Rejoice, a Knife to the Heart Read online

  “Accordingly,” Adam replied, “now would not be a good time for your species to do anything precipitous.”

  “Oh, you mean like a couple astronauts blasting off from Cape Canaveral on an un-proven EFFE rocket?” She cocked her head. “You planning on saying hi to them, by the way?”

  “No.”

  “So … they’re just going to head out into space and hang around? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that will be for America and Canada?”

  “My present time-line for the completion of your contact-specific project, Samantha, has you initiating proceedings two days before the scheduled launch of the Handshake Mission.”

  “Oh. Crap, that soon?”

  “Samantha, only a few moments ago you were expressing your impatience. Now you are—”

  “I know what I am! Listen, I need a wardrobe upgrade. Do you know what I mean by that?”

  “Yes. Any item of apparel you find online can be replicated—”

  “Really? But I like trying things on.”

  “Understood.”

  She snorted. “You say that like a man, meaning no, you don’t understand at all.”

  “Strictly speaking, I am neither male nor female.”

  “Do you still stand by your decision to hijack that feed?”

  “I do, but I don’t see why—”

  “You’re more man than woman, Adam, trust me on that one. Back down from a bad decision? Lose face? Not a chance.”

  “I assure you, Samantha, that I am quite capable of backing down from a bad decision, as you will see as soon as I make one. With respect to this notion of ‘saving face,’ I well comprehend its significance for your species. Indeed, based on that very notion, I concluded that China would not have released their recordings of the lunar-base landing and occupation, without first severely editing its content. Instead, we saw heroism that was not doctored, but entirely natural. We saw empathy that no doubt surprised China’s rivals. We saw the first scene embodying humanity as a single, united species. Perhaps these examples remain sub-textual, for the moment, but in my assessment they will prove to be among the more powerful consequences to the lunar landing event.”

  She said nothing following that, as she mulled on Adam’s assessment. And then, with a shake of her head, she said, “I keep forgetting. You play this like a chess-master, always multiple steps ahead, and with supreme patience.”

  “I would also point out that once the Chinese authorities realized that the hijack had taken place, they made no effort to shut down either the live-feed or the hijacking itself.”

  “Hmm, I admit, the way that English-speaking soldier acknowledged his new audience was … remarkable. He just took it in stride.”

  “The Chinese government has been instructed by the Leader to embrace my intervention rather than resist it.”

  “Really? Interesting. What about Russia?”

  “The same. And in many other countries as well. Resistance, of course, proceeds from a position that is almost uniquely Western, barring those more volatile regions of religious conflict elsewhere in the world.”

  “Western? Last word from the Scandinavian block is about dissolving their respective borders. And the rest of Europe seems pretty calm about it all, especially now that their resident fascists have been laughed out of contention.” She returned to her seat. “Western. You mean American, don’t you?”

  “The United States is indeed the center of resistance.”

  “There are cultural reasons for that.”

  “Yes, their collective sense of global pre-eminence has not only been challenged, but also negated. My selection of Space Training Centers in other nations and regions no doubt contributes to this sense of being specifically excluded.”

  “And are they? Are they being specifically excluded, Adam?”

  “Yes and no. America’s potential is vast, but that potential requires a subtle modification of certain precepts the citizens of that country take as self-evident. That said, my optimism for the future of that nation and its people is very high. A historical front-runner never likes to lose its lead and will do all it can to regain its position. I feel that I should point out at this moment, Samantha, that America’s loss of that lead preceded my Intervention.”

  She nodded. “The odds were stacked against it, to be sure.”

  “Corporate globalism is now the dominant power in your civilization,” Adam said. “Once corporations won the right to be treated as if they were people, the common citizen was disenfranchised, because the law then became the official control system for corporate interests over human interests, and corporations treat citizens as units of economy, thus stripping them of their essential humanity. There’s nothing more inhuman than a corporation and its interests.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “Corporate globalism certainly represents a fatal path,” Adam said, “and not just for America, but all nations. Fortunately, my Intervention Protocol is aimed at elevating both humanity and the planet’s biome above that of antiquated corporation-based economies. It is no accident that the present fate of corporations seems to dominate the media’s obsession, couched of course in terms of economic loss and unemployment, when neither of these consequences is inherently negative in a post-scarcity civilization. They are negative, of course, from the corporate point of view, which your media would make synonymous with everyone’s point of view.”

  “People can’t see what’s ahead. They can’t imagine an alternative to our most basic economic rules.”

  “Yes, and your choice of the word ‘rules’ is most appropriate, Samantha. They are not natural laws, not the inevitable consequences of physics or biology. They are invented and depend entirely on everyone agreeing upon their precepts. My dismantling of those precepts has your civilization floundering.”

  “Putting it mildly,” she muttered, eyes on the myriad images and news reports on the screens before her. “But I do have one thing to say, and it’s only now starting to play out below.” She hesitated, decided on another cigarette and lit it with a flourish. “Women, Adam.”

  “Yes.”

