The Power of Gnaris (17 page)

President
Kowalski extended his hand to Barrow who wrapped his three fingers
around the president’s four and performed the strange custom that
Forster had warned him about; the custom used by humans when
greeting each other, by shaking the other’s hand up and down a few
times.

“I’m pleased
to meet you,” the president said, using English.

“May you
always find favour from the gods, and prosper,” Barrow said in
response.

The president
invited them to sit on a couch on one side of the room, and sat
down on another couch facing them. A small coffee table separated
them. Between the table and the president’s desk lay a circular
rug. It had a navy blue background and a tan border, adorned with
the image of a golden eagle holding an olive branch in its right
talon, a bundle of thirteen arrows in its left talon, and a white
scroll in its beak.

“Can I
interest you in some coffee or tea?”

Barrow looked
puzzled, so Elena explained to him, “It’s a custom used by some
humanoids, especially those descended from the planet Earth. By the
mutual sharing of coffee or tea, which are beverages, these people
show hospitality to their visitors and gratitude from their
hosts.”

“Another
strange custom,” said Barrow, using the Karavec language. He turned
to the president and said in English, “Thank you, President
Kowalski, I’ll try some tea.”

The president
did not fully understand, but heard the word ‘tea’ and instructed
his aide to order a pot to be brought to the Oval Office.

Barrow sipped
the tea, but did not savour the bitter tasting beverage. Elena, who
had sampled the brew before, showed a more conciliatory attitude,
and finished her tea, downing the last mouthful with a
flourish.

“Now you must
rest,” said the president. “We will talk further in the morning.”
He opened the door to his office and called out, “James”.

A man entered
the office. “Yes, Mr. President.”

President
Kowalski turned towards his guests. “This is James Donahue, my
Chief of Staff. He is the brother of John Donahue who brought you
here. He will take you to your quarters and look after you.”

“James, can
you take our guests to their accommodation in the Queen’s Bedroom
and the Lincoln Bedroom.”

“Of course,
Mr. President.”

* * * * *

The next
morning, after they had eaten a little of the generous breakfast
prepared for them, the two Karavec followed James Donahue back to
the Oval office.

“Now to
business,” said President Kowalski. “I know exactly why you are
here.”

“You do?”
Elena continued the dialogue with the president, but she stopped
every now and then to translate for Barrow, and to seek his
opinion.

At that
moment, Barrow once again felt the sensation of Lolena calling upon
his gnaris. He sensed that she and Forster must be close.
They
are trying to gain access to the grounds of this residence,
he
thought.

The president
sensed Barrow’s discomfort. “Are you alright, Great Savant?” he
asked.

Elena
conferred with Barrow. “Yes, he is fine. Please go on,” she
said.

“You are here
to investigate the importation into Ziemia of the green blood.”

“How do you
know this?”

“Because my
agents have been keeping the offender under surveillance for
several months; but, up until now, he has not committed any crime
on Ziemia.”

“By the
offender, you are referring to one of your own people?”

“On the
contrary, I am referring to one of your people, the one they call
Saviour”

“One of the
Karavec is here on Ziemia?”

“He comes and
goes. I do not believe he is here at the moment.”

“So that
explains why you were not surprised by our coming; that is why
Donohue did not show any sign of shock when he first encountered
us.”

“Exactly.”

“When this
Saviour does visit Ziemia, does he come here to Washington?” Elena
asked.

“No, he goes
to a city on a different continent of Ziemia, a city named
Jerusalem. He has a large following of disciples who live
there.”

At that
moment, a knock at the door disturbed the conversation, and the
president’s aide came inside.

“Excuse me,
Mr. President, another one of these Karavec has just breached the
perimeter fence of the White House. He or she is accompanied by
another alien who bears a resemblance to a human. They are on the
South Lawn.”

“That will be
Lolena and Forster,” said Elena. “They were sent ahead of us to
make contact with you, but must have been delayed, and we got here
first.”

“Will you
accompany me to the Truman Balcony? We can give them an unexpected
welcome.”

The president
led Barrow and Elena back the way they had come until they reached
the residential part of the White House once again. He bypassed the
president’s bedroom and private sitting room, and turned right into
the Yellow Oval Room that led to the balcony.

From the cover
of a clump of rhododendron-like bushes, Barrow heard the familiar
voice of Forster, “Don’t tell me

you’re
going to use the gnaris again.”

“That won’t be
necessary,” said the Great Savant.

Chapter 14
– Like a Message in a Bottle

“
The
universe is full of mysteries, and strange creatures that do even
stranger things.”

 The Book of
Karavec (37, 13)

Forster warmly
shook the president’s hand and, after Elena explained to her the
correct protocol, Lolena limply offered her own. Then the group of
five made their way to the Oval Office. While they walked, Elena
updated Forster and Lolena on details of their earlier conversation
with the president about the Saviour.

“Who could it
be?” Lolena asked.

“If he comes
and goes, he must have access to a spacecraft,” replied
Forster.

Forster took
over the role of chief negotiator while they questioned the
president further.

“Now, Mr.
President,” he said, “can you tell us exactly what KEO 3 is?”

“I thought you
would ask me that. It’s a long story, but I’ll try to keep it
brief. As you know, up until about a hundred years ago, Ziemia
still languished in the Stone Age. Then one night, somewhere not
too far from here, a group of Prehistorics saw a brilliant light in
the sky. It was not one of the moons, nor was it a star, for it
moved rapidly through the sky and appeared to be getting closer.
They didn’t take much notice because many stories from their
folklore told of bright objects coming to ground. We now know most
of those sightings were meteorites.

