The Visitor

       

~ 1 ~

The ship was cloaked as it entered the earth's atmosphere and touched down on the grounds of a coastal estate on northern Long Island. The voyage had taken the equivalent of three Earth years to arrive at its chosen destination.

During the first year, the ship’s pilot had digested almost all of the available human knowledge through an earth system known as the Internet. He had also learned several of the most common languages on the planet.

The second year was spent fabricating a body for himself. He had studied human physiology along with human nature, and he determined that if he made himself a Caucasian male approximately three and a half Earth decades old, that would suit his purpose. 

The last half of the third year was spent learning to adjust to his body, which included the consumption of liquids and solid foods, which he was able to fabricate from chemical formulae available to him on the Earth Internet from the vast macro concentrated supply of common earth elements compressed in his cargo hold. The remainder of the time was spent creating an identity and a family history, registering himself as US Citizen and a former landed immigrant from a location known as Australia, giving himself a birth certificate, US Green Card, a vehicle operator’s licence and credit cards. He also purchased a carbon fuel-powered vehicle, and leased a dwelling in a location named Long Island, from which he would operate his mission. Finally, he also created a bank account at a financial institution called BankAmerica and seeded it with $77,000,000 US dollars. And another account at Lloyd’s bank in a place called London, England. Which he seeded with four and a quarter billion pounds. His wardrobe was all purchased on the Earth’s Internet, and delivered to the address of his house. The car, a black Mercedes-Benz, was also delivered to that address. The keys were left with a human called a leasing agent named Cindy Walker, whom he had dealt with via a text messaging program once his ship was inside the Milky Way galaxy and could communicate directly with Earth.

He mused a bit at how simple a process it was to create a complete identity and insert himself into the culture of the planet. But then again, this planet was considerably less evolved than his own. 

This would be his third conquest. After the second, he came to realize that this was just the way of things. Some planets were simply less evolved than others.

The last thing he did, while he was travelling into what he understood to be the Milky Way galaxy, was to file his report with his home planet. When that was completed, he sat patiently for the next twenty Earth days and waited while his craft moved toward Earth.

~ 2 ~

The name he gave himself was Ezra Birmingham. His background story was that he had inherited his fortune from his father, who had recently passed away. His position was a former shipping magnate and owner of Birmingham Cargos, out of Brisbane, Australia. An entire company history was fabricated, including taxes paid to the government of an Australian province called Queensland. The story was that Ezra had been in America for the past two years, applied for and was granted citizenship and was now, after a long period of travel around the country, eager to spin his already considerable fortune into even more wealth. 

It was late at night when his craft touched down on the large manicured rear lawn of the oceanside estate he had leased in a town called Southampton. Anyone observing this landing would have seen nothing other than the sudden appearance of a naked human figure. 

He stepped out of the craft and sent it to the roof of the garage adjacent to the large house. He found the house keys beneath a plant pot at the corner of the large rear deck. He entered the house through a back room and walked up a few steps to the kitchen. There he saw a note from the real estate agent, Cindy Walker. She welcomed him to his new home and had, as per his request, stocked the cupboard and refrigerator with food and various beverages. She had also taken all the packages that had been delivered and brought them upstairs to the master bedroom.

He walked around the house, taking it all in. After he had familiarized himself with it, he flipped on the TV in the lower rear space and scanned the various channels. It became obvious to him rather quickly that this medium was not designed for intellectual pursuits, which in part explained the planet’s rather slow evolution. Everything he had taken in, through his three years of studying the planet, led him to believe that the human species was evolving at a snail’s pace, relative to any other planetary culture he could name.

Again, he shrugged it off. He was not here to save the planet, but simply to make certain that it was worth the effort to conquer and then recruit some earthlings to help manage affairs once the conquest was complete. He had chosen New York as his base because, from all his research, he concluded that many of the more evolved people in the country called The United States of America, lived there. At least that was his hope.

He climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered a large room, which he assumed was his. The bed in the room was covered with clothing, all laid out neatly. He quickly dressed in a pair of khaki trousers and a black T-shirt. He then hung up and put away the rest of the clothing, clearing off the bed. He briefly explored the second floor of the house and then returned to the kitchen. 

He extracted a bottle of Chablis from the wine cooler, opened it and poured some of the contents into a glass. He took his glass out to the deck and sat at the large table there. He gazed out at the ocean. He touched a small stud in his left earlobe and a virtual screen opened up in front of him. As he spoke, in English, his words were automatically translated into an ornate series of glyphs.

“Earth Journal, entry number one. The voyage was uneventful. The landing, unnoticed. The landscape of the planet is interesting. The majority of it is a liquid they refer to as water. Humans live, for the most part, in individual habitats either alone or in groups called families. The habitat I am occupying at present is much larger than it needs to be. Perhaps that has to do with the human preoccupation with wealth and power. I have no doubt I will eventually encounter many humans who feel that way. How many remains to be seen. I will be encountering my first human when the planet’s rotation reveals their sun. Her name is Cindy Walker. Her title is leasing agent. I assume she is a shrewd judge of character. So she will be the first test for this identity.”  

Ezra spent the rest of the night staring out at the ocean and listening to the waves as they made contact with the rocky shore. After an hour or so, he willed himself into a state of regeneration, only to be woken from it when the doorbell chimed the next morning.

~ 3 ~

He opened the door to see a tall blonde female. She was dressed in what looked to be a business suit, but tailored in a way that showed off her figure. He’d seen images like this on his voyage.

“Mr. Birmingham, I’m Cindy Walker. So nice to meet you.” She extended her hand and he took it. And in that moment, he experienced his first genuinely human feeling. Her hand was warm. It was soft. Her grip was firm but not overly so. He stared at her face for a few seconds.

“Please, call me Ezra. Do come in. Would you like some coffee? I’m just about to have some myself.”

“Thank you. That would be wonderful.” 

They walked together back to the kitchen. Ezra began to prepare the coffee. “I appreciate all the effort you went to, getting things organized for me.”

“Oh, it was no trouble at all. Believe me, I have had to jump through some hoops for my other clients. This was a piece of cake.”

“Interesting analogy. Piece of cake.”

“Yeah, I suppose it is. So, tell me, how do you like the place?”

“Well, it’s everything it was advertised to be. It’s quite large.”

“Yeah, on this part of the island, you won’t find much with an ocean view that’s small.”

He poured the coffee and put cream and sugar on the counter.

“We should sit outside. The view is the best feature of the entire dwelling.” Ezra said.

A few seconds later, they were sitting on the deck looking out at the Atlantic.

“So you’re from Australia.” Cindy said.

“Originally, yes. But I was sent to England for my schooling, and then stayed on to manage my father’s business interests there.

“That explains why you don’t sound all that Australian or British.”

“Yes. I never picked up a British accent, but I lost my Australian one. So what you end up with is no accent at all.”

“And you inherited a good deal of money from your father after he passed.”

“Yes. And then, about six years ago, I sold the business for more than 4 billion pounds. That money is in an investment account in London. Although I must admit I know very little about the market. The people who manage it, however, seem quite competent. My return is somewhere in the area of twelve percent.”

“So what were you doing during those six years?” Cindy asked.

“Seeing the world, for four years, then two years ago I came to America, mostly just travelling and getting to know the country. I applied for landed immigrant status and was eventually granted full citizenship. I think the amount of capital I possessed had a great deal to do with that.” Ezra said, playing out the story he created on the way to Earth and working hard to talk in the jargon of an English-speaking human. He looked at her while he was talking and could see that she was indeed enthralled.

“Well, don’t judge us too harshly. There’s a lot of weird stuff going on here these days.”

“I have news for you, Cindy. There is weird stuff, as you call it, going on everywhere. I have been there, and I know.”

“And so what’s your plan for conquering America?” she asked. She was obviously interested in keeping the conversation going.

“Well, I’m going to start seeking some worthwhile investments. I may get a broker or even do a little day trading, once I get a genuine feel for the market here.”

“Well, if you find you need an assistant....” she said, sounding rather meek. 

“I’m confused. Don’t you already have a job?” 

“Well…actually, the company I work for has recently been sold. The new company, let’s just say, they aren’t the most upstanding of corporate citizens.”

“Are you talking about organized crime?  I understand there’s a good deal of that in this country.”

“Not quite. It’s a real estate developer in the city. A big one. They’re going to be taking over in a couple of weeks and they’ve made it clear that they will be closing the entire residential leasing business. This won’t affect your arrangement. It will just be transferred to whoever buys the division. And that’s always dicey from the point of view of employment. So I’ll be, you know, available.” 

Ezra leaned back in his chair and stared at her. He wasn’t quite sure what to do next, so he closed his eyes and took a logical guess. “So what exactly would you be able to do for me?”

Cindy smiled. It was quite a radiant smile, Ezra thought, from his study of humans and their appearance. “Well, for one thing, I know the city like the back of my hand. So at the very least, I could be your guide. I also have a pretty good grasp of the stock market. I have a Bachelor’s degree in finance from Columbia. My dad was a broker for a large Wall Street investment firm. And I know we have only just met each other, but I have to say, there’s something really intriguing about you. I’d like to get to know you better.”

Ezra found himself smiling. “I’ve heard that Americans are very forthright people. And you have certainly proven that to me.” He hadn’t thought about actually getting assistance from an earthling just yet, let alone one who was as beautiful looking as Cindy. But everything she said to him made perfect sense.

Cindy sat patiently nursing her coffee. She could see that Ezra was deep in thought, and she was smart enough not to disturb him. Ezra, on the other hand, had already computed all the positives and negatives and was ready to accept her offer. But he also deduced that if he responded too quickly, it might send the wrong message. He was already starting to understand the complexity of intrapersonal relationships on earth. He actually found himself feeling empathy regarding her situation.

“It’s an interesting offer, Miss Walker. Let me think about it overnight. If I do decide to employ you, when could you start?”

“I’d just need a couple of days to wrap things up.” Cindy got to her feet and offered her hand to Ezra. He took it. The softness was delightful. Cindy left Ezra staring out at the water and pondering the future and what, if any, extra baggage he would be taking on by hiring her. This situation was unlike the others in his experience. Both the other planets he surveyed were comprised of cultures at war with each other. There were really no intrapersonal relationships necessary. They were both simple assessments, a few assassinations, and he was gone, leaving the occupying force, with which they were allied, the task of cleaning up the mess. Everyone had their role. 

But Earth felt quite different. There was plenty of conflict, but mostly it was over economic gain or control of resources. There was very little that was ideological. It seemed to very much be about money, power and exploitation. In many ways, the situation here was more intricate and sophisticated than the other planets he had surveilled. And for that reason alone, having an earthling to provide a bit of guidance would probably be a good thing. 

He sat musing all through the warm summer day and night. He didn’t sleep because he actually didn’t know what that was. Instead, he simply willed his interior body into a state of stasis or absolute stillness. He was fully aware of his surroundings and, at the same time, the body he was inhabiting was in a complete state of relaxation, while it regenerated and replenished itself.

The next morning, he was making coffee and deciding what he needed to do that day, when Cindy Walker knocked on the door. He answered and invited her in. She didn’t look very happy, although that was just a supposition on his part. He offered her some coffee. Then they went back out to the deck.

“Well, the hammer came down first thing this morning. My division was officially closed, I was given a severance cheque, a limp handshake and a grudging thank you and bang zoom!” She took a deep breath. “So here I am hoping you will take me up on my offer.”

“As a matter of fact, I have been waiting for you to drop by.” Ezra said. Then he took a sip of his coffee. “And I believe your assessment was correct. I really do require someone to help me get acclimated, as it were.”

Cindy smiled and started to cry. 

“This has made you unhappy?” Ezra asked.

“No, quite the opposite,” Cindy replied. “I was really hoping that you would hire me, not because I couldn't find a job, because I probably could. But because I found you to be quite an interesting and intelligent man.”

“Ezra was realizing that this species was much more nuanced than the information he had absorbed led him to believe.

“So let’s talk about your duties. That will help me determine your compensation.” In actuality, he had no idea what he should pay Cindy for her assistance, when he recalled an epithet he had noticed in his research, which was ‘When in doubt in financial matters, always err on the high side.” 

They had a long discussion about all the day-to-day affairs that Cindy could take charge of. This included making sure the home was maintained and kept clean, that all the bills were paid on time, and that she would show him around the area, especially New York City, so that he could get an impression of it, and that would help him plan his investment strategy. 

Cindy was overwhelmed by the methodology that Ezra had laid out for her duties. Their discussion continued through lunch, where Cindy made Ezra something called French toast, which he found to be quite interesting, albeit not very nutritious. 

During lunch, Ezra asked Cindy about her personal life. She told him that she lived in a small nanny residence on her parents’ property in an area called West Shore, several miles down the coast from where they were.

“Are you happy there?” Ezra asked.

“Well, on the one hand, all I pay for are the utilities, you know Internet, cable and electricity. On the other hand, it’s my parents’ house. I’m close to thirty and am still living at home.” 

The concept of home was alien to Ezra, but, intellectually he understood it. 

“You can always live here. There’s an abundance of space.”

Cindy was taken aback. “Hmmm. Well, you know, when someone says that to another person, it usually implies that they are interested in that person, you know, romantically.”

“Ohhh, yes, well I can understand that.” Ezra said. “I was thinking of it more as a convenience.”

She looked at him for a good fifteen seconds and realized that it certainly felt like he was being earnest.

“There are several sleep chambers, bedrooms, in this house,” Ezra said. “You would have your pick.”

They talked about it some more, and the more they did, the more convinced Cindy became that she would have nothing to fear from Ezra. 

After another half an hour or so, they came to an agreement. Ezra would pay her $120,000 a year, and all her expenses, which included any wardrobe, any medical expenses she might incur and a new car.

Two days later, Cindy pulled in behind the black Mercedes in a new Toyota Rav4 that they had purchased the day before, having traded her very old Corolla and got next to nothing for it. Ezra helped her with her suitcase and wardrobe bags and they got her settled in. They then drove to a local Mexican restaurant and had lunch. Ezra marvelled at the incredible variety of food on the menu. As they ate, Cindy talked to him about what they would need to get his investment business going. 

After lunch, they went to an Apple store in a place called Roosevelt Field and purchased a large iMac and a MacBook Pro computer. They also purchased a pair of iPhones and the software they would need to set up the finances for Ezra’s investment business. 

When they got back to the house, Cindy spent the rest of what was left of the afternoon and the evening with Ezra, setting up the computers and the phones. By early evening, Cindy announced that they were good to go.

“Where did you learn to make these devices functional?” Ezra asked. 

“I had a job at a Mac Store in Manhattan when I was going to college. Then I stayed on for about a year. I liked the job, but I wanted a job where I wouldn’t be tied to an office or store. Also, I wasn’t earning enough there to afford to live in Manhattan.

“Well, there will be travel in this job. “ Ezra said.

“I’m looking forward to it.” Cindy replied. “And thank you for deciding to hire me. We’ll make a great team, I just know it.”

With that, she kissed him on the cheek and headed up to bed.

The next morning, after some breakfast, which consisted of croissants with blueberry jam and coffee, they sat down at the big computer and got to work.

Cindy was amazed at how quick a study Ezra was. He had told her he didn’t have a lot of computing experience, which was true since he actually was, more or less, a computer himself, only much more powerful. For Ezra, computing was more of a thought process than a conjoined physical/mental activity. Nonetheless, he learned quickly and, within a couple of hours, they had opened a Questrade account.

“So what kind of investments do you have in mind?” Cindy asked.

“Hmmm. Let me ask you. If it were your investment capital, what would you be interested in?”

“Well…Okay, first of all, nobody has ever asked me that?”

“I’m asking now. So please be honest with me.”

“You come from the shipping industry, so I would imagine you’d be comfortable with anything in the transportation sector.”

“That’s not what I asked, Cindy. What I asked is what you would do.”

“OK. Well, I would start looking into two areas. AI and alternative energy.”

“AI is a very large field. Can you be more specific?”

“Well, I would look into medical imaging and industrial automation. Those are the two sectors where AI is the most beneficial. The applications there are business-to-business. A lot of the rest of the AI world seems to be fighting for the largest share of the individual consumer market, which, in my opinion, has far less long-term profit potential.”

They spent the next few hours cruising around the Internet looking at medical imaging and related companies and found several that looked attractive, in Cindy’s opinion.

When they were finished for the day, they had invested $600,000 in each of three different companies, two of which were medical technology providers. The third was in supply chain automation. Their stock purchases immediately caused an uptick in the share values for those companies, and a slight increase in additional share purchases as well. Not a lot, but enough to make a ripple. Ezra watched the stock price climb, and he wondered if an injection of a more substantial amount of capital would have a greater or lesser effect on the stock price.

Cindy advised him against playing that kind of game because, in her opinion, he could end up losing more than he would gain.

Cindy ordered a pizza and salads for dinner and they celebrated their first day in business together as Birmingham Capital.

Later that night, after Cindy had gone up to bed, Ezra was sitting on the back deck. He opened his screen. As he spoke, his words transformed into a series of glyphs. 

“Day 4. I have employed the earthling, Cindy Walker, to assist me. At some point soon, I will need to disclose my true identity to her. I understand that I was cautioned and am cautious myself about revealing anything to the humans at the outset, but this one is special. I believe she will understand. If not, I can always erase her memory. It will be interesting learning.”

In the kitchen, Cindy stood in an oversized T-shirt with with a bottle of water in her hand. She had overheard the entire conversation, and she was transfixed at the sight of the screen that just seemed to be hovering in front of Ezra. She moved to the screen door and slid it open. 

“Ezra?”

Ezra shut down the screen and turned around. He saw Cindy standing there, wide-eyed, and a bit frightened at the Standing in the doorway of the family room. He motioned for her to come out. She sat down at the table. 

“Who…what…What’s happening here, Ezra? Who were you talking to? And what was that thing you were looking at?”

Ezra just smiled. “I was waiting for the right time to disclose this. But here you are asking for an explanation. Come and sit down.” 

Cindy took a seat beside him.

“I am what humans would call an alien. I come from a planet located three point two seven of your light years from this world. We have been monitoring your world for approximately 105 of your years. I am here on a research mission. We, meaning my planet, are interested in making contact, with the goal of establishing a relationship with Earth.”

Cindy rubbed her forehead. She honestly couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Ummm, so your planet, this place you come from, what is it called?” 

“It has no name, at least none that I know of. Neither do we have races or creeds or anything else that segregates us. We are what you would call ‘the people’. 

“But surely you have leaders.”

“Actually we do not. We have a collective consciousness. Anything that needs to be decided is voted upon by everyone of age. The will of the people is the guiding principle we all adhere to.”

“And so I’m the only human who knows you are here?”

“That’s correct.”

“And what’s to keep me from running off and telling the world about you, if I were so inclined?”

Well, there is the fact that I can erase all memory of myself from your mind.”

“You can do that, really?”

“Yes.”

“That’s quite a trick.”

“It’s actually just a theory at the moment. But it has worked on other species, slightly more evolved than humanoids.”

Cindy took a sip of her water.

“So you want me to keep your secret? And you want me to help you pave the way for what, a visit from your people?”

“Yes.”

“So what happens if I say no?”

“I simply erase your memory back to before I started filing my last report. Then we carry on, and I find a more appropriate time to reveal myself to you. But it will happen eventually. It needs to in order for us to function as a solid team.”

Cindy got up and walked to the edge of the deck. She looked out at the moonlit water. She turned her thoughts inward and realized that she wasn’t as upset about this as she was shocked.

“You’re asking a lot.”

“Well, you applied for the job. Now you’re getting the full job description.”

Cindy came back to the table and sat down again. She took a deep breath. 

“Okay. I’ll help you. But only if you answer all my questions honestly, and don’t hold anything back.”

 “I will tell you all I can.”

Cindy reached out. Ezra took hold of her hand and shook it. 

“Okay. I will hold you to that, Mr. Spaceman.”

An hour later, they were walking up the stairs and heading for bed. At the top of the stairs, Cindy turned and took Ezra’s face gently in her hands, then kissed him. It was a sensation that was completely alien to Ezra, but one that he found undeniably pleasurable.

~ 4 ~

They made love for the first time that night. And Ezra got to genuinely understand what being a human was really all about. He wasn’t sure how to go about it at first, but Cindy was a good teacher and he was an excellent student.

The truth that was revealed to Ezra that night changed him. And it most certainly altered the objective of his mission. It was no longer one of reconnaissance with the goal of conquest. It was to forge an alliance with the human race and help them by ridding the planet of anything that might slow their evolution down. Because he could see and feel all of humanity in her, he realized, then and there, that Earth would be a much better ally than it would be a conquest.

As he lay beside Cindy and felt the warmth of her body next to his, he was amazed at just how overwhelming that feeling was. It was something he had never felt before. And something he wanted to keep on feeling, at least for the time being.

The next day, while they were having coffee and omelettes, Ezra explained, or at least tried to explain, exactly what kind of being he was.

“My world has no real sense of time measurement, so I cannot tell you how long we have existed. Our scientists tell us that in the past, we had physical bodies, but that was long ago. We live for what earthlings would describe as centuries. The life force does not die, it merely abandons us, forms a new mass and regrows itself into another entity that carries all the memories of its former lives.

“So this human body you’re in, it’s not yours.”

“Well yes, it is. I fabricated it on my journey to your planet.” Ezra said.

“How many of you are there, on your planet?” Cindy asked.

“That is difficult to say since we do not keep track. There is no need for systems of any kind because every entity is both self-sustaining, and part of the whole, if you can understand that.”

Cindy smiled. “No, Ezra, I’m afraid that everything you have just said is quite mystifying.”

