At breakfast, I met up with Bill and Anna.
‘Any second thoughts?’ I asked.
‘Not from me,’ said Bill.
‘Nor me,’ said Anna.
‘Come to my cabin when you finish here,’ I said.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
I had to find out what their true thoughts were about what we were about to do. We were planning to obstruct the military. Were we right or wrong to do that? If this were to go wrong, we’d never be allowed to work for NASA again, in fact, we could be imprisoned for life if it were seen as treason.
They entered my cabin. I held the metal box Roy had given me. It still contained two entities. I asked mine to leave me and join them. He didn’t want to, and I didn’t want him to leave either, but I insisted he must leave if we were to be convinced it was not a parasitic takeover. Reluctantly he joined the others.
Bill and Anna, with puzzled expressions, watched my entity leave my hand and make its way into the container.
‘Right. You two do the same,’ I said.
‘Why?’ asked Anna.
‘Because it is an order,’ I said.
She looked at me severely, then shrugged. Her entity emerged from her palm and joined the others in the box.
‘Bill?’ I said.
‘I need to know why?’ he said.
‘You and Anna are my most intimate advisers and I am asking you to do so. Trust me,’ I said unemotionally.
He frowned, turned his hand over and I saw it drop into the container. ‘Here you are then,’ he said.
‘Do you want this too?’ asked Anna.
‘What?’ I asked looking at her open palm.
A second entity emerged from her skin, very slightly smaller, but fully formed.
‘It reproduced inside you?’ I asked.
‘She did.’
The smaller entity joined the others in the box, and I closed the lid. I crouched to open my personal wall safe and slid the container into the small space inside, which also contained a few private items.
I slammed the door shut, stood and said, ‘Come with me.’
I’d already checked with the computer that the bio dome was clear of people and we set off along the main corridor, down the tunnel which ran past the surgery, and into the amazing bio dome with its small area of developing woodland, shrubs, grasses and wildflowers. Bees continued their tiny lives, buzzing in and out of flowers. I led my colleagues along the left central pathway to the chicken compound where our feathered friends were clucking away as they dug around in the soil imported from a world some two hundred and fifty thousand miles away.
We got to the bench beside them and I sat, waving Bill and Anna to join me.
‘Well, Mark, spill it,’ said Bill.
‘I needed to talk to you without the influence of the entities or our bosses at NASA and the military men pulling the strings which separate them from us but bind them to each other.
‘We don’t know yet,’ I said, ‘but I feel that we are almost certainly going to take a treasonous route within the next couple of days. We all need to own what we’re doing. Are we about to betray humanity? There is no one to blame but us – not the entities, not Roy, not NASA nor the military. How do you feel about it? Anna, you first.’
‘One thing I do know, Mark, is that I’d rather have my entity helping me to answer your question,’ she said.
‘That would obviously defeat the purpose,’ I said.
‘Yes. I see that. Okay,’ she began and took a deep breath, ‘the entities are a game changer. With them we have the opportunity to improve our intellect, our intelligence, our compassion and our health. Last night, my entity found a cancer growing in my oesophagus.’
‘No!’ Bill said.
‘Yes. And it throttled off the blood vessels. She tells me the cancer will die and then just be cleared out of my system naturally. Just that alone is a reason to unite with them. Imagine all of the people in the world who will be saved. No more high blood pressure, diabetes, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s, obesity, dementia, infectious diseases. All gone. No more worries about antibiotics either. Our biggest problem then will be overpopulation, but they can even help with that! No more unplanned pregnancies and they can help us control our numbers in future.’
‘That’s not an advantage I’d considered. It has killed your cancer?’ I said.
‘Yes. Will be gone in a week or so. How can we possibly deny this symbiosis? It is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to humankind. She also told me that I’d live much longer with her looking after me. My remaining lifespan could be doubled.’
‘Bill?’
‘Even without knowing the health benefits, I could not, knowingly, allow these creatures to be exterminated. So, a flat out “no” from me. We must protect them,’ Bill said. ‘They must be saved.’
‘Yes. I agree, but I had to check with you. We’re definitely not still under their influence?’
‘No, there’s a bloody big gap where his influence should be, and I want him back in it!’ said Bill.
‘Same with me. We’re with you, Mark,’ said Anna.
‘Both of us. One hundred per cent. We must protect them,’ said Bill.
We returned to my cabin and collected our alien partners.