Progenitor

Chapter 23

Amy assembled her senior staff. The disaster had been averted and Earth was safe. Now on to other things, like a new name for both ships, how to best utilize Carol, and what to do about allowing Earth access to the advanced technologies. Amy informed her staff of the identity of the missing crewman and the similarities between the sabotage to both ships. For the time being, Carol was going to land on Uranus until they could design and build a cloaking device for her. Now it was time to tell her staff what she thought was best, and she did. It took about three weeks for all the repairs; but the time wasn't all repair. During this time several of Carol's "Orbital Miners" were used to gather ores and minerals that could be found in the neighborhood. These were used to help with repairs and to start building up a stockpile for future use.

It was a couple of nights later, while Jake and Amy were in bed, that they got to talking about what had happened to them over the past year. The fact that the same name SuLak kept coming up and was always associated with some type of sabotage to a ship was puzzling, it couldn't be the same being as there was too much time between them. Both Amy and Jake agreed that if another ship showed up in this system with sabotage and the same name came up again, it would be time to see about getting in touch with the home system about it. They also talked about how to share the technology they had with Earth, but thought that no weapon technology would be shared.

The crew had finally agreed on names for each ship, AL would now be called The Albert Einstein, and Carol would now be known as The Carolina. Not very original but that was what the crews wanted. Carol's cloaking had been designed and would be installed within a week. Then the next order of business was to start Carol working on a biosphere on Mars. While that was being constructed, Amy, and her crew, would return to Earth and acquaint them with their new "neighbors".

It was about two weeks later, AL had returned to the Moon, when they came up with an idea as to how to go about contacting Earth. Ted would be that contact. AL had revealed that some of the information shared by Carol was the technology to create a personal shield that would hide the wearer's appearance behind a hologram. AL would broadcast on all Radio and TV networks that a visitor from another planet would meet with the United Nations on a specific date and time. The warning would include that any show of force or violence would not be wise. The meeting was to be made available to the public on TV and radio without censorship or any type of delaying tactics. Any country not complying with these requests would not be allowed to share in the benefits. The broadcast would be repeated daily for one week prior to the visit.

On July 1st the first broadcast interrupted every TV and radio throughout the world, the broadcast was in English, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian. This is the broadcast as heard in English:

"People of Earth, in one week you will be visited by a representative from space. This representative comes to your world in peace and will be offering the people of Earth a chance to welcome your new neighbors. Even now we are preparing a base on the planet you call Mars. We are not here to conquer Earth as portrayed in your in your science fiction movies. But come to offer new technology to our new neighbors. Any type of armed aggression or violence will be considered an act of war. This meeting will take place at the place you call The United Nations Building. This meeting is to be broadcasted by every TV and radio in the world. There is to be no attempt to censor or delay this meeting. Any nation that attempts this will not benefit from our visit or technology. All nations should be represented. This message will repeat daily until then."

AL repeated the same message twice then ended the interruptions.

Ivan and his group monitored the communications on Earth to get a reaction from the different nations. In some countries the broadcast was labeled a hoax. In Russia and the US the military went on high alert. As promised the message repeated each day for a week. Ivan and AL monitored the responses closely and gave Amy and Ted a report each day. On the day of the visit about an hour before Ted was to land AL stationed a cloaked droid over the UN building to monitor the response in that area. At 1300, a shuttle landed in front of the building. It was 30 minutes later when the hatch opened and out stepped two armed men followed by Ted and two more armed men. This was Sam, Tasha, and two of the security personnel. They were greeted by a large number of military and New York Police. Sam stepped forward and told them to put their weapons away and stand aside. With that the five of them started walking slowly towards the building, and the shuttle closed up. The troops made way.

Ted's entrance made quite an event as he and his guards walked to the front of the room. Ted walked up the chairman and asked that the area be cleared so that nobody was behind him where he spoke. This was done.

"Greeting, I bring to you this day an offer of peace. We offer to you some of our technology in exchange for this we ask that this planet not attempt to interfere with the building of small bases here on Earth. The construction of these bases will need to be done by your people, but we will provide the plans and the material. Once built, each facility will offer free medical help to the people of Earth. It will also be an exit point for any who would like to go to Mars to work and live. Some of the technology we offer will replace the ground, air, and water transportation that you currently have. You will no longer have to rape your planet of it's recourses. We have been observing this planet for a long, long time and the progression here has been good. But, one thing must happen, that is the stoppage of all military actions against other nations. To give you a sample of our technology, I will ask that the chairman come forward."

