Earth
2017
Despite being the only alien in the history of earth to arrive on the planet–as far as she knew at least–Rory did not feel special enough to meet the president.
Bizarre, honestly. What did the president of some foreign country in an unknown world matter to her?
It could have been her picking up on Theo's nerves. He hadn't been allowed into the room where the video call would take place. In fact, General Price was the only one to join her. But Theo had been buzzing with excitement and worry this morning when he stopped by to take a thirty minute EEG recording. Just business as usual. He'd been thrilled about the opportunity to see how her brain waves looked when she was faced with a new situation of such great importance.
As Rory clasped her hands tightly together under the table, her body felt far away and out of reach, even as she could feel her own skin against the tips of her fingers.
"Several more generals and advisors will meet with us shortly." General Price turned his head to look at her fully. "No matter what happens, you must tell them that you're going to deny Dr. Johanson's allegations in the interview."
"I already–"
"You're going to tell them that, Rory. You're going to be convincing."
The tone of his voice chilled her. "What happens when they find out I'm lying?"
"The president takes care of those who put this country first. I told him I believed you wanted to do that. While we're talking, if he says that the United States owes you a debt of gratitude for your willing participation in our studies, then it means you have his approval."
Her heart slowed. "To do what?"
"To do what you know is right. What you want to do." General Price leaned in, lips barely moving, as if he was afraid someone might read them. "Tell the truth." He leaned back, voice gravelly. "And tell no one beforehand, or you won't live long enough to make it to the interview."
"Who would get to me if you and the president are on my side?"
"There's always someone to get to you."
"What will they do after?" They could have been sacrificing her. Use her to tell the world a truth no one was ready to hear and then get rid of the problem when they were done with her. Except that they needed more answers from Rory. Letting her die wouldn't make sense. "They can't kill me after."
The slightest hint of a smile tugged his lips.
"It'll confirm my story," she said. "The conspiracy theories will be unmanageable and there will be even more panic because the world will have lost all answers with my death."
"Just watch what you say today."
"If the president doesn't give the message will he allow me to give the interview?"
The general didn't answer her and there was nothing more that needed to be said. No one was going to put her on air, or even in the same room as reporters, unless the president was ready to disclose the truth, because there was no guaranteeing that Rory wouldn't just say it. Or slip up. Or that any number of things could threaten their confidence.
In truth, she wasn't sure she wanted to tell everyone. Things really would change then, in ways she could never predict. But she also believed that everyone deserved to know. It wasn't right to hide a global threat from the world when it would take innovative people from all over the planet to help navigate this impossible situation.
Given the chance, Rory would tell the truth. No matter what it meant.
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Generals and advisors filled her table and that of the president. She could not see them all on the large screen that they all faced, but she knew they were there as the president would frequently confer with them.
The conversation had swept by her so quickly that it felt like a dream. There had been enough of the usual questions, such as what she did and didn't remember, that it helped them overcome the initial tension of the conversation. President Gaiden had surprisingly kind eyes that conflicted in a powerful way with his deep and authoritative voice. It gave him the edge of appearing both compassionate and powerful. Rory had learned about this man quite a bit during her time here. That he grew up in North Dakota, that he was the first openly gay president, and that quite a few members of congress wanted to impeach him for reasons one side said were totally justified and the other claimed were ridiculous.
"I'm very curious to hear what your thoughts are on why you're here on Earth," the president said.
"I wish I knew, Mr. President."
"Surely, you have some theories."
Rory had to hold back a chuckle. "I'm afraid there's no room in my mind for theories when our leading scientist has so many of his own. My thoughts are filled with his reasonings when it comes to theories, sir."
The president looked intrigued. "Mine are as well, only with my people. We've been working in two separate teams on this issue to see what conclusions each can draw. They explain it to me like a double blind trial, only they say that's not it at all. I think my advisors think I'm too stupid to understand such things." He chuckled. "Our teams are set to confer soon to share their findings." He watched her. "But you have me curious."
"I think we're all feeling very curious," she said.
"I would like to meet this scientist." He leaned back and looked around. "It's only a week early. Does anyone have any real objection? I need to hear his thoughts before we make important decisions today."
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Rory could not hear what anyone said, but after a full minute of the president looking around the room while people must have been talking, finally, he shook his head.
"We're doing it. Enough." He nodded at General Price. "Can you please bring him in? We'll have him leave once we're ready to discuss other business."
A surprise meeting with the president was likely to go over wonderfully with Theo. Rory had to hold back a snort. He was filled with so much energy just about her meeting with the president. The man might explode on his way into the room.
Within minutes, a tense looking Theo entered. He smiled and dipped his head slightly. "Mr. President. Generals, advisors." His eyes found hers. "Rory."
Her chest tightened.
As he took his seat, the president began explaining the reason Theo had been asked to join them.
"I want to know about your theories, essentially." The president's eyes looked sharp. "Do you think she's an alien or something else?"
"She may not be alien, Mr. President. There are many theories and some honestly require fewer leaps of imagination than that Rory came from another solar system to our planet. That kind of interstellar travel–"
"I know there are many theories, doctor. Trust me that I've heard them all, no matter how outlandish. I want to know what you think. Not what is most likely or what the evidence supports. What does your gut say? You know Rory the best."
