25: Escaping Humanity

Oh, darling, you will be good to me, won’t you?
Because we’re going to have a strange life.

Ernest Hemingway

“Finally, here’s a news item which shocked the world but didn’t actually impact anyone. Observers on the east coast reported an unidentified flying object, a UFO, launching into space. The military scrambled jets to investigate, but couldn’t determine the initial launch site. The region is remote, undeveloped and ill-suited for launching spacecraft. The craft exhibited an unknown method of rapid acceleration to escape the atmosphere, so it apparently used an undiscovered means of propulsion, making it difficult to track.

“NASA is requesting any videos of the object so they can determine its characteristics, as well as any indication of what it was doing.

“It’s rumored the group led by the young man, one Albert Collins, seen on the web dancing around police bullets, were the ones responsible. They were from the same area, and it’s said they were dropped off in the region the launch is thought to have occurred in. The authorities are investigating these individuals to see what they can learn.

“Yes, folks, it appears we were visited by aliens. Only no one noticed, no one saw anything, and they apparently weren’t interested enough to bother anyone. The craft disappeared from view once it left the Earth’s atmosphere, radar and optical telescopes unable to track it. I guess we still have a lot to learn before we’re ready to communicate with other worldly denizens.”

“I wonder what everyone thought when they saw us flying away?” Betty asked. “It’s not every day you see an unidentified ship zipping off into space.”

“I doubt it’ll disturb anyone’s sleep, just as our disappearing won’t bother anyone,” Lamar said, his previous lisp hardly noticeable. “We were never accepted as humans, so I’m unconcerned with how they feel about our absence.”

“Can they detect us in space?” Eli asked.

“Clearly many saw us leaving, since it was daylight and we were easily visible,” the One answered. “Once we left the atmosphere, the composition of the ship makes us invisible. They can’t detect us with radar, and our ship doesn’t reflect light. What’s more, we won’t pass any bodies where we’d be silhouetted. We’re used to dealing with other cultures.”

“So what’s the plan going forward?” Mui asked. “I’m excited about checking out the exterior of the ship, now that we’re free of the oppressive pressure of being that deep underwater.”

“You’ll get your opportunity,” the One explained. “Our trip will take a long time. It’ll take several of your months to travel out of your solar system. The risk of striking stray objects prevents our engaging our faster-than-light engines, which is why Alpha possesses his clairvoyance. It’s a trait required for starship captains, and is extremely rare, even with our enhancements.

“Beside your other duties, most of your time will be dedicated to learning Tandori—our native language—the details of our culture, politics and rectifying your rudimentary understandings of science and technology.

“When we arrive, it won’t take as long to reach your new home world, as we use dark matter to remove the random debris which normally impedes faster-than-light travel within a system. But due to relativity, the longest part of the voyage will seem the shortest. Since we’ll be traveling faster than light for most of it, you won’t notice any time passing at all. However the intricacies of the technology are essential to understanding what occurs. Faster-than-light travel involves expanding space ahead of the ship, which then pulls the ship along as the ship maintains its speed, and contracting it behind us. There’s a momentary lag in the process. We travel faster than light in fits and stops, but it momentarily slows to sub-light speed, so most of your awareness of activities will occur during this time. This slowdown allows the Alpha captain to detect any problems and make course corrections on the spot.”