Chapter I - Choice

Be introduced into the story under the perspective of Aaron Robin, our male protagonist, until something happens at the end.

Chapter I

 

(AARON ROBIN)

“But we are very sure of this: We are not alone.”

Sir Zoude, the president of International Aerospace Corporation, confidently goes on and on saying more stuff about possible species unique from us in outer space and then stuff like a possible alien invasion.

Well, it’s already happening. There Awere countable attacks that happened over the years. And yes, those aliens are the attackers. The most famous incident was, according to the books and veterans from the incident, was one that happened twenty-four years ago, famed as “The Great Genocide” which really took a great toll of life from Earth. But it was worse than a genocide. Even those who only got abducted had to be considered dead. Nobody could go after them back then.

My father was one of those abducted. And I didn’t even get the chance to know him since I was just born that time.

“Of the three long-term manned space explorations launched eight years ago, only one successfully returned last year, captained by Miss Alanita Rosalinda Powers. She and her mates are currently undergoing therapy due to the trauma and inclusion that they had experienced onboard Magenta, their ship and space station, for many years. To stress on the details, Miss Alanita have brought us interesting, but �"” �" there he goes with his iconic stress/emphasizing gesture �" “also terrifying news.”

Sir Zoude then allows a short break. The crowd falls into turbulence, but all of us here are professionals so we know how to deal with our feelings. We should always set aside our emotions and let our brains work instead as long as we are concerned in our field.

          “After the mission of the unmanned spacecraft Dawn with the mission to study the surface of the dwarf planet, Ceres, which started on early 2015, Miss Powers and her team set out on a second mission to study its biological aspects. Speculations that life may exist there due to the presence of water ice have been confirmed because they also noticed a force field which later turned out to be a simulated atmosphere specially designed for foreign inhabitants. The interesting part is, these inhabitants seem to be far ahead of us in the aspect of technology. Miss Powers named them the Gynods. They have evolved into a stable civilization and their numbers are growing on the planet. The terrifying part is, they seem to be developing directed-energy weapons which utilize raw dark energy as a physical energy and makes up a perfect weapon of mass destruction. And what’s even terrifying is, they have used some of these on their siege on Earth twenty-four years ago.”

          And the crowd goes on a turbulent murmur. And then Sir Zoude continues his speech.

          “And the worst part is,” he says after the crowd settles. “The only three attacks since the great genocide have left coded messages through landmark, through number of killed and abducted, and through time messages.”

          “The first attack since the great genocide was very unique. It left a great perfect-shaped semispherical depression on Atacama Desert, the driest and most rocky place on Earth. The message was decoded as ‘EARTH’.”

          “The second was the most memorable and most unique among the three historic attacks. They abducted one person and killed only five persons. Analyzing numbers, we decoded ‘15’.”

          “And the third was the least unique among them. They appeared for exactly one hour, disappeared for exactly one hour, then reappeared the next hour, and so on until the twenty-fourth hour. We decoded the message as ‘HOURS’.”

          “Arranging the three decoded messages in order, we get the ‘EARTH 15 HOURS” but nothing happened within 15 hours after decoding, so as 15 days after, 15 weeks after and 15 months after. Something might happen 15 years later, but there are just too many uncertainties to keep on speculating. And we must do something. But if you read the statement as words and translate 15 into letters, it would be sound like ‘EARTH IS OURS’.” That’s our decoded message. And it’s very connected to their attacks. We are doomed, and there will be a Gynod invasion very soon.” And the crowd goes wild.

          We are under siege.

          “Easy, easy folks.” He says to ease the tension. “Settle down everyone. Let us not be alarmed! We have actually found a solution to this problem.”

          And the arm chair that my good arm has been resting on for hours ejects something. Oh, a touch-screen panel.

          “Below your armchair is our solution. We only need you to click yes or no to be able to consider those who agree and those who don’t agree to our strategy.” And I look down.

 

          A massive exodus to Mars bringing only scientists, a million males and a million females to allow humanity to survive and evolve in a different world. Do you agree with this resort?

          ( ) Yes           (  ) No

 

          The crowd was silent at first, maybe thinking deeply. But later noise starts to increase as one another begins to discuss and argue. I look towards Sir Zoude. And behind him is a big screen now flashing two columns, YES on the left and NO on the right.

“Unless you want to fight those Gynods head-on, then you will have no other choice right?” He says with a sly smile. Weird. “Or if you have other options to suggest, we are very open. We are also working hard in order to keep humanity living as a race.”

And my eyebrows meet. What a stupid decision! Is he not human? If ever we will leave Earth, what about those who are to be left behind? Is he plain crazy? There are BILLIONS of people in the world and he’s just going to save a mere fraction of us!

I immediately click NO. And my name flashes on the big screen under the column.

1.     AARON ROBIN

I then look at Sir Zoude to see his reaction, and he frowns.

Sorry sir, we are in the same company, but I just knew about this and I find this as a great cowardice.

Next comes three people under my name.

2.    FATIMA CONNOR

3.    JOHN DAVID

4.    CALVIN LEWIS

And then more names disagreed. At least I’m not alone. I look at Sir Zoude again to see his even worsened reaction. I feel bad about this.

But there was one who clicked YES.

1.     ANNA VALKYRIE

And then there are then more names who joined the yes list. Now I really think they are heartless. If they’re not they must have no families or at least loved ones to start with, especially this Anna Valkyrie. Suits her name. Valkyrie as in “chooser of the slain.”

          “Well folks, seems like most of you do not agree to the solution. But we sure do hope you will reconsider by the next time we conduct this poll. With this we conclude our convention and mark the 24^th anniversary of the Great Genocide. Thank you so much for coming to the International Convention of Astronomical Scientists.”

          After that dismissal, I walk through the starry skies towards a nearby waiting shade. And I notice three big men coming towards me.

   I ignore them first, but I just find myself being hit by a very hard object as I pass out.