Chapter 2

"It's burst into flames … Get out of the way, please, oh my, this is terrible, oh my, get out of the way, please! It is burning, bursting into flames and is falling … Oh! This is one of the worst catastrophes in the world! …

Oh, the humanity!"

-Herbert Morris, at the crash of the Hindenburg, May 6, 1937

The announcer was saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, what you are seeing is not a hoax or a trick, I assure you. Astronomers have been covering the trajectory for the last several days, and have now determined that it is indeed heading toward Earth. We cannot determine any radio signals emanating from the object, but we will soon know, when it lands, whether there is anything living on board. The location of its landing will be apparent within the next hour. Please stay tuned."

"Are you seeing this?" said Will, whose face was clearly focused on his own TV at home.

"Yes, Will," she said tiredly, rubbing her eyes. "Listen, I'm going to bed."

"You're not watching – this could be a scientific first! An unidentified flying object –"

"It's probably just an asteroid, Will, or a comet. It'll burn up in the atmosphere or crash in the ocean and everyone will forget about it, as usual."

"No, this is serious, I'm telling you, Liz. Keep watching."

"Good night, Will," she said, and hung up.

She sat back on the couch but did not turn the TV off. Despite her annoyance on the phone her interest was slightly peaked. She turned down the volume but watched the smooth object glide across space. Soon she fell asleep again.

When she awoke it was dawn, and light was streaming in from the windows. The TV was still on, and the news was still broadcasting images of the object, now much closer to the Earth. She got up and turned the TV off with the remote, then went to get ready for work. When she emerged onto the street at around eight o'clock, the main Oxford Road was packed wall-to-wall with people, watching eagerly on the huge screens set up on the old tall buildings at the roadside. Everyone was silent and watchful, intent upon the screens. Elizabeth looked up. What appeared to be a large, spherical crystalline object was descending to the earth, and in a moment had landed on a vast white space of what was clearly ice and snow. Huge army vehicles drove toward it across the snow and Elizabeth gasped, for she could now see the proportions of the sphere and how large it was in comparison to those tiny, ant-like armoured vehicles on the ice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you can all see as clearly as I do. You are looking at what appears to be an extra-terrestrial vessel or satellite of some kind. We are on the verge of first contact here. Stay tuned as we move closer – there will soon be developments."

"They didn't say where it landed," a woman next to Elizabeth said, and murmurs broke out all around her.

"It must be somewhere up North –"

"Or it could be down in the South."

"Maybe Canada? Or Greenland?"

Most likely in the Southern hemisphere, thought Elizabeth, moving through the crowd, her bag in her hand. It's summer here now. No doubt it's where there's a lot of snow – maybe the south of Chile. But she had never been to Chile, so she could not be sure. She had studied in Caracas, Venezuela, and later visited Buenos Aires for a conference, but had never been that far south.

She stopped at a café to buy a coffee but all the employees were busy looking at the screens so she left the euro on the counter and headed to work. No one else seemed interested in working that day, but she went alone through the empty building to her office and began working on the transcriptions she had started the evening before. She kept expecting Will to call again, but strangely he did not.

She had hardly sat down when a face appeared on her phone and a voice said, "Elizabeth, are you there?"

"Yes, director," she said, picking up the phone so he could see her.

"I need you to come down to my office – well, immediately." He seemed to be turning to glance at someone behind him.

"Yes, sir. Is everything all right?"

"Can't explain here," he said. "Just come on down, will you?"

"Of course. Right away."

She quickly packed up her things and headed downstairs, unsure if she was in trouble, and what the director could want at this hour. He never called for her personally, always communicating through her phone or the computer. She doubted she had ever met with him face to face more than twice since she had been hired, and the first time had been at her interview a year before. She worked with all her co-linguists, too, in the same electronic manner. She had only ever met about a quarter of them personally. They worked all over the country.

"Come in," said her director's voice when she knocked. When she opened the door to his spacious office, she saw he was not alone, nor was he seated behind his desk, but standing, rather nervously she noticed. He kept peering over his shoulder at the others. There was a man dressed in a clean military outfit, and behind him two other suited men who could have been his bodyguards.

