When telescopes were brought and focused far down on the walls, the message was seen to have been augmented with another phrase, also in multiple languages. “Next time, the hole will be bigger.”
Washington—THURSDAY
In the U.S., in the office of the president, that gentleman was closeted with a number of his close advisors, all of them trying to figure out what to say or, indeed, whether it was appropriate to say anything except “Wow,” or something sanctimonious starting with the words, “Today God has seen fit to remind us . . .”
“That idiot McVane would ask them to prove it!” snarled the Secretary of State, who was in a waspish mood. She had slept badly and had already spent a good part of the morning alternately assuring the Israeli Prime Minister, the Vatican, the Eastern Orthodox Church, a handful of American evangelicals and charismatics, and the Palestinian Ambassador that no, the U.S. had no weapons advanced enough to have dug that hole without damaging a single citizen. A big hole, yes, maybe, but one that cleanly followed ancient city walls and didn’t kill so much as a sparrow, no. She had pointed out that even the cars that had gone over the brink had been found in the desert, their occupants asleep but unharmed. Ethical behavior, she had said repeatedly, was often abridged by the possible, and the U.S. lacked the know-how to behave in such an ethical manner.
“You think the ET’s did this?” asked the president. “You’re sure?”
“Of course they did it,” the SOS snarled once more. “They asked us, remember? At dinner. What some of our problems were.”
“They asked me during our meeting, too. I mentioned the Middle East.”
“They asked about Afghanistan, and your wife mentioned women’s rights in that context. I mentioned the fact that in Africa national boundaries were established by colonial powers without taking tribalism into account . . .”
“So, what do we expect to happen next?” he grated. “All the women disappear? All the tribes in Africa?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“You’re afraid to know,” he said, biting his lip. “So am I.”
She muttered, “I don’t suppose we could just ask them to go home?”
He laughed, without humor. “They warned us not even to think about that. They don’t go home. Not until they’re finished or they give up.”
JERUSALEM DISAPPEARS
WORLD WONDERS AT ACT OF GOD
MYSTERIOUS MESSAGES CONFOUND SCIENCE
UNEARTHLY FORCES DEMAND PEACE
FUNDAMENTALISTS GREET DISAPPEARANCE AS OVERTURE TO LAST DAYS
JERUSALEM TRANSPORTED TO HEAVEN, SAYS FALWELL
HOLY CITY TO RETURN AFTER ANTICHRIST
THOUSANDS GATHER TO AWAIT SECOND COMING
BAPTISTS CROWD SOUTHERN MOUNTAINTOPS
RUMORS OF PLAGUE IN AFGHANISTAN
KABUL REQUESTS AID FROM CDC
From Chiddy’s journal
As an athyco, it was to’eros task, that is, my task, dear Benita, to design remedies for societies, including our own, that did not work well. Yes, Benita, sometimes even our own society does not work as well as it should. I find comfort in this, when I am confronted with some problem difficult of solution. Patience, I say to myself. Even we have problems we have not put an end to.
After spending several years both reading case histories of other athyci who had worked in prior centuries and solving thought problems under the guidance of my mentor, ton was sent to the village of Quo-Tern to solve a problem that had come up in recent years. It was in Quo-Tern that ton first met the person who was to be to’eros long-term workmate, Vess. Of course, no one in the village called ais Vess. In the village Vess and Chiddy were called Aisos Torsummi or Aisos Torsum. Earthlings would say, Their Excellencies or His Excellency or even, if speaking directly to us, Your Excellency, though our language does not have an easy equivalent to”you.” I n our society such directness is considered rude. Among intimates and when referring to self, we use the first level undifferentiated, casteless pronouns we learned as children, with a mouthpart gesture to indicate whether we refer to self or other.Ton, I or you. To’er, me or you. To’eros, mine or yours.Ton’i, w e or you.To’eri, us or you.To’erosi, our or your. In speaking to others, especially to groups of differing castes, we speak always of “one,” using the pronoun of the highest caste present. Ke (or li or ai) afar.One serves.Ker (or lie, or ais) afari.Serve it to one.Keros (or licos or aisos)ca fi . It is one’s.