Ezra took a deep breath. “You live in this world for a finite period of time. And not very long at that. You have different agendas and life purposes. Many of you are givers, many are also takers. And by your own admission, your world is not in the best condition because of this imbalance. 

“While you were sleeping, I contacted my planet and requested permission to expand my investigation. Our meeting, our joining, last night, taught me something about your species that I was not expecting. That you have the capability of great passion and deep love. This would be, in my opinion, something worth preserving. Expanding my mission will, hopefully, give me the time to rid the world of that which is holding it back.”

“Wait a minute.” Are you talking about actually murdering people?”

“No, Cindy. I’m talking about changing them. At least their opinions and how they affect this world. This is a different scenario than I have encountered up to now. It is much more nuanced. Less, what you would call black and white. Much more shades of grey.”

“And just how are you going to do that? I mean, the worst people we have here can be quite ruthless. You don't get to be filthy rich and powerful without, you know, developing a pretty hard shell.”

“Be that as it may, all we can do is try.” If it doesn’t work through persuasion, then we can entertain alternatives.”

“You do realize that, for me, this is all quite insane?”

“Humans are given to hyperbole. I realize that none of this is within the realm of your experience. So if by insane, you mean unusual. Yes, it is.”

“And what part do I play in all of this?” Cindy asked.

“You can help me identify the most likely targets. What you would refer to as influencers. We will start with your country since we are already here, and it’s been my observation that things which happen here usually have a substantial ripple effect around the planet.”

“So the investment business was really just a ruse?” Cindy asked

“I saw it as a way to enter the circle of influence of these people and identify them myself. But since I have you…I do have you?”

Cindy nodded.

“Now that I have you, you can help me identify them. It will make the task that much simpler, since, by your own admission, you know your way around.”

“And what happens, you know, after your mission is completed?”

Ezra thought about that for a good long time. “There’s an earth epithet I encountered in my research which I quite liked. It goes, ‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’ So that’s what we’ll do.” 

~ 5 ~

The next day, Cindy got to work. The first thing she did was set up an entity which she and Ezra had decided would be called ‘Take Back The World’. She started by opening accounts on Facebook, a couple of Facebook groups, a progressive liberal site called Blue Sky, a business site called LinkedIn, a Chinese site called TikTok, and half a dozen other smaller social media sites. She did not post on Twitter which was now called X, because she knew that the management of that site was about as hard-core far right as anything in the social media business and they would likely ban her almost immediately.

Once she had seeded these sites with names she had purchased from a dozen different list companies, she then created her first post. 

She created a graphic in her Pages program with a small ‘Take Back The World’ logo. At the top was a graphic of a stylized question mark, and beneath it she wrote: 

Name 3 People The World Would Be Better Off Without.

She then made a jpeg out of the graphic and posted it on each of the sites she had joined and sent it off into the ether. She closed up the computer and made a coffee and a sandwich and went out to sit on the back deck and read. Ezra had left early that morning and told her he was going to teach himself to drive the Mercedes. She volunteered to go with him, but he was adamant about doing it alone.

An hour and a half later, he entered the house and walked out to the back deck and sat down beside Cindy.

“I trust you had a productive morning.” he said.

“Yes. Everything is set up, and the question is out there. I want to give it about three days. I will repost it every eight hours or so. We should have quite a long list by then. The next step would be to rank them. I will take the hundred or so most frequently mentioned names and ask everyone who responded to pick their top ten. I figure by the time we’re done, you’ll know exactly who to go after.” 

“You seem quite certain of the results you will be able to achieve.” Ezra said.

“The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. But I do know a bit about rich people and politicians and I know how much they are despised in this society. So I think we will probably pull some pretty decent numbers.”

“Let’s hope you’re correct.” Ezra said, as he walked back into the house.

Cindy got to her feet and followed him into the kitchen.

“How was the driving lesson?” she asked him, as he was pouring himself a coffee.

“I have no frame of reference on which to base the experience. But I collided with nothing and was able to maneuver quite easily. It’s an entirely new experience, this driving. I had to resist the urge to simply tell the machine what to do. But at the same time, it was exhilarating to actually use the body and mind together to basically avoid killing yourself, or anyone else.”

“She kissed Ezra on the cheek and started to refill her own cup. “Good for you, sweetie. You’re becoming a real humanoid.”

“Indeed.” he replied.

While they waited for the data lists to grow, they took a trip down to Manhattan. They registered at the Pierre Hotel and then went for a walk down 5th Avenue. Along the way, Cindy explained the city from her point of view.

Cindy knew a lot about Manhattan because she had lived there for most of her young life. Her dad was one of the first wave of investment people to leave Wall Street and set up shop in their home. For Cindy, who was just finishing college at the time, it meant eventually moving out to Long Island. The house her parents had purchased there came with a small outbuilding that had been converted into a nanny residence some years earlier. 

She was determined not to ask her parents for more financial assistance, because they had paid her tuition for four years, and her rent for the year she was working in the city. 

Commuting from Long Island was out of the question, because Cindy was anything but an early riser and the trip from Long Island to downtown Manhattan was easily a two to three-hour deal on a good day.

Through his connections in the real estate sector, her dad got her the job with the leasing agency, At the time she had met Ezra, she was saving up enough to be able to afford another year in Manhattan and start some sort of career in finance. 

That was, to her way of thinking quite enough parental assistance, and now with ten thousand a month and a place to live rent-free, she was feeling pretty good about things.

They held hands as they walked, and Ezra thought the whole experience was quite pleasant, despite the massive sensory overload. He had never been in an environment like this. The streets were teeming with humans, all seemingly in a rush to get somewhere. Cindy explained that there were relatively few individual houses in Manhattan. Most people lived in apartments and because it was such a small geographic space, many did not have cars and walked a lot. As they passed one of the subway entrances, she also explained that there was a vast network of underground trains. But she preferred walking, or riding her bike, which she pointed out as a bike courier whipped by.

“So, a two-wheeled self-propelled conveyance.” He said. “It’s very practical, especially when you consider the density of human traffic on the ummm…”

“Sidewalks?” Cindy said.

“An apt description.” Ezra replied. 

They got down to around 42nd Street when Cindy announced she was hungry. As Ezra shifted his focus to his body. He realized that he, too, was hungry, another strange sensation, but nonetheless, quite real.” 

They walked down to 40th Street and were lucky enough to get an outdoor table at the Bryant Street Grill, where Ezra experienced his first meal of cheeseburger and fries.

 After lunch, Cindy took Ezra to the Metropolitan Library where she explained that a great deal of the wisdom of humanity was housed here in books. 

“So humans read these books and gain knowledge.”

“Some do, some don’t,” Cindy said. “The majority of books that people buy and read are strictly for entertainment. You know, storytelling.”

“I understand. This is not the way of things on my home world. All knowledge is universally shared, simultaneously, by each entity. This way, everyone has the same amount of knowledge, and can therefore expand the knowledge base logically.”

Cindy tried very hard to imagine a society like that, but had a lot of trouble. So she simply led him on. 

On the way back to the hotel, they went into the Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street. Ezra was particularly fascinated by the sculptures. 

“They are at once symbolic and realistic. Fascinating.” Ezra said. 

They spent three hours there. Cindy sat down on a bench and checked out the social media postings on her phone. There were dozens, so far. Ezra simply wandered from one statue to another staring for five or ten minutes, almost as if he was conversing with them.”

At 5:30, the ushers started shooing everybody out the door. 

“ I would very much like to come back here tomorrow.” Ezra said.

“Okay. But there’s a lot more of the city to see.” she replied.

“I believe I can learn a great deal about humans from these sculptures,” he said.

“Whatever floats your boat, my friend.”

And for the first time in few days that they had known each other. Ezra laughed. “Whatever floats your boat?”, he said. “Did you just create that?”

“No, it’s been around for quite some time.”

Ezra continued to laugh quietly as they walked up 6th Avenue.

Three days later, they pulled into the driveway of the Long Island house. Cindy had noticed that since the trip to the Museum of Modern Art, Ezra was behaving differently. He was looser and almost happy. She wondered if he wasn’t actually becoming more human or at least more used to being on a planet where there were nothing but humans. She didn’t want to bring it up with him at that point. But she made a mental note to keep her eye on it.

~ 6 ~

 

They both slept late the next day. Or at least Cindy did. Cindy was up first and made some coffee. Ezra showed up about fifteen minutes later, lured by the aroma. He sat down at the table where Cindy was staring at her laptop.

“I don’t believe this,” she said.

“You’ll have to clarify that, I’m afraid,” Ezra replied.

We have close to three thousand responses, many of them contain three names, about seventy of them contain ten or more names, and there are even a bunch with at least fifty names. This is going to be a logistical nightmare.

“Well, perhaps for a human that would be the case.” Call up the all the websites where you published the question.” 

Cindy did that. She then turned the computer over to Ezra. He scrolled down the list, which took the better part of a minute. They then repeated the process for each of the other social media sites Cindy had chosen. When Ezra had finished scanning the entire response base, he took his coffee cup and went out to the deck. He sat down on the steps and stared out at the ocean as the gentle waves broke on the beach at the end of the yard.

Twenty minutes later, he got to his feet and came back into the kitchen, where Cindy was making some French Toast for their brunch. He sat down at the laptop and opened a Pages file. He then began to type. Cindy came over and put his French toast on the counter, then refilled his coffee cup. She said nothing because she figured Ezra wouldn’t be able to hear her anyway. He looked to be in a real zone. 

Ezra typed for only a few minutes. When he was done, he pushed the computer over to Cindy’s side of the counter.

“Here are the one hundred most frequently mentioned individuals, in order of, I suppose you would call it, popularity or frequency of mention.”

Cindy had pretty much given up on being fascinated by Ezra’s abilities. She knew that if she asked him how he did all that, he would not necessarily be able to explain it in any way her puny human brain could grasp. So she simply accepted it.

“So do we start at the top of the list and work our way down? Or the bottom and work our way up?”

“What does your intuition tell you?” Ezra asked.

“Go big or go home.”

Ezra smiled, almost laughed. “Go big or go home, indeed.”

“Alrighty then.” She said. “I will start filling in the information on the top ten to get us started. Because my intuition also tells me that if we get these people on board, many of the others will fall in line.”

“Good thinking.” Ezra said as he slathered his French toast with syrup and dug in.

“Did I mention that I think you are a great cook.”

“All I’ve ever made you is French toast and an omelette.”

“Well, perhaps that’s all it takes.”

~ 7 ~

Early that afternoon, as Cindy was busy compiling information on the people on the list, Ezra took off in the Mercedes. He drove into the Westhampton downtown area and parked behind the BankAmerica branch, where his money was on deposit. He showed the teller his card and asked for $250,000 in hundred-dollar denominations. She disappeared for a moment and then came back with a man in his thirties wearing a suit and tie. 

“Mr. Birmingham.”

“Yes.” Ezra said. 

“I’m Phil Liscombe. The branch manager. Your request was rather unusual. Just wanted to check to make sure everything is OK.”

“Ohh, I suppose you wish to know why I want this money.”

“Only if you feel comfortable telling me.”

“Not at all. I’m on my way to Atlantic City. I’m playing in a poker tournament and perhaps doing a little more gambling after that.” Ezra had this all rehearsed and felt like he was lying with relative ease.

This seemed to satisfy Liscombe. Ezra accompanied Liscombe to his office. Then Liscombe went off to get the money for him. A few minutes later, he returned carrying a nylon bag with the Bank’s logo on it. There were twenty-five bundles of one-hundred-dollar bills. Ten thousand dollars in each bundle. Liscombe unbagged the money and stacked it on his desk. 

He then produced a document, which Ezra signed, as Liscombe re-bagged the money. 

“So high stakes poker? That’s quite a risky pastime. Liscombe said.

“Yes, I suppose it is. But what’s life without a little risk?”

 OK, well then, have a good trip, sir.”

“Thank you. I intend to.”

“Sorry for the inconvenience, Mr Birmingham.” 

“No inconvenience at all. In fact, your diligence is most appreciated.”

“Thank you, sir.” Liscombe said.

Ezra drove down into the area known as Queens. He cruised along the waterfront until he found what he was looking for. He parked along side a park with several baseball diamonds. Beneath the Ryker’s Island Bridge, he found a small encampment of homeless people. He walked through the encampment until he spotted a likely subject, sitting with his back against a pillar. He was sitting off by himself. His clothes were dirty, his hair unkempt, and his beard was scruffy. He looked to be about the same age as Ezra’s human form. Beside him was a bottle of wine that was nearly empty. On the other side was a sleeping bag and a plastic shopping bag.

Ezra approached him. He didn’t seem to notice. So Ezra sat down beside him. 

“Hard times have visited you.” Ezra said.

The man turned his head and stated. “You don’t look like you belong here.” he said flatly.

“How did you end up in this situation?”

“Shit happens.”

“What was your occupation?”

“Nothing special. Copywriter in a big ad agency. Got replaced by a fucking AI program. Couldn’t find any other work. Couldn’t hold it together. I really tried. Just couldn’t do it.” He picked up the bottle and took a little swig.” 

“I have two hundred and fifty thousand dollars I will give you.”

The man just chuckled. “Sure you do.”

“I want to give you something else too.”

“You’re a regular Santa Claus.”

“Perhaps.”

“So what do you want in return?”

“Nothing really.”

“Nothing? Come on. It’s always something.”

“All I want you to do is to allow me to hold your hand.”

“And you’ll give me two hundred and fifty grand?”

“Yes.”

“That’s some kind of perversion you got there.”

“I suppose it is.”

“What the hell,” the man said, and held out his hand

Ezra took hold of it. He pressed his thumb into the center of the man’s palm. The man watched him curiously but Ezra was elsewhere, fighting through the conscience he had built into the human shell he was wearing. 

Finally, after about fifteen seconds, the man died. 

Ezra released the pressure on the man’s hand and caught his breath. After a minute or so, placed his palm on the man’s left temple and held it for several seconds. Slowly, the man came back to life.

“What the hell was that?” he said. He was groggy, and felt as if he had just woken from a long sleep.

“That was the end. You actually died.”

“Naa. You just knocked me out.”

“What do you remember?”

“Nothing.”

“Good. How do you feel now?”

The man took a deep breath and thought about it. Finally, he said. “I have to admit, I feel…better than I’ve felt in a long time.” 

Ezra shifted the bag over to the man. He looked inside and then looked at Ezra. 

“Within the next twenty-four hours,” Ezra said, “You will start to feel the way you felt before your life took a bad turn. Make the most of it.”

Ezra realized from his previous experiences with sentient life forms that he could leave them with a suggestion before they were fully alive again. He hoped it would work with humans.

Ezra sat with the man for about ten minutes and then got to his feet. The man did as well. He started to look around at the place where he was like it was some sort of alien world. 

“If you want to leave here, I’m going to Long Island but I can take anywhere you’d like to go along the way.”

They started walking back to where Ezra had parked his car.

“I have no home to go to. It’s all gone.” The man looked at the money he was holding. “You really killed me?”

“I did. And I brought you back.”

“Why?”

“Why did I kill you or why did I bring you back?”

“Both. What am I to you?”

“As callous as this may sound, you were a test. I’m planning to use this…skill to help heal the world.”

“You’re gonna kill people with it?”

“Hopefully not. The idea is to incentivize them into doing the right thing going forward.”

“Good luck with that. You’re gonna be dealing with some real hard-assed people, especially in this country. It’s a nation full of greedy pricks.” the man said.

They got to the car. The man and Ezra got in. He directed Ezra to a street in Queens that had a lot of shops and a few small hotels. Ezra pulled over and stopped the car. 

“Thank you for the money. I have a good feeling about how I can use it.”

Hold onto that feeling.” Ezra said

Before the man opened the door. Ezra reached out and touched his temple. It froze the man for a good ten seconds. He removed his finger, and the man got out of the car.

 “Thanks for the ride, Mister.” he said and closed the door.

As Ezra drove away, he saw the man look into the
BankAmerica bag he was carrying. Then he looked up at the Mercedes heading down the street.

 As he drove on, two things became clear to Ezra. One was that he could create and undo a death state with a human. And two, he would probably be much better off doing it outside his human shell.

~ 8 ~

Cindy worked on the list for the better part of the day and into the early evening. Then they went out to the Mexican restaurant for late dinner.

“So you were gone for quite a while.” Cindy said, just making conversation. 

“Yes. I drove into what you call Queens. I met a man there who did a favour for me.”

“What do you mean, a favour?”

“He agreed to participate in a test.”

“So you killed him?”

“And I brought him back. And I also made a suggestion to him that could hopefully change his life for the better.”

“And he just volunteered to have this done?”

“Yes. I also gave him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

“Oh my.” Cindy said

Ezra chuckled. “I honestly thought you would be more upset than you are.”

“Maybe that’s because I believe in you, Ezra. I believe you’re here to do some good in a world that badly needs it. The man is all right, isn’t he?”

“Yes. I believe he is. He’s definitely better off than when I found him.”

The waiter brought their food and a bottle of chablis and they toasted the success of Ezra’s experiment. 

 After dinner, they drove back home without talking very much. When they got into the house. Ezra led Cindy to the back deck, where they both sat down.

Ezra took a deep breath. “I can feel that you are concerned about me. And rightly so. The thing I discovered today was that in order to do what we need to do effectively, I cannot do it reliably in this body. So I think it would be best for you to see the being I really am. Because sooner or later it will happen, and I don’t want it to be by accident. I have come to care for you very much, and the last thing I want to do is frighten you.”

Now it was Cindy’s turn to take a deep breath. “So are you telling me that the way you really look is frightening?”

“No. I don’t really know how to explain it.” 

“Well, then, let’s get on with it. I’m a big girl.”

Ezra closed his eyes. Slowly, the body took on a white glow. The glow intensified as it thickened around Ezra’s human body, which had now gone limp as the real Ezra emerged. He was in roughly the shape of a human, although he looked to be draped in a long robe. His face was very much human, but none of the features were pronounced. He had two arms which he held in front of him. 

He didn’t speak, but his words somehow entered Cindy’s head and she heard them clearly.

“Millions of what you refer to as years ago, the beings on my planet had a form very similar to humans. Most life that I know of in the universe does. But the climate on our planet became very harsh due to a severe alteration to its orbit  around our sun. It became what you would call elliptical as opposed to circular. Over time, we adapted, mostly to keep the extremes from destroying us. As we adapted, we became less dependent on physical bodies and more in tune with the essence of our beings. Today, we live in harmony with the harsh environment of our world. We have interstellar travel and are able to trade for the minerals we need.”

“What do you trade?” 

“Ingenuity for the most part. We teach the cultures of the planets in our sphere to make more effective and efficient use of their systems. In short, we set them on the path to accelerated evolution.”

“And you do this all peacefully?”

“Not always. The universe, at least as we know it, is filled with contradictions.”

“And so, why are you here? On Earth?” 

“I have determined that this planet has excellent potential for enhanced evolution.”

“You mean making ourselves more like you.”

“Not exactly. I mean helping the human race accelerate its own evolution.”

“And you know this because…?”

“Our scholars, many of whom are older than the human race itself, have deduced that it is so. I have this knowledge in me, and I can use it to help the process along.”

They talked for the next hour. Ezra tried to answer all of Cindy’s questions as honestly as he could. At one point, he summoned the spacecraft and uncloaked it. And showed Cindy the interior. She marvelled at its sheer simplicity and how everything that Ezra needed could be created based on the description he gave the ship’s processor. 

He even took her for a short ride around the bay as he explained that the entire craft was powered by his mind. It could travel just slightly faster than the speed of light and was equipped with the Earth equivalent of more than two millennia of its history in its data bank.

After they returned, Ezra cloaked the spacecraft and re-entered his human shell. Several seconds later, he opened his eyes and straightened up. He then got up, went into the kitchen and got two bottles of spring water from the refrigerator. He drank one right down and brought the other back to the deck.

Cindy hadn’t moved a muscle.

“So…” Ezra said. “Now you know all about me.”

Cindy smiled. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

“Are you all right with this?”

Cindy stared at him for a few seconds. “Yeah. I think I am. It was quite a jolt seeing you all lit up like that.”

“I can understand that. What I need to know is that you are still with me.”

“That never occurred to me, Ezra. I now know why you are here. I will do whatever I can to help you.”

~ 9 ~

Their first target was a man named Harlan Cole. He lived in Florida on a large compound outside of Miami. Cole was one of the richest people on the planet. He owned controlling interests in more than 200 companies. His net worth was somewhere in the area of seven hundred billion. He ran his businesses with an iron fist and was the single largest donor to the US Republican Party, which, according to Cindy, was far and away the most corrupt of the two major American political parties. 

“The main reason Harlan Cole was so supportive of the Republicans was the massive amount of tax savings that Republican tax cuts assured his businesses. This was the key reason why the imbalance between the rich and rest was so pronounced. The federal government did not have enough tax revenue to support many of the social programs it did way back in the day when corporate tax rates were much higher.” Cindy said. 

“Someone in his position would likely travel a great deal, correct?” Ezra asked.

“Actually, a lot less than you might think. He very much dislikes flying and prefers to run his empire through teleconferences from his home. He has created a very good management structure, based in Atlanta, so he’s only in on major decisions.”

Ezra scanned Cindy’s one-pager on Mr. Cole, then smiled. “This is a good format to work with.” he said as he handed her back the page. “I’ll pay Mr Cole a visit tonight.”

