3.0 - Contact

Timeline Omega

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2012.12.21

02:09:37 Eastern Standard Time

The man, whom many regarded as the leader of the free world, stood silently, in what he perceived to be a dark room.

Before him, a wide, transparent window with a view of what he could only assume was outer space.

Suddenly, a round highlight appeared on the window.

“Look at that dot,” a recorded voice began to speak.

He turned his gaze to the highlighted point of pale light.

It continued, “On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there. On a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.”

The recording ended.

Silence.

Then a female voice, familiar to the man, spoke out of the dark, “We picked this one up from one of your more recent broadcasts. It seemed more appropriate than replaying the opening speech of the 1936 Olympics, wouldn't you agree?”

The lights in the room slowly turned from dim to almost blindingly bright. His eyes focused on the figure in front of him, an old woman, clad in a white robe.

“Grandma?” He said in a soft, slightly trembling voice.

She shook her head, “No, we only chose this form to make you feel more at ease.”

“Who are you and what do you want?” asked the man.

“We are, what you might call, fellow Celestial Beings.”

“Celestial Beings? Like angels, or gods?”

“Nothing that fancy,” said the woman, “though it might seem so to you. We are fellow wanderers. Just... a bit older... and hopefully a little wiser by now. We are here to help. Well, to be precise, WE are not really HERE. What is here, are parts of us we spread throughout the stars. Voyagers that carry our will. One of them was recently awakened, from its observational mode, on your moon. It called upon the others nearby.”

“Help?” he asked. “What help? And what is the price?”

“The price?” She shook her head. “There is no price. But there are consequences. We made contact with the envoys you sent to your moon. Those who form, what you call, 'Ad Astra'. We had them decide how to contact the rest of you.”

“We offer you pollution free, scalable energy sources, ways to conjure food and materials from said energy, the ability to travel large distances instantly, the technology to restore your environment, cure illness and death, and the potential to reach out to the stars. And most of all, a temporary, ephemeral, unknown, and distant enemy to unite against. We are willing to play the part.”