“But this was
not a meteorite. The next day, one of the Prehistorics, a man by
the name of Mammula, came across a large object on the edge of the
prairie whilst hunting krowy. Attached by strong fibres to the top
of the object, he discovered a canopy of cloth, what we now know
was a parachute. The parachute had arrested the object’s descent
when it entered Ziemia’s atmosphere.”

“It came from
another planet?” Forster asked.

“Yes. The
object, which we now call KEO 3, came from a planet known at the
time of its launching as Earth.”

There was a
stunned silence in the Oval Office before Forster whistled. “I am
from Earth,” he said.

It was the
president’s turn to be excited. “You mean that you are a human
being from Earth?”

“Yes, but I
have never heard of KEO 3. Do you know when it left the Earth?”

“I can tell
you the time in Earth years. There were two previous KEO pods
launched. KEO 1 was launched in the Earth year 2017, and carried
messages from the people of Earth, intended to inform humans of the
future when it returned to the Earth fifty thousand years later. It
also contained samples of various minerals from the Earth, a drop
of blood encased in a diamond, and human DNA. KEO 2, which was
launched in 2036, was much more sophisticated. It included a
detailed history of the Earth and its human population, with
messages from world leaders of the time, and recordings of sounds
and images portraying the diversity of life and culture on
Earth

”

“So these were
time capsules?”

“Exactly.”

“So what can
you tell me about KEO 3?”

“KEO 3 was
launched from the Earth in 2087. They also sent it on a trajectory
that would cause it to return to the Earth after about fifty
thousand years, but it seems that either they made a
miscalculation, or some massive object such as a black hole must
have catapulted it onto a different trajectory. It escaped from its
planned orbit and continued through space until it entered this
solar system, and by some chance came to land on Ziemia.”

“What an
incredible story. But how do you know this, and how did your people
come to develop from the Stone Age to the Technological Age?”

“That’s the
real miracle. KEO 3 arrived with instructions on how to access the
information it contained.”

“But how could
a Prehistoric understand those instructions?”

“The time
capsule itself was enclosed in a sphere about a metre in diameter
and surrounded by several layers of metal and vacuum, designed to
protect it from the extreme temperatures and radiation of space,
and accidental collisions with small lumps of matter in the void.
Mammula and some others dragged the object back to their cave where
an inquisitive Prehistoric accidentally pressed a release button,
and the capsule opened into two hemispherical parts. Inside Mammula
found a device with buttons.

“Again by
accident, for they had no idea what the curious object might be or
how to use it, Mammula pressed one of the buttons that operated a
recording device. This began to record the sounds of the voices of
Mammula and his friends and family who had shared the exciting
discovery with him. The recording was transmitted to a computer
inside the capsule that built up a vocabulary and syntax for the
language, and a built-in program translated some of the information
stored there into the language of the Prehistorics. It gave Mammula
precise directions to access all the information contained within
the capsule.”

“Like a
message in a bottle.”

“I don’t
understand.”

“When I was a
boy on my home planet,” Forster explained, “I used to write a
message on a piece of paper and place it inside a bottle. Then I
screwed the lid on tightly, and hurled the bottle into the ocean. I
hoped that someone on some distant shore would one day find my
message. It was just a game.”

“Yes, I guess
it was something like that.”

“So how did
you and your people come to speak English?”

“The computer
taught the language to Mammula and his clan; a necessary
progression in order for them to be able to understand all the
sophisticated information that they soon came to learn. This was,
however, the only fault of KEO 3. I understand that there are more
than six thousand languages on Earth. KEO 3 was programmed with
some knowledge of other languages from Earth, and had examples of
literature in the most important languages, but all the blueprints
for replication of civilisation were given in the English
language.”

“And the
Prehistorics who gained this knowledge managed to replicate certain
parts of twenty-first century Earth?”

“Not just the
twenty-first century. As you already know, there are many different
types of people on Ziemia at different stages of development. Some
are still Prehistorics; others learned to adopt some of the basic
information from KEO 3 and became Ancients; others still live as
people did on Earth in the eighteenth century; yet others in the
twentieth century. There is a wide diversity.”

“And what
about you, the people who live in the cities?”

“We were the
lucky ones. Mammula’s son, Ben Franklin

that is the name he adopted

carried on
the legacy of his father by studying in detail everything contained
within the memories of the computers on KEO 3. With the help of
others, he learned how to generate electricity, how to assemble a
nuclear reactor, how to perform surgical operations, and many other
scientific experiments and procedures that you will be well
familiar with. Under his instruction, they built cities and the
infrastructure that goes with them. He learned how to make an
internal combustion engine and the jet engines that are used to fly
our aircraft. He even oversaw the building of a space rocket that
took the first Ziemians to the larger of the two moons. Ben
Franklin was my father.”

“What about
this city, Washington. It is named after the capital city of a
former nation on Earth called the United States, is it not?”

“Yes, KEO 3
gave us a detailed plan of the city of Washington and many images
of its buildings and geographical features. We built this city to
exactly the same specifications as the original city.”

“Why?”

“Why not? KEO
3 provided us with the blueprint for civilisation. We had no reason
to omit any of the information it taught us.”

“Even to the
extent of naming yourself after the fifty fifth president of the
United States? Why are you not called Franklin like your
father?”

“Franklin was
not his real name. He was the son of Mammula, a Prehistoric, and
his father gave him a customary name. I also have another name, but
I choose not to use it any more. The name Piotr Wojciech Kowalski
has a certain ring to it, don’t you agree? I am honoured to have
taken on the identity of this illustrious man from Earth’s history.
I am now president of this part of Ziemia, which we also call the
United States.”