The Gift (13 page)

“Well, Angela it would appear you are vindicated,” Camilla said as she took a seat at one of the chairs surrounding the conference table, looking around as she did so. “It also appears this operation is going to become significantly less scientific soon.”

Web ignored her latter remark and focused on her former. “We do have irrefutable confirmation that the objects can communicate, but it does not appear they are doing so in the manner in which Angela relayed to us earlier.”

“No, Sir. This is nothing like what I experienced, but both objects did respond when we spoke to them. Shall we begin asking them the questions we prepared?” Angela asked.

“Not yet, first find out why they’ll communicate now when they wouldn’t before,” Web directed.

Angela took the lead. “Why will you talk to me now and not earlier when I was touching you?”

“I did not exist until you picked me up,” her gift answered.

“What do you mean you did not exist? You were stacked in formation with many others like you.” Angela asked.

“The physical form you are holding existed. I did not exist until you lifted me out of the formation.”

“Ask them why they are here,” Jack prompted.

Looking to Web for approval before proceeding and receiving a nod in response, Angela did exactly that, “Why are you here?”

“I am a guide to your gift.”

Angela started to ask another question, but was stopped by a raised hand from Web. “AJ, ask the same question.”

AJ did so and received exactly the same response.

Questions about where they had come from and why the Earth had been selected were also met with matching answers from each of the gift. In every case, the answer was the same, “I don’t have access to that information.”

After receiving the same answer to what had been deemed to be the most pressing questions, Chang suggested asking the gifts what information they did have access to.

Once again, each gift provided an identical response. “You have received a gift. The gift is intended to help you. You may accept it or reject it. If you reject it, our conversation will be completed. If you accept it, you will be changed, as will your gift. The change to you will be minor and can be undone. The change to your gift will be substantial and irrevocable. It will become yours and yours alone.”

“It would appear these gifts are specific to the recipient,” Rui observed.

“How will I change if I accept the gift?” AJ asked without waiting for a team consensus on how to proceed.

“You will be given the ability to communicate with your gift,” his gift replied.

“Aren’t I communicating with my gift right now?” AJ continued.

“I am a guide to your gift. I am not your gift. Your gift will become if you accept it,” his gift replied.

At Web’s direction, Angela asked her gift the same questions and received the same responses.

“Where do we go from here?” Camilla asked no one in particular.

“I say we accept it, or at least I accept mine and we see what happens,” Angela responded.

“I agree with the Major, Colonel. Can we forgo the discussions on risk and all the attendant delays before making what is the only practical decision this time? If it’s a matter of risk, I am willing to take it without reservation. This is apparently how they choose to communicate and we must communicate with them if we are to make any progress.” Chang said, looking pointedly at Web.

Before Web could reply, Angela continued to argue her case, “Sir, do you have any doubt that one of the other countries who received gifts will not have already accepted one? It said the change to me would be minor and can be undone. Surely that and the fact that it requires my acceptance demonstrate it’s not hostile.”

“The devil required Faust’s acceptance of his terms as well, Major, if you’ll recall,” Web replied.

“How would we know anything you did after that thing changed you was by choice and not directed by it if you accept its changes?” Jack asked.

“How do any of us know we weren’t already changed by touching a gift earlier, Jack?” Angela asked.

Chang continued his argument, “Colonel, the first time the Major touched the formation, she communicated with an entity far greater than these appear to be. When we rejected that communication, it was lost to us, perhaps forever. We cannot risk losing our ability to communicate with these entities in the same way. This may be the only opportunity we have…”

AJ had been listening to the discussion from his seat next to Angela without participating. He decided to change that. Looking down at the gift in his hand, he said, “I accept.”

Before anyone else in the room could process what he had just done and interfere with her ability to do the same, Angela followed AJ’s lead and quickly said, “I accept.”