 

At midnight, after Cindy was asleep, Ezra summoned his craft and left his human body sitting on the deck. Six minutes later, he arrived at Harlan Cole’s South Florida residence. It was a large sprawling house, quite garish, Ezra thought, a word he had picked up from Cindy’s descriptions of some of the houses they saw while driving in their neighbourhood. He could see that the property was surrounded by a large brick wall and that there was a manned gatehouse at the main entrance to the property. He set the cloaked craft down in the large backyard. He then entered the house through a rear door that was unlocked. It didn’t surprise Ezra that the house would be unlocked. There were two armed men patrolling the grounds with large black dogs.  

Ezra moved to the second floor. There were several bedrooms, all except one were empty. He entered the large room and saw that Cole was asleep. Lying next to him was a woman with long grey hair. Ezra moved to the side of the bed and touched the woman’s temple. He then moved to the other side of the bed. He pulled up a chair and sat down. He then reached out and touched Cole’s cheek. He woke almost immediately. 

“What the fuck.” he said, and he started to get up. Ezra held him down with an index finger pointed in the air. Cole was frozen in place.

“What the hell are you?” Cole said.

“Don’t worry, Mr Cole. I come in peace.”

“What do you want?”

“Do you want the long list, or the short one?”

“Stop fuckin’ around. Just tell me what you want.”

“Well, first of all, I’d like to show you something.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“I’d like to show you the end of your life.” With that, Ezra took hold of Cole’s hand and pressed down pressed down on the palm. Less than one second later, Cole was dead.

Ezra quietly waited for a whole minute before reviving him, and another minute for Cole to realize he wasn’t actually dead any longer. 

“What did you do?” he said. He was obviously terrified, and that gave Ezra an odd feeling of satisfaction.

“I showed you your death, Mr Cole.”

Cole thought about it for a moment, then said, more calmly this time. “What exactly do you want?”

“I want you to change your ways. You are one of the wealthiest and most influential people on this planet, but what good is all that wealth and influence if you can’t use at least some of it to help people less fortunate than you?”

“You’re kidding me. That’s why you broke into my house? To tell me to change my ways?”

“Yes, Mr. Cole. That’s exactly what I am telling you.”

“And what makes you think I would do this?”

“Mr Cole, I have already killed you once. If you do not believe I cannot do it again, you are delusional. There are no other choices. Change or die. I will leave you now and take your companion out of her deeper sleep. But if I don't see highly publicized evidence of your cooperation, and very soon, I will be back. There are no second chances Mr. Cole. It’s do or die, sir.”

Cole was speechless, mostly because he was still coming back to consciousness.

“I trust you will do the right thing, Mr. Cole,” Ezra said. “I don’t think you are foolish enough to believe there is some way around this. There isn’t. Think of it as a circle. Your businesses have made you very rich and powerful. But you are not considered to be one of the good people in your country. Think about what a change of plans will do for you in the public eye, how many people will benefit from that, and how much more profitable that can be for you.”

Ezra rose and moved around the bed. He touched the sleeping woman’s temple, and she made a small sound but did not wake up. 

Ezra then left the room and eventually the house. He uncloaked the ship and climbed aboard. He re-cloaked it and took off. Twelve minutes later, he was lying in bed with Cindy.

“How’d it go in Florida?”

“The proof will be in the pudding, my dear.”

~ 10 ~

Harlan Cole woke up the next morning and stood in the shower for a good long time, thinking about what had happened to him the night before. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but as he became more awake, he started to realize that his mindset was unusual. He got dressed and joined his wife, Vera, on the terrace for breakfast.

Vera and Harlan had been high school sweethearts. She stood beside him all through the early years as he expanded his father’s relatively small group of companies, through smart investing, shrewd purchasing, putting solid management teams together, and backing the Republicans who gave him the massive tax breaks he needed to stay afloat while he was growing.

Vera had always been his conscience. She saw very clearly what the Republican Party had slowly transformed into, and she had relayed her concerns to Harlan. Harlan was up to his eyeballs in business responsibility and had no real time to be political, so he listened to Vera’s advice because she had a very astute mind and kept a close eye on things in America. 

When Trump got elected president in 2016, she sat down with Harlan and told him flat out that while his companies might benefit greatly from the massive tax cuts Trump would sign off on, she felt the country was going to go through a real polarization period. 

Harlan wasn't quite sure what to do with that bit of news, other than to keep his eye on it. And sure enough, over the next half dozen years, his business profile had transformed from shrewd capitalist genius to oligarchic robber baron in the eyes of the public. This was on his mind and had been for some time. Then last night, after whatever it was that had happened, it finally congealed.

“How did you sleep last night, darlin’?” Harlan asked.

“Very well, thank you. How about you?” Vera replied.

“You know how you’ve been in my ear about what’s happening to the Republican party?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I think it’s finally started to sink in. I’m gonna give Angus a call this morning and see if we can’t turn off the Republican funding hose.”

Vera took a sip of her coffee. “You do realize the impact that will have.”

“Not totally, but I’m hoping it will have some.”

Angus was Angus Glennie, the CFO of Cole Enterprises, and keeper of the purse for the conglomerate. Later that morning, Harlan and Vera were on a video conference call to Angus, whose office was in Atlanta, where the corporate headquarters for Cole Enterprises was located.  

 The call was short and to the point. Harlan instructed Angus to immediately stop all ongoing funding to the Republican Party. 

Angus, who was as apolitical as Harlan, merely nodded. “You do realize that there are gonna be a whole lot of pissed-off politicians demanding to know the reason why.”

“I’ll take care of the PR, Angus. You just get to work on the logistics.” Harlan said. 

“Vera,” Angus said. “What’s your read on all of this?”

“My read is that there will be hell to pay for a little while, but long term, we’re hoping that Harlan can start being seen as one of the good guys again.”

“Does this mean you want to start supporting the Democrats?” Angus asked.

“Jury’s still out on that. For now, let’s get through this bag of hammers and then see what’s what.” Harlan said.

“You’re the boss, Harlan.” Angus said as he disconnected.

Harlan turned to Vera. “Guess we should probably issue a press release.”

“That’s the point of no return, darlin’.” Vera said.

“Yeah. Well, if nothing else, it will be a lot of fun.”

The news of Harlan Cole pulling all his funding for the Republican party hit like a ton of bricks. The media ate it up. The head office of Cole Enterprises was inundated with requests for an interview. Harlan had his PR guru, Candy D’Amato, contact 60 Minutes. 

Two days later, Anderson Cooper and a small crew were set up on the terrace of Harlan’s Florida estate.

“Were here in Florida with American industrialist, and, up to recently, the major contributor to the Republican party, Harlan Cole. A few days ago, Mr. Cole publicly announced he was ceasing all donations to the party, which sent shock waves through the Republican establishment and the entire Conservative movement in the country. Tonight, hopefully, we’ll find out what was behind Mr Cole’s momentous decision. Mr Cole. Good evening.”

“Good evening, Anderson.” Cole said, sitting at the table on one of his decks.

“So you have publicly announced that you are no longer supporting the Republican Party. I guess what everybody wants to know is how this came about.”

“Well, first of all, this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, Anderson. My wife, Vera, who is my closest advisor, has been making noises about the Republicans ever since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. So I’ve been thinkin’ hard about it for quite some time. As it turned out, electing Trump was, at least in my view, a colossal mistake and re-electing him last year was an even bigger error. But I have always said, you’re allowed to make one mistake. Make two and you’re toast. 

“So when the party decided to get behind him to the extent that they have, for another run at the White House, Vera started to see it all goin’ to hell in a handcart, so to speak. And she let me know. Then one day, probably a few days ago now, it all sunk in. And here we are.” 

“Have you heard from any of the Republican leadership?”

“My PR people are dealing with them. I really have nothing to say, other than to express my extreme disappointment in what that party has become. And if there are any other staunch Republican backers out there, I’d advise them to think seriously about the people you’re in bed with.”

“A lot of people are a bit cynical about your motives for doing this, sir. What do you say to them?”

“I’ll be really honest with you, Anderson. Everybody in business, big or small, has a reputation to protect. So yeah, I thought about what being seen as a big-time supporter of the party was doing for my reputation. And I have been weathering that for a few years now. My primary motivation here is that I disagree with the direction the party has taken. And it’s not just a mild disagreement. They have, in my opinion, and Vera’s too, gone right off the deep end. The platform they are supporting isn’t what this country is all about. Far from it. They are looking to create a power elite and further separate the rich from the rest. You’re in the business of figuring out this country. Tell me I’m wrong, Anderson.”

Anderson smiled. “No sir, I can’t do that. Because I believe that from your perspective, you are doing the right thing for all the right reasons.”

“I believe in America. I believe that this is the greatest country on the planet because of the opportunity that everyone has to make something of themselves. But if you look at what’s happening in Washington, all you have is polarization and stagnation. The Democrats, although I am not one of them, were, at least, doin’ what they could to take care of the whole country. The Republican agenda, as it stands right now, is the opposite of that. It’s elitist. It’s driven by greed and lust for power. And it completely disregards the wishes of the vast majority of the country, half of whom have no idea how good they have it here.”

“That sounds like a Democratic stump speech.”

Harlan laughed. “Yeah, well, that wasn’t the intention. The intention is to get people to wake up and smell the coffee and quit sending fascists to DC and their state capitals.”

Anderson Cooper wound down the interview, and Harlan treated him and his crew to a nice lunch. By three o’clock, they were gone and Harlan and Vera were sitting on the terrace by themselves as the caterers took the last of the mess away.

“So how’d I do?” He asked Vera.

“Well, you’re probably gonna make a lot of enemies. But other than that, I’d say you killed it.” 

Harlan took a sip of his coffee and then turned to Vera. “Look, I want to tell you something. I’ve been afraid to for fear that you might think I’m certifiable.”

“Well, the only way you’re gonna know that is if you spill the beans.” Vera said.

“OK, a couple nights ago, I woke up and there was this thing…sitting beside the bed. It looked like a person, but it was all bathed in a white glow and it was hard to make out its features. It took hold of my hand and it knocked me out. But it didn’t feel like anything. It was just blank. And then I came back. And this thing told me that it had just shown me my death and then brought me back. Then it told me that I have to make some changes.”

Vera looked at him for a moment. “Was it specific about what these changes should be?”

“No, but when it was telling me this, I started thinking about all the stuff you’ve been warning me about.”

“Do you really think he killed you and then brought you back?”Vera asked.

“I honestly don’t know. All I do know is that things in my head have changed, and I feel good about it.”

“Sounds like you just had a bad dream.”

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it. But…”

“You don’t think so.”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It was just strange. Never had anything like that happen to me before. But maybe it was just my subconscious. I can’t really say for sure.” Harlan said.

“Well, whatever it was, it certainly seems to have changed you for the better.” Vera said.

“Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”

“Honey, we’ve been living in America all our lives. Crazy is all relative. The thing we really need to talk about is how to deal with the pissed-off Republicans.”

“Truth be told, they really can’t do much to me. I mean, it’s our money last time I looked.”

“Can’t argue with that. Still in all, they’ll figure out some way to come after you.”

“Well, let ‘em come. By the way, are you up for a trip to Atlanta? I want to sit with Angus and talk about how to start improving things in the Cole empire.”

“Sure. On the way we can map out our strategy for defending you against the Republican onslaught.”

~ 11 ~

After the 60 Minutes story aired, all hell broke loose in the Republican Party. Ezra and Cindy spent most of the next day flipping around and looking at the aftermath of Harlan Cole’s interview. 

The video, on a wide range of social media sites, went viral almost instantly. Cindy monitored them and noticed that the comments were all quite positive.

“It’s like they’ve been waiting for something like this to come along, and here you are.”

“I’m pleased that this technique is effective.” Ezra said. “It bodes well for future events.”

“It certainly does.”

An unexpected by-product of Harlan Cole’s actions were two other defections from the ranks of big money Republican supporters. These were smaller than Harlan Cole, but then almost everybody was, and, according to Cindy, both companies these individuals owned had working relationships with Cole’s core businesses.

“I think they’re just playing nice with Mr. Cole, because they don't want to lose their business relationship with him.” Cindy told Ezra.

The ripple effect is something I never considered. So that’s an unexpected bonus.”

“Yeah. But it won’t always be the case.”

“But perhaps we should try and make it the case. If we can obliterate the funding for this Republican Party, that could end up having quite a significant impact. It would definitely send a signal to other far-right or fascist governments that there is a formidable counter-movement.”

Cindy looked at him for a good thirty seconds. She was trying to figure out how to respond. Finally, she said, “Ezra. I think you’re overthinking this. I know it sounds strange coming from a human, but you have hit upon a method that works, and now I believe you are diluting it by creating smaller subsets of activity. I honestly believe that we’ll be much better off by sticking to the big fish, and letting the chips fall where they may.”

Ezra stared at Cindy for quite some time. His mind was racing. He was finally starting to understand the human state of excitement. He closed his eyes, working to refute her argument, and then he tracked right back around full circle, at which point he realized that Cindy was right.

“You are correct in your assumption. In my exuberance, I lost the rhythm of what we are doing. So thank you for keeping me on track.”

“You are most welcome. That’s why I make the big bucks.” And then she walked over and kissed him. And for the next two hours, they got lost in each other.

~ 12 ~

Morris Freelander was the chief fundraiser for the Republican Party. He was a New Englander and a high-profile public relations specialist who got active in the party on the day Barack Obama took office. The idea of a black man running the country was completely repugnant to him. He was as racist as it got in modern-day America. But he was also a lot of other nasty things. He was a vocal opponent of women’s rights, right up to abortion. He despised immigrants of any kind, despite being able to trace his family tree back to the Mayflower. He believed that the Jews controlled the money supply in the world and that gays, lesbians and trans people were the dregs of society. The party leadership had sent him to Atlanta to persuade Cole to rejoin the flock.

At 3 PM that afternoon, he was shown into Harlan’s Atlanta office. Vera was sitting on the couch writing a text on her phone. Harlan was sitting at his desk with his laptop open.

“Well, well, well. I was wondering who was gonna do the dirty work. And here it turns out to be the top banana.” Harlan said.

“Yep. You’re getting the full court press.” He turned to Vera, who despised him. “Mrs Cole.” he said. 

“Mr. Freelander.” she said, flatly and went back to her text.

“Have a seat, Morris. I’m sure you have some questions.”

Freelander sat down on one of the two chairs opposite Harlan’s desk.

“I actually just have one question, Harlan. Have you gone off the deep end?”

“I can see how my actions might cause you to question my sanity. But let me ask you a question. How long are you going to keep supporting that clown from New York City? He’s already blown one whole term out his ass, and now here you are again, cheerleading through a second term. I was hoping that you folks would find someone worthwhile, but all you’ve done is dragged the ghost of failures past out of the dungeon.”

“It’s real simple, Harlan. This one-time loser still controls the largest bloc of Republican votes in the country. We have to fish where the fish are.”

Harlan shook his head. “And you don’t think the American people, especially the huge bloc of voters in the undecided category, are onto this guy? I’m no Democrat, but I looked at the Democrat government, and I saw them actually getting things done. I waltzed around for quite a spell with my eyes closed, Morris. But over the past while, they’ve opened up, and frankly, I’m disgusted by what I see.”

Morris Freelander was, if nothing else, a practical person. He was capable of taking in a rational argument and drawing a logical conclusion. He knew, right then and there, that he and the party he represented were basically fucked, at least in the opinion of their largest donor.

 “So there’s nothing I can say that will get you back on side?”

“Sure there is. You can promise me your party will jettison the entire lunatic fringe and get back to being right of centre and working with whoever is in power to take care of this country, instead of just the one percenters like me. And I  know you might very well promise me that, but you know you could never deliver.”

With that, Freelander got to his feet. “Well, if you change your mind, you know how to get hold of me.”

And with that, he turned and left. He nodded to Vera. “Mrs Cole.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Freelander.” Vera said.

After he left the office. Vera sent off her text. She got up and walked over to the desk where her husband was sitting. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“I don't know what happened to you last week, darlin’. But I’m awfully proud of the fella who came out the other side.”

~ 13 ~

Later that day, Ezra was sitting on the rear deck reading over the profiles that Cindy had created. There were close to twenty of them. When Cindy noticed that he had finished his reading, she joined him on the deck.

“So what do you think? Anybody jump out at you?

“They are all worthy. But what I have noticed about them, at least from your profiles, is that these people are all what one would refer to as Conservatives. What you call Republicans.” Ezra said

“Well, hardly anyone who responded bothered to name any Democrats. The Republicans and the people who fund them, who are mostly super-rich, are the core problem that we have. There is a whole apparatus in place to support right-wing extremism. It starts with the rich, who simply want less regulation and low taxation rates. Then it’s supported by whatever media these rich right-wingers own, and it’s reinforced by donations they make to keep getting right-wing politicians, and the judges they appoint, in power.”

Cindy watched as Ezra zoned out. She could tell he was figuring this out.

“There is an epithet I recalled from my research. ‘Any chain is only as strong as its weakest link’. So what is the weakest link here?”

“That’s a good question.” Cindy said. “You’ve clearly seen the effect that withdrawing financial support has. Just today three more substantial Republican backers withdrew their funding.”

“But is that the weakest link?”

“I don't know. And the reason I don’t know is that we have only tested one link.”

“I understand. So what would be a good test subject for another link. The media, for example.”

Cindy shuffled through the papers on the table, and pulled out a sheet, which she handed to Ezra. He looked at it. They talked for a few minutes and made some decisions.

The next target on this list was a man named Irwin Rusk. Rusk, like Harlan Cole, controlled a number of businesses as well as three social media sites plus several large newspapers and a TV network. Under his direct influence, he had weaponized these media against the Democrats. Again, the motivation seemed to be less ideological and more financial. 

“I have absorbed a great deal about your system of government and your society. This is a capitalist society, is it not?” Ezra asked.

Cindy nodded. “It is, or at least it’s supposed to be.”

“Then my question is simple. Why is it that so many people running profitable businesses are so unwilling to pay taxes to the government, which it then uses to benefit the people of the country? One would think that a healthy society is better for business.”

“My dad told me this when I was about eighteen and getting ready for college. He said that, for too many people in this country and a lot of other capitalist countries, making money is tied too closely to their own sense of self-worth. So the more money they make, the more they believe people will admire them.”

Ezra was stunned. He had spent his whole life as part of a hive, where everyone worked for the betterment of the hive. He had no real sense of individuality and found it hard to understand things like ego and obsession. And he explained that to Cindy as best he could. She freely admitted that she could not even imagine that sort of existence.

“You know, it’s true that a lot of these people,” she said, tapping on the pages in front of Ezra. “They’re flawed in different ways. But in the overall scheme of things, they’re the ones who take the big risks and who take responsibility for a lot of other people’s lives. But I’ll tell you, watching that 60 Minutes interview with Harlan Cole, I could see that whatever it was you did to him changed him for the better. And maybe that’s all it takes. The right suggestions and a powerful incentive.”

“So what’s your advice going forward?” Ezra asked.

“I think whatever you are doing can work. But the only way you’re gonna know that for sure is by trying the same thing a few times, so we can really get a feeling for its overall effect. Persuading one guy isn’t a big enough sample. If it doesn’t work after at least a couple more tries, well, we’ll figure out why and course correct. There’s no rule book for what you are doing, Ezra. We’re kinda making it up as we go along.”

~ 14 ~

Irwin Rusk didn't really have a fixed address. He had three homes around the United States and two more overseas. One in London and the other in Cannes in the south of France. He also had a large boat, which he kept moored at the Jettee Albert Edouard. 

After an hour of searching gossip news sites, they discovered an article which indicated that Rusk was indeed on his boat, which was anchored in the Mediterranean, a few miles offshore from Cannes. The article went on to suggest that Monsieur Rusk piloted his own yacht, with no crew.

There was a six-hour time difference which meant that if Ezra left Long Island at 8 PM, he would arrive at Rusk’s yacht at approximately two in the morning. 

Twelve minutes after he left Long Island, Ezra’s ship hovered over the rear deck of Rusk’s yacht. As Ezra stepped out, the ship cloaked. Ezra could see the lights along the coastline a few miles away. The yacht bobbed gently in the mildly undulating Mediterranean.

Ezra moved down into the cabin and then into the front sleeping chamber. What he found there was a very wide- awake Irwin Rusk, sitting in bed with a book in his lap. He did nothing but stare intently. Beside him on the bedside table sat a highly decorative object which Ezra quickly identified as an opium pipe. The fact that Rust showed no fear or anxiety of any kind, meant, to Ezra, that he was under the influence of the drug.

“Good evening, Mr Rusk.” Ezra said.

“Good evening.” Rusk said. “Well technically, it’s morning. And who or what might you be?”

“Just a visitor, Mr Rusk.” Ezra said, “I’ve come to show you something.”

“Really. And what, pray tell, would that be? Bearing in mind that I have pretty much seen it all. At least, I thought I had, until you showed up.”

Ezra moved to the side of the bed. “Allow me to show you first, and then I will explain.”

“Do you need me to do anything?” Rusk asked, perfectly willing to play along with what we was convinced was an opium-induced hallucination.

“Yes. Give me your hand.”

Rusk held out his hand, and Ezra took it. He held it for a good five seconds before pressing his finger into the palm. Almost immediately, the hand went limp, as did the rest of Irwin Rusk. Ezra waited a full minute and then revived Rust, who woke with a start. He took a deep breath and then looked over at Ezra. 

“You killed me, didn’t you?” Rusk said with a smile.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I did.”

“So why exactly did you do that?”

“It was a warning.”

“You are some strange opium dream I am having, aren’t you?” 

“Do you have many strange dreams?”

“I do a lot of strange drugs. So yeah, you might say I do.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but this is reality.”

