J. Brian Clarke - The Last Walk

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The Last Walk

by J. Brian Clarke

PART ONE

THE INVITATION

Ottrah.

My name is Ottrah. I am from Aelak.

My species is ancient compared to the mammalian

humanoids of the other Aelak, which is called Earth. I was

seventy-three years old, barely out of adolescence and the

youngest aboard the Green and Plenty, when we sideshifted

into their continuum. Because of my youth, I was chosen to

make first contact. At my age, I was told, humans are

already nearing the end of their short lives. It would be

imprudent to intimidate them with what they might perceive

to be an individual of superior age and wisdom.

I vividly remember the moment I stepped out of the

daughter craft on to the soil of that strange alternate. The

faded blue sky, the ugly structures of their space launching

facilities, the unpleasant odors of primitive technology,

the noise, and above all the incredible number of humans,

combined to momentarily shock me into inanity. Although I

had no problem with their simple language, my opening

words were clumsy.

"You are Degruton," I remember saying to the male who

stepped forward from the crowd. There was a female with him.

Their hands were tightly joined.

"Yes." I sensed his nervousness.

"You expected us."

"I--think so."

"That is good. The circle is complete."

It was not my intention to be obtuse, and his

consequent confusion worried me. I am not sure of my next

words, other than I tried to explain that in the same manner

Degruton sideshifted his ship into my continuum and diverted

the asteroid which would have impacted my world sixty five

million years ago, we did the same in his continuum--except

we made sure the asteroid continued its course to impact.

The reaction of the male and his mate was that strange

noise they call laughter, which I now understand is a human

reaction to irony.

Frederick Degruton

As the scientist responsible for the development of

shift dispersion, I suppose I should have expected it.

Having this strange being as my guest during her stay on

Earth, was the inevitable outcome of my fiddling with the

dimensions which led to our ability to translate in time as

well as across continua.

The media reported the Aelak was meeting with the

Secretary General at a secret location, and it was logical

enough to be accepted. There were the usual editorial

cartoons showing a flustered S.G. in the company of a

dinosaur, although the depiction of Ottrah as a streamlined

T-Rex was about as unlikely as his excellency being shown as

a wooly mammoth.

The current fashion fad of a rainbow-hued cape topped

by a broad brimmed sombrero, turned out to be an adequate

disguise when Ottrah was ushered into to my apartment in

Orlando. She was accompanied by my love and conscience, Gail

Sovergarde. The three security escorts who brought them to

my door were more likely to have attracted attention,

although if I was asked (I was not), I was ready to explain

that my taller guest was a visiting dignitary from the Lagos

Institute of Planetary Physics.

With hat and cape removed, Ottrah was exactly as I

first saw her when she stepped out of her shimmering bubble

at the Cape. A slender humanoid two meters plus in height,

she was clad in a gray form-fitting garment which left only

the face exposed.

It was a face I shall not forget.

Large golden eyes with nictitating membranes, vertical

nostril slits, a wide lipless mouth with no chin, and

greenish skin with a faintly visible texture, combined into

a whole both terrible and fascinating. I felt my heart thump

as I said lamely, "I am honored you chose to come to my

home."

The Aelak turned to Gail. "Your mate is nervous."

Although the mouth moved (writhed?) in synchronization with

the words, the voice was a mechanical contralto without

inflection. I wondered if it was artificial, although there

was no visible sign how it was done

"A lot of things make my mate nervous," Gail said as

she sank into my easy chair and crossed her slender legs.

"Isn't that right, Freddy?"

Ottrah chose an upright chair and folded herself down

onto it. Although that strange head was now lower than mine,

it did not make her less intimidating. "Degruton, I am here

to persuade you and your mate to return with me to Aelak."

"Er--oh?"

The events of this remarkable day were moving too fast

for me. Starting with Ottrah's arrival at the Cape, the

manner Gail and I were ignored as Ottrah was driven away in

an official limousine, my increasing anger as my phoned

demands for an explanation always got the response 'we will

get back to you', and finally the Deputy S.G.'s call in

which I was calmly informed, 'The alien and Ms Sovergarde

will be brought to your apartment at nineteen hundred hours

this evening. Please make sure you are there.'

Alright, so I was here.

So was the most remarkable visitor in recorded human

history.

And all I could do was complain, "What is going on?"

I do not know what I would have done with my life if

Gail Sovergarde was not part of it. A media personality who

was known on millions of home screens, we met when she

interviewed me on air about my work on shift dispersion. By

the time my team perfected S.D., she and I shared an

apartment. She was with me aboard the converted Mars bulk

carrier Francis Bacon when we shifted to a parallel

continuum and diverted the asteroid which in our continuum

impacted Earth at the end of the Cretaceous and destroyed

the dinosaurs. We remained in that other continuum, time-

shifting in one hundred thousand year increments as the

dinosaurs continued to evolve. We prudently returned to our

own time and space when the dinosaur descendants entered

their industrial revolution--long before they had the

technology to detect our orbiting ship.

That they would eventually develop S.D. themselves and

shift here to satisfy their curiosity as to how life would

develop on a post-impact Aelak, perhaps should have been

anticipated. Now they were here, in a ship resembling a

gigantic soap bubble, which fifty days after it entered

orbit above our world, exuded a smaller bubble which

descended to the Cape and disgorged the being who now sat in

my apartment.

Ottrah waited patiently as Gail explained;

"Freddy, I am just as much in the dark. After you

dropped me at the network, I pulled in every string I could

think of, and for my efforts got no more than I have already

reported from the Cape. I was still sulking when a smarmy

bureaucrat called and told I was about to be picked up and

brought here. When I got into the limo and saw who was in

the back seat--"

"It was I," said our guest, misunderstanding the

nuances of human speech. "I informed your leaders I am here

to converse with the human responsible for the asteroid

diversion which saved my species from extinction. Although I

sensed your leaders were displeased, they agreed to provide

appropriate transportation."

Gail asked, "Why am I along? It is not that I object,

but--"

"Pair bonding is an important characteristic of your

species, is it not? You are a trained observer, are you not?

Together with your mate's talents as a scientist, we deduced

a duality greater than its parts."

I swallowed, slid a hand into my pocket and pinched my

thigh hard enough to make me wince. I did not wake up, so I

presumed I was already awake. "Why do you want us to go to

your world?"

"I am not allowed to divulge that information. I can

assure you no harm will come to you and your mate, also that

you can return to Earth any time you wish."

"Do our leaders know of this?"

"They have been informed."

"They agreed?"

"They did."

I could not resist it. "They were--ah--displeased?"

"I deduced they were not pleased."

What Ottrah deduced, I knew, and it was immensely

satisfying. I did not doubt the S.G. and his cohorts

anticipated a profitable relationship with a species which

had high technology when our ancestors were still scratching

pictures on cave walls. Instead, they were told to stand

aside while one scientist and his reporter girl friend were

invited home for tea. It had a delicious irony which made me

feel good even as I considered the invitation. I turned to

Gail.

"Do you want to go?"

She grinned fondly at me. "Freddy, I'm a journalist.

Remember?"

Gail Sovergarde

The limo would not come for us until the next morning.

So when Freddy and I went to bed, Ottrah remained in the

living room. I do not know if she slept, or even needed to.

I do know I woke up several times, each time conscious of

Freddy's soft snoring and the murmur of the TV through the

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J. Brian Clarke - The Last Walk

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