Greg Krojac - The Schrödinger Enigma

“You are forgiven, Ruth.”

“Thank you, Enak. Your forgiveness is very important to me. And to our Lord.”

Enak’s nodded his acceptance of the apology.

“What I am going to say to you will seem incredible. In fact, you will not want to believe it. It may make you frightened. It should make you frightened. But please do not be scared of me. I am different. It is a long story, but it is important that you know all the facts.

“You can see that I am obviously physically different to you, but yet there are similarities. I am human, but not human like you are. There is a very good reason for this, a reason that will seem both absurd and bizarre to you. You will find it hard to believe, but I assure you that it is true.”

Enak looked around the table. His colleagues’ eyes were all fixed upon the Argon, like cub-scouts gathered around a camp-fire about to hear a ghost story. Enak took a sip of Dr Pepper and continued.

“About forty thousand years ago, you and we – what you like to call Neanderthals – lived side by side. We were subjects of an experiment performed by a far more advanced extra-terrestrial race of beings, the Jah, that involved the manipulation of primate DNA in an effort to create a creature of higher intelligence.”

Samuel was hungry and had already started eating a second bar of chocolate.

“When you say ‘we’ do you mean just your people or ours too?”

“Both species were part of the same experiment.”

Ruth felt that she was beginning to understand.

“So these extra-terrestrials were, in fact, the Lord our God.”

“Your people gave them various names, I believe.”

Sitara interjected.

“Like my god, Allah, who is actually the same god that you worship. Or the Hindu gods, or Zeus, Apollo, Wodin, and so on.”

Enak didn’t want the conversation to drift into a discussion of what god was the best god, or even the true god, or even if gods existed at all.

“Anyway, we Argon were taken off the planet and placed on a different planet many light years away from here. Both humans and Argon continued to develop on their own planets, but we did not fall prey to superstitious beliefs and suffer periods of stagnation. Our technological progress was uninterrupted.”

Sitara was surprised.

“I thought that Neanderthals were supposed to be less intelligent than us, us humans I mean.”

“Yes. I notice that your species has this misconception. When we left the planet, we were probably at a similar level of development. But we are far more advanced than you are now – as you will see. Sitara, you are a scientist, yes?”

Sitara nodded.

“Then I think that you will find what I am about to tell you both fascinating and frightening. Please remember that I am not a threat to you and I could do nothing about what has happened. Sitara, you were one of the first people to encounter the spacecraft that you call Voyager One, yes?”

She responded guardedly.

“Yes, I was.”

“Did it seem odd to you that, at the same time as Voyager One was on Earth, it was also outside your solar system?”

“Of course it did. It’s impossible. We don’t have the technology.”

“But we do.”

“How? How did you do it?”

Jason was more interested in getting to the end of the briefing and didn’t want to get side-tracked by a scientific discussion that would leave him and the other four floundering.

“Perhaps Enak can explain the details to you at another time, Sitara. He has more important things to tell us first.”

Enak nodded.

“Agreed. It is more important that you know why Voyager One returned to Earth, than how. Again, I ask you to not judge me for the actions of my species. I do not agree with their actions.”

Jacob took Ruth’s hand and squeezed it tightly. What he was listening to didn’t tie in with his beliefs, but he found himself engulfed by curiosity. These were most certainly not normal times and he wanted to know everything possible about this new world in which they now found themselves. Enak took another sip of Dr Pepper.

“This drink is very pleasant. I like it.”

He paused before continuing

“Anyway, to us, Voyager One was a container, a vessel to transport a deadly virus to your planet. Our planet has become overcrowded and we need to colonise others. We stumbled upon your space probe and it was like – to use your terminology – a gift. No modifications to the planet would be necessary. The spacecraft Voyager One carried a very primitive disc containing information about your planet, and our historians soon realized that it had originated from the very same planet from which we had been forcibly exiled forty thousand years previously. We knew that the atmosphere and gravity would be acceptable to our bodies.”

Jason needed clarification.

“So what you’re telling us is that this pandemic is an act of biological warfare?”

Enak looked down, his serious face being replaced by one of deep sadness.

“I am ashamed to say that this is true.”

“But why?”

“You were in the way. An inconvenience. [30] why in the way? why wasn’t coexistence considered? The Argon have no desire to share the planet.”

Jason had served in the British military, he was an ex-Parachute Regiment Captain, and was trained in the skills of conventional warfare, but biological warfare was a completely different kettle of fish. Just as conventional warfare uses airstrikes to soften up targets, the invaders had used an organic weapon of mass destruction.

None of the group knew how they should react. They felt anger, a lot of anger, but to rain that anger upon Enak seemed wrong. He had already said that he was different from others of his species, and his actions seemed to support that statement. He hadn’t needed to tell them about this. He could have said nothing and allowed them to walk into danger like lambs to the slaughter. Sitara wanted to know more about the disease.

“How did you know that the disease would work?”

“A stroke of luck, or misfortune, depending upon your viewpoint. There was a small sample of blood embedded on the inside of one of panels of the spacecraft. Add to that, the disc attached to the side of the space vehicle contained two images of your DNA structure. It was a simple task for my people to duplicate the DNA and create a targeted virus in our laboratories.” [31] this still doesn’t explain why the virus is a H1N1 mutant

Samuel wanted to know more.

“If it’s the perfect virus, then why are we alive?”

“Do you know your blood type?

“Yes. B negative. Like the rest of my family.”

“Sitara, what’s yours?”

“B negative.”

“Jason?”

“B negative.”

“There is your answer. The virus is ineffective on people with B negative blood type.”

Jason wondered how the scientists hadn’t come up with the answer before, it didn’t seem that obscure reason for immunity, but the disease had an incubation period of seven days during which both infected and immune showed no symptoms whatsoever. The speed with which the plague had spread, coupled with the collapsing infrastructure, had left research resources severely limited. Identifying enough immunes in time had been impossible, and Sitara had been their best hope. He was becoming impatient for answers to more pressing questions.

“Forget about the blood types. We’re here. We’re alive. That’s what matters. What I want to know is, how many of you are here – and why aren’t you with them?”

“There are several groups of us dispersed all over the world. And, yes. I was a member of one of those groups.”

“So you’re the enemy.”

“I am what you would call a deserter. I am now an enemy of my own people, what you would also call a traitor. But sometimes you have to support the side that is right, not just the side that shares your ethnicity or culture. I may well be seen as being on the wrong side in the eyes of my people, but I am sure that in your history I shall be seen as choosing the right side. And I am content with my decision. I do not believe in what my people are doing. I believe in the concept of what you call humanity. We can find another planet to colonise, another planet that is devoid of intelligent life. Or a planet that can be modified. We have the technology. Taking your planet is simply the easiest way to solve a problem. This planet also seemed more attractive, due to our history, but we do not have to be here. I want to help those of you who are still alive take back your planet, before the main invasion force arrives.”