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN

Sam walked down the trail toward one of Jim’s favorite fishing spots on the Pueblo Reservoir, southwest of Colorado Springs. It was a beautiful fall morning. The mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees created a view so rich with color it would challenge the best of artists to do it justice. It was particularly pleasant to Sam’s formerly colorblind eyes. He hadn’t known what he’d been missing.

Sam had come there with Jim whenever he could make it and Jim was feeling up to it. That had happened less frequently lately as Jim’s health continued to deteriorate. Sam missed the fishing.
 
More than that, he missed the extended time alone with Jim.

Jim was an expert angler and had taught Sam the contemplative art of fly-fishing shortly after their first meeting at the center. It was on that trip that Sam began to understand the strength Jim harbored in his soul. Sam hadn’t wanted to come and had not expected to enjoy himself. Sara had convinced him to do it for Jim. Little did he know that Jim was actually doing it for him. It wasn’t the last day Sam considered taking his own life, but it was the last day he got drunk with his 9mm in his lap.

“Thanks for meeting me on such short notice, Jim.”

Jim started to respond with his usual levity, but stopped himself when his eyes met Sam’s. It was clear to him that Sam hadn’t asked to meet him for some friendly time together on the river.

Jim set his rod in the holder he’d embedded in the dirt by his folding chair, “What’s going on, Sam?”

When Sam called Jim to ask if he could meet him, he’d kept the conversation light and casual. He wasn’t sure his phone was being monitored, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it was. That was one of the reasons he’d left it at home before heading out to the river. He’d even parked a couple of miles away and walked the remaining distance through a series of trails. He was being as cautious as possible while trying to appear as casual as possible. It was a little disconcerting to him that Jim had seen through him so quickly.

Before answering, Sam unfolded the second chair that Jim had thoughtfully included in his kit for the day and placed it near Jim’s. He set his fishing equipment down next to the chair, extracted his rod and began preparing his hook with some live bait he’d picked up on the way over. When he was satisfied with the job he’d done, he cast his line into the river, downstream of Jim’s and sat down. He kept the rod with him for now. He wanted something to occupy his hands while he spoke.

“I have a very strange story to tell you, Jim. I’ve not told it to anyone yet. You’ll be the first. To be honest with you, I’d have questioned your sanity if you had come to me a week ago and told me what I’m about to tell you. Before I begin, let me tell you that I am breaking a number of laws by talking to you about this. You know I’ve spent my entire adult life defending the laws and constitution of the United States, just as you spent many hard years of your life doing the same. This is bigger than that and I need your help. I need someone I can trust in a fight because if you agree to hear me out and join me, we will have to fight. In fact, it’s a near certainty that we’ll have the biggest fight of either of our lives on our hands.”

Sam paused, waited for Jim’s reaction.

“I’m listening,” Jim said.

“You remember the call I got on Saturday at the center, the one that interrupted our conversation?” Sam asked.

“It was only two days ago, Sam. Don’t ask me about a conversation we had last year, but I can still recall what took place a couple of days ago.”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t feel like two days to me. I think you’ll understand why when I’m done. Anyway, the call was from my boss on base. He was calling me in to work on a problem. Here’s where it starts to get tricky. The government had detected an object approaching the Earth that wasn’t natural. When they attempted to communicate with it, it replied with a continuous stream of data. They wanted me to help them decode the data. I was able to work with the team to do that. We ended up with a computer program that showed the object separating into multiple spheres and landing in 17 countries around the world, including the United States. I don’t know what happened to those objects after that because I was taken off of the team. I wasn’t part of the team in the first place, so that part makes some sense, although it was irritating.
 
Are you with me so far?” Sam asked.

“I hear the words you’re saying.
 
Are you sure it wasn’t some kind of test? You know, to see if you could be trusted. ‘Cause if it was, you’re not doing so well. After all, you never saw the objects land, just a computer program, right? And I haven’t heard anything about this on the news.
 
I’m pretty sure alien landings all over the world would make the news.”

