E30 Very clever aliens
Always remember, everything is connected. Somebody once said. Who was that somebody? We do not, cannot exist in isolation. That thought appeared persistently in my mind along with a story about Orcas attacking small boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal. Something that had not ever occurred before, that anybody knew of. It was apparently not random and was being undertaken by pods of Orcas, numbering up to 8-10. Several of the boats have been damaged. The reason? We cannot (yet) ask the Orcas why they are behaving this way but Morgan had a simple explanation. The favourite food of Orcas is Tuna and they are skilled at hunting them. Meantime fishermen are systematically over-fishing the Tuna, which fetch a higher price than most other fish. The Orcas are interested observers to this greed and are simply doing what they can to express their unhappiness and protect their food supply.
‘I have swum with Orcas’, she said, almost as an aside, ‘I understand their language. It is surprisingly sophisticated. They are actually as intelligent as humans, possibly more so, in different ways, and they pool their intelligence and knowledge very successfully. They have detailed memory. They are certainly more sensible than humans and they do not kill each other, ever. They are only behaving like this because of a growing sense of desperation.’ She was visible now and clearly upset by the whole thing. ‘There are now only around 50,000 Orcas worldwide, and the number is declining. It is yet another issue related to human over population, the plague. The plague must go. Imagine, we are now 8 billion and the Orcas are barely 50,000. That is obscene.’
I directed myself towards Morgan. ‘What did Merlin mean when he spoke of ‘restoring life on this planet to its original destiny, slowly, eventually.’ What is the original destiny? Where did it go wrong?’
Lumberjacks kill a tree
‘Simple. Organised religion, as it is called. That is where it went wrong. With it came city states, sharp rises in population and loss of contact with the land and other life. We were also guilty but then we realised our mistake and corrected it. Unfortunately for us, soon after that, the Saxons came. Bad news.’
‘The current crisis shows where the balance of nature lies. COVID 19 is another direct result of human over population. Why do you suppose a virus can reduce humanity to such utter chaos? Something we cannot even see. COVID 19 eliminates mostly older people, over 65. 15% of those of that age who contract the disease die. In my time nobody lived that long. Nobody wanted to live that long. Now people of that age cling on desperately for another few days or weeks, with no real quality of life. There is no point and no dignity to that.’
‘I am 76.’
‘Yes and you, unlike most, are well aware of this, hence Meek’s cut-off.’
I could sense her despair.
‘Original destiny?’ I repeated.
‘I repeat what is becoming a mantra for me, actually it has been for a very long time – connectivity. Connectivity brings harmony and sense, both in good measure. You see the world around you differently because you are an integral part of it, not its ruler and destroyer. The balance of nature would not allow a virus to rule the world, or threaten a sentient, highly intelligent creature such as the Orca with extinction. There would be mutual respect. Optimum and sustainable population would be attained. There would be far less humans and more Orcas! The supposedly clever humans, who have never learned to do so, WOULD learn how to manage weather. To curb its destructiveness and use it to convert deserts to a green paradise, not ‘weaponise’ it, as has been suggested within the American military. This new balance would have so many positive effects.’
The passion was electric and the vision mesmerising. For the first time I saw Morgan smile, ‘that is the original destiny.’ She had a most alluring smile. There was suddenly a strange sound, soft and almost musical. A gentle breeze brushed past me and suddenly I was confronted with two personages, the best word I could come up with. Not ‘persons’. I knew immediately that they were the aliens. They had a human form but clearly different. One female, one male. A third ‘person’ joined them, whom I thought was human, a lady. There was a brief but comfortable silence, then smiles.
‘We are pleased to meet you, Alan,’ spoken in clear English with no trace of an accent. ‘For the purpose of our mission we have adopted human form and human names. I am Athena and this is Hermes, my brother. This is our friend Irène.’
“I too am pleased to meet you’, spoken with a very distinctive, soft but sophisticated French accent that I immediately also found strangely alluring. So much allure… I was to learn that she was Swiss, previously an actress. I was also to learn that Irène had a unique ‘gift’ – anything she told you, you would believe unreservedly, even if, normally, you might find it outrageous.
Morgan added, ‘most people have a unique ‘gift’, but most do not know it. Irène smiled. Morgan also smiled, ‘now you have met some more of the team. I shall let them explain their mission.’
‘We know you were discussing tikkun olam, that sums it up nicely.’ Spoken by Athena. ‘We have had ‘dealings’ with what I know you like to call ‘homo fatuus’, for a very long time. You could even say we are responsible for homo fatuus, a term which incidentally, we think is very appropriate. Our mission, task is simple in concept but hugely complex in reality. We have mentioned tikkun olam, and I know you are familiar with that. Basically to put right what we may have done wrong earlier. We shall do this, officially, through the auspices of the United Nations but, because we know that the UN is anything but united and largely ineffective, we shall use other more covert, but effective, organisations.’
Athena added, ‘one of the covert organisations we intend to use is the American National Security Agency and its Russian and Chinese equivalents. We would like you, Alan, to participate.
Interesting, I thought, I imagined a movie version of all of this, for some reason.
Athena continued, ‘as well as NSA and their Chinese and Russian equivalents, a list of what we are calling, politely, recommendations, is in the process of being issued to all members of the United Nations, in the language of the nation involved.
I spoke, ‘where do you come from?’
Athena smiled, ‘Originally from a system you call Capella, but now we are spread from there, but it is still our base. Many millions of years earlier we lived elsewhere, on a planet that was destroyed by a supernova. Only about 100 of our ancestors escaped. We did not then have the capabilities that we now have.’’
Hermes spoke for the first time, ‘we have constructed several large artificial satellites in Capella, used mainly for surveillance and communication these days.’
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence organisation of the United States government, responsible for global monitoring, collection and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.?Nowhere in its modus operandi are aliens mentioned.?Somehow it suddenly found itself taking the lead in this case and things had not gone at all according to plan – the fact is there is no plan.?Now a hurriedly assembled committee of sorts was convening to discuss the ’20 recommendations’ received, apparently, from a ‘bunch’ of aliens.