“You still haven’t explained what you want.”

“I want you to turn off the road you are on. The road where all you do is take things apart. I want you to try the road where you put things together.”

Rusk said nothing. He didn't realize how vulnerable he was. But Ezra knew he was getting through to him.”

“And what, if I may be so bold, is in it for me down this different road?” Rusk asked

“Well first, and perhaps most important of all, is that I will not have to come back and end you permanently. Secondly, this will allow you to achieve a higher purpose than the mere accumulation and hoarding of wealth and power. It will make you more…human.”

“If you’d done your homework, which you obviously have, you likely know I have very little regard for the human race.”

“Which is exactly why they have so little regard for you. Oh, they are impressed with your wealth. But beyond that, all they see is a tyrant. If you were to disappear tomorrow, I genuinely doubt anyone would come looking for you. If I killed you now, how many days would your craft sit here without anyone being the least curious?”

“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”

“And what do you sound like? To most people, you sound like just another arrogant, entitled billionaire. Someone the world would be much better off without. In fact, that’s why you were chosen.”

“Chosen.”

“You don’t think I just showed up here by chance, do you? My associate sent out a questionnaire on various social media sites. The question was ‘Name 3 People The World Would Be Better Off Without.’ You ranked number two. And believe me, there were literally tens of thousands of people who responded.”

Rusk said nothing. What could he say? Ezra realized that his suggestion had finally taken root in the man’s psyche.

“I will give you a week to demonstrate that you are on that new road, Mr. Rusk. If I don’t see it. I will return and, as much as it pains me to say this, you will be no more.”

Rusk pulled out of his reverie and stared at Ezra. He then rubbed his forehead, shook his head and then took a deep breath. “Deal.” he said. “Who knows. It might be interesting.”

Ezra turned to leave the bed chamber when Rusk asked. “If I was ranked number two, who came first?” 

Ezra turned and said, “Look it up on a television program called Sixty Minutes. You might want to have them interview you as well.”

Ezra left the room as quietly as he had arrived. He was back in Long Island in time to have a glass of wine with Cindy as the new moon was rising over the ocean.

“I’m not sure about our Mr. Rusk.” Ezra said. “But we shall see.”

“Tough nut to crack?” Cindy asked.

Ezra looked at her and chuckled. “There very much appears to be a euphemism for everything here.”

“Sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles,” Cindy said. And Ezra laughed some more and started to realize how human he was becoming.

~ 15 ~

Three days later, Cindy logged onto one of the three social media sites owned by Irwin Rusk. As she scrolled down, she started to realize a marked absence of what she called ‘Whackadoodle’ posts from fanatical right-wingers. Finally, she came across a video that Rusk had obviously made on his boat.

“This is a message to all the right-wing fanatics out there who have been diluting the quality and damaging the reputation of this site with their lunatic ravings about everything that’s wrong with America and the world in general. As of today, I have instituted a new set of guidelines for posting on this site and all the other media I control. I have created a new department in my holding company that will enforce these guidelines. 

Over the past while, it's occurred to me that we cannot achieve anything positive in the world by constantly tearing away at every institution. I want my sites to be a force for constructive as opposed to destructive messaging. Send me all the personal hate mail you like. But as of noon today, July 22, haters will no longer have a platform here.” 

Cindy called Ezra in and showed him the video. 

“So…it looks like you cracked the tough nut after all.”

“So it would seem.”

“You don’t appear to be all that happy about this.”

“Please don’t misunderstand, but it just feels like such a long journey we’re on.” 

For the first time since she had met Ezra, she sensed a bit of sadness in his tone. Cindy stared at him for a good long time. 

“I don’t think you fully appreciate the magnitude of these accomplishments. These people are as tough as nails. And influential as hell. There has been no level of human persuasion that could reach them until you came along.”

“I know you’re right, Cindy. It’s just that the more I discover about your species, the more I begin to wonder if this is all worth the effort.”

Cindy chuckled. “Wow, you know what I think. I think that despite the facade you put up, you are becoming more human than you imagined you would. Humans are riddled with doubts and fears, Ezra. But those are the things that keep us going. And our hopes and dreams pull us along and keep the doubts and fears from taking us over. It’s a constant battle and not everybody wins.”

Ezra took it all in, and then he smiled. “I’m very fortunate that you came into my life, Cindy. You always seem to make a great deal of sense. So I will focus on my hopes and dreams.”

“You do that and you’ll realize that this work you are doing is critically important. Not just to my people, but the world.”

~ 16 ~

In Long Island, a writer by the name of Desmond Lee was sitting on the aft deck of a 30-foot yacht he had purchased from the proceeds of his latest gossip book. Desmond wrote about famous and infamous people, and he was very much in demand because gossip about the idle rich and their various antics had always been a growth industry.

Desmond was on vacation, but his nose for a story was always sniffing. One night, quite by accident, he happened to be passing by the house where Ezra and Cindy lived. He cut his running lights and stopped his boat, then got out his trusty Nikon with a 1000 mm lens, set it up on his tripod and managed to get some of the strangest shots he had ever taken, and he had seen some weird shit in his thirty-odd years of doing this.

He was looking at a man who appeared to be in his thirties, who was sitting in a chair across from a girl who looked a few years younger. Then, suddenly, something weird happened. A light seemed to emanate from the man, which soon materialized in the shape of what looked to be another man.

Desmond started shooting. 

The girl looked to be fascinated by this. After a while, the spirit, for want of a better word in Desmond’s head, then re-entered the man’s body. The girl got up, came around and hugged the man. 

The man then appeared to summon a large ball of light, which settled on the lawn. The man and the girl then climbed inside. A few seconds later, the ball lifted off the grass and disappeared. 

Desmond couldn’t believe what he was photographing. But at the same time, his logical mind told him that no matter how much photographic evidence he had, space creature stories were high risk. He would need as much evidence as he could muster. Because in his business, the line between success and failure was paper-thin.

Desmond didn’t quite know what to think of this. But all his instincts told him that it was definitely a thing he could make some money with.

For the next three nights, he camped out about a quarter mile into the sea. Killed all his lights, set up his camera on a tripod and waited. 

The only thing that happened was on the second night when the man came out, summoned the globe of light and then disappeared.

 

Desmond waited to see how long the man, or whatever it was, would be gone. Half an hour or so later, the globe was back. The man exited the globe, which then disappeared, and the man went into the house.

The next day, Desmond drove to the street where the spaceman and the girl lived. He was becoming obsessed, and he knew exactly why. Every fibre in his creepy body was telling him that this had the makings of a blockbuster book. 

He sat parked on the street and made notes on his iPad while he waited. Two days and nights went by, and then on the third day, he got lucky. The guy and the girl came out, tossed some gear in the back of a Black Mercedes and headed out. 

Desmond followed them as they zig-zagged their way through Brooklyn, then onto the I-95, across Manhattan and over to meet up with the 95 heading south.

At the last Brooklyn exit, Desmond turned around and headed back to Long Island stopping for lunch at Swell Taco in Babylon, then headed back to his boat where he started to map out his story. He was killing time till after dark.

~ 17 ~

Congressman Cletus McHenry was the most vocal leader of the US Congress. He was not only the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, but he was also the ringleader of a group of insurrectionist congresspersons responsible for promoting several key pieces of draconian legislation as a way to keep the Republican agenda chugging along at a fast clip.

Like many congresspersons, when the House was in session, McHenry lived alone in a townhouse about a mile from the Capitol,

Ezra and Cindy arrived in Washington by car, because Cindy wanted to show Ezra around the city. So they checked into the Watergate Hotel and then went for a walk through the downtown area. 

Later that night. Cindy and Ezra left the hotel in the Mercedes. They drove to a quiet street east of the Capitol. Here, Ezra separated and then cloaked himself, then made his way to the McHenry townhouse. He let himself in, without triggering the alarm and climbed the stairs. McHenry was lying in bed reading. He took one look at Ezra, and went blank.

Ezra moved close to the bed but did not sit down. McHenry eyed him cautiously, then he reached out and opened the drawer on his night table. He pulled out a semi-automatic pistol. 

Ezra just looked at him curiously. “Are you going to shoot me?”

“Maybe. But first you’re going to tell me what the hell you are.”

Ezra reached out and touched the barrel of the pistol, suddenly the gun began to heat up. McHenry dropped it on the bed.

Ezra picked it up and returned it to the drawer.

“My associate tells me that you are the leader of a political party working to destroy your democracy and replace it with an autocracy. Is that true?”

“Yes. I think the former government has no real idea of the damage they have done to our country.” HcHenry said, sounding quite sure of himself.

“I have learned a great deal about the history of your party,” Ezra said, “And over the past several decades, it has been responsible for the vast majority of the massive financial debt your country has accumulated. This is the result of tax concessions to wealthy individuals and corporations in your country as well as regular increases to your country’s defence budget. So my question to you is simple. What is it that you really want? Because if it was to improve things in your country, I would think that supporting positive legislation would be a much more logical thing to do.”

“That’s your opinion, and you sound like every other left-wing radical I’ve ever met.” McHenry said, with a bit of a sneer.

“I can assure you, sir, I am not like anyone you have ever met.”

“You still haven’t told me how you got in here and why you’re here.”

“No I haven’t.”

“So what is it?”

Ezra was silent for a few seconds. “I have the power to end your life, right now. I also have the power to bring you back to life. But I’m beginning to wonder. I have watched video of you, and my assessment is that you are, how shall I put this, not a nice human. You are, in fact, mean-spirited, power-hungry, greedy and possess little to no sense of dedication to the people of your country. All that notwithstanding, I have come here to make you an offer.” 

“An offer? What kind of offer?” McHenry said, and Ezra could see that he was quite irate.

“Your life..in exchange for a complete reversal of political posture.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. You’re asking me to commit political suicide.”

“Actually, that’s not the way I see it.” Ezra said. “I think you have an opportunity to turn your entire party into the good guys, which, in turn would be giving you a much better chance at actually winning another election. Because, as it stands currently, you have none. The popularity of your party is shrinking in leaps and bounds, and I believe you know that is true.”

“And what makes you such an expert on the American people?”

“I’m not. But I am learning quickly and one of the first things I have discovered is that you, sir, are working against your country as opposed to for it.”

“And just how do you plan to get me to change my mind?”

“I’ll show you. Give me your hand.”

McHenry reached out his hand and Ezra took it and then proceeded to take McHenry’s life away.

Normally, he would wait for about a minute. But he determined that McHenry would need a little longer. So Ezra got up and walked around the room, looking at the books on McHenry’s shelf. He went down the hall and walked through McHenry’s study. About five minutes later, he returned and brought McHenry back to life.

“McHenry didn’t stay anything for about ten minutes. “When he finally spoke. It was in a low gravelly voice.”

“Where did I go?”

“I have no idea. But I left you there longer than I needed to. I was trying to decide whether bringing you back would be better than leaving you there.”

McHenry’s breathing was laboured.

“You’ll be back to normal in approximately thirty minutes,” Ezra said. “In the meantime, I want you to think very hard about how much more your personal reputation and that of your political party would be enhanced by being perceived in a more positive light. You have two weeks left in your current session of Congress. If I don’t see a solid indication of your willingness to take your party in that direction, I’ll return and that will be the end of it, for you. Then I will make the same offer to your successor.”

McHenry was too weak to really respond. Ezra simply rose up and left. Cindy picked him up down the street. He climbed in the car and reconnected with his physical body. 

“How’d it go with the Congressman?” Cindy asked

“Another tough nut. Hopefully, I cracked him.” Ezra said.

“Yeah, with politicians, you never can tell.”

An hour later, Cindy was asleep and Ezra was sitting by the window looking out over the Capitol. 

The next day, they wandered around Washington and took in all the sights, including the National Gallery, where Ezra was, once again, obsessed with the sculptures. On the third day, they were driving back to Long Island and listening to the news on the various radio stations they could pull in as they travelled.

Then at around four o’clock that afternoon, as they were just crossing over into New Jersey, the news broke and it broke large.

“This just in from the nation's capital. The so-called Freedom Caucus, a collection of influential Republican congresspersons, has been disbanded, as their leader, House Speaker, Cletus McHenry, has pulled his support for the group, and has persuaded three other congresspersons in the group to side with him. This isolates several of the more radical members of the US Congress. Stay tuned, as we will be taking you to Washington, where Congressman McHenry is about to make a public statement.”

Cindy took the first exit she came to and pulled into the parking lot of a Dunkin’ Donuts on Route 30. Cindy got out and went into the shop. She came out with a bag of donuts and two coffees. They sipped their coffee and munched their donuts while they waited, listening to a lot of insipid commentary from the radio people. Finally, they cut to Washington, where Congressional Leader McHenry was addressing the press corps gathered there in the large press room.

“My fellow Americans. Today will hopefully be remembered as one of the great days in our history. For today, we begin a new spirit of cooperation between the Republican and Democratic parties in Congress. Today, we shed the agenda of disruption, which we have been labouring under for too long. Our plan is to usher in a new era of cooperation and have both parties working together for the good of the American people. I am inviting all Republicans to adopt this attitude. This country has done great things in the past and will continue to do them going forward, but only if we do them together. One country, indivisible with freedom and justice for all.”

“Hot damn, Ezra, you have changed the course of history in this country.” Cindy said, as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“It was a good result. I sincerely hope this decision doesn’t…”

“Blow up in his face?”

Ezra chuckled. “You really do have a witticism for every occasion, don’t you?”

“Well if the shoe fits.”

“Let’s hope it all works out for the better.”

~ 18 ~

They got home at close to six in the evening. Cindy took a walk around and checked all the doors. They didn’t have any sort of surveillance in place that she knew of. But Ezra, if nothing else, was full of surprises.

In fact, Ezra had indeed wired the house. But not in the way that Cindy was thinking. He had fabricated and programmed a small floater, which was a free-floating camera about the size of a ping-pong ball. It hovered in a corner of the large family room, which is where Cindy did most of her computer work. The camera was activated by motion. Ezra retrieved the sensor from the corner where it hovered, opened his computer and waved the small sphere in front of the screen. The camera automatically uploaded whatever was in its memory to the video program on the computer. 

Cindy took a seat beside Ezra and they watched the surveillance footage. In it, a slightly overweight man with dark hair and a beard was seen moving around the family room. He opened Cindy’s computer, which was not password protected and sat for quite a while. The man stared at Cindy’s files, then he inserted a memory key and downloaded her entire work file.”

“Holy shit. He’s got all my research.” Cindy said.

The man got up from the computer and left by the rear door which he had somehow managed to open without causing any damage.”

“Who would you suppose he is?” Ezra said, bringing up a clear image of the man’s face.

“You know, he looks kinda familiar.” Cindy said. And then it hit her. She went upstairs into her bedroom. A few minutes later came back carrying her Kindle she had brought with her when she moved in with Ezra. She showed Ezra the book, which was titled, ‘Famous Hollywood Divorces.’

She scrolled down to reveal a picture. “I have to admit, I’m a bit of a gossip junkie. His name Desmond Lee. A real scumbag, gossip columnist, radio personality. Does mostly celebrity stuff.”

“Where is he located?”

“I’m not sure. But it shouldn’t be too hard to find out.”

“I would say that is a definite priority at the moment.”

“No kidding. If this guy’s figured out what’s going on, that could ruin everything.” Cindy said.

“Let’s find him.” Ezra replied.

Finding out where Desmond Lee was at the moment only took about ten minutes of searching through his website. Mr Lee was a big fan of selfies, and had several of himself and his boat, dated just a day ago. The boat was egocentrically named Mister Lee.

Cindy then started calling marinas in the area and within another ten minutes she had found out the location of Mr Lee’s boat. It was docked at a place called the Oakdale Yacht Club about 30 miles down the coast. In a matter of minutes they were heading down Route 85.

~ 19 ~

Desmond Lee was mesmerized. He was sitting on the aft deck of his boat, staring into his laptop at the files he had appropriated from the computer at the house he had broken into. There were lists of individuals. And about twenty profile sheets indicating addresses filled with information about each of them.

Desmond was no dummy, and when he saw the names of Irwin Rusk, Harlan Cole and Cletus McHenry, he quickly put two and two together. He was sitting on a bombshell of a story, six or seven-figure advances, movie rights, the whole nine yards. He saw his future roll out before him, one that included an even bigger boat, and maybe a couple of bimbos for crew-mates. All he really had to do was figure out what the endgame was, and he would be right there.

The last thing he expected to see standing on the dock was the guy and the girl.

He quickly put his computer to sleep as Cindy and Ezra  climbed on board. Desmond decided to play dumb. “Hey, this is private property.”

“So were all the files you stole from my computer, Desmond.” Cindy said.

“What the hell are you talking about? Who are you people?”

Ezra and Cindy both sat down on small benches at the side of the aft deck. 

“How do you think we found you, Desmond?” Ezra said. “You were being recorded while you were stealing the files from Miss Walker’s computer.”

Desmond was not an idiot. He knew when he was caught. Best he could hope for was that they could be persuaded not to press charges.

 “We’re going to need you to return everything, including any images you may have taken, along with anything you have written so far.” Cindy said.

“Wait a minute. Isn’t there some kind of deal we can do? I can make you famous.”

Ezra just smiled and shook his head. “How much have you managed to figure out about us, Desmond?”

Desmond took a deep breath. “I’ve been spying on you for about a week. I have seen you abandon the body you’re in and climb into some strange looking sphere-shaped… spacecraft. I got very curious, and I guess it just got the best of me. I’m a bloodhound by nature. And you are the finest pair of foxes I have come across in a long time.”

“Well, I have to say, Desmond,” Ezra said. “You have definitely seen quite a bit. Do you have any idea why we are doing what we are doing?”

“Not yet. But I think it maybe has something to do with a lot of the strange news that’s happening, especially in this country.”

“You’re a very perceptive fellow, Desmond.” Ezra said. “And yes, we are responsible for those…” He looked at Cindy, who simply said “Changes of heart.” And Ezra just nodded. “Changes of heart.”

“This is a huge story. You’re obviously some sort of space alien right?”

“Yes, I come from a world approximately three point five light years from your planet. And I have come here to affect a certain amount of change so this planet can start moving forward instead of being held back by war and human greed.”

“Awww, man. That’s incredible. But why are you telling me all this if you want all your stuff back?”

“Just get everything together. I will make certain that all is in order. We’ll also need to check your camera.” Cindy said. Ezra then leaned back and very much appeared to have zoned out.

Cindy took Desmond’s computer and began to trash all the appropriated files on the hard drive, on the memory key and photo card that were plugged into the computer. When she was satisfied that she had everything, she looked Desmond straight in the eye. “If this is not everything, let me know right now. Because if we find that you have kept anything, we’ll be back, and this time, my friend here won’t be so generous. Just be thankful that he is a benevolent soul, and know that you have dodged a very large bullet here, Desmond.”

“That’s all I have. I promise.” The fear in Desmond’s voice was palpable.

“Good.” Cindy said, then she turned to Ezra. “Wake up sweetie. Time to go.” Ezra opened his eyes, and looked at Desmond who appeared to be feeling quite let down. Ezra then reached out and stretched his fingers over the side of Desmond’s face. He held them there for about fifteen seconds. Desmond’s head fell forward. He was out like a light.

Cindy and Ezra got off the boat and started walking down the dock.

“You didn't kill him, did you?” she asked.

“No. I just erased a little bit of his memory, approximately thirty day’s worth, to be safe.”

“OK, that’s good.” Cindy said.

As they were talking back to the card, Ezra said, “You do realize that we have to leave, right?”

“Leave?”

“Yes. Leave, as in leave the country. It’s not safe here any longer."

Cindy didn't say anything until they got back to the car. Then she said. “As usual, you’re right.”

    

~ 20 ~

They spent the next two days planning their route. Thanks to AirBNB, they were able to find accommodation in England, the French countryside, and finally Italy. 

While they were waiting for their passports to arrive, Cindy and Ezra drove down to West Shore and had a lovely dinner with Cindy’s parents, Allan and Monica.

On the way there, they made up a story about Ezra being a writer for National Geographic magazine and that he was doing a series on how various countries around the world are fighting climate change and reducing their dependence on fossil fuels.

Allan, especially, was optimistic about America’s newfound political cooperation and believed that would lead to all kinds of great things including innovations in environmental protection and reductions in pollution. He was a bit mystified about how it all came about. He would never have pegged Cletus McHenry as anything but a hard-line right-wing Conservative. But he just shrugged it off and reflected that it was just a crazy world. 

It took about a week to get rid of the cars, all the clothing they would no longer need. When they finally settled on a new location, Cindy would have Ezra’s money transferred to a bank nearby. 

They spent some time in England, then drove through France to Italy. They fell in love with Italy, mainly because of the incredible number of sculptures in the galleries in every city they visited. Ezra tried to explain to Cindy how the sculptures ‘spoke’ to him, but he wasn’t sure he got through. 

Cindy took to their semi-nomadic lifestyle like a fish to water. All she needed was her laptop and a good wifi connection, and she could keep on profiling names for Ezra. 

They finally settled on a large seaside villa in Naples. During their time in Rome, Cindy had purchased a portable Internet device, which picked up a wide range of satellite internet signals so they could be online anywhere they went. 

The big advantage was that they were out of the States, where prying eyes were everywhere. Here in Naples, they could go on about their business relatively unnoticed. Cindy made sure they were dressed like Europeans, buying comfortable but elegant clothing. Cindy also allowed Ezra to plant a good command of the Italian language into her brain. To everyone who saw them, they were just another young European couple.