After scanning the chairman, Ted told him that he had cancer, smoked heavily, and was 50 pounds overweight. Ted then asked him to have this verified by his own physician. Then offered to remove the cancer once it had been verified. Ted then continued his speech.

"Once the chairman has verified what I have just told him he can tell you I speak the truth. I have been notified that Russia and the US have attempted to delay the broadcast of this meeting and that Russia has even tried to censor this meeting. You were warned that this was not allowed. To once again prove ourselves, we have overridden those delays and the censorship. I will now take a few questions from the nations represented here, if the chairman will return and take charge of this body. The two leaders of the US and Russia are requested to, within the next 24 of your hours, explain publicly why this was done. We will be monitoring you compliance."

Ted took several questions and answered them as best he could. One of the questions raised the ire of the chairman, the question of by what authority did he take control of the airwaves, this question came from the representative of Iran. The chairman answered before Ted could and told the man that he was out of order, and then asked the man why this meeting should be kept from the people. The worth of the chairman went up in Ted's mind at that point. Ted continued to field question for an hour then said it was time for him to go. Ted thanked the chairman and the people there for their time then told them to relay to their leaders that each would be contacted within the next week. Just before stepping down Ted told the chairman to call a special number when the information was verified.

As Ted and his escort stepped out of the building a single shot rang out. The bullet, which was deflected by Ted's shield, struck a young child in the crowd. Before anyone could react, Sam literally shot the head off of the shooter. Ted ran to the child, gathered her in his arms and ran to the shuttle without a word. As soon as the hatch closed the shuttle lifted off. Once the hatch had closed, Ted had a scanner and was going over the child. The bullet had entered the chest, all but destroyed a lung and lodged in her spine. The outlook was very grave. As soon as they reached the base, the child was taken directly to Med Bay where the "Doc" was put to work. Ted could not stop crying.

Amy had witnessed the whole scene via their own surveillance; she was very upset. To make her displeasure known to the people responsible she had the shooter ID'd and his picture, nationality, and affiliation was broadcast throughout the world almost immediately. This caused a bit of a stir on Earth. All the TV networks were asking basically  the same question - "How would the aliens respond to this attack?" and "Why did they take the little girl?". Those question would be answered tomorrow.

When the little girl, whose name turned out to be Cindy, woke up the first thing she saw was Amy sitting beside her bed. Once Amy was aware that the girl was awake she asked her name, her mother's name, and if the girl knew her phone number. After getting this information, Amy said "Welcome to space Cindy. I am Amy and I wanted to tell you how sorry I am that you got hurt. Also, now that we know your name we will contact your family to let them know you are okay. But that will take a little while to setup. For now, you must rest for a day or two before we can return you home. Would you tell me how old you are, and what you like to do?"

Cindy was 12 years old and said she come to see the spaceman. She told Amy that she liked to sing, listen to the radio, and play with her friends. Amy and Cindy talked for about 15 minutes before Cindy complained that she hurt. That was quickly taken care of and Cindy was told to sleep for a while then she could talk with her family. It was about two hours later when Cindy woke up again to find herself alone. When she asked dif anyone was there she heard a voice that said "Hello Cindy, my name is Al. I am the computer on this ship; do you need anything? Something to eat or drink? If so just say tell me what you would like, anytime day or night and I will make sure that you get it. Amy will be here in a minute, she had to take care of some things, like getting ready for you to call your family."

Amy arrived just minutes later with a jumpsuit, with the insignia of Ensign on the collar, for Cindy as her own clothes were not fit to wear.

"Hello again Cindy. Are you felling better now?" Amy said.

"Fine, I guess. What happened to me?" asked Cindy.

Amy has AL show the news coverage that showed Ted coming out of the building, a shot being fired, Cindy falling, and then Ted picking her up and running to the shuttle. After seeing this Cindy raised the covers and saw she was nude, but in one piece.

"What happened to my clothes?" Cindy asked.

"Well your clothes were really a mess, with all the blood and stuff. So I brought you these, and the Captain even said to put the Honorary rank of Ensign on them and we put your name on also." Amy replied.

