“So are you real?”
“In the sense that I am a physical three-dimensional representative of each of your species? Yes, I am real, in your dimension.”
”And what have you done to the rest of the group?”
“Nothing has happened to them. They are well, Sitara.”
Jason felt a little lost. The only science he had studied had been at school. Dracip continued.
“Time is relative. Time is only relevant when it has a relationship to something else. To your friends, time is continuing at its normal pace. To you, time is also continuing at its normal pace. However, you see them as moving at such a slow speed that any movement is completely imperceptible. For their part, neither human nor Argon eye can discern any difference from normal.”
Jason accepted what it was for what it was. He couldn’t be bothered to try wrapping his head around the science.
“So we know your name. What are you doing here?”
“I am here to rectify a mistake. It is our responsibility.”
“What mistake?”
“The Argon were never supposed to encounter your species. We removed them from your planet over forty thousand of your years ago. But we underestimated the speed of their technological progress. And yours, also. The unmanned spacecraft that left your solar system encountered an Argon vessel, which then used it as what you would call a Trojan Horse to attack your population.”
Jason didn’t give the scientists the opportunity to ask, what would be to him, irrelevant questions.
“If you knew about it, then why didn’t you stop it from happening? Unless you couldn’t.”
Dracip momentarily lost his smile.
“We could have, but we didn’t notice until it was too late. We had other matters to attend to which took priority.”
“What the hell could take priority over humanity being destroyed?”
“Many things, unfortunately. You’re not the only life-forms in the Universe. And not the only life-forms under our stewardship.”
“Yeah. Well. We found that out to our cost, didn’t we?”
Putting aside his anger at the needless loss of lives, Jason asked the sixty-four thousand dollar question.
“What are you going to do about it? Bringing back all those dead people might be a good start.”
The smile returned to Dracip’s face.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t do that. We’re not gods, even though you humans have been worshipping us for thousands of years. The resemblance between the words Jah and Jehovah is no coincidence. What we can do, however, is to remove the Argons from your planet and return them to Argon.”
Sitara frowned.
“So you’re not gods?”
“No. We are not gods. Gods do not exist. You worship your creator -”
“And that’s not you?”
“No. We didn’t create you. You and I were all created by the same process, a physical event that defies the laws of physics as you understand them. I believe you call it the Big Bang. Those of you not constrained by an insistence upon superstitious anthropomorphism are not entirely correct in your suppositions, but you are close. The rest of you worship a historical event that took place nearly 14 billion of your years ago. It would be quite quaint, had you not used this religious fervour to oppress and kill others that didn’t agree with you. A historical event cannot love you. It does not have emotions. It is gone. It has passed. Embrace the future instead.”
Jason was more concerned about the immediate danger from the Argons.
“But what good will removing the Argons do? They’re so technologically advanced. They’ll just come back.”
“We will prevent them from leaving Argon for the foreseeable future.”
Dracip walked over to the giant plate glass window and indicated that Jason, Sitara, and Enak should follow him. The Argons who were camped on the other side of the river were frozen in time, just like their friends. The Jah went to wave his hand, but was stopped by an urgent question from Sitara.
“What will happen to Enak? And Siroll and Eled?”
“They will return to their home planet with the others.”
Sitara looked at her Argon friend.
“What will happen to you on Argon, Enak?”
“We have betrayed Argon. We will be tortured and executed as traitors.”
That settled it for Sitara.
“Dracip. I want Enak and his friends to stay here. They’ll be killed if they go home.”
Enak touched her arm.
“It is ok, Sitara. We knew the risks when we made the decision to turn against our people, to let you humans know what was happening. I only wish we could have prevented it.”
Jason looked at Sitara, who nodded. They both knew what the other was thinking. Sitara went to clasp Dracip’s hands in hers, but they passed through as if she had been trying to grasp a shadow. She stepped back, surprised.
“Oh. I wasn’t expecting that.”
The Jah laughed.
“I am both here and not here. I am conversing with millions of other survivors simultaneously.”
This was too much for even her brain to deal with, so she didn’t even bother to try. She felt a little awkward and let her hands hang by her sides.
“Dracip. We have something on this planet called asylum. If Enak and his friends return to Argon, they will almost certainly die. We can’t let them be killed for helping us. We would like to offer asylum to Enak and any other Argon who has helped mankind.”
Dracip smiled again.
“It’s most irregular, but I will put your suggestion to the other survivors with whom I am conversing.”
Five seconds later, Dracip had a response.
“I have spoken to the others, explained your suggestion to them, and the majority agree. It appears that your positive experience with Argons has been frequently replicated. Please look out of the window.”
The two humans, and Enak suddenly found themselves transported from the main floor area to one of the side offices, watching as the scores of Argon warriors who had been on the other side of Key Bridge simply melted away before their eyes.
Enak, who had been quiet for the most part, ashamed of what his people had done, found his voice.
“Are they back on Argon now?”
“Yes, Enak. They have been returned home, where they will be imprisoned until such time as they can prove to us, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they will treat other species with respect and compassion. This will probably take hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years to achieve, if indeed it can be achieved. They will need to change their culture completely and see empathy as a virtue, not something to be scorned.”
The Jah turned away from the window.
“I will say one final thing. Let this be a lesson to you. Your species will, no doubt, recover. Eventually, you will reach for the stars again. Treat any other beings that you may encounter with respect and compassion. If you do not, you too will be imprisoned on your planet. We will not make the same mistake again.”
A Marine rushed into the room, as the Jah disappeared before their very eyes.
“Jason. They’ve vanished!”
“Who’s vanished?”
“The Argons. They were attacking us and then they weren’t. They vanished right in front of me.”
Jason glanced over towards Dracip, only to see an empty space where the Jah had once been, and that he too had vanished into thin air.
Sitara, who almost jumped out of her skin when she suddenly felt something rubbing against one of her legs. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she looked down and saw a beautiful tabby cat. It must have been living in the building, surviving by hunting mice and rats. She had no idea where the animal had suddenly sprung from, but it seemed friendly enough so she bent down and picked it up, nestling it in her arms. It purred contentedly as she kissed it gently on the head.