Epilogue

The television display was normal, broadcasting an innocuous program few cared about, but millions were sitting in rapt attention. Warnings had gone out for the past couple days, alerting people that the ‘aliens would finally speak’ as part of the ongoing YouTube video releases. The public was hungry to learn more about what was actually going on, and this was their one chance to finally decide for themselves. The government, despite the widespread rioting in the streets, continued to refuse to comment, terrified of making a terrible situation worse.

People across not just America, but the entire world turned on their TVs, ignoring the channel or content, waiting for the promised program to start. This was a real grass roots effort, as anyone could tune in. Anyone with a radio or TV could participate, regardless of any restrictions imposed by either their governments or the commercial broadcasters. The Washington elite, the New York City or West Coast intellectuals, had to have their kids set their high-def TVs to receive the free broadcast signal. No one was more frustrated than President Atkinson and his staff. For all the sophisticated jamming technology, regulatory and broadcast restrictions, they had no way to prevent the transmission, and there was no way to manipulate it for their own purposes until after everyone had already seen the original.

However, those who were used to watching for free were more familiar with the technology, and many were ready to record whatever was broadcast and post it immediately to the Internet as soon as it completed. By the time the various heads of state figured out how to manipulate the images, the deal would be done. Everyone across the world would already know what had been said. Even if a country shut down the broadcast studios in their country, people could still receive the broadcast just by leaving their TVs turned on. The more repressive countries considered blocking the signal, but they couldn’t block the entire spectrum and they assumed the broadcast would hurt the U.S., not them.

Everyone watching across the globe leaned forward at the same time as the screen flickered, flashes of black and white appearing along the ribbons intersecting the image, and then the entire screen changed. There, on the screen, was a well-built muscular youth looking at his massive audience confidently and proudly. The background was unusual in that it didn’t look like anything the viewers had seen before. It wasn’t really ‘futuristic’, just unexpected. The common tools, utensils and conventions were all wrong. The worldwide audience held their collective breath as he began speaking.