okay, the children don’t know what the adults know. They might need to learn things themselves. Maybe the knowledge of the adults doesn’t coincide with what the children are curious about. Perhaps their parents told them to go outside and play. I think we should play along and find out where this goes.”
“I agree. Now they’re showing me a photo of the biggest one of them. Okay that’s easy. I’ll type and speak, alien, you, cute, like.”
Nisha flipped through hundreds of photos, typing, and speaking meanings and associations. Plants, objects, weather conditions, astronomical objects familiar to humans flashed on the display. Dogs and other pets were described in detail. The children understood the concept of a pet. The children were transfixed by the process.
After several hours of this, they showed her a photo of Quinn. Nisha turned to Rachel.
“They got that from his website. How do they know about him? Okay, I’ll play along. What do I say about him? Okay. Quinn, man, male, my husband, love, best friend.”
The pictures stopped being displayed. Nisha glanced over at the tallest one. He pulled out a device which fit perfectly in his hands with what looked like keys curved to conform to his fingers. He manipulated the keys. Nisha couldn’t take her eyes off his fingers on the device.
Rachel turned towards the screen.
“Nisha.”
The letters scrolled onto the screen.
“Nisha what is love?”
Nisha glanced at the tall one and at Rachel.
“I’d never guess that love would be the topic of the first sentence in a discussion with an extraterrestrial species.”
She gave Rachel a sly smile.
“I thought more like ‘Take me to your leader.’ What should I say? How can I explain this concept?”
Rachel hesitated for a while.
“Answer the question directly.”
“Okay,” Nisha said. “Let’s see. They’re a mathematical race.”
Nisha typed,
“2 = 1 + 1
3 = 2 + 1
love = passion + intimacy + romance + friendship + like
love = like *50
love = friendship * 20
love = passion * 10
love = intimacy * 5
love = romance * 2
love = love + time
love + time = family
love + time = growth
love + time = commitment.”
Rachel laughed.
“Good one Nisha. Let’s confuse them. I’ve always been confused about love too, so now we’ve got something in common. If they can figure out what love is, they are indeed the superior species.”
Nisha smiled
“I was being logical. I had to get the point across as simply as possible. They appear confused, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do,” Rachel said.
They interacted with each other as they flashed their colors and wiggled their tails. They communicated silently. They acted excited. The tall one displayed a picture of an individual of their species.
Nisha watched the screen and pointed to the tall one and said, “This looks like you. Oh, let me enter that,”
She typed, “you, alien, like, friend.”
The children wiggled their tails again. The tall one displayed another image of Nisha and entered some unknown characters onto the screen which were translated into English which read, “you, Nisha,alien,like.”
Rachel’s image appeared on the screen along with, “you, Rachel, alien,like.”
Nisha and Rachel turned to each other and broke out in laughter. The alien children reacted to some inaudible queue, and they rolled up their computer monitor and keyboard, wiggled their tails and left.
“The way they leave is strange,” Rachel said as she watched them walk away into the bright desert sunset. “It’s like the last time. They must be getting summoned telepathically by their parents or something.”
“Yes, that seems right. Though this telepathy thing doesn’t seem right. Organic brains don’t send decipherable signals. It must be electronic. They must have an internal communication system. I guess they don’t use a spoken language. They have a small vestigial mouth which they might use to eat as we do.”
“Hmm,” Rachel said. “I wonder what they eat,” Rachel said. They don’t seem to be farming anything or growing anything in the sunlight. They didn’t eat all day. Did you notice that? I can think of a million questions for them.”
“Me too,” Nisha said. “I hope we get to ask them questions. The adults control them as we do our children. They must know what the children are doing here. I guess we aren’t considered a threat. This might be the most exciting day of my entire life.”
Nisha realized she was broadcasting to the world. She smiled.
“Um, except for the day I got married. Hi Quinn.”
“Good catch.” Rachel said.
They walked 50 meters up the dusty path to the mess hall to get something to eat. As they walked, Rachel tilted her head as she does when she gets a notification in her eyepiece.
“15 more large spheres entered Earth’s orbit today. That makes 30.”
Nisha glanced out over the ever-expanding alien colony.
“I guess eventually 30 million aliens will live here. The pace of construction is increasing. At least 10 new towers are going up. One big tower can house one million aliens, which is the same number each sphere can hold. As I watch them, they seem to fill up one tower at a time as the shuttles take them from the large spheres down to the colony.”
Rachel said nothing for a moment.
“I’m debating on whether to say this since the world is watching. However, we’re supposed to be transparent for the greater good, so I guess I’ll make my opinion public.”
“What do you think Rachel?”
“I think they’re moving in.”
“Moving in?”
“Yes, their entire species might be moving to Earth. This no longer seems like an interstellar sightseeing camping trip. They’re here for good. Humanity is now in the position of the Native Americans as the Europeans colonized the Americas.”
