She grinned engagingly. ‘Well, I wasn’t criticising!’
Sometime during the week I was able to get in touch with Brian the Consultant at the East Anglian hospital in which I had first woken up, and persuaded him to fax the results of the detailed genetic analysis they had carried out after my transformation. Primo told me later that this transmission had successfully been intercepted, and was now in the hands of their geneticists.
My final preparatory task was to liaise with the audio-visual technicians at the UN. Then everything was ready.
The cabin cruiser came to collect me on the morning of my speech to the UN. I was relieved to find that I could indeed tune out the mental cacophony as we approach New York. Freya came along for the ride, and obviously enjoyed the contrast with her usual car journey. I felt her suppressed excitement at the event and had to admit that it infected me also. She didn’t know it, but this was going to be a presentation such as the UN – or the world – had never seen.
I was used to public speaking but, even so, the butterflies were performing their dance in my stomach as I waited to be introduced. I scanned the representatives in the packed Chamber as I walked to the podium and picked up a mixture of interest, curiosity, awe, suspicion and revulsion – in other words, just the usual reactions.
‘Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the invitation to address the General Assembly. I appreciate the honour, and I hope that you will not be disappointed in what I have to say.’ I paused for a moment to ensure I had their full attention. I picked up a touch of concern from Freya, concealed off to one side, and assumed that I had probably omitted the customary honorifics. ‘I was invited here to talk to you about how I might be able to help the work of the United Nations. But in fact, I have a development of much greater import to tell you about. I have discovered what happened to me, to turn me from an ordinary man into this strange being you see standing before you. I have discovered this because I have been in contact with the people who were responsible. And those people come from an alien race – they are not human.’
A wave of emotions broke from the audience; excitement, disbelief, derision and, above all, shock. The silence crackled.
I went on to describe the first contact from the saurians, the existence of parallel worlds, and everything that Primo had told me at our first contact. I paused to scan the audience, who had recovered from their shock and now radiated scepticism, incredulity and, in a few cases, pity that I had lost my mind. Peripherally, I picked up Freya’s deep anxiety. I signalled to the AV technicians and the screen high on the wall behind and to one side of me glowed into life as the data projector came on.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to Primo.’
His image suddenly filled the screen, looking down at the Assembly. The audible gasps were as nothing compared with the mental shockwaves which crashed against me. I took the opportunity to slip on the headnet discreetly. Primo could not sense for himself the reactions of his audience, but he could indirectly pick up my scans; a poor substitute for a saurian mind-link, but better than nothing.
Primo started without preamble. ‘Good afternoon, it gives me great pleasure to address the General Assembly of the United Nations, because what I have to say is important to the future of mankind.’
The strange, alien voice echoed around the hall. Judging by the audience’s emotional response, to say that he had grabbed their attention would be a serious understatement. I hoped that the link with the television broadcasting system was working; if so, his transmission was being received live across much of the world. I scanned the audience anxiously; I had worked on this speech with Primo, to make sure that his sometimes rather clumsy use of English was appropriate to the occasion.
‘First, I need to add a little more about us to the information which Cade has already given. As he has said, our civilisation has developed over a very long period of time. Compared with yourselves, we are slow learners.’ Saurians did not smile, but he managed to put some humour into his tone. ‘This chance has brought with it many benefits. In particular, it has ensured that we have always remained in harmony with our environment. The problems which you are wrestling with at the moment over pollution and climate change have never been an issue with us, as we have had plenty of time to analyse the effects of any new technological development and make corrections as necessary. We never experienced such a rapid change as your Industrial Revolution, never had our economy driven by such a strong consumer focus.’ He paused for a moment. ‘This is my home planet.’
The view changed to a distant one of Earth as seen from space. The continents and ice caps were all familiar. The view zoomed steadily in, targeting the east coast of North America. It took me a second to realise that Primo was going to show us his planet’s version of New York. The camera view paused at what seemed to be an altitude of about a thousand metres, presenting an oblique view of Manhattan.
It was still the site of a city and a port; I realised that the natural advantages of the location would be utilised in any technological society. The buildings of the city were very different, however. What was instantly noticeable was that they were nearly all only one storey in height: the few exceptions were stepped pyramids with wide ramps linking the levels. The roofs were flat and green with vegetation. Most of the buildings were widely separated with green spaces and trees filling at least half of the space. The viewpoint zoomed in and another difference became clear; there were no cars or roads. Primo’s voice-over explained that goods deliveries were achieved via underground tunnels. Down at ground level, what was instantly noticeable was the noise – or rather, the eerie lack of it. Birdsong seemed to predominate.
The view then tracked across his world, pausing from time to time to close in on a particular scene. It looked simultaneously very familiar – the landscape and vegetation – and also like something from a science-fiction film, whenever buildings or transport came into view. Primo informed us that outside the cities, transport was primarily by electric or fuel-cell vehicle. In one view, an airship was visible; preferred to aircraft for long distance travel since they were safer and more spacious and comfortable, and the long-lived saurians, with their stable society, had little need for any urgency.
Even more alien were the saurians. I had only seen head and shoulders views of them, and had vaguely assumed that they were humanoid only with scales. The first time one hopped into view I realised my error; they were human-like down to the waist, but below that more closely resembled kangaroos, with a long thick tail and powerful legs. Their preference for low buildings and ramps suddenly became clear. They could walk, at a rather slow waddle, but were clearly more comfortable hopping. At one point the view lingered on a small crowd of them, apparently youngsters engaged in sports, and I estimated that they could cruise at the speed of a human sprint, and sprint twice as fast. No wonder they only used passenger vehicles for longer distances. The relative weather-proofness of their tough scaly hides no doubt helped; they seemed to wear little in the way of clothes except harnesses to which tools and other possessions were attached. Close-ups showed that their arms were more slender than humans’ and looked weaker; their hands were delicate, with the opposed thumb opposite the four fingers rather than alongside them. They resembled kangaroos in more than just body form; a small head poking out of a midriff pouch revealed that they were marsupials as well. I felt a brief flash of amusement as I imagined the fierce arguments among evolutionary biologists that these revelations would prompt.