They kept pretty much to themselves, and Cindy didn’t mind that. They walked a lot. Hung out in cafes a lot and kept busy cooking on the nights when they didn’t eat out. They also researched the European and Middle Eastern influencers whose mindsets needed re-adjusting.

Much of the news they saw was gradually becoming more optimistic in tone. Renewable technology companies were slowly moving into positions of dominance in the worldwide market. Climate goal projections were becoming more optimistic and achievable. Noticing that the trend was strongest in America, where there was now political alignment and relative harmony. The Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans stepped up their own efforts. Gradually, it became a race to see who could lead the world in improvements through beneficial technology, as opposed to destroying it through brute force domination.

Cindy and Ezra stayed together for another three years, until Ezra declared that this part of his mission was complete and it was time for him to head back to his homeworld. He had deemed this mission a success, and that the earth was now well on its way to survival. Once they had achieved the right level of development, he would then return.

“When do you think that will be?” Cindy asked.

“Difficult to be definitive about that.” Ezra replied. “Right now, I would say at least a decade, perhaps two.”

On the night he left, he sat down with Cindy in their villa overlooking the Mediterranean. He stepped out of his human avatar and took her hands.

“I have to erase your memories of me.” Ezra said.

“Why do you have to do that?” Cindy asked. “They’re wonderful memories.”

Ezra thought about it for a good long time and realized that Cindy was right. “I will miss you,” he said.

“And I will miss you, Ez, but, you know, I will always have the memories.”

“My assumption is that it would be more difficult for you to move on if you still knew about…us.”

“I knew you were only here for a visit. Frankly, I was amazed you hung around for as long as you did. We were pretty much finished our work a year ago.”

“Yes. Well, there are some things I can’t explain, even to myself.”

“No need for explanation. I know how you feel.”

Ezra took a deep breath. “There is still approximately sixty five million dollars left in the BankAmerica account for you. And another five point four billion in my investment account in London. I have texted you the passcodes. Hopefully, that will be enough for you to have a good life.”

“More than enough.”

Ezra took her hands. He held them for a long time, then let go. “Perhaps….I will come back soon rather than later.” Ezra said. 

‘See you later, alligator.” Cindy said, and it made him smile. Then he climbed into the pod and simply disappeared into the night sky, leaving Cindy with her memories of him intact.

Cindy got up and walked out the the edge of the terrace terrace. She looked up at the sky, and just for a moment, she was sure she saw Ezra, streaking away.

PART 2

~ 21 ~

Ezra’s ship had just cleared the outer rim of the Milky Way galaxy, as the earthlings called it, when it suddenly stopped. It sat frozen in the vastness of space, planets, stars, solar systems and meteorites, all lit by the many suns of the galaxies off in the distance.

He sat still at the controls. It’s not that they would not respond. It was as if he were waiting for something. He sat unmoving for an entire Earth year. Then suddenly, a narrow beam appeared on his long-range scanner. It looked like a small shooting star and it was coming directly at his craft. It was moving at great speed toward him. Its trajectory was very precise. Its path was an absolute straight line. He followed it intently for the equivalent of approximately a month and then it struck.

His ship expanded very rapidly to the size of a large enclosed football stadium. The expansion took the equivalent of anEarth day. And all the time, all he could do was sit while his craft grew and grew. Soon, he began to float within the gigantic sphere. He had lost all sense of space as he floated freely. 

Finally, the sphere stopped expanding and began to contract. As that happened, he then understood, for up to that point he was perceiving nothing but chaos and anguish.

His planet, his home, had been physically destroyed and what was left of the population had fled seeking refuge. They were attacked by one of the planets to which they had provided a great deal of technology in exchange for minerals. Perhaps too much technology, or they had misused it and were angry about that, for they had turned on their benefactors and destroyed their planet. All who were left were now all contained within Ezra’s craft. Slowly, the spherical shape continued to contract and one by one the shapes of every remaining inhabitant of his home became visible to him. Their voices echoed endlessly. 

This went on for the equivalent of another Earth week. He sat at the outer edge of the Milky Way with what was left of the multitudes of his home world. He listened as the voices chanted and sang and moaned and lamented. 

Then suddenly, they were quiet, and he knew what he had to do.

Three hundred and forty Earth days later, he entered the Earth’s atmosphere with his silent cargo. He took up an orbit around the planet and shifted it by one degree with each complete pass. He had not programmed Cindy’s location into his craft. But finally, after forty-seven passes, he found her.

For three earth years, Cindy Walker had been his companion, guide, friend and lover. She had taught him what it meant to be human and that awareness was embedded in every one of his passengers. They would have no trouble at all assimilating on the planet. They would also have no trouble making their individual ways, although it would all be quite new to them and it would run contrary to their nature as members of a Collective. But it was Ezra’s hope that they could achieve both individuality and maintain a connection in a scaled-down Collective. This way, they could help each other complete their assimilation on earth, which was a necessity and, as far as Ezra knew, their best option.

Cindy had fallen in love with and stayed in Italy, which was the last place she and Ezra had been together. She lived in a beautiful villa in the hills just outside of the city of Naples. She had managed, with the paperwork and passcodes he left her, to consolidate her fortune and put a good part of it to work in the European market. She bought a scooter for trips into town and a small Fiat for excursions in the countryside. 

Cindy did not try and find another companion, because after the time she had spent with Ezra, the idea of a human lover seemed rather trite and meaningless. Instead, she busied herself with the activity of making more money with the sixty-five million or so that she already had. And she periodically checked with the British investment manager who oversaw the now seven and a half billion pounds in the British investment account. 

In Naples, Cindy had opened her own trading account and slowly, over the three years since Ezra had left her, she had become quite an astute investor. Her money had ballooned to close to two hundred and twenty million, thanks mostly to investments in established wind and solar companies and carbon capture startups. 

She did a lot of reading online and taught herself how to cook meals far beyond French Toast and omelettes, which had been her only culinary skills when she first met Ezra. She wandered through the market area of Naples, gathering up ingredients and fending off come-ons from all the young, handsome Italian men she encountered there.

Thanks to Ezra, she spoke fluent Italian and was able to hold her own in the market. She was alone, but never lonely. At night, sometimes she wondered if this was her fate. Every night, weather permitting, she would sit out on her terrace and read and stare up into the heavens. The lights of the city prevented her from seeing the entire spectrum of stars and planets that hung in the evening sky. And as she sat and stared, she realized that the memories that Ezra had left her with were much more comfort to her than any human could provide, and so she was, in her way, happy.

~ 22 ~

It was July and the evening was extremely warm. Cindy was sitting out on her large terrace. She sipped from a glass of Chianti and read a book on her Kindle. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her. 

“Hello, Cindy.” Ezra said. And there he stood, looking exactly like the last time she had seen him three years earlier, as he said goodbye to her.

She rose from her chair and ran into his arms. She was crying and laughing at the same time. He held her tightly and they stood that way for quite a while.

“It’s good to be back,” he said. “I have thought a great deal about this planet and you.”

“Same here. Not the planet so much, just you.” Cindy replied. “But what…I mean why have you come back?”

Ezra sat her down in her chair and pulled up another. 

“I was returning to my home world.” he said. “I had just left the constellation you call the Milky Way, which took, by my reckoning, an Earth year. Just after I cleared the edge the galaxy, I received a signal. My…people…found me and came to me. Our planet had been attacked, destroyed in fact. Those who were not disintegrated by the plasma bombs, quickly organized into a single beam and left seeking my signal. I did not know it, but I … sensed that something catastrophic had happened. So I stopped and waited. It took them an Earth year to reach me and yet another to get back here.  Now we are all together, what is left of us. They are all in my craft. We are what Earthlings would call homeless.”

“How many are you?”

“By your count, one hundred and six. And myself.”

“That’s all?”

“The attack was sudden and devastating. They were simply the ones who happened to be closest to the escape launch outlet. There was no warning and no time to organize a complete evacuation. It was, in fact, the last thing we ever thought we would need to do.”

“And what are you planning to do now?”

“It is our hope that we can assimilate. Join the human world. Our planet is dead. Those who escaped used the time in their travelling to form a new Collective. They have all the earth knowledge I was possessed of. They know what I know and they have all chosen identities and locations. I spent a great deal of my time coming back organizing lives for them. They have been equipped with various identification papers and bank accounts, which I took from the investment account in England. I plan to transport them to the various locations around the planet, which they have chosen. After that, they will work their way into positions of influence.”

“Are you talking about conquest?” Cindy asked.

“No, not at all. We are talking about peaceful co-existence. We can teach your people many things. Things that will make your world more productive. Things that will create plentitude and harmony. Things that will create opportunity for your species to truly evolve and thrive.”

Cindy was awestruck. “All the things we talked about.”

“Indeed. All those things and more.” Ezra said. “This is the way of things with our people, Cindy. We are helpers and teachers. We are not here to take this planet from humans, but to help make this planet a better place for all life. The attack on our planet taught the few who escaped a valuable lesson. We were on the path to becoming a race of conquerors. But that changed very early on when we realized that we could trade our ideas for the minerals we needed to help us survive in our world. Now that our world no longer exists, our mission has altered accordingly, if you can understand that.”

“Where are your people now?” Cindy asked

“They are on my craft. It is cloaked hovering just above the roof. They are all quite comfortable. They communicate with each other and my sense is that they are willing to do whatever needs to be done to be accepted by your species.”

“Is there anything they need?”

“No. All I need to do is transport them to the locations they have chosen. They have fabricated clothing and human avatars. We will remain connected, but we will also be individuals. They have learned that from me. But I must admit, that over and above all of this, my fondness for you has drawn me back here. You taught me how to love and my people now understand that. They will do whatever they can to help this world become what you refer to as a paradise.”

Cindy was a bit overwhelmed by what she was hearing, mostly because she had not expected to see Ezra again. The joy she felt at holding him was almost surreal. But she could feel something very different about him. It was the power emanating from him. It did not frighten her, but instead, it made her feel quite buoyant. She thought about the positive effect he had had on the world in the five years he was on the planet with her, and now it was multiplied by a hundred. This would certainly change many more things, and hopefully for the better.

“Do each of your people have the same skills as you?”

“Oh yes, we are a Collective. My knowledge and power are theirs as well.”

Cindy just sat and looked at Ezra. He smiled at her and took her hands. “Once my people have been positioned around your world, we can work together to effect the changes that this planet and the human species so badly needs, far beyond what you and I would have the time to do alone.”

~ 23 ~

Despite all his previous efforts, the world that Ezra had returned to was still in great need of repair. There were factional wars all around the globe. There were ideological battle lines drawn in the sand almost everywhere he looked, all of which were orchestrated by humans who suffered from one malady or another. Greed. Lust for power. Racism. Sexism. Idolatry. Arrogance. Entitlement. The list went on, and Ezra could see it all very clearly as he observed the world while heading back across the galaxy to it. He had, by himself, been able to effect changes here and there. But there were more than eight billion humans on this planet and what he noticed was that maintaining any sort of positivity and equilibrium was next to impossible. A different strategy was needed. 

The next morning he lay beside Cindy in their bed, facing the ceiling. He had spent almost the entire night thinking about what needed to be done and believed he had arrived at a workable solution.

 Half an hour later, he and Cindy were sitting on the deck, sipping coffee and eating dates and warm Italian bread with butter. 

“This world has changed very little since I departed.”

“You can say that again.”

Ezra thought about that for a moment. He had learned to recognize a quip when it was given, and if nothing else, Cindy was possessed of an infinite supply.

“I believe the challenge here would be to give this world a common purpose. To be more precise, a common threat.”

Ezra began to talk. He talked for a full half hour and when he was finished he looked at Cindy. ‘So that’s my idea in a nutshell, as you would say.”

“Are you sure you can pull something like that off?” 

“Yes. I have the speed. And I can easily fabricate the devices.”

So you’re really talking about starting World War Three, only it’s the whole world against you and your Collective.”

“Yes. That sums it quite accurately.”

“So you figure that the world will unite against a common enemy.”

“Yes, that’s the theoretical premise.”

Cindy stared at Ezra for quite a while. “And you would place your people strategically to ensure that the various leaders were all of one mind about this.”

“Yes.”

“But people will die.”

“Unfortunately, they will. Otherwise, it will have nowhere near the impact.”

Cindy thought about that for a moment. “Then it won’t work.”

“Why not?” Ezra asked, puzzled by her assertiveness.

“Because the moment you take a single human life, the entire world will consider you an enemy, and they will fight you with everything they have. And worst of all, they will never accept you.”

Ezra said nothing for quite some time. One of the things he knew about Cindy was that she understood humanity much better than he did.

“What would you do…if the decision were yours to make?” he asked.

They talked for another few minutes, then Ezra stared off into the bright blue sky. 

“I agree. We’ll do it your way.”

~ 24 ~

It took the better part of three Earth days to deposit his people into various capital cities around the world. In each case, their human avatars would be of the same ethnicity as the leaders of the countries where they would reside. They had bank accounts with their country’s equivalent of ten million dollars. They had credentials and credit cards and resumes, all of which were created on the way to Earth. 

They all set about to find living quarters. Ezra advised them to stay in a hotel until they had found an abode where they felt comfortable. They were all equipped with enough capital for them to afford good lodgings. Many gravitated toward the medical profession and positions in the chemical, energy and building industries. They had no trouble being accepted as they were able to mesmerize those with whom they came into contact. Within a couple of months, they were all fully assimilated into positions of real authority and influence, in cities around the globe.

Several months later, many of them had achieved high levels of notoriety and drawn the attention of the various political leaders in the countries where they resided.

Ezra, with the most experience on the planet, acted as the equivalent of a football quarterback, providing advice, tempered, in many cases, by Cindy’s common sense and human compassion.

It was a quiet revolution. But it was surprisingly effective. After about two years, most of the group had managed to move into positions of national influence in their countries. They had also developed a level of compassion for humans, which made them more than just influencers, but friends as well.

On and off for the better part of the third year, Ezra and Cindy travelled the globe visiting the members of his collective. They didn’t stay longer than a day and provided any assistance that was needed, although there was very little required. They helped each member of the collective plan a strategy that would get them into the inner circles of each country’s leadership, mostly through networking with various political groups close to the seats of power, sometimes even accepting high-level civil service positions and generally making it known that they supported the aims of the governments in power. Some created white papers on the future of their adopted countries and, through their networks, made certain they were seen by those close to the people in power. It wasn’t difficult, since each member of the collective possessed vast amounts of knowledge about their chosen country and the world at large.

After they were comfortable that everyone was settled, and well positioned, they returned home they spent at least one day a week monitoring the progress of each member of the collective as they worked their way toward the top of their respective countries. Cindy marvelled at the innovative thinking these beings were capable of, and as time went by she got a pretty good impression of what life on their home planet must have been like. She herself was learning a great deal and found herself applying that wisdom to the investing she was doing and before long she had added another hundred and fifty million or so to her investments. This was apart from the more than eight and a half billion that was growing in London.

~ 25 ~ 

A few months later, Ezra announced that it was time to start the battle.

Ezra began by creating a small armada of UFOs. He fabricated them in his ship, thirty in all, which were designed in a saucer shape, which would make them quickly identifiable by humans as UFOs. He programmed them to expand from one metre in diameter to two hundred metres, once they had achieved their specific orbit. One by one, he set them in motion from the balcony of their villa in Naples. He released one every six minutes or so and, about two hours later, they were all in low orbit over the planet on different paths. 

The next evening, they started screening the news channels from around the world. The reports of UFO sightings had quickly become a major new story right around the globe. But it was a story with more questions than answers. 

Several countries including; Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, The United States and Argentina, had tried, with, no success, to shoot down the orbiting spacecraft and while the sensors all indicated direct hits, there was no destruction.

The United Nations called a meeting of the General Assembly to gather and collate whatever intelligence they could about the strange flying objects, but all they could figure out was their shape and their size. Each of the flying objects was followed and inspected by fighter jets from various armed forces around the world.

They could see no evidence of an entrance on any of the objects. Furthermore, they did not appear to be guided by anything. The orbiting went on for about fourteen Earth days. By this time, they had been fired upon by almost every country with the weaponry to do so.

Then a strange thing happened. Every time one of the objects was hit, the projectile was bounced off the object and hit a few degrees from where it was launched. This went on for a couple of days. There were no deaths because the projectiles were equipped with scanning capabilities, and made sure the ricochets landed in areas where there were no human signatures.

The world could simply not figure out if it was being attacked or if it was being exposed to some decidedly advanced alien technology.

A special summit of military leaders from virtually every country in the world was called. The activity, the response and its failure to destroy or even disable a single one of the spacecraft was discussed ad infinitum. Aside from the military advisors, there were two highly credentialed astronomers, both of whom had recently published papers on alien invasions, who also happened to be members of the Collective.

They hypothesized to the UN that the spacecraft they were seeing was a scouting expedition, designed to test the vulnerability of the planet's weapon systems. They went on to suggest that the countries of the world would only be able to defeat this enemy, if indeed it was an enemy, through unilateral scientific cooperation. They also suggested that since the world faced a common threat from without, it might, indeed, be time for the countries of the world to form a united front, to militarily defend the planet against this perceived threat. To act as one planet and one race and defend the Earth.

In Naples, Ezra and Cindy sat watching this development with rapt attention. 

“This is very clever, Ezra, a kind of passive-aggressive warfare.” Cindy said.

“That’s more accurate than you might think. After our first discussion, I began to see that creating the perception of the ability to destroy human lives was just as effective a technique as the actual killing. And I have you to thank for that.”

Cindy smiled and said. “So what happens next?”

“To be honest with you, I’m not certain. I would very much like to see your world come together and design a weapon to shoot down the spacecraft.”

“You mean there is a way to do it?”

“Of course. But, according to my research, it will require ingenuity and cooperation on the part of some of the world’s better minds. I’m hoping that is what they will do.”

After a few dozen attempts, the world, fearing that the ricochets from the weapons they were using to try and destroy the spacecraft could accidentally land in a populated area, finally stopped firing. The leaders of the nations of the world had concluded that the only way they would have a chance of destroying what was now deemed the ‘Saucer Menace’ would be to work together. So far no lives had been lost and no attempt to communicate with the saucers had been effective.

In the meantime, localized conflicts ground to a halt as all the nations of the world put their armies on high alert against an alien invasion.

Ezra’s satellites had all been equipped with both signal receivers and transmitters. So in the fourth week of the standoff, just when the press coverage was starting to die down, Ezra devised a coded message from each of the satellites.

The message was a simple one. “We will only visit you when you are unified.” The message would be transmitted in a code that was used by the British Army in World War 1. He then sent the coded message to the satellites and instructed them to play it back on a repeating loop. Sooner or later, someone would figure it out, for he reckoned that it was not all that difficult a code to break.

At this point, it was simply a question of waiting.

~ 26 ~ 

That night, as they lay in bed beside each other, Ezra asked Cindy a simple question. “Have you ever considered motherhood?”

Cindy was taken a bit aback by the question. “I guess every woman considers it at some point. But you have to admit it’s kind of impossible for us.”

“What if I told you it was possible?”

“What do you mean, possible?”

“Exactly that.”

“But”…then Cindy hesitated trying to find the right way to words for what she wanted to say. “We’re different, you and I, you know, different species.”

Ezra took a deep breath. “That doesn’t concern me.”

“So, what would the baby be, half you and half me?”

“Well, yes. My theory is that it would be a human baby with certain…characteristics that I possess and you do not.”

“You’ll have to be more specific, my dear.”

Ezra looked at her for quite a while. “I’m not certain I can explain it in a way you would understand. The child would be a hybrid. But I do not know exactly what form that would take. It's what you would call a genetic game of chance.”

“But could you impregnate me?”

“Oh, I most definitely could.”

“And just how would you do that?”

Ezra got out of the bed and sat down at one of the chairs by the window. He then detached from his human body and returned to the bed, and lay down beside Cindy, who was  lying on her back. He placed his hand on an area about halfway between her navel and her vagina. It felt very warm on her skin. He moved his hand around slightly and then held it very still. He then closed his eyes. Cindy could feel the warmth of his hand and then several seconds later she could feel something else she could not describe. It startled her. Ezra removed his hand. 

“In another minute or thereabouts, the egg you carry inside you would have been fertilized.”

“Just like that?” she asked.

“Just like that.” he said.

Cindy rubbed her face with her hands. “Hmmm. Would this pregnancy harm me in any way?”

“No. I would never allow that to occur.”

“How long would I be pregnant?”

“Unknown. But I will be able to tell when you are ready to give birth.”

“This is all pretty freaky.”

“It is the way of things for my species.”

“But is it the way of things for mine?”

“That is the question, isn’t it? There’s no pressure. It will only work if that is your desire.”

“It’s a lot to think about.”

“Yes, it is a substantial responsibility. But I think you would make a wonderful mother.”

Cindy stared up at the ceiling, she started to cry quietly. “I’ve never thought of myself in that way.” she said.

“Our child will have a good life. Loving parents. And, hopefully, a beautiful world to grow up in.”

Cindy took a deep breath and then took hold of Ezra’s hand and placed it back on her abdomen. “Let’s do this.” she said.

“Are you absolutely certain?”

“Yes, I am.”

Two minutes later, the egg in Cindy’s womb was fertilized.

  ~ 27 ~ 

The satellites had been in orbit around the earth for more than a month when the radio transmission signals started appearing. The code was so old that all the receivers had a great deal of difficulty translating it.

Finally, after a week, a man named William English, who was a shortwave hobbyist in Brisbane, Australia and close to 100 years old, finally traced it back more than a century to World War I. 

The message read: ‘We will only reveal ourselves to you if we can be assured that your world is completely at peace.’