"Doctor Bennet?" he said.

"Yes," Elizabeth replied, looking rapidly from the speaker back to the Director.

"This gentleman here wished to speak to you," said the Director.

"What is this about?" she asked.

"I'm afraid he wouldn't tell me," said the Director, shrugging. She could see the screen was muted on his wall but still broadcasting the image of the crystalline sphere.

"Dr. Bennet, I'm Lieutenant Rostad of the European Union," he said in clipped British tones. "Your presence is required at our military base in London."

"I beg your pardon – Why?" asked Elizabeth.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you. You will be informed once you arrive."

"And when do I have to go?"

"Right now. I will escort you."

"What?" she backed away, and looked at the Director. "I can't possibly leave now. I've got so much work to do –"

The Director only shrugged and shook his head hopelessly.

"-And I don't have any of my things. I'm not prepared for a journey."

"We will escort you to your place of residence, where you may pack a few personal items – nothing large. Then you will come with us to London."

Elizabeth gave up. "Fine," she said, waving her hand in a careless gesture. "Let's go."

The Lieutenant led her out, the two escorts following behind her. They made her nervous, and she kept glancing back at them to see if they were still behind her. They reached the street – it was still packed. There was a long black car with tinted windows waiting for them.

"Oh, we don't need a car," she said. "I live just down the street from here."

The Lieutenant ignored her and she climbed into the back of the car, with a man on either side of her. They pushed through the crowd, the chauffer beeping his horn repeatedly to pass. Finally they reached her building.

"It would have been faster just to walk," she mumbled as they got out of the car.

Once they reached the flat, they stood outside her door and waited. She was told she had "three minutes." She grabbed some clothes, her notebook and pens, her hand-held computer and, at the last minute, the microdisc that contained the music her brother had sent to her the day before. As she slipped it into her bag the Lieutenant opened the door.

"Time to go," he said.

"Half a moment," said she. She rushed into the bedroom and pushed quickly into her bag a warm furry bundle that was sleeping on her bed. "All right." She followed him out and locked the door behind her.

They drove once more through the crowd a few blocks away where a helicopter sat, waiting. It was very noisy, its propellers already going fast. The Lieutenant helped her up and then climbed in himself with his two bodyguards. But to Elizabeth's surprise someone was already in the helicopter. It was Will.

"Liz!" he beamed, as soon as he saw her, and took her arm to pull her down onto the seat next to him. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you," she said.

"No idea," Will replied with a shrug of his shoulder. But he was grinning from ear to ear. "Can you believe this, Liz?" he said, "An alien ship landing on Earth! I never thought it would really happen."

"How do we know it's alien?"

"Oh, come on, now. What else could it be?" he rolled his eyes.

The helicopter began to rise from the earth and soon took off.

"Just about anything," she said.

But Will was not to be deflected in his delight. Now he was launched on his favourite topic she knew it would be impossible so she let him chatter on. He was obsessed with crop circles and was certain the aliens had visited before. "But why haven't we seen them 'til now?" he asked.

"We still haven't seen them," reminded Elizabeth. "All we've seen is a great, oversized bubble. No sign of anything inside it."

"Not yet," he said. He was watching the news image on his phone – nothing had changed.

They landed very soon – it was some great hangar in London next to a military base. They were led into a huge black building with many long, lighted hallways made of some kind of dark stone or metal. They were teeming with people in military uniforms, talking rapidly on their comms. The Lieutenant stopped them at a door. "Before we go any further, Dr. Darcy, Dr. Bennet, I must inform you that anything you see or hear from this moment forth is a state secret, and that revealing any part of it to anyone, even to each other, is a crime of treason punishable by death. Do you understand?"

"Yes," said Will eagerly, but

"No," replied Elizabeth.

The lieutenant looked at her in surprise. "No?"

"No. I want to know why I am here, and what right you have to keep me here."

"Ah, of course," said the lieutenant with a humourless laugh, "the American way. Even after you'd spent your trillions you had to have us bail you out. Well, Miss Bennet, you will soon learn all you wish to know about why you are here – and if then you decide to leave, I assure you no one will stop you."