  “We have existed—probably since the very beginning—under the very real threat of superior male strength. We have, accordingly, learned to live with a deep-seated fear. In the right circumstances, we can push it down so that we barely register it. But it’s always there.” She stretched out her legs and leaned back in the seat, feeling it morph to accommodate her new position. “Fear affects the course of our lives. Everyday decisions—that alley short-cut, the underground parking lot, the elevator or the stairs? This dark street, that stretch of woods. You talk about humanity as a prey species, but over half of humanity has lived as prey for a very long time.”

  “It will be interesting to observe the alteration the new paradigm will have upon your gender, Samantha.”

  “Hmm. Will we rise to the aggression levels of men? Or will we abandon the patriarchy’s business-as-usual ways of domination and bluster? Will we find new paths to achieving control, to political and social power and to forcing others to our will and bidding?” She fell silent, thinking on it, and then shrugged and said, “Or will we re-set our entire value system? Elevate the value of being a mother, the importance of child-care? Will we collectively demand that teachers of our children be accorded the importance and respect they deserve—instead of elevating useless twats like bankers, brokers, and everyone else riding the financial sector? Will we expand our notions of what’s possible as a woman in modern society? Will we, in fact, take the lead in abandoning the nine-to-five forty-hour work week where we’re all trapped in a system that rewards the rich with indolence? Will women be the first to see a future opening wide with possibilities?” She tapped ash to the floor. “What happens when fear goes away? When prey becomes predator, but in a world where most forms of predation are no longer available?”

  “To date,” ventured Adam, “psychological breakdowns as a consequence of the new paradigm predominantly affe
ct the male gender of your species.”

  “Well, yeah. No kidding. They’ve got their own baggage, especially when it comes to being the bread-winner and protector, not to mention all that testosterone-fueled one-upmanshit.”

  “Is it not ‘ship?’ As in one-upmanship?”

  “No it’s ‘shit.’ Trust me. But still, if you’re a man who’s five foot one, or a hundred ten pounds soaking wet, the male role can be a bitch. Men are as stuck in a world of poses as are women, with self-esteem the quicksand under all our feet.” She snorted. “So what was your first move, Adam? If anger is a gun, you stole all our bullets. Is it any wonder people are mentally breaking down?”

  “Because anger is a universal language for your species.”

  “As is love, and grief.”

  “And fear.”

  She pointed at one of the screens. “Those Greys. Fear is all about a sense of helplessness. They stole people, made them helpless, and then dined like vampires on the terror they felt.”

  “Yes.”

  “You know, pacifism has its drawbacks.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “We aren’t the only victims of the Greys, are we?”

  “No, you are not. There are three sentient worlds relatively close to yours, each one of which has been effectively blockaded from space exploration of their own systems, essentially truncated in their development as global civilizations.”

  “That’s a nice trick. Exploit the system’s natural resources while preying on the inhabitants. Work and pleasure all rolled up in one neat little package. And by using up all the system’s resources, the Greys pretty much ensure that the sentient species will never get far even should they manage to begin exploration of space.”

  “It is pernicious indeed, Samantha.”

  “Have you tried reasoning with them? What about your quantum blanket of control or whatever it is you want to call it? Can’t you shut them down, Adam?”

  “The Greys have long-since abandoned their home world, Samantha. They are now a nomadic species. The agency I am applying to your world cannot be extended to the space between worlds. Although I can make myself aware of system-wide activity and presence, I do not possess the processing resources to manipulate matter and energy on such a large scale.”

  “Okay, that’s your technical reason for doing nothing, which to be honest doesn’t quite convince me, but we’ll let it pass for now. Let’s hear the rest.”

  “The evolutionary path of their development is unique and, by most means of measurement, pathological. They are a species without empathy, as empathy impedes the psychic-feeding that gives pleasure to the Greys. Consider the sociopaths among your species, Samantha. They operate from a different set of rules, fixated around what they can and cannot get away with, and much of their daily activity is focused on deceiving others. Sociopaths are the consummate actors, because they learned very early in their lives that they are different, and that this difference offers a predatory advantage over all others. The Greys represent the ultimate expression of that sociopathy.” After a moment, Adam added, “It is unfortunate, Samantha, that your modern economic system has come to reward the sociopaths among you. Hence the necessity of dismantling your economy and thereby removing the incentive for rewarding sociopathic behavior.”

  “So your average human sociopath will understand the Greys very well.”

  “Yes.”

  “Not to be reasoned with, then.”

  “The task is virtually impossible in the absence of morality.”

  “You say they’re nomadic space-travelers. Fine then. What kind of vessels? How many? How nasty? Are we talking small populations of hunter-gatherers, or a fucking horde?”

  “In considering the requirements for your Mediation Contact proposal, Samantha, I have given much thought as to the necessary technical largesse, and prowess, to be made available. I believe it will suffice.”

  “I trust that at some point you will get more specific.”

  “As specific as you like.”

  “You once mentioned another predatory alien species out there.”

  “Ah yes, them. Well, one thing at a time, don’t you think?”

  “You do understand, Adam, that making us the neighborhood’s police can have some serious consequences.”