William had no idea what to do with this information so he called his grandson, Ted, who ran a sheep operation north of the city. Ted then made a call to an old mate, Julius McClane, who worked in the Ministry of Education in Melbourne and gave him the translation and the source of the code that his grandfather had identified. Julius then forwarded everything to his friend, Aaron Freeman, who worked in the Australian Ministry of Defence. Freeman then notified NASA in Houston, Texas.

The scientists at NASA, did their homework, put their heads together and wrote a message back which they sent out on a broad shortwave band, which was picked up by the spacecraft and relayed back to Ezra, who was sitting on his terrace at the time.

The message that was displayed on Ezra’s view screen simply read. ‘This is not possible at this time. There is too much unrest in the world. And too little popular will for world unification and total peace.’ 

The message was written by a man named Phillip Bowmore, who was the current head of NASA, and an
ex-astronaut. 

Ezra sent back a message to Mr. Bowmore. ‘There is a great deal of benefit the earth will gain by making direct contact with us. We have had experience with warring worlds and have learned that they are generally too consumed with their hatred to consider anything but a world where war and conquest dominate. If we were to make direct contact at this time, we would fear for our lives. You are a primitive civilization. Your first reflex was and likely would be to attempt to destroy us. The offer stands. The terms are non-negotiable.”

Twenty minutes later, a message appeared. ‘We understand. We’ll do what we can.’

“Well, we tried.”Ezra said. “Now it’s really a question of their willingness to accept my terms.”

“Do you think that will happen?” Cindy asked.

“I have no idea.” Ezra said. There was a tiny bit of sadness in his voice.

Ezra then summoned his ship and entered. He took the satellites out of orbit and sent them to the surface of the moon where they sat in a cluster inside a giant crater. He then sent a message to all his compatriots. ‘This planet is not yet ready to receive us. Stay hidden in your identities until further notice. Help all you can without revealing yourselves.’

Once he completed that, he turned to Cindy. “To use one of your earth epithets…‘There’s nothing to do but wait.’”

  

~ 28 ~

Early the next day,  they got in their car and followed the Mediterranean coast north and west on their way to Florence. They made the journey in one long day, stopping for lunch in a smaller town called Grosetto which was filled with beautiful architecture. They arrived in Florence where they had reserved a suite at a hotel called The Cosmopolitan on Via Francesco Barraca. 

There, they spent the next five days wandering around the city, discovering nice little restaurants to eat in and many galleries to visit where Ezra could commune with the statues. Cindy brought her trusty Kindle with her and spent a good deal of time in these museums and galleries reading after she had seen and appreciated all the art. She loved Ezra and was used to waiting.

On the way back to Naples, Ezra asked Cindy a number of questions about how she was feeling. 

It wasn’t until she thought about it that she realized that her energy level had increased. She exercised for longer every day and did not feel any fatigue when she was done. 

At night, she was acutely aware that there was a life growing inside her. This was the first time she had ever been pregnant, so she wondered how other women carrying human children felt, relatively early on in their pregnancy.

The other thing she noticed was that her mental acuity had increased. She read faster, absorbed knowledge quicker and retained it quite vividly. When she told this to Ezra, he explained to her that this was part of what he gave her. She was becoming more like him. She would always remain human but her senses would all be enhanced. Her strength would grow along with her human intelligence. She would also live much longer than normal humans and age much more slowly.

Cindy was fascinated to hear all of this, but at the same time, it didn’t cause her any consternation. She was in love with Ezra and she could feel that he, in his way, was in love with her. They would both live a long time and raise their child, maybe even a whole litter of them. She wondered about that. Whether this was repeatable or just a one-time thing and it would put her body out of the running for bearing more children.

Ezra confessed that he didn’t have the answer. He also suggested that one hybrid child, at least for the first few years, would be quite a handful.

~ 29 ~

One evening, after Cindy was fast asleep, Ezra summoned his ship and headed south to the Sahara Desert in Northern Africa. He set his craft down in the desert about 50 kilometres north of a small village called Im Amguel. He had landed next to a depression in the sand. He exited the ship with a  with a five-foot metal cylinder he had fabricated. He rammed the cylinder into the barren sand of the dry desert basin. In a matter of minutes, a small geyser erupted from the tube and slowly filled the basin with water. 

While it was filling, he dropped seeds from a container that was stored in his craft as he walked around the rim of the basin. They quickly took root in the moist sand and almost immediately started to sprout and grow. In a matter of two hours, the seeds he had planted had grown to more than a metre in height and started sprouting strange-looking fruits of different sizes and colours. By the time he returned to his craft and headed back north again, the sun was rising and the barren desert land he had just left was now a rich oasis encompassing several acres.

When he returned home to Italy, he transmitted a message to his species-mate in Algiers with the exact coordinates of the oasis. His mate, Damon, who was now an associate professor at the National Polytechnic School of Algeria, in turn, notified the Algerian Minister of the Environment’s office, which sent a helicopter to the coordinates that he had been given. They photographed the oasis and informed the Minister of the Environment, who then informed the Prime Minister. 

Later that day, when he had video footage, the Prime Minister, informed the UN Committee that had been formed to deal with the alien presence.

Within three days, news of the ‘Miracle in the Desert’ had spread around the world.

The next night and for a dozen nights after that. Ezra created oases in some of the most barren places on earth, including Death Valley, the Peruvian Desert, the Atacama Desert, the Sahara, the Arabian Desert, the Turkistan Desert, the Great Indian Desert, the Mongolian tundra, the Gobi Desert and the Far Australian Outback. Within a month of their planting, the seeds had grown to heights of twenty to thirty feet and their branches were heavy with fruit.

After Ezra had completed that mission, he summoned the spacecraft from the moon and set them in orbit around the planet again.

He then broadcast a message, which was received instantly. ‘The oases we have constructed are just the very beginning of what our people can do for your planet. The fruit on the trees is completely edible, highly nourishing and contain seeds that will take root, grow and thrive in virtually any environment on this planet. The fruit in the trees will reproduce at a rate of approximately one Earth month and reproduce all year round regardless of climate. We come in peace. We come to help. All we ask is a world at peace. It seems a fair price to pay for all we can do for you.’

Ezra and Cindy listened to the news religiously every night for the next week and finally started to see some signs of progress. But Ezra was determined not to reveal his species until the world was completely at peace.

~ 30 ~

Cindy was now three months pregnant, and every night as she lay on her back beside Ezra, she could feel the baby moving, but she did not sense that it was growing within her. She asked Ezra how that could be. He had no real answer for her other than to place his hand on her abdomen and tell her everything was fine.

During the fourth month of Cindy’s pregnancy, Ezra purchased a dozen large clay pots and several loads of soil to fill them with. The villa had a mid-sized open terrace at the back of the first floor, and he hired two workers to bring in the large pots and fill them with soil. They lined the pots up along the back wall of the villa with a space of about three metres between the pots and three metres away from the rear wall, which was approximately four metres in height. The work took the better part of a day and Ezra paid the workers in American dollars.

That evening, he planted one seed in each of the pots and watered them very heavily each day for about a week, as the seeds very quickly sprouted and grew. 

Ezra then spent the next few days creating an automatic irrigation system for the trees, and installed a timer on the main water faucet so the trees would be watered automatically for approximate thirty seconds each day.

Three weeks later, they had reached their full height of approximately four metres and the fruit on them very quickly matured. Ezra harvested the fruit in several bushel baskets, he began the process of removing the seeds which were clustered in the core of the fruit, then squeezing the fruit into juice which he then used to fill more than twelve dozen baby bottles. He stored the fruit juice in the large refrigerator in the lower level of the villa. He also made fruit drinks for himself and Cindy to consume. Cindy had never tasted anything quite like the concoction Ezra made for her. The more she consumed the larger she felt the baby inside her grow. 

“You are feeling the child now, Cindy.” Ezra said. “It won’t be long before she is ready to come into this world from yours.”

Cindy continued to drink the fruit juice that Ezra made for her. After the first harvest, he contacted one of his Collective, who was living in a village just north of Rome. His name was Roberto. He was working as a building contractor, and showing his fellow workers a great deal about building that they had never thought of. He came to the villa in a new Ford pickup truck and together he and Ezra loaded the excess fruit into the back of his truck. He would then drive to a neighbouring town, and give the fruit to one of the fruit stores there, with complete instructions, which Cindy had written and had printed about how to grow the fruit. Once a month, Roberto would arrive, and then head off to another town in a completely different part of the area between Naples and Rome. Ezra just kept enough of the fruit for the baby, himself and Cindy. After two months the large refrigerator was full and the fruit would keep its nutritional value for more than a decade, Ezra reckoned.

Two months later, seven months into her pregnancy, Penny lay on her bed and, fully dilated and Ezra gently pulled the tiny female out of Penny’s womb. There was no pain and the baby weighed only about five pounds. But all her features were fully formed. 

“She resembles her mother,” Ezra said. “So she will grow up to be a beautiful lady.”

Cindy, who did not feel at all exhausted by this process, got up, walked to the bathroom and took a shower. As she was drying herself off she noticed that her body shape was no different than before Ezra had made her pregnant. She felt no pain or exhaustion. Ezra had bathed the baby in the sink and was feeding her from one of the fruit juice bottles.

“She looks so small.” Cindy said.

“She will grow.” Ezra said and handed the baby to her. Cindy sat on the edge of the bed and took over feeding the baby. Ezra sat in a chair opposite them and just watched, smiling. 

 

~ 31 ~

Ezra knew, almost to a certainty, that the world would never lay down its arms. He talked about it a lot with Cindy, who had taken to motherhood with a great deal of joy. 

“Maybe it doesn’t matter, Ezra.” she said. “We can live here and be happy. We can raise our child and who knows what will happen in the future? Your people are all doing well. They are finding companions. They will probably soon be having children of their own. Maybe that’s enough.”

Ezra sat back in his chair with his tiny baby cradled in his arms looking out at the night sky. He said nothing, but Cindy knew him well enough to know something was going on inside his formidable brain. He was thinking very hard about what he could do to eradicate the endless wave of war that had engulfed this planet. 

“I had an idea when I was on my way here. Before we even met. Ezra said. “An important part of our earlier strategies with other planets had been to isolate the enemy and simply annihilate them. This activity gave the planet back to those who were the victims of the wars. I think this is what has to be done here and now.

“In every conflict, there is a side that fights for power and control and a side that fights for freedom from tyranny. From my observations, there are at least ten or twelve of these conflicts which are currently active. If I can destroy the tyrants and give the power back to those who would not abuse it, perhaps some peace and harmony can be possible.”

“That’s pretty much a declaration of war.” Cindy said.

“Yes. But I would only be killing the the evil doers.”

“Do you think the world would end up being a more peaceful place?” she asked.

“That’s one of those questions that can’t be answered beforehand.”

“You’re gonna do this, aren’t you?”

“Unless you have a better idea.”

Cindy thought about it for a moment and then said. “Maybe I do.”

“I have a pretty good idea of what your capabilities are, and, to me they seem rather limitless.” Cindy said. And then she explained what she was thinking.

 

Two days later, the entire Collective was present on Ezra’s screen.

“We have created a plan that should turn this world into what my companion calls a level playing field. He went on to explain the plan and its execution. 

“You will play no active part in this, but I wanted you to understand what we are doing, and be able to report back to me if you know or hear of any areas that were missed. 

The Collective agreed and signed off. 

Ezra then took his spacecraft into the night sky and began the first phase of the operation. Through the Internet, Ezra and Cindy had identified all the major munitions and weapons manufacturing operations in the world. There were more than 3000 of them. As Cindy stayed at home to take care of their child, Ezra began the process of disabling these facilities by essentially melting down all the manufacturing equipment and manufactured products through a process of molecular disintegration. No humans would be harmed as the disintegration beams were aimed at objects with greater densities than the human body. The process of completely disabling the machinery and disintegrating the munitions was something that took only a few seconds, for once the beams had made contact with the metals in question, they spread on their own. All arms, ammunition and vehicles would be ‘melted’, along with the machinery used to fabricate them. 

The technology Ezra employed was created by his collective at a time when conquest and control were their aims. It was an extremely powerful tool, used to disable one side in any warring situation. And it was highly effective against a wide range of both pure metals and alloys. The weapons, ammunition and machinery could not be re-smelted and re used. In order to create more weapons they would have to completely rebuild the machinery, work with new mined materials and build new manufacturing equipment It would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to do this and literally  take decades. 

Ezra followed a programmed route that started in The British Isles and moved east through Europe, Central Asia, Russia, India, The Far East, Australia, North America. South America, and finally Africa.

Since his craft remained cloaked, his access to the various manufacturing facilities would go completely unnoticed. 

It took ten full days in all for the factories. And another six days for the military storage facilities and airbases.

Even after the news had broken, there was nothing the human race could do to stop him. They had no idea what facilities would be struck next and since he was completely invisible to them, they had no target to shoot at. And even if they could fire on his ship, his shielding capability would protect it.

By the time he was finished, the world was almost totally incapable of manufacturing arms of almost every kind.

Immediately upon arriving home. Ezra sent a message. 

“You undoubtedly have noticed that the vast majority of your weapons and the machinery you use to create new ones have been rendered useless. This has been a unilateral process. Neither side in any conflict has weapons-making capability, and virtually all weapon caches and machinery have been destroyed as well. It will take decades to rebuild these systems. Once your remaining inventory of ammunition is used up, your individual weapons will be useless. Hopefully this will encourage both sides of the many conflicts on your world to begin negotiating terms of peace. As you can see, we are every bit as capable of destroying and disabling as we are of building. It is time to make the world a peaceful place and take full advantage of the gifts we can bring to your species.”

Ezra sent the message off to be broadcast by the satellites. In the meantime, he was perfectly content to sit with Cindy and the child, whom they named Lila, on the terrace of their villa, while the world slowly accepted that peace was being forced upon them, and that it was looking more and more like a much more viable option than endless war.

~ 32 ~

The United States was the first to reply. But instead of it being a politician or anyone connected to the military, it was a well-respected writer and historian named Carlton James.

“The government of the United States of America has asked me to meet with you at a location of your choosing to learn more about your capabilities and your plans for the human race since you are obviously able to control many things that we cannot. Please advise. I am currently located in New York City. If you would like to communicate more privately, my email address is CJames@CJI.com.

Carlton James

Ezra thought about locations and finally communicated back to Mr James via his email address, from an untraceable email account that Cindy had created for him.

“Fly from New York City to Rome tomorrow. Take a taxi to the Restaurant Le Vele in the Hotel American. Come alone. I will know if you have been followed or monitored and if that is the case, I will not meet with you and your trip will have been in vain.”

Carlton James had a ferocious argument with officials at the US State Department, but he finally prevailed and they agreed to let him go completely unmonitored. The objective, from their point of view, was to try and get this powerful alien, whoever he was, on their side. James, who was a well-known intellectual with a brain much larger than any government or military official, knew this would be an impossibility. Anyone with the power to completely disarm the entire planet was not going to be suckered into playing ball with any one country. No, his primary interest was in trying to understand how this alien thought and what it really wanted here.

Two days later, Carlton James was sitting in the restaurant with a coffee in front of him. He sat for about fifteen minutes when a man in who looked to be in his mid-thirties approached him. This man bore no resemblance to Ezra’s human form. In fact, he looked more like a native Italian than anything. 

“Mr James.” he said, as he sat down across from him.

“Yes, and what do I call you, sir?” 

“Call me Ishmail.” This was the name that Cindy had suggested.

James chuckled because he immediately got the reference to Melville’s Moby Dick.

“Well, you seem to have caused quite a stir, Ishmail.”

“That was the intention, sir. The real question is will the world accept it?”

“Well, that’s a tough question to answer. In the first place, you have caused a massive disruption to the world’s economy. It’s in recession as we speak.”

“Yes, well there is a price to pay for everything.”

“I have been assured that the United Nations is now meeting daily to discuss and try and resolve this issue. Hopefully, it begins the movement toward world peace.”

“We live in hope.” Ezra said. “My human companion is a fountain of what you call epithets. One of her favourites is one that states, ‘Close only counts in horseshoes.’ I have no idea what that means exactly but it somehow seems fitting in this instance.” 

“You play a mean game, sir.” James said. 

“That’s high praise coming from one of the brighter people on your planet. We researched you after you made contact with us. You should know that the only winners in any conflict are those who make the weapons and those who bury the dead.”

“That’s very true. And it’s also very true that we have created a world that stands or falls based on a series of battles. It has been this way since civilization began.”

“I am part of a species that operated in more or less the same way. But when I came to this planet and found a human who gave love freely and wanted nothing more than a world at peace, I could see that there was more to the human race than this endless warring. What I have done, I believe, is remove war from the equation, which simply leaves humanity to fend for itself. The vast majority of weapons of war of every kind have been disintegrated. The same for munitions and their manufacturing capability. These weapons and munitions will continue to be destroyed until they no longer exist. We have the power to do this and we will exercise that power until our objective is achieved.”

“And then what happens?”

“And then the human race is free to turn its full attention to healing itself. To regrowing the forests, to continue to develop alternative forms of energy and transportation that does not poison the atmosphere, to learn from each other’s cultures and be free to live in peace. We are more than willing to lend our skills to these efforts.”

“You say we, which implies that there are more of your species here.”

“Yes. Our homeworld was destroyed, ironically by an enemy to which we supplied the technology to build the weapons they used to destroy us…most of us.”

“How many of you?” James asked.

“Not many. I will not provide you with specifics.”

“I understand.”

“We have, as a collective entity the power to change your world for the better. As you can see, it only took a few days for us to level the playing field.”

“In other words, you’re looking to turn our world into your world.”

Ezra smiled. “That sounds quite cynical coming from a person of your intelligence. No, Mr James, we are looking to turn your world into the best world for all living things.”

“You realize that you will encounter a good deal of opposition to that.”

“Yes, of course, but do not underestimate our ability to affect change. We have skills that can easily enable us to control this planet. But we would much rather use those skills and abilities to help you do that for yourselves.”

The waiter brought over a pitcher of coffee and filled both their cups. 

“So now that you have disarmed the world, what happens next?” James asked.

Ezra thought about it for a moment then said. “First of all, we have created a number of oases in the deserts of the world. The trees that grow there bear fruit that is highly nourishing. The fruit also contains seeds. People should be harvesting these trees, extracting the juice from the fruits and planting the seeds. They need minimal watering and will grow anywhere, yielding a full crop of fruit a dozen times in each Earth year. If this is done, in an organized way, within one Earth year there will be enough of this fruit to nourish the entire planet.” 

In the near future, we plan to release a formula for the creation of what you would call ‘ultra high efficiency’ solar panels. They will be a fraction of the size of conventional panels and will create at least one hundred times the power. We will also introduce wind turbines that will run for decades and produce at least fifteen times the electricity of the massive turbines that currently litter this planet. Every country on the planet that employs this technology will have the capability of running all electrical systems from these new solar and wind power grids. In the very near future, we will release other ideas that will eliminate the need for coal, and the mining and processing of metal needed to make electric vehicles. All these initiatives will require massive workforces, which will more than offset those workforces that have been affected. Over time, this will make the economies of all the countries of the world vibrant and active. There will be no need for war because everyone will be prospering.”

“What you’re talking about is creating a Utopia.” James said.

“Call it what you like. This is our gift to you. All you have to do to show your appreciation is stay at peace.”

James said nothing for a long time and stared out the window at the traffic going by. “Don’t you get the feeling that you’re playing God here?”

“God.” Ezra said. “I learned about God on my original voyage here. It seems to me that this god, or at least the belief in a god, has been responsible for the countless millions of needless deaths throughout human history. I am here to save lives not destroy them. So we are anything but playing god. In fact, we are the antidote.”

Carlton James, with his Ph.Ds in history and philosophy and his dozen books on various deep subjects in those areas, had no reply. What could be said to defend the human race after all they have done? All the countless killings. All the lost souls.

“I will be taking the substance of this conversation to the United Nations in a few days from now.” James said.

“We will be watching. Let’s hope you can persuade the world to change its warring ways.”

“Well, a world without weapons has already levelled the playing field. My only hope is that is has also changed attitudes which, believe it or not, is a much more daunting task.”

A few seconds later Ezra and James both got to their feet.

“I wish you all the best, sir.” Ezra said.

“Thank you. I hope we can stay in touch again. I think I can learn a lot from you.”

“You are the man in the middle, so to speak, Mr. James. This is just the beginning of our relationship.”

And with that, Ezra shook hands with Carlton James. 

A few seconds later he had left the restaurant. James got on his phone and made a reservation for a flight to Brussels.

The debriefing was done three days later in Brussels and lasted several hours. Carlton James believed he had convinced his inquisitors that the alien only had good intentions in mind. Beyond that, there was little he could say other than that he believed that whoever this Ishmail was, he had complete control of the planet, and planned to hold onto that control until the human race wised up.

Ezra arrived home in Naples four hours after he left Rome and a bemused Carlton James. The baby, Lila, was sleeping soundly. Cindy was on the terrace reading a book on her Kindle, when Ezra appeared behind her. 

“So how did it go with Mr James?”

Ezra sat down in his usual chair. “As well as could be expected. He thought I was playing God.”

“Well, I can see how a lot of people could feel that way.”

“Yes, I imagine some sort of God is very important to much of the human race.”

“I was raised as a Christian,” Cindy said, “But was never forced to go to church, or anything like that. When I was a teenager, I started to believe that God was really just… everything. Humans, animals, plants, insects, the planets, the stars, they were all just dimensions of God. 