Rory could tell that Theo was nervous, but unlike when anger or sadness took over his control, he smoothed out the wrinkles of his anxiety well. His career likely had required that he learn to hide this much. He considered for several seconds and then met the president's eyes over the screen, voice steady. "Are you familiar with the Galapagos Islands, Mr. President?"
"Yes. It has to do with Darwin, correct? The islands where different species of finches evolved."
"Well, the differences between Rory's race and ours are similar to the finches on the Galapagos islands, only at a much greater scale."
One of the president's advisors leaned forward for clarification. "In that we evolved different traits due to different environments?"
"We're the same." Excitement crept into Theo's voice and smile. "It's as if she's Homo neanderthal and we're Homo sapiens. Only she's a species we've never seen before. But we're both human."
Unsettled quiet brought a chill to the air.
"I know time travel might be favored by some scientists. Or some form of inter-dimensional travel. I do consider these. I consider many theories. We need to study the issue further. However, based on the level of similarity, I prefer extraterrestrial origins."
The president looked to Rory now and back to Theo. "I take that very seriously. Thank you for explaining." A woman beside the president, one of his advisors, leaned in to whisper. The president nodded and then she spoke.
"I have questions." The same advisor asked. "There's a great deal you have left unsaid as to why that's your theory. I can only assume that you believe if time travel explained her presence, then she would be more advanced than we are in someway. Perhaps with cybernetic adaptations."
"It's not simply that," Theo interjected. "The differences in our traits make sense to me when I consider two Homo species evolving in slightly different environments. It does not make sense to me when I consider a Homo Sapien continuing to evolve in the future. That is why I believe we evolved from a common ancestor in different, but very similar, environments."
"So, what is your hypothesis as for why our evolutionary paths are strikingly similar?
Theo breathed in deeply and glanced to Rory. In that moment, she realized he was looking to her for encouragement, or confidence, and that she truly was not a lab rat to him. He was actually becoming a friend. Warmth sprouted in her middle and unwound the tension in her muscles.
"Panspermia," Theo said. "We were seeded by the same type of organic material. Do you know that paper from 2016? The one that said the Cambrian Explosion was from alien organic material seeded on earth. A comet crashed into earth, causing the mass extinctions, and new life was seeded from the comet."
"That does not fully explain the similarities," the advisor said with a note of skepticism. "The simple fact that she can breathe our air and has not yet succumbed to the bacteria and viruses on our planet, pathogens she should have no immunity to, calls into question how our biology is so uncanny. You also must be considering guided evolution."
Theo's lips tightened. Clear discomfort filled him as he breathed in deeply and nodded. "Yes. One explanation is that our parent species had guided evolution on both planets so that we are similar."
"Which is not an accident." The advisor looked around to people who were off camera and then back to the president, as if only talking to him now. "If it was on purpose, if her world and our world share parents, and suddenly she's here–with no memory–what does that mean for national security? Mr. President, this is the question we must be asking."
"Why would they do it?" The president asked quietly. And quiet all remained. The question must have been echoing through everyone's mind like it did Rory's.
"Can I speak?" Rory asked without raising her eyes to look at anyone else.
"Please do," the president said.
"It's not accurate to say that I have no memories. I have procedural memories and knowledge. Theo–I mean, Dr. Straide–is currently mapping my memory to identify all the different types of memories I have retained and the extent of my deficits in each." She looked up at the president now. "It strikes me that I'm familiar with the subject, as I am with many issues of medicine and biology. Something else that strikes is one point we haven't discussed, but that I know to be true. It is a very unusual amnesia I experience. I do well to manage my mental state and my emotions, but I am human, and I am given to denial when faced with such an unimaginable scenario. To be here on a planet that is alien to me, with no one, and nothing. Not even my own self." Her eyes turned to Theo now. "There cannot be a single case of amnesia like mine in medical history."
The look on his face, the worry about what she was saying, the mix of protectiveness and fearful curiosity–it confirmed that Rory was on the right path.
"Mr. President," she raised her chin and met his eyes. "If I am extraterrestrial, then the civilization which seeded our planets and guided our evolution is so far beyond our level of technological advancement that we likely cannot comprehend what they are capable of. My amnesia is no more an accident than the fact that we are such close evolutionary siblings." Her own words hollowed out the pit of her stomach in deep fear. "They don't want me to remember. And they must know I'm here."
They.
The unnamed and unfathomable presence that loomed over them all. One that may not even exist, but felt like an inevitable disaster. Like the end of days.
Theo lowered his head. With all the time he'd spent studying her, these were questions he'd surely thought to ask before she had been willing to even ask them to herself. Sitting here with these important world leaders, the danger that the earth faced pressed against Rory with enough pressure to make her vanish entirely, so what she wanted and what she needed couldn't possibly matter. Not as she considered the fate of an entire planet.
"I…" She swallowed hard. Her heart began to pound. "I've realized something since arriving on earth. Something I've been too afraid to say." Rory could feel General Price staring her down. "I know how to use guns. Your guns. I know how to use every gun that I've seen since coming to earth. They are intimately familiar to me."
Across the table, Theo lowered his head and closed his eyes.
The President of the United States looked as if carved from stone as he stared at Rory. "And why do you think someone would have trained you on how to use our weapons?"
It was the question which had haunted Rory every moment of every day since her awakening in the desert.
Uttered aloud now by the most powerful man in the world, all eyes turned to Rory, as a potent mix of expectant and fearful panic turned to lead in the air.