“I don’t know,” I said emphatically, “seemed like a huge spectacle to me.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” seconded Tessa.
“What happened to Lu and his comrades?” I asked.
“They’re all safe. Taken to another of our facilities for interrogation. The aliens don’t like to intervene in our geopolitics if they can help it. But since the Chinese themselves made that unavoidable, it ended up being quite an intelligence coup.”
Schoenfeld paused. “And we found Ming alive in the warehouse. Since his countrymen have no doubt written him off for dead, this is a good opportunity for him to go off the grid. So we’ll be asking him to join us. He’s a good man, with a very impressive résumé.”
Tessa nodded thoughtfully. “You said Lu and his people were taken to another of your facilities. How many do you have?”
“Dozens around the world, with our primary facility deep under the Schoenfeld-Allen headquarters in San Diego.”
“So why were we brought here?” I asked.
“This is our most tranquil facility. I knew a UAV was going to crack open your jet like a walnut, leaving you in free fall without a parachute. So I figured you might appreciate some tranquility.”
“Good call,” I mumbled wryly. “Just for the record, I would have been equally terrified if I would have had a parachute.”
Tessa laughed.
“What if someone stumbles across this island by accident?” I asked.
The colonel shook his head. “It has a field around it that bends light, making it invisible. From the sea and air. Won’t show up on radar, either. And it’s off the beaten path, well away from any shipping or passenger lanes.”
I nodded. Of course it was invisible. I should have guessed. “So what, this is your own Themyscira?”
“My own what?”
“Themyscira. The invisible island of the Amazonians. You know, where Wonder Woman is from.”
“Never heard of it,” said the colonel.
I shook my head. Wow, he must not get out much. On the other hand, I allowed, when you have your own invisible island, perhaps you have better things to do than binge-watch superhero movies. Besides, he had probably long known of the Tasman Sea.
So I knew about pretend locations, and he knew about real ones.
“Well, thanks for the dose of tranquility,” I said.
He nodded. “You’re welcome. I didn’t expect to be in this hemisphere, but it will give me the chance to meet in person with a few key people in Australian intelligence working with us. So it’s a win-win.”
“That’s great, Colonel,” said Tessa, rolling her eyes. “But can we hear about these aliens already? Or are you planning to stall until we die of old age?”
Schoenfeld blew out a long breath. “Okay,” he said. “Here goes. Let me begin by giving you both a brief history of sentience in our galaxy. And then I can tell you how we fit in. We meaning me and my organization. And then how the two of you, specifically, fit in.”
I leaned forward until I was literally sitting on the edge of my chair, the spectacular scenery beyond the floor-to-ceiling window all but forgotten. “We’re all ears,” I said eagerly.
14
Several colorful small birds flew past the expansive glass conference room wall and then circled back, as if aware of the magnitude of the moment and wanting to listen in.
“There’s a lot to cover,” said the colonel. “And it can be pretty mind-blowing. But I assure you it’s all true. Yes, it’s information provided by aliens, but after decades of working with them we’ve come to believe that it’s accurate in every respect.”
I was so giddy with anticipation, I felt like pinching myself. He didn’t need to prepare me for mind-blowing content. Even the most jaded skeptic would be open to anything after having flown across thousands of miles of sky, in minutes, while suspended below a UFO. As someone who had written science fiction for a living, getting the chance to learn what the colonel was about to reveal was my ultimate fantasy.
“There are twenty-two known intelligent species in the Milky Way Galaxy,” began Schoenfeld, “not counting humanity. All are members of a coalition that translates into English as the Benevolent Association of Sentient Species. We just call them the Galactic Federation, as hokey as that sounds—Galactics, or just the Federation, for short.”
“Did you choose the term Federation as a tribute to Star Trek?” I asked.
“I don’t think so, but the man who chose the name, Colonel Damian Spooner, was a fan, so it could be. But there aren’t really any parallels. In Star Trek the Vulcans made first contact publicly, and only after we fired up the first warp drive.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I was the consummate Star Trek nerd, and I loved his answer. He may never have heard of Themyscira, but he got high marks for Star Trek knowledge, which in my view fully redeemed him.
“Why so few members of this coalition?” I asked. “Why aren’t there more intelligent species in the galaxy?”
“I’m surprised you asked that, Jason. In your fiction, you’ve listed reasons why humanity might even be alone in the universe.”
“I have. But only because I was trying to explain the Fermi paradox. Namely, if intelligent life can arise without special conditions found only on Earth, then where are all the aliens? In the billions of years the universe has been around, at least one species should have spread throughout the cosmos. But now that I’m convinced UFOs are real, I know exactly where the aliens are.”
I raised my eyebrows. “They’re hanging out off the coast of San Diego, keeping an eye on the Nimitz.”
The colonel laughed.
“So now that you’ve confirmed intelligent life is common,” I added, “I can’t help but wonder why it isn’t even more common.”
“Many of your fictional answers are still valid,” said the colonel.