“That’s an interesting way to look at it.” Ezra said. “And it’s certainly much more logical than the myths created by the religions of the world.”

“People have a real need to personify God.” Cindy said. “I think that’s how the Jesus myth came about. They want God to be as human as they are so they can understand it.”

“I’ve noticed that.” Ezra said. “Our people never had a higher power they felt they needed to worship. So when we travel around and see all these churches and cathedrals, all built to be places where people can feel closer to God, I find it all to be…quite primitive. Perhaps that’s why they keep wanting to fight and kill each other. To prove their god is the real god. My planet was only partially about conquest. It was about controlling the species that lived there. We were traders more than conquerors. And we always believed that a peaceful world is a more open world. Here you have religions at war with each other and for no good reason that I can think of.”

“Well, you have really the war thing under control. It will be interesting to see how the human race gets along going forward.” Cindy said.

“I made it very clear that there will be no weapons for them to fight with. Perhaps they will change. All we can do is hope and enjoy our life while we still have it to enjoy.”

~ 33 ~

 Ezra delivered on all the promises he made to Carlton James, and within a decade, the world was a completely different place. There was still an imbalance between the rich and the rest, but the gap had narrowed significantly since each of Ezra’s gifts came with a condition that everyone employed in the businesses his ideas inspired would be treated as a part owners. This would incentivize everyone in each of the companies to do their best work and reap their rewards. 

He knew there was no way to actually enforce this, but Cindy explained the 80/20 rule to him and he understood that at the very least twenty percent of the businesses which started would choose to work this way. This would be especially true in places where tribalism was strongest.

Slowly, the solar and wind, geothermal, and ‘clean’ nuclear power industries increased their offset of fossil fuels. Innovations that the Collective provided helped coal-burning industries convert to solar and wind power at an extremely affordable cost. One of the key inventions in the recycling industry was a chemically enhanced re-smelting process facilitate the separation of hybrid metals. This completely  revolutionized the recycling industry and created business expansions that, in turn, created millions of new jobs. 

The Collective’s ideas in the area of propulsion, combined with ultra-high efficiency solar, allowed all the major aircraft manufacturers to build planes that only used jet fuel for takeoffs. Once they were in the air, the super-efficient compact solar arrays on the bodies of the planes took over, propelling the engines and providing all the essential power for the interior of the planes as well.

All of this and a few dozen other ideas that Ezra and his people gave to the world helped reduce the carbon footprint of almost every country, while at the same time creating vibrant economies and better living conditions for nearly everyone.

Ezra did this all by remote control through his email connection to Carlton James, who had become the project manager for the newly formed World Innovation Centre.

Ezra, Cindy and Lila travelled extensively. Lila’s vocabulary and intellect grew at an astonishing rate. She was schooled by her parents, and all the travelling they did. By the time Lila was ten her alien powers were starting to develop and Ezra had to spend a good deal of his time teaching her how to use them. She caught on quite quickly and understood implicitly that her powers should never be used to cause harm to anyone. At ten, Lila had the intellect of a twenty-year-old and understood exactly what was expected of her. She read voraciously, half of which was directed by her parents. The other half were many of the great works of fantasy fiction. On her sixteenth birthday, she was inducted into the Collective, the first hybrid ever to receive the honour. As the Collective intermarried with humans, other hybrids would be created.

The thing Lila enjoyed most was working with her father, devising, designing and fabricating new tools that would benefit the people of the planet that was their home. 

Over the span of Lila’s childhood, the world had changed dramatically. A new generation was starting to take over, a generation that had never felt the need for hatred or prejudice. A generation that had been educated in the ways of peace, productivity and humanity. Much of this was directly attributable to several members of the Collective who had worked their way to the top tiers of the key education systems. They were powerful influencers on the brighter students and were consciously grooming them for leadership roles in the changing world culture. 

Only a few short years after Ezra began putting the munitions companies out of business, the remaining stock of ammunition had all run out. And a few years after that, people with a yearning for shooting primarily took up archery. Archery galleries sprang up all over the world. Bow and arrow fox hunting became a popular sport, with mechanical foxes and electromagnetically tipped arrows. Over the decade that followed, people forgot about their guns. Many brought them into archery shops, where they were sent to smelters and melted down to make new bows and arrows. 

The military virtually disappeared since there were no enemies to threaten them. Police forces still existed but mostly dealt with petty crime and domestic disputes.  And they were equipped with laser weapons which were only capable of stunning any assailants they were pursuing. 

The intelligence apparatus was replaced by a central committee that oversaw international affairs, mostly drug running and the importation of prostitutes. Because, no matter how evolved the world became thanks to the innovations that Ezra and his Collective provided, there would always be an underclass that was responsible for most of the petty crime, drug and alcohol addiction and general lunacy, especially in the larger cities. 

The list of changes to the cultures of each country was long. And it all came about from the absence of lethal weapons and international warfare.

The entertainment world, especially movies and TV series, experienced a real uptick in crime stories. They became, in their way, the opiate of the masses. Highly rated and generally quite intelligently written, most of the stories revolved around how the police and private detectives managed to figure out crimes with a minimum of actual violence. The only naysayers were some of the older critics who believed that the masses were being spoon-fed elaborately plotted pablum. But as always, little attention
was paid to them.

The Collective moved along productively, coming up with ideas which Ezra, Cindy, Lila and individual members of the Collective developed and gave to the world. Employment everywhere was buoyant. The strain on existing resources was reduced. The climate had also re-adjusted itself. Rivers that had run dry were now full. Fresh water was plentiful, fierce storms were minimal and there was a general feeling of true happiness in the world.

Thanks to the fruit trees, which were everywhere on the planet, people were healthier and lived that way for all of their lives. Diseases had been reduced dramatically and people were free to travel anywhere around the globe they chose.

In short, Ezra believed that he had finally created the planet of his dreams, and almost every inhabitant agreed.

But then, one day, Ezra’s deep space telescope picked up a blip that he had never seen before. It was close to nine light years away, but its projected path was straight toward Earth.

~ 34 ~ 

The blip that Ezra had been following entered the far end of Milky Way galaxy. It was travelling at a rate of speed that was approximately six times times faster than his pod would travel which made it about six times faster than light. But he noticed that once it entered the Milky Way galaxy, it slowed down considerably. He estimated that at its reduced speed it would it would arrive in the Earth’s solar system in approximately two weeks.

With the powerful scope that he and Lila had fabricated, he was able to get a pretty good impression of what it looked like. It was cylindrical and once it was lit by the various stars and suns in the galaxy, he could see that it was not opaque as he had first thought, but almost transparent. He estimated its diameter to be almost one hundred Earth miles and its length more than five hundred Earth miles. For a spacecraft of any kind, it was massive. He stared at it for quite some time trying to understand how it was propelled, but reckoned he needed to be much closer to find those things out. 

He transmitted some still images to his Collective. He did not have to wait long for a reply from one of his fellow Collective mate who went by the name of Nathaniel Dafoe, Nathaniel was in Scotland.

“I have seen this craft, Ezra” Nathaniel said. “It passed by us some time before the cataclysm. I’m reasonably certain it was unrelated to the attack. I recall that it came very close, nearly close enough to see from our planet’s surface without magnification. It is a massive habitat. I saw what I have now come to understand are trees and other forms of vegetation. I was not able to identify the life forms, despite the fact that it was travelling quite slowly. After it passed, it appeared to accelerate. I assumed it was a scouting expedition and was scanning our world. But it made no attempt at contact.”

“Were you able to discern any method of propulsion?” Ezra asked.

“No. And it was not for lack of trying.” Nathaniel said. We sent several probes to scan the surface. It was made of a material we were not familiar with. The skin was very thick, by Earth measurements, at least three metres. We did notice that the interior varied between plant life and constructed dwellings. How close are they at the present time?”

“It has just entered this galaxy. It would depend on their rate of speed. But it could enter the Earth’s solar system within a week.”

“Do you think we should attempt to make contact?”

“I’m not certain. I will send a probe to examine it more closely.”

“Very well.” Nathaniel said and signed off.

Ezra summoned his pod and entered. He created and programmed a small probe and sent it off in the direction of the object. Once it encountered the object, it would take up orbit around the outer shell and move along its length, sending images every few seconds. By the time the probe intercepted the object, it would be no more than a few days from the solar system. Pitifully little time to prepare if the craft was intent on conquest or any other sort of aggression.

A few days later, the images started arriving. Ezra sat back in his chair and studied them on his laptop. Cindy and Lila were sitting right beside him. 

“It does look like a habitat.” Cindy said. “Like a self-contained world, but unlike a planet, it is travelling through the universe as opposed to orbiting around a sun of some kind. There’s probably a whole bunch of people in it. It looks to have its own ecosystem. It would have to, otherwise there wouldn’t be any plant life on it. If you say it’s a hundred miles in diameter and a five hundred miles long, there could literally be a few million beings in it. It’s like a whole small country in a tube.”

Ezra forwarded some of the images to Carlton James who was now stationed in The Hague as part of the scientific research sector of the United Nations, and told him exactly what he had seen and done.

“What does your gut tell you about this, Ezra? James asked.

Ezra took ‘gut’ to mean his intuition and said. “I have been told that this object passed by my home world some time before it was attacked. My source believes that the two events are unrelated. My assumption is that it is an exploration craft of some kind. Or perhaps a colony from some other planet which was attacked in the same way as ours.”

“Have you seen anything following it?”

“If there is, it is either well cloaked or too far behind to register on my scope.”

“And you say it will arrive in our solar system within three or four days?”

“At its current rate of speed, yes.”

“Okay.” James said. “I suppose all we can really do now is wait and see”

“I will do that.”

“By the way how are Cindy and Lila?” Carlton James had won Ezra’s trust and was the only Earthling who knew where they lived.

“They are both fine. Lila is fully grown and works with me every day on inventions. She is an excellent designer and fabricator.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.” 

Ezra signed off and went down to his workshop, where he was certain he would find Lila.

Lila, who was ten Earth years old and fully grown, was a beautiful young woman with many of her mother’s facial and physical features and a brain every bit as formidable as her father.

A few years earlier, she had developed an interest in botany and began experimenting with the various fruits that her father had seeded around the planet. These fruits had grown to be a staple in the diets of hundreds of millions of the earth’s inhabitants, and their adaptability to the harshest of conditions had quickly put an end to world hunger. 

 Very early on in her investigation she had determined that the seeds and the fruit they produced were almost nutritionally perfect, and so he turned her attention to other things. 

She wondered about genetically combining the elements that made up the seeds with other elements that could provide the fruit with benefits beyond nutrition. She tried several different combinations of elements and eventually came up with a variation that would work to combat various common infections such as colds and various flus, by strengthening the immune system. This had the net effect of keeping people healthier and dramatically less susceptible to common maladies such as cold or flu. 

She planted her hybrid test seed in a new large pot on the back terrace and in a  month or so she would take off the fruit and give a supply of the juice to one of members of the Collective who specialized in immunology, to have him analyze and test it. If it worked, and she would not know that for about a year, she could use the seeds to start a new holistic health industry

Currently Lila working on trees and conducting a series of experiments with different genetic combinations of trees with the aim of creating trees with larger leaves that were in themselves a source of cooling. So far she had been able to reduce the core temperature of a hybrid palm/eucalyptus leaf by three degrees Celsius. Her ultimate aim was ten degrees, which could dramatically reduce dehydration and heat stroke, especially in the equatorial regions of the world.

This was a long term project but her knowledge of and passion for botany assured her that ultimately this experiment would work,

All the while, while Ezra was watching her daughter work away on her ideas, he was thinking about the craft that was approaching the solar system and just what it was they wanted.

The images from the probe revealed that the interior of the tube was a complete system of buildings, open spaces, trees, farmland, lakes and rivers. The inhabitants appeared to be human in appearance. They wore clothing similar to those on earth and walked upright. Most of the people, outside of those tending the fields where the crops were growing did not appear to be engaged in any sort of work activity. Instead they walked, sat around having conversations, at in what appeared to be restaurants, swam in the lakes, and played games in the open areas, which very much appeared to be grass or some sort. To Ezra, it looked and felt very much the same as earth. 

One of the things he did notice was that the people he saw seemed to have the ability to disappear and re-appear at will. 

Ezra contacted Nathaniel and shared the images with him, Nathaniel stared at them for quite some time. Then he said. “Teleportation. These beings have the ability to move based on their own thoughts, would be my assumption.”

“Does that make them dangerous to us?” Ezra asked. 

“It all depends. One thing is certain if we attempt to capture one of them, it would fail. So if you are planning to make contact with them, you need to be prepared for that. My thinking, however, is that they likely pose no threat. From the images you sent me, they very much appear to have their world functioning quite well. I would think that we would only hold a passing interest, if any, for them.”

Nathaniel was an astro-physicist and was the main reason the 106 survived the attack on their home planet and were able to mobilize their escape so quickly. Ezra put a lot of trust in his opinions. 

“My only thought,” Nathaniel said. “Is that they may be interested in the this planet for some metal or other substance that would be used to power their craft and its systems. They are moving a great deal of weight through the universe. That would put a strain on any type of propulsion system I know of.”  

“I hope your assessment is accurate,” Ezra said. “We shall know for certain in approximately three days.”

~ 35 ~

At the far rear of the gigantic cylinder was a large compartment. It was part of a segment of the cylinder that Ezra guesstimated at about one hundred feet high and 40 feet deep. The interior wall of the segment was a huge viewscreen. Ezra guesstimated that about twenty five metres back from the screen was a control panel behind which there were two seats. In the seats sat a pair of creatures that looked like human beings. He could only see them in profile, but from what he could see they appeared to be quite identical. 

The large screen in front of them offered them a changing panorama of the entire interior of their craft, visible through a constantly rotating series of images from self-propelled cameras that roamed throughout the cylinder. 

After the cylindrical craft had entered the Milky Way galaxy, sensors embedded along the exterior of the vessel began to gather data. As it passed through star clusters, and bypassed planets and moons everything was recorded. 

After a time, they noticed a small object that had set itself in orbit around them. They studied the object for a while and realized that it was transmitting data back to a source on a planet quite a distance away. 

They did not think much of this, for it was not the first time this had occurred. On many other occasions throughout their journey, they had been monitored by other objects. They had come to expect this as they travelled. After all, they were travelling in areas where they had never been. It was only natural that some of the inhabitants would be curious about them. 

They were also not troubled by this because, for all intents and purposes, they were invincible. The transparent alloy that was their shell had been tested time and again, against a wide range of plasma-based weaponry. There was not a single substance or device in the universe, that they knew of, at least, that could do anything more than bounce off the shell. Their inhabitants, whom they were pledged to protect, were never actually aware of any attacks, since the interior surface of the hull was opaque. The diurnal and nocturnal cycles were determined by the control pane at their fingertips, as was the internal temperature, humidity and atmospheric quality. 

The people in the larger part of the craft were all refugees, picked up along the journey they had been on for the past several hundred years. Nearly thirty generations had passed since they began their journey. But the people were unaware of that. They simply went on about their daily lives with all food, clothing and shelter provided for them.

The twin clones who controlled the craft were also unknown to the two million plus inhabitants of the cylinder.

Three days later, the cylinder entered the earth’s solar system. It had slowed to sub-light speed so the twins could study its makeup. All the planets except one were uninhabited with environments that would make most forms of life, human or otherwise, virtually impossible.

As they moved closer to Earth they began to pick up a plethora of radio signals. They listened carefully, but were not able to detect any sense that the planet was readying any defences. In fact, as they scanned the planet, the only atomics or plasma energy they were able to detect were in a series of what they assumed were nuclear power plants. They moved to within a thousand miles of the earth and took up an orbit around the planet, and waited to see who or what would make contact with them.

Ezra had picked up Nathaniel in Glasgow, and together they headed out to meet the craft, which was travelling quite slowly. They matched the craft’s speed and then began transmitting signals on different frequencies. An hour or so later, they received a reply. It was in a strange language neither of them had ever heard of. The message completed itself it repeated in several different languages, and finally, in English. 

“We are Indos. We have travelled more than 10,000 light years, by your measure, to arrive at this place. Our propulsion system runs on a material you know as uranium. We have detected deposits of this substance on your planet. We would like to arrange the purchase of a small quantity of this uranium to prevent our power from being depleted.” 

“How much uranium do you require?” Ezra asked.

“By your measure, ten kilograms.”

“Ten kilograms to power your entire craft?”

“Yes.” 

“For what time duration?” Nathaniel asked.

“Time duration?”

“You do not understand time?”

“We are Indos. Time is a concept with which we are not familiar. We have…always been.”

“What would you use as payment for the uranium?” Nathaniel asked.

There was no response for quite some time. Then, “Knowledge.”

“And how would this transaction take place?”

“We will send representatives?”

“And who would that be?”

“That would be we, as you understand it.”

“Do you have names?

“We are Indos. You are not of this world. Do you control it?”

“No we share it with the humans here. They are very similar to the beings on your craft.” Ezra said.

“Humans, as you call them, are everywhere we have travelled.”

“How did the humans on your craft come to be there?”

“They have always been. We are Indos.”

“I must talk to the humans here to procure the uranium you need.”

“We will wait.”

And with that their ship slowed its orbit around the earth. 

Ezra and Nathaniel returned to Ezra’s villa in Italy. Ezra contacted Carlton James and told him of the encounter with the Indos and their proposition. James told Ezra he would take it up with the Council and get back to him.

He then contacted Cindy and Lila and told them what had happened and tried to explain to them what these ‘people’ were.

“Doesn’t sound like they’re here to cause trouble” Cindy said. “I wonder where they’re going? You’re good at reading aliens. What did you feel?”

“Neither Nathaniel nor I felt any aggression from them. It appears that the beings we talked to are simply pilots and that the ship itself is some sort of colony.”

“And all they want is ten kilograms of uranium?” Lila asked.

“That’s what they told me.”

“Ten kilos isn’t a lot. Especially for a ship that size.” Lila said.

“Evidently, it is enough to power their craft.” Ezra said.

A few hours later Carlton James contacted Ezra. “The council has agreed to give them the uranium. It is being prepared as we speak.”

Ezra sent Carlton James the coordinates in North Africa where he could deliver the uranium. James acknowledged and told him the uranium would be delivered there within six hours, as it was being sourced from a nuclear plant in Baden Baden, Germany.

Ezra explained this to the Indos, and gave them the coordinates. They acknowledged that they would be at the location at the precise time. Five and a half hours later, Carlton James informed Ezra that the uranium had been delivered to the coordinates he requested. Ezra and Nathaniel then flew to the coordinates and waited. 

They did not have to wait very long until the two beings appeared, as if they had simply formed out of thin air. They were both two metres tall, which made them a little taller than Ezra and Nathaniel. They were dark skinned and human in shape.

When they spoke it was together. But they projected only a single voice. “We are Indos.” they said.

“I am Ezra and this is my friend Nathaniel.”

“What is friend?”

“Friend is someone you are close to. In our case, we are from the same planet more three light years from here.”

“You are human?”

“No, but we have taken human bodies and function as humans.” With that Ezra and Nathaniel stepped out of their bodies, but only long enough to demonstrate what they really looked like.”

“You passed by our planet, some time ago.” Nathaniel said. “Some time after your passing, our planet was attacked and destroyed. “A small number of us escaped and came here.”

“Where is here?”

“This is a planet called Earth.” Ezra said.

“This is a peaceful planet?” 

“Yes. We destroyed all the weapons of war and helped balance the inequities between the Earthlings. But what about you?”

“We are Indos.”

“What does Indos mean?” Nathaniel asked.

Indos was quiet for some time. “We are…travellers.”

“Explorers?”

“Explain explorers.” Indos said.

“Exploration is a reason to travel. To discover new things.”

“We travel to search for fuel.”

“And no other reason.”

“No. We are Indos. Travellers.”

“Very well then.” Ezra said. “We have your uranium.” He gestured to the steel box in front of him. Please consider it as gift.”

“Explain gift.”

“We give you this freely with no need for you to give us anything in return.”

The Indos said nothing.

“You’ll forgive me,” Ezra said. “But I find it very difficult that to believe that you are merely travelling only to search for fuel.”

“We are Indos. Travellers. It has always been so for us.”

“How old are you? How long have you been travelling?”

“It has no meaning to us.”

“But you are peaceful.”

“We have seen many wars in our travels. This place is at peace. Thus it is…unique.”

“Are you at peace within your vessel?”

“Yes. Our…people…are content.”

“Do they know about you?”

“They do not.”

“Would they fear you if they did?”

“Explain fear.”

“Would they be angry if they knew you were controlling their existence.”

“They know no other life.”

They levitated the uranium container and one of them held it.

“We should like to show our…gratitude.” 

And with that they reached out and touched Ezra on the forehead. 

Ezra smiled. “Thank you.”

Ezra and Nathaniel both realized that any further questioning was pointless. This was a culture that was both self-contained and self-sustaining and completely controlled by these two beings.

“We have no more questions, Indos. Please take the uranium and have safe travels.” Ezra said.

And just like that, they were gone.

“The universe is filled with strange things Ezra.” Nathaniel said.

“Indeed.” 

“They touched you.”

“Yes, they gave me something. A formula. I don’t know what it’s for just yet. But I think you and I and Lila should get together and figure it out.”

And with that, they got into their craft, then headed home to Italy. 

When they arrived, they scanned the skies for any trace of Indos. But there was none. Cindy who had been watching the craft all along said, “One minute they were there. The next they were gone, I scanned all the way to Mercury and saw no sign of them.”

“Perhaps that is a good thing.” Ezra said.

“Why do you say that?” Cindy asked

“They struck me as gods of some kind. I’m not certain their presence on this planet would have been…positive.”