“I don’t know how it’s stayed out of the news so far. I can’t imagine it will for much longer. Anyway, if that was the end of the story, I wouldn’t be talking to you or anyone. I would have kept my mouth shut, like I always have about everything else. No, that’s the beginning of the story.

“I went home late Saturday night, had a pity party and slept in Sunday morning. When I woke, there was a sphere just like the ones shown in the program, only much smaller…” Sam told Jim about meeting the guide and his decision to allow himself to be changed to meet his gift. Jim asked if he could see the gift.

“Well, you can’t see my gift, at least not in the way you mean, but I can show you a gift. In fact, now would be a good time for you to get some proof. The rest of the story gets a bit strange,” Sam replied with a smile. He was starting to relax. He hadn’t been entirely sure that Jim would hear him out. Now that he was, Sam didn’t feel quite so overwhelmed.

Sam pulled the gift Adia had led him to earlier that morning out of his fishing box and handed it to Jim.

“It’s heavy.” Jim said.

“Ask it what it is.” Sam directed.

“What do you mean, ask it?”

“Just ask it what it is. It will tell you, just like mine told me.”

Jim asked the gift and received a standard response from its guide. He was startled, but since he’d been prepared by Sam’s recounting of his experience, not so startled that he dropped the gift. Sam was pleased that Jim was handling it all so well.

“That’s damn weird!” Jim exclaimed.

“I warned you. It’s a strange story, and you’ve yet to hear the strangest parts. That sphere is made up of many, many trillions of tiny machines called nanites. It’s actually a number so high, I don’t have the name for it off the top of my head. They are so small, you’d need a powerful microscope to see one, but each of them can perform tasks. Collectively, they can do amazing things. One of those things is allowing you to talk with your gift without speaking.”

“My gift? Why would I want a gift?”

“It’s your gift if you want it, and I think you will. If you agree to accept the gift, a small number of nanites will be placed inside your body and your gift will become self-aware. It will be part you, but unique. If you decide to go further, as I have done, all of the nanites will become part of you. In addition to many other things, that will heal you, Jim. It will heal you completely and effectively make you young again.”

“You don’t look any different.”

It was true. When Sam first looked in the mirror after the change, he appeared twenty years younger, except for the gray hair which Adia later informed him would grow out blonde again, if he liked. He was also no longer scared. It startled him so badly, he nearly fell, and then he got angry. The scars were there for a reason, and he wanted them back. In fact, he insisted Adia return his appearance to what it had been before the change. She understood his desire to continue to appear as he had in order to operate without suspicion. Sam didn’t explain the rest of his reasons to her.

“My choice. Here, let me show you something.”

Sam walked over to a nearby tree with a sturdy branch growing out about seven feet above the ground. He jumped up and caught the branch in his left hand and began doing one-arm pull-ups. After doing half a dozen, he dropped to the ground, walked back to his chair and again took his seat before continuing, “I couldn’t do that with both hands last time we saw each other. Now, it’s easy, and that doesn’t even begin to describe how good I feel. Adia told me I’d feel better than I ever had. She wasn’t exaggerating. If you decide to accept the gift, you will feel the same, but there is a catch. If you accept the gift, you’ll be joining my team as well, and the challenge before us is enormous.”

“I don’t know, Sam. This is a lot to take in. I need some time to think about what you’ve told me.”

“I can’t explain everything unless you accept the gift, but I don’t have much time to give you. I don’t mean to be blunt, but what do you have to lose? You’re dying. Most of your friends and family are dead. You’re in pain all of the time and your body won’t do half of what you want it to do anymore. I’m offering you a chance to be healthy and whole and much more. I’d forgotten what it was like to have real purpose in life. What we’ll be working toward could save a lot of lives. Don’t you want a chance to make a real difference again?”

“You can be a real ass, you know that?” Jim asked.

“So I’ve been told. Accept the gift, Jim. I need you. I don’t know if we can succeed together, but I know I can’t succeed without you.”