Chapter 05
BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA
"What happened to you?" Emily asked
"Mom." Spencer replied as he entered the bullpen. He could feel his cheekbone swelling nicely and stopped at the fridge for some ice to have alongside his coffee. "Someone let her watch the news. Now she's convinced the aliens are coming for me."
"Of course she is."
They went back to where everyone was watching the action in New York. Everyone was in the office, just in case the government needed bodies to throw at civil unrest or something. "Did I miss anything?" Spencer asked.
"So far they've determined that it's not radioactive." Daniel said. "It's not giving off any of the usual chemical signatures and they haven't picked up anything biological. So now they're going to try to move it."
They watched as a large, armored military vehicle trundled up. It had a strange looking lifting mechanism on the front. "Never seen one like that." Dave said.
"We rigged them to deal with IED's in Iraq." Daniel said.
"We used 'em too." Luke added.
They watched as the vehicle moved closer and closer. It reached out to grab the cylinder…
…only to have the cylinder fire its engines and take off.
At first everyone went flat. Once it was well away they could see the people on the ground running about, frantically trying to track it, send up jets to take it down, something.
Two minutes later it landed right back in front of the doors of the UN.
Everyone at the perimeter turned and started at it.
After a moment the entire team was laughing.
The pattern repeated for the next two weeks.
Every time they tried to move it, roll it over, blast it with a water cannon, use any sort of force, the cylinder would launch. It would merrily evade any aircraft until they collectively gave up, then it settled back in it's place in front of the building.
Eventually someone more brave than most, walked up and touched the thing.
It didn't react at all.
The next morning it was surrounded by various scientists and engineers, studying it in place. The cylinder didn't seem to mind this in the slightest. It sat there, as still as the statues on either side. It didn't move while they measured it, took it's temperature, listened to it, and whatever else they could come up with. Only when they came after it with a cutting torch did it launch again.
The message was clear. Look all you want, but let it do what it was doing. Whatever that was.
"These aliens do not respect a news cycle." Luke said.
Two weeks after the government gave up on moving it, a month after it landed, something else finally happened. "What?" JJ asked.
"Don't know yet." Penelope replied. "All that's leaked out is that they sent a message to the UN."
"Who sent a message?" Emily asked.
"The aliens."
"Hopefully that's a good sign." Dave said/
"Hopefully." She had been watching the screen, now Penelope turned up the sound. "Here we go."
There was a press conference going on. Now a very important, very nervous looking man stepped up to the podium. "This morning at 10 am Eastern time the office of the Secretariat of the United Nations received an e-mail. We have verified that it originated from the ship in orbit and was sent via the world wide web through the device in our courtyard."
"You mean that thing's been tapping our wi-fi?" Luke mumbled.
"Great way to learn about us." Dave replied.
"Shhsh." Emily said.
"The message reads as follows." The man at the podium looked down at the paper in his hands. "People of the third planet. We come in peace. While we will defend ourselves we do not intend to attack your planet or harm your people in any way."
The entire office let out a breath.
"'We have determined through our probe that this area is biologically and environmentally safe for the citizens of our member species, and that we do not carry any infectious agents that will cause your citizens any harm. Now that this determination has been made representatives of our member species would like to meet with representatives of your planetary governments. To that end we will land a shuttle carrying our representatives at the location of our probe tomorrow at 10 am local time. Please take all reasonable security precautions and know that a small security team will accompany them. Should this time not be available please reply to this message.'. It is signed by the Intergalactic Federation of Planets."
"Is the Secretary-General going to meet with them?" One reporter asked.
The man at the podium took a deep breath. "Yes."
There was a flurry of other questions but Penelope turned the sound off again. "Jinkies." She said.
"Think they mean it?" Luke asked.
Dave shrugged. "I think we're going to find out."
The next day, bright and early, the world watched as three ships left the larger ship in orbit.
As before they were met by a fighter escort. It quickly became apparent that these were not the size of the cylinder. These were full sized ships, somewhat larger than a city bus. They were covered with some kind of heat resistance skin that retracted, allowing the falling lumps to unfold wings and tails, and fire up engines. They set out on a track that would take them to the UN.
As before they banked right at the Statue of Liberty, flew over the Brooklyn Bridge, and up the East River. Two of them slowed then, turned in flat circles and lowered to hover over the river between the UN building and the Roosevelt Island reef. The third one hooked a sharp u-turn over the Queensborough Bridge, too tight for the escorts to follow, and flew low up First Avenue. When it got to the UN building it hovered over the front courtyard, folded up it's wings, and slowly set down.
As everyone in the world watched the UN Secretary-General and the ambassadors from the Security Council stepped out of the main doors of the building.
A hatch on the side of the ship lowered and what looked like six soldiers stepped out. They were in different color suits, but that they carried weapons were unmistakable. But they did not brandish them. They formed what looked like an honor guard on either side of the ramp. Once they had done so a group of gaily dressed figures, what had to be dignitaries, came out, walked serenely across the courtyard, and stopped in front of the Secretary-General.
No one could hear what was said, but it was obvious some words were exchanged.
And then the Secretary-General and one member of the alien delegation stepped forward and shook hands.
And history was made.