Nisha’s ebullient demeanor from a few minutes ago faded instantly.
“This went from the most exciting day of my life to the most depressing. We all know what happens to indigenous people when colonies are established. Only this is worse. The Europeans and the Native Americans were all humans with equal intelligence. The Europeans had better toys and greater numbers to impose their ways on others. They did it aggressively. In this case, the aliens are significantly more intelligent and possess vastly advanced technology compared to us.”
“Yeah, this doesn’t bode well for us,” Rachel said, shaking her head. “On the bright side, up to now they haven’t affected our way of life. They’ve killed us only in self-defense. They aren’t using much of the planet’s resources. They’re staying in their colony.”
Nisha looked down.
“That’s what the Native Americans said. At first, relations were good. Later, things went downhill, and they continued to go downhill for hundreds of years. They’re still not good.”
Nisha managed to break a smile.
“On the upside, the aliens are far more advanced and self-aware than the 16th century European colonists. The aliens haven’t spread their diseases to this planet. I’d love to know how they do that. Maybe this will work out and we can live side by side. We can’t assume we’re doomed. We learned a lot today so let’s focus on learning and living life one day at a time.”
She paused and breathed deeply.
“I’m better now. At least a little. Let’s go eat.”
As they ate, they read their favorite daily news sources. Nisha kept on the audio to her eyepiece video stream.
“Read the headlines,” Rachel said. “’Humankind will go the way of indigenous tribes.’ Here’s another one, ‘Humanity headed for extinction!’”
“Hmm,” Nisha said. “I tried to keep my commentary balanced, but people tend to filter things according to their preconceived beliefs and fears. Let me say this again for everyone listening. The aliens present us with a mixed bag of issues. I’m not directly comparing the human species with Native Americans, but this isn’t the start of a new utopia either. Reality lies somewhere in the middle as it always does. A million shades of gray. We need to live life one day at a time as though they aren’t here. Okay, those are enough clichés for now. I’m going to turn the audio off so I can eat and talk with my family. I’ll turn the audio back on again later. I’ll keep the video on as much as possible.”
Nisha contacted Quinn after they ate.
“Quinn, I miss you. How are you? How is Sanjay?”
“We’re doing well now that the aliens left our front yard. I’m tutoring Sanjay and he’s turning into a good baseball player. We’ve been watching you. You run the most interesting channel in all the media. The highest rated too, did you know that? You should sell commercials.”
“That’s a great idea.” Nisha said. “Maybe we can do that someday.”
“Neesh, did you learn anything about Priya and the other children?”
“I found out nothing, but I’m getting to know the alien kids. They might help me figure out what what’s happening to our kids. Every night I cry and sometimes during the day I find myself crying spontaneously. Now I’m starting to—”
“Things will be okay. You’ll find her and get her back. I’m optimistic. Your interactions with the alien children give me hope for the future. You possess the strength and courage to shape the future.”
“Thanks Quinn. That makes me feel better. Sometimes I have neither strength nor courage. I gotta go and inspect the colony with Rachel, but if anything happens let me know. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Nisha turned on the audio to compliment her video broadcast. She walked outside with Rachel to take in the colony as the sun set.
Rachel breathed deeply.
“I like how the towers trap the setting sun. They’re like vertical reflecting pools.”
“Yeah, and the effects get more dramatic each day as more towers go up. I wonder how big this colony will be.”
Rachel gazed out over the colony as the last filtered rays of light struggled to traverse between the towers.
“The colony is about to grow. Two more large spheres entered Earth’s orbit while we ate. That makes 32. Check out this graph I did. The number of spheres is growing exponentially. Greater numbers will be arriving every day. Remember when we freaked out because of the single enormous sphere in orbit. Now I’m nostalgic for that day. Things are changing so quickly that I can’t keep up.”
“Me too,” Nisha said “That’s why we should live our lives day by day, and hour by hour. Hey, I haven’t noticed this before. Passageways are being built between the towers. They curve so elegantly.”
“Yeah, they built the passageways overnight,” Rachel said as she magnified her eyepiece view. “They’re forming a web of connections between the towers. I wish they were transparent, but the silvery surface obscures our view. This looks new too. They’re creating outdoor spaces for walking. I didn’t notice this yesterday. They’re coming out to walk around. I haven’t seen this many outside all at once. It’s becoming a real colony now.”
Nisha yawned.
“I’m getting sleepy Rachel. I can’t believe I’m saying that while taking in this view. I’m heading back to the tent. Are you ready?”
“Sure, let’s go. The sun is down. It gives me chills to watch millions of those crawling crab-like builder drones in the dark.”
They walked along the dusty road to their tent, turning back every so often as if to confirm what seemed unreal. They said goodnight to their families and talked for a while in the tent. Outside they could hear the spheres coming and going as they counted sonic booms. The pace was quickening. They knew life on Earth would never be the same.