Terry Neale - Jo-el

She’s dragging this out. But what could I do?

“A little more than two million years ago a catastrophe threatened Cirion”

I remembered Ka-el eluding to this, but he didn’t say what it was.

“That same catastrophe is now threatening earth. Your current technology is not advanced enough to prevent it from happening, in fact the technology on Cirion couldn’t prevent it, the action you must take is drastic. We are going to show you how, the same way we solved it, but for us to do that there are changes that must be made on earth. Our concern is that we will be interfering with your scientific discoveries and our desire that you will find a different path and add to human discovery. But we have no choice, without our help you will all die.”

This was getting worse, I’m not sure I truly believed her. She hadn’t told me what the catastrophe was, but I guess that was coming.

“So!” I said, weakly. This felt like the script of a Hollywood movie. Any second the director would shout ‘cut’.

“The charter set up on Cirion for the search and monitoring of other planets precludes interference unless extinction is threatened.”

“Extinction! And I’m it. I’m going to stop this disaster?” Seemed like a lot to ask of one aging, Irish immigrant. “So what is it, what on earth,” I grimaced at that pun, “what is going to cause the destruction of our planet?” Was this for real?

“The original Cirion planet was destroyed by a galactic storm. It was caused by the explosion of a star, millions of light-years away and millions of years previously. The storm grew and eventually hit the planet, wiping it out. The scientists on Cirion recognized what was coming and many of the inhabitants were evacuated to another planet. That new planet is now Cirion. Earth has to do the same, if its people wish to survive.”

Sally stopped talking and sat back in her chair. The bombshell had been dropped. She watched me closely, waiting for my reaction. My mouth opened and shut but I didn’t say anything. I swigged a long gulp from my second beer. My food was half eaten and I didn’t feel hungry anymore.

“When?” I said.

“Seventy to seventy-five years is the best estimate.”

Oh, well! Gosh. I thought it was going to be next week. That won’t make a Hollywood movie. Phew! So, what the hell was I supposed to do? Print up a flyer and zip down to Kinkos. Let’s see, we need to find another planet, that should be a piece of cake. Oh, and just a minor problem we have to fit seven and half billion people onto a space ship. I think I needed a couple more beers, better still, a bottle of Black Label. I didn’t know what to ask her. I wasn’t sure where to begin.

“Why me?” I asked, eventually. “Why did you pick me for this? Why not the US President. He’s considered the leader of the free-world. If what you’re telling me is true and right now that’s a big ‘if’, wouldn’t he be more suited to the role. He could get things done.”

“He’s a politician,” she said. I immediately agreed that was a strike against him. “His mandate is to represent the people of the US. Many of the other countries in your world hate the US, or at best don’t trust them. They wouldn’t believe him out of principal. He’s a good man but it wouldn’t work. The US President is in a goldfish-bowl; he can’t go anywhere or do anything without scrutiny. Can you see that?”

I could, but I still didn’t understand why they picked me. “What about another up and coming leader? Someone not under the microscope?”

“Same problem, plus politicians seek power, that’s what they truly desire. What we are giving you is ultimate power. In the wrong hands it would be a disaster.” For sure I wasn’t interested in power or money. Well, not riches, I enjoyed being well-off. Okay, I’ll go with that.

“I drink a lot,” I said. Was I trying to quit the position before I’d got started? Was I looking for a reason to shed this awful burden. I couldn’t conceive of a solution that made any sense. I looked at Sally, they must have figured out a way. Her blue eyes and perfect skin were so real. I zapped over here in less than a second, I’ve tested the anti-gravity thing. I changed what I look like. It was all a marvel, completely bizarre, yet I’d experienced it.

“You are a most reasonable man, Jo-el. That is paramount. It’s not something that you know how to measure on earth, but on Cirion it is theprime measure for our leaders.” She said, “you don’t drink that much,” she added.

Ka-el had mentioned reasonableness, I’d glossed over it. It was true, I did see both side of issues and I could be swayed. Sally’s compliment made me feel good. But I’d drifted away from the ultimate reason. If what she said was true it was going to take me a while to get used to it. I needed time to think.

“What’s the probability? This can’t be a certainty, surely?” I asked.

“Maybe eighty to eight-five percent.” Sally replied.

“So a twenty percent chance it won’t happen.” Better than nothing, I hung on to that glimmer of good news.

Sally shrugged.

“We should go back to San Francisco,” I said. Maggie is coming for dinner tonight.

I paid the bill and we found a secluded section on the beach not far from where I had arrived and out of sight. I bounced back to my family-room after taking a deep breath, I stumbled again on the landing, I’d have to work on that. I changed back to Dave, my mind spinning in every direction. Seventy years was a long time. I was fifty-seven, I wouldn’t see the end of all this. My head was a little light from the beers so I went upstairs and slept for a while. It was gone four when I went back downstairs and cleared away the container and other packages. There was one package I hadn’t opened a small, rectangular box, smooth edges. I opened it and immediately Sally appeared in her usual spot.

“What are these?” I inquired. The box was filled with orange colored pills, or that’s what they looked like.

“On Cirion they’re called life pills.”

My head raised up and I furnished Sally with a Dave Murphy glare, waiting for further explanation.

“You take two, then one tomorrow, then one two days later and one a week after that. Then you can take one every fifty days.”

“What happens?”

“They will make you feel great; they work by regenerating dying cells. On Cirion everyone starts taking them at about the age of thirty. They will approximately double your life span; it varies from person to person and with three percent of the population they don’t work. We are pretty sure they will work for the humans on earth. Because of your current age they may only add thirty or forty years to your life.”

My skepticism was enormous. Here we go again. I don’t believe and then wham! I’m proved wrong.

“There’s a lot in here?”

“Yes, about five hundred.”

“Why so many?”

“Your family.”

My head swung up and I looked wistfully at Sally. “I’m supposed to tell them about all this?”

“Not now, but there may be a time.”

“Can these be replicated here?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said.

A devilish glee crossed my face, “I could be rich. These would sell better than Viagra.” I looked at her waiting for a response.

She smiled, “a bargaining chip.”

“Huh! For what?”

“You’ll see.”

“You’re not telling me everything, are you?”

“I can’t, we don’t know exactly how things will turn out. We can model the likely outcome but things change and our model will be based on the Cirion experience.”

I was doing the math. Normal lifespan for a man, seventy-five to eighty years, plus forty, a hundred and twenty. I’m fifty-seven now, so that’s another sixty-three. I still wouldn’t be around to see if the galactic storm wipes us out. But my children would be.