Extinction (49 page)

Nancy tried to point out the
irony that a rally for humanity and species separation was being supported and
assisted by other species. Phil just stared at her for almost a full minute.
Nancy was sure that she caused her husband to have a stroke or possibly a
feedback loop that crashed his brain.

After Phil had his mental reboot,
he just shook his head and told her that she obviously didn’t understand what
he was involved in. All the more reason she needed to come and hear his speech,
so she could fully understand. It was also important for Jason to be there and
learn these ideals that were so very important to all of humanity.

Nancy took Jason to the rally and
was surprised when she was ushered to the stage. The men told her that it would
be great for Phil if his wife and son sat behind him while he spoke. Nancy
tried to argue but realized her escorts weren’t listening at all. This seemed
to be a common condition for everyone involved in the group. Nancy sat with
Jason and held his hand. Jason was a little more fidgety than normal but he
still stayed in his seat and even looked as though he was interested in the
process of what was going on around him.

Some minor speakers took the
stage to warm up the crowd. Nancy recognized several species in the crowd and a
couple that she wasn’t sure about. She definitely recognized the Shirkas; everyone
in the Coalition knew them. She saw a few Trizites, a couple of Nortes, some
Molpeds, and a group of Bisbanes.

The species were sticking to
their own groups and keeping a little bit of a neutral zone between species.
Some were there to protest the protest, some were there to agree with species
separation, and some were just gathered because there was a crowd. The
accidental gatherers wandered into the crowd and intermixed with other species
until they noticed there were clearly divided groups in the gathering. They
then found their respective species and joined their group.

Phil had been on stage for about
ten minutes, spouting rhetoric and pounding his fist. The fist pounding seemed
to be a universal podium trick because it engaged all of the species present.
They also had interpreters on stage, translating everything Phil said. The
species who didn’t speak English could tune their personal comm unit to their
translator to understand what was happening.

Nancy still couldn’t understand
how all of these species could rally together just to rant about how they
should all be separated. They had such a showing that it seemed obvious that
working together they could accomplish so much. She was barely registering what
Phil was saying until she heard him speak their son’s name.

“My son Jason has a speech
disability. The doctors still don’t know why or what it is. He’s four years old
and he’s never even said ‘Mommy’ or ‘Daddy.’” Phil reached back with his hand and
waved Jason forward to him and the podium.

As Jason reached the podium,
there was a collective sigh from the audience as they looked at the cute little
human child who was struck with some unknown medical affliction. Only the
Shirkas didn’t sigh as they thought the child should have just been eaten if it
were defective.

Phil continued, “Because I was
laid off, my son has not been able to get the medical treatment he needs.
Because the Coalition is trying to help everyone, no one is getting what they
need. My son would be able to talk if the human government was taking care of
human problems and not sending aid and money to alien planets and alien
problems. I know you feel the same. I know some of you have had similar
stories. My son should not have to suffer because the Coalition has forgotten
who they serve. Humanity.”

Phil picked his son up and hugged
him as Nancy had never seen her husband hug their child. Instantly, she knew it
was for show, for the crowd. He wanted their sympathy—the poor father who
couldn’t connect with his son because of the evil Coalition and the aliens who
took everything from humans.

Phil kept his eyes on his son but
positioned himself so his words would still be picked up by the microphone. “I
love you, son.”

Just as Phil suspected, his son
wouldn’t respond and he again received the sympathy of the crowd. Nancy
couldn’t let this continue, couldn’t let her son be the pity fulcrum point of
the rally. She was about to grab her son when she saw his little hand reach for
the microphone and pull it towards his mouth.

Jason began to babble into the
microphone and Nancy was mortified. Phil stood there and smiled from ear to ear,
his point made even clearer by his son’s inability to answer his father’s
declaration of love. But then something else happened: the Shirka in the crowd
began to lean forward, engaged in the babbling. At the same time, the Shirka
interpreter on stage began speaking in English, apparently interpreting what
Jason was saying.

“I haven’t spoken to my father
because he is an idiot and I have had nothing to say to him.”

Phil looked at the interpreter. “You
son of a bitch! What the hell are you saying?”

The interpreter just look flatly
at Phil. “I’m translating what your cub is saying. Nothing more.”

A Shirka from the crowd spoke up.
“He’s telling the truth. Your cub is speaking our language as though he were
from one of our litters.”

Phil just looked at Jason as he
continued to speak in the alien language. “I do not condone what my father has
said and neither should you. Just look at what you have accomplished, together
and for the same purpose.”

Jason looked around and began
speaking in a different babble; this time the Trizite interpreter began to
translate into English what Jason was saying and the Shirka interpreter
switched back to translating for the Shirka in the crowd.

“We are different from one another,
and that is what makes this union fantastic. Without living together, we wouldn’t
have Shirka poetry. We wouldn’t know about renewable ocean energy the Trizites
developed centuries ago. You wouldn’t have coffee.”

The coffee joke got a good laugh—the
local Starbucks was always packed with just about every species that wasn’t
allergic to caffeine.

Jason switched to a different,
more obscure language, and the interpreters had to rely on their in-ear
translation devices to translate for them so they could then repeat it in their
own tongue. “I don’t know what happened to my father to make him this bitter. I
am only four, after all, so my memory is mostly filled with breastfeeding and
dirty diapers.” Another huge laugh from the crowd along with a very embarrassed-looking
mother. “I do remember hearing all of your wonderful languages on TV and
learning so much from so many. When I was ready to talk, I realized that my dad
wouldn’t want to hear anything I had to say, so I didn’t say anything. I’m
sorry, Mom.” Nancy teared up at the last statement and just blew a kiss to her
son.

