are smarter than the chimps. And the Incoming are smarter again.”
Edith turned to face the sky, the
brilliant spark of Venus. “But you say the scientists still believe all this
chatter is just - what was your word?”
“Leakage. Edith, the Incoming and
the Venusians aren’t speaking to us. They aren’t even speaking to each other.
What we’re observing is a kind of internal dialogue, in each case. The two are
talking to themselves, not each other. One theorist briefed the PM that perhaps
both these entities are more like hives than human communities.”
“Hives?” She looked troubled. “Hives
are different . They can be purposeful, but they don’t
have consciousness as we have it. They aren’t finite as we are; their edges are
much more blurred. They aren’t even mortal; individuals can die, but the hives
live on.”
“I wonder what their theology
will be, then.”
“It’s all so strange. These
aliens just don’t fit any category we expected, or even that we share. Not
mortal, not communicative - and not interested in us. What do they want ? What can they want?” Her
tone wasn’t like her; she sounded bewildered to be facing open questions,
rather than exhilarated as usual.
I tried to reassure her. “Maybe
your signal will provoke some answers.”
She checked her watch, and looked
up again towards Venus. “Well, we’ve only got five minutes to wait before -”
Her eyes widened, and she fell silent.
I turned to look the way she was,
to the east.
Venus was flaring. Sputtering
like a dying candle.
People started to react. They
shouted, pointed, or they just stood there, staring, as I did. I couldn’t move.
I felt a deep, awed fear. Then people called, pointing at the big screen in the
visitors’ centre, where, it seemed, the space telescopes were returning a very
strange set of images indeed.
Edith’s hand crept into mine.
Suddenly I was very glad I hadn’t brought my kids that day.
I heard angrier shouting, and a
police siren, and I smelled burning.
Once I’d finished making my
police statement I went back to the hotel in Helston, where Meryl was angry and
relieved to see me, and the kids bewildered and vaguely frightened. I couldn’t
believe that after all that had happened - the strange events at Venus, the
assaults by Shouters on messagers and vice versa, the arson, Edith’s injury,
the police crackdown - it was not yet eleven in the morning.
That same day I took the family
back to London, and called in at work. Then, three days after the incident, I
got away again and commandeered a ministry car and driver to take me back to
Cornwall.
Edith was out of intensive care,
but she’d been kept in the hospital at Truro. She had a TV stand before her
face, the screen dark. I carefully kissed her on the unburnt side of her face,
and sat down, handing over books, newspapers and flowers. “Thought you might be
bored.”
“You never were any good with the
sick, were you, Tobe?”
“Sorry.” I opened up one of the
newspapers. “But there’s some good news. They caught the arsonists.”
She grunted, her distorted mouth
barely opening. “So what? It doesn’t matter who they were. Messagers and
Shouters have been at each others’ throats all over the world. People like that
are interchangeable... But did we all have to behave so badly? I mean, they
even wrecked Arthur.”
“And he was Grade II listed!”
She laughed, then regretted it,
for she winced with the pain. “But why shouldn’t we smash everything up down
here? After all, that’s all they seem to be interested in up there . The Incoming assaulted Venus, and the Venusians
struck back. We all saw it, live on TV - it was nothing more than War of the Worlds .” She sounded disappointed. “These
creatures are our superiors, Toby. All your signal analysis stuff proved it.
And yet they haven’t transcended war and destruction.”
“But we learned so much.” I had a
small briefcase which I opened now, and pulled out
Edith turned to face the sky, the
brilliant spark of Venus. “But you say the scientists still believe all this
chatter is just - what was your word?”
“Leakage. Edith, the Incoming and
the Venusians aren’t speaking to us. They aren’t even speaking to each other.
What we’re observing is a kind of internal dialogue, in each case. The two are
talking to themselves, not each other. One theorist briefed the PM that perhaps
both these entities are more like hives than human communities.”
“Hives?” She looked troubled. “Hives
are different . They can be purposeful, but they don’t
have consciousness as we have it. They aren’t finite as we are; their edges are
much more blurred. They aren’t even mortal; individuals can die, but the hives
live on.”
“I wonder what their theology
will be, then.”
“It’s all so strange. These
aliens just don’t fit any category we expected, or even that we share. Not
mortal, not communicative - and not interested in us. What do they want ? What can they want?” Her
tone wasn’t like her; she sounded bewildered to be facing open questions,
rather than exhilarated as usual.
I tried to reassure her. “Maybe
your signal will provoke some answers.”
She checked her watch, and looked
up again towards Venus. “Well, we’ve only got five minutes to wait before -”
Her eyes widened, and she fell silent.
I turned to look the way she was,
to the east.
Venus was flaring. Sputtering
like a dying candle.
People started to react. They
shouted, pointed, or they just stood there, staring, as I did. I couldn’t move.
I felt a deep, awed fear. Then people called, pointing at the big screen in the
visitors’ centre, where, it seemed, the space telescopes were returning a very
strange set of images indeed.
Edith’s hand crept into mine.
Suddenly I was very glad I hadn’t brought my kids that day.
I heard angrier shouting, and a
police siren, and I smelled burning.
Once I’d finished making my
police statement I went back to the hotel in Helston, where Meryl was angry and
relieved to see me, and the kids bewildered and vaguely frightened. I couldn’t
believe that after all that had happened - the strange events at Venus, the
assaults by Shouters on messagers and vice versa, the arson, Edith’s injury,
the police crackdown - it was not yet eleven in the morning.
That same day I took the family
back to London, and called in at work. Then, three days after the incident, I
got away again and commandeered a ministry car and driver to take me back to
Cornwall.
Edith was out of intensive care,
but she’d been kept in the hospital at Truro. She had a TV stand before her
face, the screen dark. I carefully kissed her on the unburnt side of her face,
and sat down, handing over books, newspapers and flowers. “Thought you might be
bored.”
“You never were any good with the
sick, were you, Tobe?”
“Sorry.” I opened up one of the
newspapers. “But there’s some good news. They caught the arsonists.”
She grunted, her distorted mouth
barely opening. “So what? It doesn’t matter who they were. Messagers and
Shouters have been at each others’ throats all over the world. People like that
are interchangeable... But did we all have to behave so badly? I mean, they
even wrecked Arthur.”
“And he was Grade II listed!”
She laughed, then regretted it,
for she winced with the pain. “But why shouldn’t we smash everything up down
here? After all, that’s all they seem to be interested in up there . The Incoming assaulted Venus, and the Venusians
struck back. We all saw it, live on TV - it was nothing more than War of the Worlds .” She sounded disappointed. “These
creatures are our superiors, Toby. All your signal analysis stuff proved it.
And yet they haven’t transcended war and destruction.”
“But we learned so much.” I had a
small briefcase which I opened now, and pulled out
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