Robert Sawyer - Illegal Alien

The alien ship simply orbited Earth for two days, but finally a small translucent sphere bubbled up out of its surface, then separated from it.

The sphere simply dropped to the Earth at a speed of about five hundred kilometers an hour—fast, but not nearly fast enough to make for a fiery passage through the atmosphere. It slowed when it was about three kilometers up, and settled gently as a feather in the United Nations plaza, next to one of the Tosok landers; Hask and Seltar spent much time at the UN these days. Whether the new arrivals were aware of the significance of the UN, or had simply located the Tosok lander with some sort of scanner, no one could say for sure.

UN and U.S. troops were waiting for the spherical craft. Tanks and bazookas were trained on it. It was unlikely that either could destroy the ship, but if more Tosoks came out, Earth would not go down without a fight.

The current U.S. president was in the underground command center in Virginia, built for use in case of nuclear war. Frank Nobilio was with him.

They were in contact with the troops in New York via communications satellite, and were watching the live video feed being provided by CNN.

The alien ship was on the ground for about ten minutes before a door materialized in its side. One second, the curving wall was absolutely smooth; the next, a square hatch had appeared in it. The hatch dropped open, its curving doorway forming a ramp. The picture went wild for a moment as CNN’s camera operator tried to get a close-up of whatever was in the chamber.

It was not a Tosok.

The creature stood about 1.2 meters tall. It had radial symmetry, like a starfish. Six legs dropped down to the ground. Interspersed between them were six arms or tentacles that, incredibly, were lifted up above the creature’s torso, as if in surrender.

“Is that a lifeform?” said the president. “Or could it be a robot?”

Frank was science advisor to this president, as he had been to his predecessor. The camera operator was several hundred feet away, and every small jiggle of his equipment caused the zoomed-in image to bounce wildly. Frank nodded at the president. “It does look metallic…”

The thing stepped forward, onto the ramp. CNN cut for a second to a shot of the troops. Every weapon was trained on the starfish. It started down the ramp. Frank peered at the screen some more. “No—no, it’s not a robot. It’s wearing a space suit. See?” He pointed at the creature’s legs. Strapped to each one was a thin cylinder, presumably containing whatever gases the creature breathed.

“But Tosoks can breath Earth air…” said the president.

Frank nodded. “Meaning not only is that not a Tosok, it’s not even from the same planet…”

“Why are its arms up in the air like that?”

Frank shrugged. “To show it’s not carrying any weapons?” A pause. “Mr. President, if it’s not a Tosok, and it’s not armed, you should get the troops to stand down.”

The president looked at one of the generals seated near him. “We still don’t know what it is,” said the soldier.

“For God’s sake, Karl,” said Frank to the general, “you saw its mothership—if it wanted to kill us, it could have done so from orbit.”

The president spoke into a telephone handset. “It’s our recommendation to the UN commander that the military forces assume an at-ease posture.”

The alien continued to move forward.

“Frank,” said the president. “We need to talk to that thing. Can we communicate with it the way we did with the Tosoks?”

Frank shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, eventually, sure, at least about some basic math and science, but—” His eyebrows went up. “It may not be a Tosok, but I bet it knows how to speak the Tosok language. After all, it presumably came in response to Kelkad’s message.”

“So?”

“So send Hask out to greet it.”

On second thought, it was deemed better to send a human out to make first contact. There were those who still didn’t trust Hask or Seltar, and the two Tosoks might also be in danger from this new alien: they were, after all, traitors to their own people.

Since Frank Nobilio was the only living person with direct experience at first contact, the job fell to him. He was flown from the Virginia command center to the UN aboard a two-seater Marine Corps Harrier TAV-8B VTOL jet, dispatched from a training squadron at Cherry Point, North Carolina.

Once he’d arrived in New York, Hask and Seltar greeted Frank in an office inside the looming monolith of the Secretariat building.

“It is good to see you, friend Frank,” said Hask.

“You, too,” said Frank. “You recognize that ship?” The alien vessel was visible through the mirrored office window.

“No,” said Hask. “But that is meaningless. So much may have changed in the intervening centuries since our departure.” The male Tosok’s tuft waved. “Whatever happens now, Frank—to you, and to your world—I thank you for your previous help, and ask you to remember that humanity had at least a few friends beyond this planet.”

Frank nodded. “I will.”

Seltar raised her front hand, bringing it tentatively toward Frank’s head.

“May I?” she said.

Frank was momentarily taken aback, but then paused and smiled. Seltar’s four flat-tipped fingers tousled Frank’s hair, which was now mostly gray.

When she was done, Frank used his right hand to briefly stroke Seltar’s tuft, and then, in a move that clearly surprised the male Tosok, he reached over and mussed Hask’s tuft as well.

“I have to go,” said Frank. “Can’t keep our new visitors waiting.”

Hask took his portable computer, with its cross-shaped keypad, from its pouch on his tunic and handed it to Frank. Frank took the elevator down to the ground floor and walked slowly across the United Nations parking lot, toward the spherical ship. The twelve-limbed alien had retreated into its lander some time ago. Frank was afraid he was going to have to go right up to the landing craft and knock on its hull, but when he got within about fifteen meters of the lander, the door appeared again and the alien—or another one just like it—came out.

Frank held up the portable computer, hoping the alien would recognize it, and know what to do with it. It was a gamble: Frank certainly wouldn’t recognize a specialized Italian farm implement from A.D. 1800, let alone one from a culture that wasn’t his own; there was no real reason to think that the newcomer would recognize a two-century-old Tosok computer.

The alien reached out with one of its long arms—from the way it moved, it appeared to be jointed every twenty-five centimeters or so, rather than being a tentacle of pure muscle. Frank took a deep breath and continued to close the distance between them. The alien was indeed wearing some sort of space suit, made of a silvery fabric. There was a clear strip, though, near where each leg joined the torso, and through it Frank could see the creature’s real skin, a scaly yellowish gold. The clear strips were meant to allow the alien’s eyes to peer out—Frank could see two oval-shaped eyes, one atop the other, on each leg. The eyes had lids that closed from left to right, but no two eyes on the same leg ever seemed to shut simultaneously. The tanks of gas on the legs joined directly to the suit at the base of each leg; presumably that’s where the creature’s six breathing orifices were located.

Frank continued to hold the computer out in front of him. Because of the alien’s short height, he could look right down on it from above.

It really did seem to be perfectly radially symmetrical; if it had a preferred front side, Frank could see no indication of it. One of the six arms reached out to Frank. Although its tip was gloved in the same silvery material, Frank could see that it was bifurcated. The two branches easily plucked the computer from Frank’s hand. The suit had been warm to the touch; it was radiating excess heat—the alien perhaps came from a cooler world than this one.