Only minutes later we had descended to a hidden subterranean level—which hadn’t been on the author tour—and the meeting began. Nari now appeared as a diminutive gray alien like something out of central casting, which took some getting used to. The Swarm had done a great job of framing Nari’s species, and I had to admit I found his appearance unsettling, which hadn’t been the case when he had looked more like a human octopus.
I filled the group in for almost two hours, not leaving out any detail, and answering every question. After Tessa, Brad, and I had been knocked out on the island, and Kussmann and his zip-craft had taken our unconscious bodies to the Sentinel’s undersea base, the Swarm had seen to it that the island was rocked by explosions and seismic forces. Enough to vaporize so many SAPS personnel that Nari would think the three of us were among them.
I went on to raise some of the criticisms Nick had leveled at the Zetas while trying to convince me of their bad intentions. Nari reiterated why the Federation believed giving us advanced tech was dangerous to ourselves, and giving us the ability to travel throughout the stars was dangerous to them. Befriending a lion on its home turf was one thing, allowing it to roam free in Manhattan was quite another.
As for not giving us immortality, they hadn’t even given this to themselves. Yes, they could live for thousands of years, but that wasn’t forever. Even giving us the gift of dramatically extended life while we were still Earth-bound would quickly turn into a curse. If births continued and deaths were severely curtailed, overpopulation would soon cause devastating effects.
Even if we could travel to the stars, immortality would eventually cause humanity to become like the Swarm, forced to inhabit the entire universe as our exponential population growth quickly got out of control.
And the longer the life-span, the more stagnant and ossified a species would become. There was something to be said for experience, but youth brought fresh blood and bold new ideas. A dose of much-needed vitality.
Nari explained this, and more, to counter Nick’s Swarm-inspired criticisms, and while I didn’t agree with every point he made, I believed his decisions had valid justifications.
During our discussion, it was also agreed that Tessa and I would be monitored and protected from here on out. Now that I had basically fulfilled the AI’s prophecy, it was time to make sure the Swarm didn’t find a way to take me out. Their plan may have failed, but they’d be back. With a vengeance.
Hopefully, given the new insight we now had into their thinking and capabilities, we’d be able to better block whatever they attempted next, but that remained to be seen.
I described the elaborate organization the Sentinels had built without the Federation’s knowledge, and the Swarm’s horrific plan to incite war by killing a hundred million of us and pinning it on the Federation. I also pointed out that they could have used the zip-craft fleet to destroy humanity at any time. Lucky for us they had gotten greedy, and their ambitious plan had backfired in epic fashion.
“So where do we go from here?” asked Brad when I had finished the debriefing.
“Hard to say,” replied the Nari hologram. “The landscape has shifted dramatically. It’s a whole new day. Jason has uncovered threats we were totally blind to, so we need to reevaluate everything. ”
“In that spirit,” I said. “You should know that I plan to keep all Sentinel assets in human hands. Including their thousands of UAVs. Their organization proved that it can be the caretakers of hyper-advanced technologies without disastrous consequences.”
Nari nodded, or at least the holographic simulation did—who knew what the Grays’ facial expressions were really like. “I can’t argue,” he said. “Keep these assets if you wish. You deserve to have them. You did acquire them on your own. Not to mention saving us all in the process.”
I was surprised that I hadn’t gotten more pushback on this point, but Nari was reeling from my revelations about Swarm activities on Earth, and was questioning the Federation’s every policy.
“Well, I don’t plan to keep them myself,” I said. “I’ll turn over the codes to Brad and a SAPS committee of his choosing.”
“Why?” asked Tessa.
“The control of an entire zip-craft fleet is far too much power for any one person to have.”
Tessa shook her head. “I don’t agree, Jason. Not if that one person is you. You’ve proven your judgment is sound. You’ve proven you’re sober and responsible. You aren’t a soldier, and you’ve always abhorred violence. You’ve spent thousands of hours thinking about the human condition, researching it, as well as the worst-case effects of technology. And you’re an extraordinarily good man. The fact that you don’t want this power makes me even more convinced that you should have it.”
“Thanks, Tessa,” I replied. “But you’re in love with me. So that tends to make you biased.”
She turned to the colonel. “You aren’t in love with him, are you Brad?”
“Are you kidding?” replied Brad. “I am after today.”
He broke into a broad grin. “But I think it’s safe to say that my feelings for him aren’t of the same order as yours.”
“I’m guessing not,” said Tessa in amusement. “So what do you think?”
“What Jason accomplished is unparalleled,” replied the colonel. “He thwarted a plan that would put us and the Federation at each other’s throats so we’d be easy pickings for the Swarm. He saved a hundred million human lives, and that’s just for starters. He pulled off the ultimate intelligence coup. And he gained a ready-made organization with a substantial infrastructure—at least once we’ve helped them see the truth.
“So do I think these inherited assets are in good hands with Jason at the helm? Absolutely! If you told me he’d been named chancellor of the entire Federation, I’d be in full support.”
“For what it’s worth,” said Nari, “I agree. Jason is a great choice to have this level of responsibility.”
“Then it’s settled,” said Tessa. “Jason will hold the keys to the new fleet.”
I blew out a long breath. “Okay,” I said. “But only until we can come up with a better solution.”