Eric Brown - The Serene Invasion

Kath laughed. “You’re sharp, Sally Walsh! You’re as sharp as ever.”

“Well then…”

Kath said, “We told you the truth in that the Shell is necessary for the future of the human race, as a place of domicile for an expanding population. But it is something more.”

She touched the softscreen on her forearm, and in the air before them appeared a rectangular image of deep space, flecked with stars, and at its centre a great grey sphere. Towards it moved a hundred dark shapes, slow but relentless.

Sally looked questioningly at her friend.

“Upon sealing the Shell, five years ago,” Kath said, “we effectively prevented the Obterek from subverting the underlying reality maintained within it. The Shell acts as a shield, denying the Obterek access to the solar system. We have done this with many other systems across the universe, and always it is a race against time.”

Sally shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Kath said, “Many decades ago, when they discovered that we were planning to assist the human race, they sent off a war fleet of destroyers from their home-system across the galaxy, in the hope of arriving here before we could install the shield. Their ships are equipped with, for want of a better word, disruptors, weapons which would help the Obterek undermine the charea …” Kath gestured at the screen in the air. “This is not a true representation of the reality out there. In fact, the Obterek ships are many light years distant.”

“And when they arrive here?” Sally asked. “Do you, the Serene, have the means to…” She had been about to say ‘attack,’ but stopped herself.

Kath smiled. “To defend ourselves? The Shell will do that, Sally. We need not respond to their hostile advance with hostility of our own. We are adequately protected within the Shell, and the Obterek will realise this and, in time, after a token attack, will desist and move on.”

She paused before continuing, “And the human race, along with the Serene, will work to expand the charea beyond the confines of the Shell.”

Sally stared at her. “That is possible?”

“Your finest scientists, guided by the Serene, are working on it as we speak,” Kath said. “It is our hope, in a hundred years or two, that we will be able to spread the charea to link other races, across the face of the galaxy.”

Sally smiled at the thought, and realised that tears were rolling down her cheeks. She backhanded them away. “Look at me…”

“I know,” Kath Kemp murmured, “the idea makes me feel like weeping with joy, too.” She touched her softscreen, and the image of the Shell vanished.

Where it had been, across the lawn, Sally made out a hesitant figure, staring at her.

She half stood, unable to believe her eyes, and laughed.

Kath looked at her. “What…?”

“I don’t know if I can take much more of this,” Sally murmured. “Two surprises in one day. Please, excuse me one moment. I’ll be back.”

She stood slowly and made her way across the lawn to where the small, bowed man stood, looking at her with uncertainty and maybe even fear in his eyes.

Sally said, “It is! It is you…”

“I have found you at last, Dr Walsh. It has taken me a long time, but at last I have found you.”

Something caught in her throat, and she shook her head in lieu of words.

She stared at the old man’s face, his hooked nose, his hooded eyes. She would have recognised him even if it had not been for the jagged scar that ran like a wadi from his temple to his jaw.

“I have come to say that I am sorry for what I did thirty years ago, Dr Walsh. I have come to apologise. Perhaps later, on another day, we can talk a little more?”

Sally bowed her head. “I would like that, yes,” she said.

He reached out a tentative hand, and Sally smiled and, slowly, reached out her own hand and gripped his.

“Thank you, Ali al-Hawati…” she murmured, and watched him as he turned and moved slowly through the crowd and left the garden.

When she returned to the bench beneath the cherry tree, Kath Kemp had been joined by Ana and Kapil, Hannah and her husband and Ella.

“Who was that?” Hannah asked.

“Oh,” Sally said, sitting down beside Kath. “Just someone I knew, many, many years ago…”

Sally’s granddaughter tugged at her dress and said, “Nana, why are all these people here?”

Hannah hoisted the three-year-old onto her hip and explained. “We’ve come here to celebrate, darling. You see, ten years ago today, your granddaddy did a very, very brave thing, and today all humanity, across the system, will remember what he did for us.”

“What did granddaddy do, Mummy?”

Hannah jogged her daughter and looked into the sky. “He stopped someone destroying everything that was good,” she said.

“Who did he stop?”

Hannah shook her head. “We don’t know his name, darling, but he was working for the bad aliens, the Obterek.”

Sally smiled and caught the attention of a waiter. When everyone had taken possession of a full champagne glass, Sally looked around at her friends.

Somewhere in the garden, a man was counting down and the guests joined in, chanting, “Ten… nine… eight…”

Sally said, “I would like to propose a toast.” She smiled at Ana Devi, who returned her smile; then she turned to Kath Kemp and said, “To humanity…”

“To humanity,” her friends replied.

And seconds later, high in the sky above them, something exploded like a supernova and bathed the land with light.

Eric Brownis the award-winning author of a huge number of SF novels, such as Helix , Helix Wars , Guardians of the Phoenix , Engineman , and The Kings of Eternity , as well as many children’s books, radio plays articles and reviews.

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