Cindy knew Ezra well enough to trust his judgement, especially about alien life forms.

A few moments later, they returned to Italy. Ezra, Lila and Nathaniel went into the room that Ezra used as an office. He had purchased a large whiteboard that covered one wall. He picked up a black marker and started to write out the formula the Indos had given him. Nathaniel recognized it almost immediately. He took a red marker and circled a section in the centre of the formula.

“This very much looks to be a formula for the enrichment of uranium, far beyond current capabilities.”Nathaniel said. 

Nathaniel stared at the formula for quite a while. Then he said. “This formula will have the capability to literally eliminate uranium mining and processing for approximately three centuries.”

As they studied the formula, they realized that, not only was it a methodology for enriching raw uranium, but that it would also work with uranium that had been processed and was operational in reactors and other devices around the world.

~ 36 ~

The next morning Carlton James contacted Ezra through a smartphone James had given him, which had become their main mode of communications. The GPS on both their phones was disabled, so neither of them knew exactly where the other was. 

“Good morning, Ezra.”

“Hello Carlton. Where are you calling from?”

“The Hague. My office. Just calling to see how things went with the aliens.”

“They call themselves Indos. There are two of them. But I feel that they have a symbiotic relationship with one another. In essence, they are one being. But things went well. They accepted our gift. And although I made it clear to them that we wanted nothing in return, they left us with a gift anyway.”

“What’s the gift?”

“It’s a formula for the enrichment of both raw and processed uranium. Once this is applied, even to reactors that are currently in operation, it should extend the life of the uranium by approximately three hundred years more or less.

“My God!” Carlton exclaimed.

“Indeed. We are currently working on the methodologies to adapt both raw uranium pre-fabrication and uranium that is in already in operational power plants. But it also means that this will enable smaller-scale operations, because of the enhanced power of the raw uranium. In essence it could easily eliminate the mining and processing of uranium immediately.

“I’m flabbergasted, and I do not flabbergast easily. And you say they have left the solar system?”

“Evidently.”

“And all they wanted was the uranium?”

“That would appear to be the case. But I am going to take a journey to make sure they actually have left. You may accompany me if you like.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“That would be amazing.”

“We could talk while we travel.”

“When would you like to leave?”

“As soon as you are ready.”

James was silent for several seconds. Then he said, “OK, how about tomorrow, in the afternoon.”

“Go to an open space near your residence. Then call me with the coordinates. At 3:00 PM tomorrow, your time, I will come for you.”

Ezra disconnected and went back to his study. Lila and Nathaniel had solved the entire equation.

“The accelerant” Nathaniel said. “Is a specific mix of mercury and zinc. According to these calculations the application of just fifty micrograms to each rod in the current nuclear reactor configurations is all it takes. The substance is absorbed by the rods, which causes a micro reaction, after which it quickly stabilizes. At least that’s the theory.”

“This explains,” Lila said, “How they can travel so far  with such a small amount of uranium.”

“Indeed.”

“The only challenge,” Nathaniel said, “Is that the application would need to be done robotically, as any human getting that close to the rods would be dead within approximately three days.”

“That should not be a problem. Robotics are quite advanced here.” Ezra said. “I will be meeting with Carlton James tomorrow. He will recommend the companies to use for this test. The Earthlings can devise a safe methodology for applying the additive.”

“I will create a report for you to leave with him.” Nathaniel said.

“Excellent.” Ezra said.

Late the next afternoon, after dropping Nathaniel off in Scotland, Ezra landed the craft in an open field which appeared to be a playing field of some kind. Carlton James was waiting for him. He climbed aboard the craft and off they went. 

An hour later, Ezra handed James an iPad with the written report that Nathaniel created the night before. He did not disclose the formula to James and wouldn’t because he didn’t trust the humans on the planet to get it right. He trusted Lila and Nathaniel.

Carlton James read through the report. “This is astonishing, Ezra.”

“Yes, the Indos seem to be very resourceful. But I sensed something a little off about them. It felt to me like they were grateful for the uranium, but at the same time thought of us as somehow inferior to them. In my experience, races such as that are usually interested in conquest.”

“So this journey is to make sure they’re out of our hair, so to speak.”

“If by that you mean, they pose no threat, yes.”

Ezra opened a portal that gave them a 270 degree view of the space they were travelling through.” James just stared out at it in wonder.

“My plan is to reach the end of this galaxy and then follow the perimeter around. If they are anywhere within our galaxy, I will know. But I am fairly certain they are gone.”

“Even if they aren’t. It’s going to be a hell of a trip.” Carlton said.

“Indeed. It’s a beautiful galaxy, as galaxies go. The configuration of planets relative to the central star is quite elegant. The fact that there is no human life on any planet but your own, would cause one to conclude that the other planets exist to provide new raw materials for your culture as it advances.” 

After three hours of high speed travel, Ezra slowed his craft to sub-light speed and began to track the circumference of the galaxy. They hadn’t gone very far, only a few million miles, when they came upon the cylinder. It was floating about half a million miles outside the end perimeter of the galaxy.”

He picked up speed and ten minutes later, they were within ten kilometres of the cylinder. 

He hailed the Indos. “Indos, have you suffered a malfunction?” Ezras said.

They waited for a reply, which came a few moments later.

“Negative. We are integrating the uranium into our propulsion system. This process requires us to be out of range of the gravitational pull of any stellar body.”

“Just out of curiosity how long would it take to complete the process.”

“We do not understand long.”

“How would you express it?”

“We have no need for time as you know it on Earth. Our sensors indicate completion. Then we can move on.”

“Where are you going?” Carlton  asked.

“We do not understand going. We will simply continue on our course.”

“Alright then, what is your mission?”

“To find the end of space.”

“What if there is no end?” Carlton asked.

“The end will appear when we arrive there.”

“And what is on the other side of the end?”

“There is nothing. If we continue on, we will become…nothing.”

“Do you have enough uranium to get you to the end of space?”

“How can we know?”

“That’s a very good question. Just know that we will be happy to provide you with uranium at anytime.” Ezra said. “And thank you for your gift.”

“We are grateful to you as well.”

“Good luck on your mission.” Ezra said.

“We do not understand luck.”

“No, I suppose you do not.”

And with that Ezra turned his craft around and set the coordinates for earth and departed.”

“Strange beings.” Carlton said.

“The universe has many strange beings. When I first arrived here, I thought of humans in the same way. Strange beings.”

Carlton chuckled and sat back in his seat watching the
star-spangled universe in front of him. “Do you think they’ll find the end of the universe?”

“By definition the universe has no end. My assumption is that the end that they are seeking will have more to do with how much external pressure their craft can withstand. When it reaches a critical level, they will have found the end, because they can go no further without crushing themselves.”

“I would imagine the atmosphere out that far would be nearly solid.” Carlton said.

“I, for one, have no desire to find out.” 

~ 37 ~

Over the next month, Nathaniel worked with a British company called International Robotics to create a simple robotic device that would deposit the mercury/zinc-based solution onto the rods of the various nuclear reactors around the world. 

Once the robot was functional, a nuclear reactor company in Stockholm, Skan Nuclear, volunteered its test reactor to ensure that the formula which Nathaniel and Lila had created from the instructions given to Ezra by the Indos was, indeed, workable. This was Lila’s first trip away from home and she was quite excited. Nathaniel had created the mixture and carried it doses of it in it in a small, hermetically sealed case. International Robotics had flown in the robot, which was being tested as well. The specific mechanics of the robot’s arm were worked out in advance by Nathaniel and two engineers from International Robotics.

For purposes of the test they would deposit the mixture on a single rod in the test reactor, which was, according to Skan Nuclear’s calculations, nearly 90% spent. 

The theory was that if it gave even 10% more life to a nearly spent rod, it would definitely increase the lifespan of new any rod that was not depleted.

If the experiment was deemed a success, then a small fleet of robots would be created and shipped around to nuclear reactors around the world, pending approvals, of course.  

The politics of this were handles by Carlton James in The Hague, and once it was explained to all the countries in question it was enthusiastically approved with very few questions. 

There were currently 413 operable power reactors in the world, 61 reactors under construction and 110 reactors planned for the near future. The only cost to them would be for the robotic hardware which each reactor needed to keep on hand, safe sealed, transportation and implementation, and the required training for implementation and in the event of a failure, which Scan Nuclear’s scientists had worked out with input from Nathaniel. 

Once the program was underway, the formula given to Ezra by the would be turned over to a small team of elite nuclear scientists, in Belgium, with the aim of seeing just how much further nuclear technology could be developed. Two representatives from this group were on hand for the testing in Stockholm. They were also there to invite Nathaniel to join their group.

The formula for increasing the sustainability of nuclear fuels, meant that, in the best case scenario, the issue of nuclear waste would would eventually diminish. But it also bought time for the scientists involved to develop a method for safe disposal of the spent fuel rods,  as well as other used for the modified uranium. Nathaniel had made it quite clear that he has a couple of ideas worth testing already. But first things first. The original idea needed to be tested and pass muster before it could be disseminated to reactors around the globe. 

The test itself was a simple process, which took place in just a few hours. The rest of the experiment was the monitoring of the fuel rod to see how much life would be added. It was determined that this would take about a week. after which time they would likely be able to determine how a live rod with 50% or more of its capacity would react to the introduction of the new material. There was no practical way to measure the longevity of this method, but they could at least get a handle on how effective the mixture was in terms of adding life to a nearly spent fuel rod in the short term and extrapolate from that. 

~ 38 ~

In the meantime, Ezra had another thing to do and he invited Cindy go along with him, although he was quick to point out to her that there was some risk involved. This did not seem to bother Cindy in the least. So leaving Lila to her own devices, they climbed aboard the craft and headed back to Ezra’s home planet.

They weren’t really going to the planet per se. But close enough for Ezra to examine the aftermath of the attack, and determine what, if any life might remain there. 

Before the appearance of the strange tube, Lila and Ezra had been working on increasing the speed of Ezra’s craft. They removed the core reactor and studied it for quite some time. Then one night, Lila went into their lab, did a series of calculations and then explained to Ezra that the fuel that powered the craft’s reactor was identical to that of muriatic acid. Ezra brought the core back to his craft and then duplicated it. 

They then fabricated a quantity of natural muriatic acid from earth sources and slowly injected the substance into the duplicated core. They waited approximately three hours while the duplicate core absorbed the acid. Then they removed the original core and replaced it with the duplicate and took the craft into a space clear of any orbiting planets, and took off. Only a few moments after they had begun their acceleration, they were travelling at nearly twenty-six times the speed of light. The craft held together but both he and Lila felt definite  increases in internal pressure. They slowed the craft down in increments until the pressure equalized at just slightly more than twenty two times light speed. The guidance system responded accordingly so they didn’t smash into anything. It took approximately nine hours to reach the outer rim of the Milky Way galaxy. Which meant it would take approximately twenty-eight hours to reach Ezra’s home planet.

On their way back to Earth, Lila pointed out that her test on the original engine showed that the level of purity of the muriatic acid-like substance that powered the craft was only a small fraction of the density of the muriatic acid derived from Earth sources. Adding nearly pure Muriatic acid made the engine that much more powerful. 

Ezra mused that most of the advancements of science tended to be based on simple, logical steps. Lila could not help but agree.

When they returned, they tested the duplicate core and found nothing to be concerned with. 

They had retreated the original core and swapped it out for the duplicate, then placed it in a box of super high-density acrylic that Lila had developed and left it on the craft as a backup system. Because the only thing Ezra did not know was what would happen as they got deeper into space.

Lila then hugged her dad and trundled off to bed.

Before they left, Ezra programmed the course on the ship and fabricated a drink for Cindy. The drink was a tranquillizer that would put her to sleep for approximately twenty four hours. 

When the tranquillizer had worn off, Cindy woke up to see them hurtling through space at the unreal speed. The sky was festooned with stars and planets going nova. It was the best light show she had ever seen.

“We are going to orbit the planet from the equivalent of a thousand earth miles out. At the first sign of scanning or probing I will take us back to Earth as quickly as possible. The last thing I want is a confrontation with whomever destroyed my planet.”

They arrived at the planet four hours later and orbited the it for half an hour. Ezra was unable to pick up any signs of life there. Although as he scanned the surface he saw definite signs on mining operations. He also got a very good look at the amount of destruction their attackers had caused. Literally thousands of deep craters littered the surface of the dead planet. The sadness that Ezra felt was profound, and Cindy could sense it. 

She rubbed his shoulders. “It’s a real mess down there.”

“Yes. It is indeed.”

Ezra scanned the planet on every frequency available to him and found nothing. It was a dead world. Finally, he took a deep breath and broke out of his orbit. He set a course for Earth.

“Are you gonna knock me out again?” Cindy asked. 

“Do you want to stay awake. Space can get quite boring after a while.”

“Then I’ll sleep. But I kind of like being out here with you.”

They took one last wide orbit of the ruined planet. About three quarters of the way around Ezra spotted something hovering very close to the second, and smaller of the planet’s two moons.

Since his craft was cloaked,  it did not appear to be noticed by the ship that was simply floating above the moon’s surface, He decided to circle the moon and come up behind the craft. It was what could best be described as an oblong disk that was thicker on one end than on the other. 

Ezra guided his craft up behind the oblong and looked down on the markings on the surface of the ship. He recognized it instantly.

“What is that?” Cindy asked. “It’s quite odd looking.”

“I don’t know what they are called or even if they have a name. We were trading with them at one time, and then for reasons that were never explained, they stopped.”

“Where are they from?”

A planet in a small system less than a light year from here. This craft is a sentinel, stationed here, I would assume, to make sure that none of us were spared. ”

“Why would they destroy your planet?”

“Who can say? They are a warrior species. Perhaps something we traded them did not function as promised and it angered them.”

With that, Ezra released a small disk-shaped object from the spacecraft. It looked quite similar to the objects he had released to originally send messages to Earth. The object made its way to the spacecraft below and hovered over the geometric centre of the craft. 

Then they took off. In quite literally a matter of minutes they had entered another galaxy. This one had five planets rotating around what looked to Cindy to be a sun.

“This reminds me of our solar system.” Cindy said.

“Indeed. There are many similarities. Their planet is the third from their sun.”

“Are you going to blow them up?”

“No. Their defences are too difficult to break through. But as you once told me, ‘There’s always more than one way to skin a cat.”

Cindy laughed. “So what are you gonna do? 

Ezra closed in on the small sun. As he travelled around the circumference, staying more than 50,000 kilometres away he released a string of the same disks that he sent to the sentinel  craft. 

He then took their craft out to just past the edge of the small solar system, turned around and hovered there. 

About a minute later, the twenty-four devices he had strung around the sun exploded. Over the course of the next several seconds, the sequence of explosions had completely sucked all the energy from the fireball. The sun planet disintegrated. The planet they were watching immediately froze and then exploded, from the shock waves of the exploding sun, and vanished. One by one, the planets in the system went black and disintegrated. About fifteen seconds later, there was nothing left but floating debris from what was left of the sun.

Cindy gasped. She had never seen anything like that before.

“The sentinel craft was destroyed at the same time.” 

She looked at Ezra who was staring sadly at the now dead solar system. 

“Time to go home.” he said. And he repositioned his craft, willed it into the adjusted hyperdrive speed and they were off back to earth. The closer they got, the more his sadness lifted. They reclined their seats and talked to each other until Cindy finally fell asleep. Ezra spent the rest of the trip back reflecting on his good fortune. He could easily have been one of the millions of victims when his planet was destroyed. But he was the explorer, the trader, the difference maker, the investigator, the pioneer. He was not sure if he would have survived had Nathanial not managed to save as many of his people as he did. They were a different type of hive now. They were all connected, but each had its own role in helping their new planet evolve.

About thirty hours later, Ezra and Cindy arrived in Italy. It was mid-morning and the first thing Cindy did was call Lila who was back in Stockholm with Nathaniel.

“So far, so good, mom,” Lila said, sounding very pumped. ‘Uncle Nate and Mr. James are feeling good about it, too. This is really a big deal. Media people from all over the world are flying in. Uncle Nate and I are keeping a low profile. But it’s really exciting. Tell dad, I love him and I hope you guys had a safe trip. Obviously, you did because you’re back. We’ll be leaving day after tomorrow. I think this is gonna work just fine.”

“Okay, sweetie. Glad everything is going so well.”

“Me too.”

“We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Cindy hung up and turned to Ezra. “She sounded very excited.”

“Well that’s good.” Ezra said.

“Yeah it is. You know I kinda feel cheated. She grew up so fast that she hardly had any childhood.”

“Would you like another child?” Ezra asked.

Cindy thought about if for a few seconds, “You know…I think I would. If it’s possible.

“There’s no reason that I have determined. Would you like a boy this time?”

 “What?” Cindy asked, sounding a little confused.

“Would you like the new child to be a male?”

“You can control that?”

“Yes. of course.”

Cindy started to laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No Cindy. If you would like a boy we can make a boy.”

“How do you do that?”

“I simply focus on it and it happens.”

“That’s pretty strange, even for you.”

“Be that as it may. It is the way of things for my people.”

That night they lay in bed and conceived a boy.

~ 39 ~

Lila returned two days later. She was picked up by her mother at the Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli. Nathaniel was with her. They talked for a few minutes and then he left to catch his connecting flight to Brussels, where he would meet with the group that was being formed to manage the implementation of the nuclear enrichment program.

 All the way back home, all Lila could talk about was how excited she was to be part of such a world-changing event. 

Of course, no one outside of her family and Carlton James would ever know that she was even there. But that didn't matter to Lila. She knew she was being shielded from the world because if her identity ever became public knowledge, the press would turn her life upside down and, sooner or later, some crazy would jump out of the crowd. Ezra and Cindy knew this could be a distinct possibility, despite Ezra’s Herculean effort to rid the world of weapons. Once she had reached maturity, he would feel much more comfortable with her being out in the world unaccompanied.

Lila was happy just being with her parents and working away on inventions in the villa. She was happy accompanying her mother on shopping excursions. And she was happy reading all the classic novels that Ezra had acquired for her because he believed that learning from the works of great writers was valuable and helped to balance all the technical learning Ezra was imparting to her.

After Lila calmed down a bit, Cindy announced that Lila would soon have a little brother. Lila was overjoyed at the prospect of an addition to the family. Later that evening, at dinner, they all discussed possible names for the new child. They shortlisted three names: Charlie, Kyle and Samuel. They would then wait until the child was old enough to speak and understand and let him choose. 

Once a month, Ezra and Lila climbed aboard the spacecraft and journeyed to the outer edge of the Milky Way galaxy. He scanned the heavens in every direction and hoped they would see no signs of spacecraft from the race that had destroyed their home world. 

On this particular trip they were also bringing something with them. Lila had been working to perfect an ultra long range sonar system. The most recent iteration of it would scan more than 20 light years in any direction. 

When they reached the edge of the galaxy, they launched the disc, which was approximately two metres in diameter and half a meter thick. It hovered in place and began to slowly rotate, sending back a signal pulse. The pulse would quicken when it sensed an object in motion. It would also indicate the approximate distance, speed and direction of the object. This information would be transmitted to a special receiver, which Lila had hooked up to one of her computers. It would then project a three-dimensional rendition of what it was seeing on a wall of the basement lab. 

As they travelled along the perimeter of the galaxy Lila released and tested three other disks. This would give them advanced warning of anything heading their way from virtually any direction.

They only stayed long enough to launch the discs, make sure they were working, and that they could read their output. Lila called it, the Sentinel system, and she and Ezra both hoped that it would detect nothing unusual.

When they arrived home, Ezra got in touch with Carleton James and sent him a small device that would allow him to connect to the Sentinel system, along with a complete explanation of what the device was for. Each was powered by a gram of long life new uranium and would have a life span of more than thirty years. James thanked him and told Ezra he would make sure that it was put into the right hands in the UFE; The United Federation of Earth.

~ Epilogue ~

Several months later after, Lila’s younger brother came into the world. They all sat out of the terrace and took turns feeding him, changing him and talking to him.

Over the next two years, Ezra received notifications from various members of the collective that they were having children of their own. But what was even more encouraging was that the human race was accepting of this fact, simply because the addition of the 106 beings from Ezra’s planet had, over just twenty-one years, managed to dissipate any fears that humans may have been harbouring. The entire world was unified because all the inequities had been nullified through the actions of Ezra and his compatriots. 

The world was relatively safer, and a much more prosperous and almost totally peaceful planet and for this, every human was thankful.

Ezra, Cindy, Lila and the soon-to-be-named Charlie continued to work together and create new and wondrous ways for the planet to remain a peaceful paradise for all its inhabitants. 

But Ezra knew that the universe was not at all like what they had managed to turn the Earth into, and so he kept a close eye on the Sentinel system. 

Just to be on the safe side, he and Lila worked diligently to design and build an extremely powerful torpedo launcher, which could be carried on their spacecraft. It was designed to fire the equivalent of a plasma projectile that would be capable of decimating virtually any type of hostile craft that would attempt to enter the solar system  The ‘cannonballs’, as Lila called them, were created to be extremely powerful and send out disruptor waves at such a frequency that would essentially pulverize any substance known to Ezra from his days as a planetary scout.

The children of those of the 106 were, as they came of age, both educated in the sciences by Lila and also taught to use their imaginations to build useful things for the world. At one point, Lila’s video-based classroom had close to seventy students.

Life on Earth went from good to better over the next decade. But Ezra knew that it could, according to Cindy, all  turn on a dime. So their happiness, while quite wonderful. was always tempered with a bit of caution.

FIN