After asking if Al could see her Cindy got up and put the jumpsuit on; it fit perfectly. When asked if she was hungry, Cindy said she was. The "Doc" had already told Amy that Cindy could leave, so Amy took Cindy to the Mess Hall and showed her how to use the food dispenser. Cindy pigged out. After eating, Cindy and Amy went to Amy's room and called Cindy's home. Her mother was hysterical, but was glad to hear from Cindy. Amy had Cindy to ask her mother to tell the police to quit trying to trace the call, it couldn't be done. Cindy and her mother talked for about an hour before Amy said it was time to hang-up, but that Cindy would be returned in a day or two once she was completely healed.

Amy kept Cindy away from the rest of the crew, except for Ted with his holo-image, and made sure that Cindy called her family each day. While Cindy was there Amy took it upon herself to have AL give Cindy a little "quick learning". After the first lesson AL told Amy that Cindy had a 75% rating, referring to Progenitor DNA. This made Amy happier, so she asked AL to give Cindy as much as he could without her being aware of it. Another way of compensating Cindy for her injuries.

In the meanwhile Ted had contacted each government as promised. He really got on to the Russians for their attempt at censorship of his speech. He also told the US President that he had made a mistake trying to delay the telecast. Strangely, Iran never got contacted; at least not officially they did lose several groups of "dirty" weapons to UN inspectors. The chairman of the UN had contacted Ted that very night, he had already known that he had terminal cancer, and was secretly transported to the ship and the cancer removed, in addition the "Doc" cleaned out his lungs.

On the day specified at 1300 a shuttle landed in the same place outside the UN building. Once again it sat there for 30 minutes before Ted and his escort exited. This time it was different, the chairman was there to greet Ted and a platoon of US Marines in dress Blues were there as an honor guard. Only after Ted was sure that the area was safe did Cindy come out in her "uniform". Cindy walked straight to Ted, came to attention, and saluted him before going to her family, who were being "guarded" by some of the Marines. Ted quietly asked if the chairman had arranged this. But the chairman said no, the girl's father was in the marines assigned to the UN. Ted and the chairman went inside. Once everyone was seated again, Ted made his second speech after making sure that it would be broadcast.

"Greeting again. As I am sure all of you are aware, we have contacted each nation as promised. I believe each of you have a document, signed by the ruling person, for me. I would ask that those documents be given to the chairman to be recorded, he then will transfer them to me. We, as a people, are willing to forget the unfortunate happenings when last we met. But let our response serve as a warning. If the girl Cindy had not been wounded the shooter would have been left alive, but not unharmed, for your justice system to deal with. In the next few weeks, we will be contacting you again to arrange for the construction of the bases here, one on each major land mass. We ask that you do not try to use military to build the bases, in fact we will select the workers from a list of names you provide. Each worker will be scanned and we will be upset if you try to control the workforce. I ask that the representative from the US and Russia meet with the chairman and myself after this meeting is finished. We, the Amyins, will not be a part of this group of nations as we will not actually live on this planet, so therefore will have little to say about how you take care of internal problems. However we will have a representative that will take part if the need for our intervention should arise. I will now take questions from you, the chairman will decide what order the questions are handled."

With that Ted stepped to the side and allowed the chairman to take control. The first question was not unexpected, "Why do you want to speak with just the US and Russia?" "They were the ones who first failed to abide by our request of no censorship, in any form, be attempted." The majority of the questions were simple and uncomplicated answers were given. Then Iran asked the question Ted had been waiting for, had been expecting in fact.

Q: "Why did your people not contact Iran"?

A: "It was Iran that the assassin was from; also, as I'm sure you are aware, Iran had many hidden weapons that were a danger to this planet. As the world is now aware, those weapons were "found" by the UN inspectors, with our guidance. Until Iran makes a honest effort to live in peace with the rest of this world they will not benefit from our involvement."

After about an hour of questions Ted ended the conference. Ted asked the chairman if he would gather the two representatives and follow him to the shuttle. On the way, Ted saw Cindy and asked that she and her father, if he was present, would speak with him for a moment. Cindy and her Dad came up to him quickly, but Dad was a little apprehensive. Ted explained that the one called Amy had wanted him to tell Cindy's parents how sorry they were that Cindy had been hurt. Also, Ted wanted to talk with the father about his service duties, now that he knew that Cindy was a "military brat". The three of them talked for about 10 minutes before Ted had to go. Ted, and his escort, entered the shuttle, greeted the represntatives, and the shuttle took off. Ted did not speak to any of them during the flight.