As he stared down, the glow swelled from a flattened disc to a pulsing globe, and from it strode a number of golden figures identical to the one which had presented itself to Allen back at Murchison Falls.
He counted a dozen figures ranged in a semi-circle and facing the massed representatives of humanity, and he knew that they continued all around the amphitheatre, hidden by the spherical golden glow. The one before Allen’s section seemed to hover in mid-air, staring directly at him.
Behind the figures, the golden glow diminished, sank, became again a disc. Then that too vanished, to be replaced by an aerial view of the verdant paradise created in the Saharan desert. As he watched, the oases appeared to be increasing in size, growing ever outwards.
A voice, issuing from the golden humanoid before him, said, “The new city continues to grow, and will soon cover the entirety of what was once the Saharan Desert.”
Allen heard a collective gasp from those around him.
“The city is the first of many we will grow around the globe,” the figure — or rather all the figures around the amphitheatre — went on. “In two days we will move on, first to central China, then India and Siberia, followed by Alaska, Brazil, Australia and Borneo.”
Further around the amphitheatre, someone stood up, a tall, southern European woman, who said, “If I may ask: why are you doing this?”
“We are creating the cities as the second phase of the programme to assist humanity in its growth towards stability and continuance. An immediate need for much of humanity is a number of sustainable mass living areas, integrated urban units where millions can live and work without fear of poverty, starvation, violence, political subordination or intimidation.”
“And who will govern these cities?” the same woman enquired.
“They will be self-ruled by elected representatives of each city’s population.”
“And the governments in whose countries these cities are situated?”
“In time,” came the reply, “the function of national governments will be a thing of the past. Nationalism will fade, along with concepts such as national borders and boundaries.”
A murmur of comment swept around the amphitheatre.
A human voice, belonging to someone on the far side of the vast chamber, said, “You’ve created this… this city in the Sahara, one of the most desolate, inimical regions on Earth… but how will it be sustained? What about things like energy, water…?”
“We are in the process of creating desalination plants to convert sea water,” came the reply, “and as for energy… The Serene possess the technological wherewithal to beam limitless energy to the surface of your planet. We have solar converters, machines which transfer the energy of your sun — and others — to wherever in the galaxy we require it.”
Allen smiled at the very idea, then laughed aloud.
The woman who asked the original question stood again. “If I may say this — my original question has not been answered. Why are you doing this?”
There was a pause, then the figure spoke. “We are intervening here on Earth because your race has, in the past few hundred years since what you term your industrial revolution, grown exponentially, a growth fuelled by a fatal combination of political greed and lack of foresight. What is even more tragic in your situation is that many of you — both on an individual level and on that of institutions — know very well what needs to be done in order to prevent a global catastrophe, but cannot enact change for the better because power and vested interest rest in the hands of the few.”
Allen sat back and closed his eyes, and wished that Sally was here to hear what the Serene were saying; she would be unable to restrain her tears of joy.
The voice went on, “No shame should accrue in light of these facts; no individual is really at fault. The process was vastly complex and incremental, a slow-motion, snowballing suicide impossible to stop. A hundred, a thousand races across the face of the galaxy have perished in this way, before we had the wherewithal to step in and correct the aberrant ways of emerging races.”
A ringing silence greeted the words, before someone asked, “And how many races have you saved from themselves?”
“Approaching one hundred.”
“And did they ask for your intervention?” It was a rhetorical question.
“That was impossible, as you well know, for they did not know of our presence until our arrival, just as you did not know of the Serene until recently.”
“And they welcomed your actions to save them?”
“There are always, among the races we assist, those individuals and organisations who oppose our intervention, for they have much to lose: namely, power and wealth. However, these people in time come to realise the rightness of what we are doing.”
Someone nearby stood up, a small Oriental man who asked, “And what say will the human race have in how these changes will be instituted?”
“That depends on the nature of the changes in question: some, like the creation of the green cities, the institution of solar energy — and the concomitant cessation of the production and use of current, polluting forms of energy — are non-negotiable, for they are fundamentally necessary for the safe continuance of the human race. Other changes, political changes, will be in your hands, though guided by our suggestions and expertise.”
An African woman stood and said tremulously, “You… you have banished violence from the planet. I… I would like to know how long will this last? Did you do it so that we could not oppose you with our armies, or…?”
The golden figure spoke. “We have assisted you to achieve the state of non-violence — which several of your philosophies have been advocating for centuries — not so that you would be unable to oppose us, which would have been impossible, but so that you can live now without fear of violence, either individual or state. This is not a temporary measure, but ever-lasting.”
A gasp raced around the amphitheatre. Someone said, “But… violence is something inherent in the psyche of the human race, an action and reaction hardwired into us on some fundamental, chromosomal level, surely…”
“Violence has been inherent in the evolution of the human race, just as it has been and is in the animal kingdom. But there comes a time when the urge to violence needs to be outgrown, when the consequences of violence threaten the very chances of racial, global survival.”
“But surely there will be… psychological, not to say societal, consequences of our inability to commit violence?”
The golden figure pulsed. It spread its arms in an all-encompassing gesture. Allen saw the other golden figures, arced around the amphitheatre, do likewise. “You are correct, there will be consequences, and some of them will be adverse… But none will be as destructive or damaging as the continuance of your ability to conduct violence upon each other would have been. We will ease you through the transition, be assured of that.”
Someone said, “You said you have intervened with other races? And these have managed to overcome their species’ violence?”
“All races are different, as you might imagine. Some fare better than others in their periods of… readjustment. We know that the human race will thrive and prosper.”
A silence grew, before the next question. The small Indian girl next to Allen stood up and said, “This must have taken a… a long time to set up. How long have you been… watching us?”
Allen had the impression then that the golden figures around the chamber were smiling. “We have been aware of the human race for centuries,” they said. “When the time was right, we applied ourselves to the study of your particular problem. We have been closely monitoring developments for the past two hundred years, and working to intervene for the past one hundred.”