Jason switched to a fourth
language. “The Coalition hasn’t kept me from talking; it’s what taught me to
talk in so many wonderful ways. Please, don’t throw away all of the work and
cooperation you put into coming together today. Use this as an example of what
you can do together. If you don’t like what the Coalition is doing, come
together and attack their policies, not one another.”

Jason was now standing on his own;
his father had set him down a while ago and then retreated to the back of the
stage. Nancy had pushed a chair to the podium and Jason climbed on top of it.
Though it now seemed her son was a genius, he was still only four so his motor
skills weren’t completely developed and he had some difficulty getting on top
of the chair. His adorable form garnered more
aww
s from the crowd.

Jason now switched to English. “If
a four-year-old is the voice of reason, you really need to reevaluate your
baseline thinking on these issues.”

Later, when historians looked
back on Jason’s speech, they would say that this was one of the funniest things
he said that day. But to the crowd who were present, in the moment, intently
listening to the child prodigy, it was the most sobering thing any of them had
heard in a very long time. No one laughed; some actually cried.

Jason looked back to his mom. “Mommy,
I want to go home now.”

He said it with such an infantile
tone to his voice, Nancy knew it was on purpose to punctuate the fact that he
was a little boy speaking such obvious truths. Nancy gathered her son up in her
arms and he buried his face into her shoulder as she took him away. In the
minute or so it took Nancy to leave the stage and get through the crowd, not a
single voice could be heard. There was nothing left to say, at least not today.

Two days had passed and Phil
still hadn’t come home. Nancy and Jason were now conversing in English almost
as though he had been talking for the last couple of years like any normal
child. In a way, he had always been talking with his mother. Nancy always had
faith that her son knew what was going on and he was always responsive to her.
She even felt as if she had a pretty good idea of what he was trying to convey
to her in all of those different languages. Jason apologized so many times for
not speaking to her before but she just waved him off and said that she
understood his reasons.

The weekend was just about over
and Nancy had to go back to work the next day. She had been constantly thinking
about what to do with Jason now that his father wasn’t around to care for him
during the day. Nancy was kind of sad that Phil wasn’t around but she also
realized that most of her feelings were coming from the disturbance in the
routine that had replaced their marriage rather than losing the marriage
itself.

The knock at the door had Nancy figuring
it was Phil, probably drunk off his ass and unable to enter his passkey on the
entry pad. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see a man and a woman
in formal attire standing there. Her first thought was that Phil was dead and these
two were officials coming to tell her. But she didn’t think that was right; it
would probably be the police who came to tell her that.

The woman broke the awkward
silence. “Hello, Mrs. Bloom. I’m Jennifer and this is Bronson.” Both people
extended their hands to Nancy.

“Um, hello. How can I help you?”

“Actually, it’s how we can help
you. May we come in?”

“Of course. Can I get you
something to drink?” Nancy wondered whether she was offering her killers or
abductors a refreshing lemonade before they did something unspeakable to her
and Jason.

“No, thank you”, Bronson said as
he sat on the couch. “We heard the speech on Friday. We were there as Coalition
observers, to report back on the gathering.”

“You’re spies?” Nancy wasn’t sure
what was going on.

Jennifer just laughed. “No, not
spies. Though I’m sure there was one or two in the crowd or within the groups.
No, we’re just observers who make reports and let other people decide on what
course of action to take.”

Bronson cut in. “As such, we
obviously reported what your son said.”

Nancy was getting a little
worried. “I’m sorry if he upset anyone. He was just saying what he thought was
right. He is only four, you know.”

“Our superiors were extremely
impressed with him and think his education will suffer if he stays on this
planet.” Bronson looked as though he were really trying hard to pick his words.
“We mean you no offense, Mrs. Bloom, but given your current situation, there is
no way you can afford to give Jason the education he needs or deserves.”

Nancy was now moving from worried
to defensive. “What are you saying? That you can do better for my son? Are you
going to take him away from here? From me?”

Jennifer quickly put her hands up
in what she hoped was a supplicating gesture. “No, no, no. We want to take you
all away from here. We want to take you to Earth where the Coalition will
enroll Jason in one of our schools for the gifted. At no cost to you at all.”

Nancy relaxed a little. “Why
would you do that? What do you want from us? From him?”

Bronson smiled. “We want Jason to
be the face of cooperation. We will follow him through school and require that
he provide us with interviews as needed, so that we may televise those
interviews to the Coalition citizens. We won’t censor him or anything like that;
we just want him to be himself. The Coalition loves him!”

“And,” Jennifer began, “we will
find you and your husband a job near his school or even send one or both of you
back to school if you want to change careers. I know this seems like we’re
offering you a lot, but in the end, Jason will really be doing more for us than
we are for him. We can give you and your husband a few weeks to think about it
if you’d like.”

“Does he have to come with us? My
husband. Does he have to come?” Nancy was now at the edge of her seat.

Jennifer seemed a little confused
by the question and looked to Bronson, who just shrugged. “Um, no. I guess not.
We hadn’t really thought about it; we just assumed both of you would want to
go. Keep the family together.”

Nancy was now standing. “He hasn’t
been back since the rally and he hasn’t answered the few calls I’ve made to
him. I’ll leave a note. He can catch up later if he wants to and if I decide to
allow him. Can we leave now?”

Bronson stood. “Sure. We’ll come
back for you in a few hours, let you get some stuff together. Bring whatever
you’d like.”

Jason came down the hallway from
his room, struggling with an oversized duffle bag. “I’m ready.”

The three adults laughed.
Jennifer looked to Nancy. “When do you want us to pick you up?”

Nancy grabbed her purse. “All I
need is this little boy, and he’s ready, so let’s go.”

The four left the apartment and
boarded a government flight back to Earth. Jason was excited and could tell his
mom was also.