  “Proceeding forward will demand careful mitigation. Law enforcement loses its moral compass when what is asked of it undermines its ethical base. When in service to corruption—and when that corruption is thoroughly even if only unconsciously perceived—despair and nihilism follows. The good is deemed ineffectual. The bad is set upon a movable scale of permissibility, one that inevitably climbs to ever greater extremes. In this context, the police become tribal and will act first and foremost in defense of itself. Further indoctrination reinforces this escalation. In effect, the law rises above the law, and the sudden absence of restraint is an invitation to unchecked brutality.”

  Samantha grunted. “In a nutshell.”

  “Anger, of course, is an extension of fear,” Adam continued. “Human reaction to the Greys exemplifies this.”

  “Not entirely,” she replied. “Revenge is uppermost in our minds right now. Pay-back.”

  “Revenge in this context, Samantha, is an extension of compassion. By witnessing what was done to fellow human beings by the Greys, you are collectively awakened to empathy. You seek to act on their behalf, to in effect present yourselves as instruments of justice.”

  “In the most basic, primitive sense, yes, absolutely. But this is a special circumstance, isn’t it? The Greys are not misguided and can’t be reasoned with. The fact that they bolted as soon as you arrived suggests they’ve been slapped down before. But no lessons were learned. Instead, they just move on to the next planet-load of victims.”

  “Essentially, yes.”

  “When a sociopath on death-row finally accepts that he’s going to die, he tends toward defiance, even mockery of the whole ritual. He understands the eye-for-an-eye principle, but has no comprehension of the demonstrative lesson the execution signifies. He doesn’t even get the moral appeasement his execution symbolizes, which kind of takes away some of the impact. Then again, executions are not about the victim. They’re about the society conducting them.” She shrugged. “Personally, I never bought into capital punishment. But I always understood the ritual element to it … oh, listen to me. I’m rambling. Off-topic.”

  “Not really, Samantha. You are correct in surmising that the Greys are incapable of perceiving any lessons in being driven off or even eradicated. If confronted, they will resist out of self-interest but at no point will they comprehend the notion of ‘pay-back’ or even revenge.”

  “Like ants, then.”

  “An evolutionary peculiarity, in that they now exist disconnected from the most basic survival mechanism of stimulus-response.”

  “You mean hurting them won’t work as aversion therapy. They just head off to the next fire and stick their hands in the flames all over again. You’re right, that’s a fucked-up survival mechanism. So why aren’t they extinct?”

  “Commonly, they select the less-technologically-advanced species as prey. By exploiting their psychic assault methods and inertia-free dimension-shifting propulsion and evasion systems, they are able to establish their presence with little fear of reprisal.”

  Samantha sat forward. “Hold on. Dimension-shifting? So the whole multiverse thing is real?”

  “Your definition of multiverse expression is slightly off, Samantha. It may be initially helpful to imagine each universe as a discrete dimension of reality, but that notion is inaccurate. The universe contains within it every iteration of expression and behavior, but these iterations are entirely dependent upon the limitations and capabilities of the observer. Perhaps a better term would be co-universes. Complete co-existence, total interconnectedness, limited only by perception. The Grey vessels employ modest phase-shifting to cloak their presence; in other words, they exploit your limited perception. The
vessel does not in fact ‘vanish’ at all. It simply eliminates your perceptual options one by one until you cease to see it. Granted, it does so within a millisecond.”

  “So if a UFO vanishes but you fire a missile at the spot where it vanished, you’d still hit it? Assuming it hadn’t moved, I mean.”

  “Yes. But naturally, upon successful phase-shifting, the vessel does indeed move. Usually at high speed.”

  “Right, back to that inertia-free zig-zagging that’s been caught by eye-witnesses. So, are we getting some of that, Adam?”

  “You would if it existed.”

  “What? But you described it earlier!”

  “Most witnessed and recorded UFOs, Samantha, are projections. The source-vessel remains phase-shifted. This is a kind of threat display, suggesting technical prowess far beyond what the Greys are actually capable of achieving.”

  “They’re fucking holograms?”

  “The descriptive serves well enough.”

  “Adam, can this phase-shifting be defeated or negated?”

  “Yes.”

  “And do the Grey ships have weaponry?”

  “They do.”

  “And?”

  “Yes, Samantha. With what is coming, you will indeed be able to kick Grey ass.”

  “Oh,” she murmured, “the boys are going to like that. But wait, you said they’ve left the system. Are we going to have to chase them? Hunt them down?”

  “You are.”

  “And how will we manage that? Where to look?”

  “Samantha, as I mentioned earlier, there are three near-neighbor species presently being preyed upon by the Greys. Those species need your help.”

  “Our help. Right. Something tells me that won’t be at the fore-front of our minds the day we descend on the Greys.”

  “Perhaps not, but not one without the other.”

  Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Ah, I see. So, Adam, why aren’t you helping them the way you’re helping us?”

  “There are mitigating circumstances for each world in question. Intervention was deemed inadvisable.”

  “Care to elaborate, Adam?”