Hub - Issue 24 by Ian McHugh / Steve Cooper

Author:Ian McHugh / Steve Cooper
Format: epub

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Tidbinbilla.

A second later, with Major Shun's demise still playing on the monitor screens, the alien appeared in the Tidbinbilla control centre. It landed on the pair of technicians seated at the primary communications console and consumed them as it had Shun.

Civilian operators surged away from the intruder, as though propelled by a shockwave. The Chinese military crew stayed at their posts, staring hopefully at their commander. The man seemed petrified.

Hird shouted in Mandarin, "Kwai! Kwai!" Flee! Flee!

"Kwai! Kwai!" the alien repeated.

That was good enough for most of the PLA technicians.

The alien discarded its victims. It drifted sideways, seeming uncertain who to attack next. Terror launched Kevin into action. He ran forward, arms upraised.

"Stop! Wait!" he shouted. "You're killing people!"

"Stop. Wait," the alien repeated, and stopped.

"Killing," it said.

No-one moved, the alien's flame flickered silently. Kevin's brain caught up with what he'd done. His heart hammered so fast against his ribs he half expected to have an attack.

He heard Peters whisper, "Jesus, it's the goddamn burning bush."

"This is the source of the communication?" said the alien, simultaneously in flawless English and Mandarin.

No-one else spoke, so after a moment Kevin said hoarsely, "Yes."

"Why are you using such a crude form of communication now?"

"Mr Mackay," hissed Peters, "let us handle..."

"Peters, back off," Hird said, equally quietly.

Kevin could feel his pulse throbbing in every part of his body. "The communication we sent isn't ours," he said. "It's the song of a whale."

"Whale?"

"Yes..." His mind blanked for a moment, overwhelmed by the problem of where to even begin an explanation. "Whales are marine creatures of..."

The alien cut him off. "The requisite knowledge has been acquired."

It drifted towards the roof.

"Wait!" Kevin cried again. The alien paused. "What will you do with the whales?"

"They will be offered the opportunity to assimilate."

"I don't understand."

"That is true." It started to rise again.

"No! Stop, please. The prions - the whale communications - they're in us. They're killing us."

"How did this come to be?"

"Whaling practices of the past..."

"Whaling?"

Kevin closed his eyes, feeling tears threaten. "The hunting and killing of whales..."

"The requisite knowledge has been acquired."

"Will you help us?" he asked.

"No. You will learn, or not."

"Please..." Kevin trailed off, at a loss for the second time in as many minutes. What could he possibly say to plead with this being?

Peters jostled past him. "That's it? That's all you have to say to us?"

"You are presently of no interest. However, it is not desirable that your species expand beyond this world. All activity beyond this planet's atmosphere will cease immediately."

"Who are you to tell us what we can and can't do?" Peters demanded, but the alien was already gone.

Kevin had a sick feeling in his belly. "Contact the lunar mission," he said.

Hird repeated the instruction in Mandarin. She translated the PLA technician's response a moment later. "We've lost contact with the taikonauts."

Another technician remembered his English and added, "We have lost all satellite communication."

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