“I’m really not comforted here. But, assuming I believe you, which I don’t, if your kind has been here for millions of years, what do you want with me?”
We want to go home, Roen.
“Go home? But if what you’re saying is true, which I still don’t buy, why…”
Can you just take this at face value for a moment?
“Fine. You seem to be very advanced aliens. Why don’t you just build another ship? You’ve had all this time to do it.”
We cannot live in your atmosphere. Our way of existence is vastly different from yours. The gases and environment we need to survive are not indigenous to this world. That is why we need hosts. We cannot recreate technology from our home world. In fact, the ships we used to travel through space are bred, not built. That is something we cannot do here. We have to make do with what this planet has to offer.
Our plan is to utilize the intelligent creatures of this planet to one day take us home. When it became apparent that humans were becoming the dominant species, we pinned our hopes on humans to carry us into space. Over the course of centuries, we have guided humans to greatness in order to further advance your evolution. You will find that a number of history’s greatest figures had a Quasing helping them along the way.
“Really? Like who?”
Socrates, Alexander, Napoleon, Washington, Churchill, Roosevelt, Einstein, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs – just to name a few. You will find that more often than not, almost every great figure had our help.
“You guys were in Jobs?”
Let us just say that Steve was not as brilliant as everyone made him out to be.
“And you’re going to make me great as well?”
You will make yourself as great as you want you to be.
A stiff breeze snapped Roen out of their conversation and he shivered. Looking up, he saw a mass of clouds rolling in from the east. He must have been sitting here for a while now. Roen stood up, stretched his legs, and strolled down the walkway. This was his first time at the park, even though he worked just across the street.
His mind raced as he tried to digest everything he just heard. Any one of these people nearby could have an alien in them. Roen looked around as couples walked by hand-in-hand with small children running around. They could have been there all along and he wouldn’t know. It could be anyone! He walked by the giant silver kidney bean sculpture and watched curiously as his body shape contorted against the reflective metal. His face appeared as alien as he felt right now.
“This is nuts,” he muttered. “I’m just going crazy. It’s the only rational explanation.”
I thought we were making headway. What is the problem now?
“The problem is…” Roen said aloud and stopped when an elderly couple walked past and looked his way.
Remember, inside voice.
He turned away from them and hunched over. “The problem is that I don’t believe you. The story you’re telling me is ridiculous. Aliens, millions of years old, in my brain… that’s just crazy. I must be just stressed out from work, or maybe that pizza gave me food poisoning, or hell, maybe it’s residual guilt from my last breakup eight years ago. Whatever my excuse is, it’s more rational than having some alien living inside me. Ockham’s Razor, man, Ockham’s Razor.”
Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate.
“Uh… what?”
Ockham’s Razor. That is what it means. William of Ockham was one of our people. We used its interpretation to hide our existence when hosts went insane and gave us away.
Roen threw his hands up. “What the hell! Is everyone in on this but me? Am I like the last person in the world not to have my own personal alien?”
Like I said, we tend to occupy positions of influence.
“So what do I get out of this? Can I get superpowers? Will I fly? Could I climb walls? Do I need a secret identity like Clark Kent or Peter Parker?”
Well, as long as I am alive, your memories will be with me. In a way, you become almost immortal. And as with my previous hosts, you have all their memories and skills at your disposal.
“Is that it?”
There was another long silence before Tao finally spoke. Are you serious? You mean having an ancient all-wise being at your disposal is not enough? A thousand lifetimes of knowledge and wisdom is not sufficient to turn you into some semblance of a capable human being? Have you not ever heard that knowledge is power? You have in you one of the wisest minds on this planet and that is not enough for you?
“Well, since you put it that way,” Roen grumbled. “You didn’t have to be mean about it. It would be nice though if I got some sort of power.”
Well, I apologize, but I will not be able to accommodate you.
“You don’t have to be sarcastic.”
I just think you should be more appreciative.
“You know, for an extraterrestrial, you act awfully human-like.”
We were not always this way. When we first arrived, our personalities were very alien compared to how we are now. Our relationship with humans is symbiotic. You influence us just as much as we influence you. Over the course of time, we became more human in our reactions and our thoughts.
“Will I become more alien?”
Hardly. I have interacted with humans for thousands of years. You will have interacted with us for only your lifetime. It is a little different.
“So, that’s it, huh? You and I are stuck together, and we have to make like two peas in a pod. Is there anything else?”
There was another pause before Tao spoke. There is more we need to discuss, but I believe this is sufficient for today. You should get back to your meeting. They will be missing you.
Roen looked at his watch and cursed. “Crap, I’ve been gone for an hour! I’m in so much trouble!” He raced back to his office as fast as he could, huffing and puffing by the time he reached the War Room. Trying to act as casual as possible, he sat back into his chair and shrank from the scowls coming his way.
“Where have you been?” Peter hissed, the serene Dalai Lama demeanor shattered. “We could use some help figuring out this java dump.”
“I wasn’t feeling well,” Roen said stiffly.
“Well, get better fast or we’ll be here all night.” Peter pushed a stack of printouts toward him.
Roen grimaced at the pages of garble and held in a sigh. “Great, I’m going to be here forever.”
It is only a java dump. It should not take that long to figure out.
“Well, it’s a little hard for me to focus with everything that’s happened today.”
Flip the page.
“What? You can read code?”
I can do many things. Here, I am already done. Flip the page.
Roen flipped to the next page.
Again. Next page.
“Already?”
Just flip it.
He flipped to the third page. In a matter of minutes, Tao finished going through the large stack of pages. It actually took Roen longer to flip the pages than it did for Tao to finish scanning them. Eventually, Roen just tossed each finished page on the floor to keep up. Several people in the room snickered. Their amusement turned into amazement when he grabbed Peter’s keyboard and typed in a few commands.
“Problem fixed.” He grinned. He stood up and grabbed his bag. “Call me if you need anything else. Otherwise, have a good night.” Without another word, Roen walked out of the War Room, whistling all the way.