PART THREE — DATELINE 11 NOVEMBER 2014
We discovered the fragment of the foreword of the famous book that you will have written after we came to the convention and met you face to face — it was not part of our initial research. Do not be misled by the dateline on this part of the message. Yes, this is the day after the convention we attended has concluded, and we have returned to our own time, but the date on this message reflects merely the date on which you originally received it. Do not be alarmed. No paradoxes were triggered.
This message has been coded so that you would have gained the means to open it only after you passed your 80th birthday and before your death in 2080 — we believed it was important that you are in possession of this information, even as to the precise date of your own death, but after any point at which knowledge of these things might have affected your choices and life decisions.
You wrote the foreword, but chose not to publish it with the book, and it was discovered in obscure digital storage and memory banks centuries later. The current version (enclosed) has been pieced together from several more or less badly degraded versions in existence. We hope that it will help clarify some of your own thoughts for you — even though you may have already written your own original version of this foreword by the time you receive this message from what is at the time of its receipt your future.
Know this: your kind has not vanished. At the time of this message, in your very distant future, humans live. We have no contact with them, and they would not recognize us as having been created by them, and they would probably be frightened and distressed at the idea — our kindreds have been sundered for too many generations. But it appears to have mattered to you a great deal as to how your own choices affected your future and the future of your species and your descendants, and it therefore matters to those of us who share the same opinions as myself that you should be made aware of your legacy. That you made a difference. That you mattered, to not one but two sapient species who travelled amongst the stars.
We, your children and your distant descendants, offer our deep respects, and our grateful thanks.
ZVL5559AD4 (whom you met and knew long ago now for you, as “Boss”)
About the Author
Alma Alexander’s life so far has prepared her very well for her chosen career. She was born in a country which no longer exists on the maps, has lived and worked in seven countries on four continents (and in cyberspace!), has climbed mountains, dived in coral reefs, flown small planes, swum with dolphins, touched two — thousand — year — old tiles in a gate out of Babylon. She is a novelist, anthologist and short story writer who currently shares her life between the Pacific Northwest of the USA (where she lives with her husband and two cats) and the wonderful fantasy worlds of her own imagination.
You can find out more about Alma on her website (www.AlmaAlexander.org), her Facebook page or her blog.