"Oh, go on, then," said Elizabeth, annoyed by his superior tone. He led them through a heavy pad-locked door and into another hall. This one was smaller and less busy. He took Will to a door on the left. "Dr. Darcy, you will go in here." Will nodded, waved goodbye to Elizabeth and disappeared. Lieutenant Rostad led Elizabeth to another room. It was large and had a circle of chairs around a doughnut-shaped table. Each seat had a name tag in front of it, but no one was sitting at it. There were a dozen people mulling around and talking. Lieutenant Rostad introduced her to a man in a military uniform. "Secretary Liam, this is Dr. Bennet."

"Ah, thank you, Rostad," said the Secretary, clearly an American. "That will be all."

Rostad bowed and left. Elizabeth looked carefully at his uniform. It was definitely a U.F.S. uniform, now that she looked at it. He was a tall, thin black man with a shaved head and friendly eyes. "Dr. Bennet, I am Secretary Liam of the United Federation of States."

"Nice to meet you, sir."

"Yes. Now I assume you know why you have been brought here?"

"I assume it has to do with the landing of the sphere," she said. "But I'm not sure how I fit into that."

"Well, each major union of nations – the U.F.S., the E.U., and the A.C. – are sending up groups of the world's best doctors, scientists, and linguists, because despite what the news may say, we believe that there is alien life onboard that ship."

"So you think it is a ship, sir?"

"We do. And we believe we have detected life within. Therefore, as you see, we must be prepared to try to speak with them once they leave their ship. We want to know what they're doing here, what they want, and if their intentions toward us are aggressive or benevolent. This will require some tact on the part of our linguists."

"I understand, sir."

"Wonderful. So you are willing to help us?"

"Most definitely, sir."

"Very well. I just have a few questions to run through with you, then. You don't mind if we walk while we talk, do you?"

"No, sir."

"Good." He pushed the door open and she kept stride with him down the hall as he looked through his hand-held computer screen.

"Where were you born?"

"Ohio."

"Family?"

"One brother, living in Texas."

"Parents?"

"Deceased."

"Religious beliefs?"

"Agnostic."

"It says here you were raised in Zimbabwe."

"Yes."

"Do you speak the Zimbabwian language?"

"One of them – the main language, Chi Shona."

"And what other languages?"

"Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Greek, Romanian, German, Dutch, Hindi, Hebrew, and Swahili. Those are the modern languages."

"But what about ancient languages?"

"Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew, cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics –"

"I'm told you specialize in ciphers and invented languages."

"Yes, well, the invented languages are just for fun – but ciphers are my specialty, yes. I helped decipher the untranslated portions of the Rosetta Stone."

"Okay, great." He looked up from his screen. "We would like to fly you up to where the sphere has landed."

"And where is that, sir?"

"The Arctic Circle."

"Ah…" she said. He led her back out to a flight deck and toward a large plane. "We will leave in less than an hour," he said. They went through metal detector and body scanner. The metal detector did not beep, but the body scanner seemed to show some abnormality, for the guards stopped her and demanded her bag. She handed it over and in a moment the soldier had pulled out a tiny, fluffy grey kitten, meowing and reaching out its paw towards his face. "What is this?" he said.

"I'm sorry." She turned to Secretary Liam, her face red. "When they told me I had to go, they didn't say where, and I only just got this cat. I had no one to take care of him so I put him in my bag on my way out."

"What should we do with it, Secretary?" asked the soldier.

Secretary Liam looked puzzled for a moment, then he smiled at Elizabeth. "Let her have the cat," he told the soldier. "She can keep it in her bag."

"Very well." The guard handed over the cat.

"Thank you," she said.

He smiled. "Come on this way. Here is the cabin for the U.F.S.," he said. "I will be back before it is time to leave."

Then he left. Elizabeth settled herself in one of the comfortable chairs and looked out the window. A few others came in – a man, apparently Latin American, and an Asian-featured woman. Then two older men entered. They all sat down silently, the grey-haired man across from Elizabeth.

"Are you Dr. Bennet?" he asked after a moment in a hushed tone.

Elizabeth had been getting her notebook out of her bag and now looked up at him. "Yes," she answered, surprised.

"I'm Maximilian Chatel," he said. "Secretary Liam told me you would be here. I've read all of your articles on ancient cuneiform phonemes."

"Oh, really?" she said. "Thank you very much."

"Yes, I'm quite a fan. My work is in hieroglyphics – specifically Egyptian."

"It's nice to meet you," she said, retrieving her pen from her bag.

"Oh, wow, it's been a long time since I've seen one of those," he said, his eyes twinkling.

"Oh, yes," she said. "I learned writing as a child. My parents taught me."

"Good for you," he said. "I never learned."

"Yeah – they don't even teach it any more in school," she replied. "I find I have so much more creativity and mental power when I'm writing by hand instead of typing."

"Do you do all your work with a pen?"

"No – just the most difficult stuff. I also like to write poetry."

"Oh, really? Have you published any?"

"No. It's just for fun," she said.

It was then that the Secretary entered. "We're about to take off," he said, and took his seat with some more military figures. There seemed to be other statesmen besides Secretary Liam, and also armed guards stood behind them. The plane took off. Elizabeth looked out through the window and saw the great smoking cities shrinking below her. Soon they had passed the coast and were heading north toward the arctic. Elizabeth could see the northern shore of the U.K. disappear and all that was left was a great expanse of dark water.

A flight attendant soon came by and brought them all a fresh, steaming lunch of wild salmon served with garlic and slivered almonds, and a luscious-smelling rice that must have been cooked with coconut milk. It was already past noon and Elizabeth was starving, for she had had no breakfast. She had not had salmon for years due to the differing food rationing in the E.U. and U.F.S. It was exquisite and she savoured every bite. They had also served her a glass of wine with the meal, but she was too excited to touch it. Soon after, the flight attendant came back to remove their trays and offer them pillows and blankets, and something hot to drink. Elizabeth asked for English tea, then she sat back with her hand-held computer and began to read Little Dorrit, which she had found on the library server. Then she plugged in her earphones and began to listen to Fauré's Requiem as she read.

"Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning under the sun, one day."

She looked out the window. The sun was not blazing, but slowly sinking in an iridescent sunset such as she had never seen before. As they flew further North, the sun sank away into a mixture of orange, reds, and blues beyond the edge of the ocean's horizon.

Dr. Chatel across from her was sleeping after the repast, but Elizabeth was too excited to sleep. She kept gazing up from her computer screen through the window. But the light did not become dimmer the farther north they travelled; in fact, it stayed much the same. When they had nearly reached their landing place, Elizabeth looked out to see the sun shining with crystalline sparks across the massive ice floes and glaciers that rose amid the water and the snow. Fauré's Requiem was playing its final piece as they descended.

In Paradisum deducant Angeli

In tuo advantu suscipiant te Martyres

Et perducant te in civitatem sanctum Jerusalem.*

She felt as if she were indeed being drawn into Paradise, that the arrival of the ship was a holy one, as being led by angels.

When they landed, they were given heavy self-warming coats and thick boots to wear. When they exited the plane, Elizabeth was expecting to see the sphere and all the vehicles and people around it, but there was nothing but a vast expanse of snow and ice.

"Are we there?" she asked, getting up to look through the window on the other side of the plane.

"Not yet," said Secretary Liam, getting up. "We can't reach where we're going in a plane of this size. We have to take helicopters to the site."

Her cat was allowed to go with her, having nowhere else to go. They stepped out into arctic temperatures, Elizabeth cradling the kitten under her fur-lined coat. They walked carefully through the snow and were loaded onto another, less comfortable helicopter that was cold. It had only a few seats in it, so there were a score of helicopters that rose into the air and flew in formation. After a quarter of an hour, she looked through the window and could see, in the distance, the great orb approaching down below them, the end of Fauré's Requiem still playing in her mind.

*Into Paradise may angels draw them,

On your arrival, may the martyrs receive you

And lead you to the holy city Jerusalem.