The Serene Invasion

Chapter TEN





SALLY AND GEOFF did not mention Mars for a couple of days after the meeting with Kathryn Kemp.

The softscreen brochure remained on the kitchen table, waiting to be either considered or discarded along with all the other detritus of family life: notices of local events, bills, flyers from Hannah’s school...

Sally went back to the surgery the day after seeing Kath, and Geoff worked in his study editing the shots he’d taken at the Fujiyama arboreal city.

At dinner that evening Hannah chatted about school, who was friends with whom, and what Miss Charles had said about the forthcoming Serene Party, marking the tenth anniversary of the alien’s arrival on Earth. Mars was not mentioned until after dinner when, Hannah tucked up in bed, Sally opened a bottle of red wine and they sat in the garden and enjoyed the clement summer evening. She said, “Have you...?”

He glanced at her. “Mars?”

“Sometimes I think we’re telepathic.” She reached out and took his hand. It was good to have him back.

“Well, I suppose we really should look at the brochure... I’ll fetch it.”

While he was in the kitchen, Sally refilled their glasses and looked around the garden. It was, she thought, idyllic, with the wisteria in bloom and filling the air with its heavy scent, and the roses banked against the cottage wall. She would miss the house, the garden, their friends in Wem and London, if they did agree to the move.

She laughed, and looked above the horizon at the faint red pin-prick that was the planet Mars.

Geoff came back and activated the softscreen, and for the next half hour they sat side by side, the screen propped on Geoff’s lap and angled so they could both see it.

A series of images showed a terraformed Mars, a greened and rolling terrain under a blue sky streaked with brushstroke clouds. A vast area of land in the southern foothills of Olympus Mons, so they were informed, most corresponded in geographic aesthetics to rural southern England, and it was to here that the Allen-Walsh family would be located if they agreed to the migration.

There was a section showing artist’s impressions of towns and villages on the red planet, and they were not unlike towns and villages here, a combination of old architecture and new poly-carbon dwellings, with the odd dome thrown in for the sake of ultra-modernity.

Sally laughed. “They’re going out of their way to make us feel at home. Look, that building there...” Between a poly-carbon tower and a silver dome nestled what looked like a Tudor inn.

“Looks like some American theme park,” he grunted.

Aloud she read a little of the blurb, “The settling of Mars is the first step from planet Earth, the first small step in what is hoped will be the diaspora of humankind to the stars...”

They came to the end of the brochure as the sun was setting. The air was still warm. Sally sipped her wine and looked across at Geoff. She could tell, without asking, that he was in favour of the move.

“Well?” she asked at last.

He pursed his lips. “Well... there is that line about the move not being permanent. A minimum stay of two years, and if we don’t like it for whatever reasons...” he shrugged, “we could always come back. What do you think?”

“I... I must admit I’m attracted to the idea.”

“I’ll tell you what, let’s sleep on it. Let’s go to the Horseshoes for lunch tomorrow and talk it over, okay?”

She smiled at him. “Let’s do that, Geoff.”

They sat side by side in companionable silence as twilight descended and Mars twinkled above the horizon.





THEY WALKED ALONG the tow-path hand in hand.

Sally recalled coming this way with Kath just the other day, and what had happened a little later. The sun beat down and butterflies jinked above the surface of the canal.

Sally selected a table in the beer garden while Geoff went to the bar and ordered beer and food. There were only three or four people in the garden beside herself. She watched the koi navigate the confined waters of the pool, occasionally nudging the surface for food.

“You’re miles away.” Geoff set the beers down on the table.

She smiled. “Just thinking about the past ten years, and how different it would have been if the Serene hadn’t intervened.”

He watched her as he sipped his drink.

She said, “I’d be dead, killed by Islamic terrorists back in Uganda.”

The silence stretched. Geoff said, “I’d be alone, no you, no Hannah. And the world would be plagued by wars, murders... the same old routine of mindless violence and not so mindless violence – which was probably worse. When you think about it, all in all, we are a pretty despicable race.”

“Are?” she asked. “Or were?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He frowned, considering. “I mean, if the Serene lifted the charea, then it would be back to square one, wouldn’t it? We’d be killing each other, invading countries, bombing.”

She took his hand. “It will take more than just ten years for us to be able to turn our backs on violence,” she said. “Perhaps in centuries... perhaps then if the charea was lifted we might have become civilised to the point where the need, the desire, to do violence would be no more.”

He looked at her. “Do you think it is a need, a desire? Or just a response to circumstance?”

She considered this, then said, “I’d like to think the latter. Maybe violence was the end result of our inability to work things out in any other way. And with the influence of the charea, we’ll learn over time that there are other ways to resolve conflict and settle differences.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” he said.

Their food arrived, cheese soufflés and salad, and Geoff ordered two more halves of Leffe.“Right,” he said, “Down to business, Sal. Mars. Pros and cons.”

“Cons first,” she said, puncturing her soufflé with a fork.

“We’d miss England, Wem, London, our friends. Nothing would be familiar – and that counts for a hell of a lot. Also, Hannah would miss her school, her friends.”

“As you said the other day, children are adaptable. She’d soon make new friends.”

“And...” he said. “And I think that’s it. No more cons.”

She nodded. “And the pros?”

“The pros,” he began. “Well, we’d be living on Mars.” She smiled at the big grin on his face as he went on, “We’d be experiencing life on another planet, part of humanity’s first outward push from Earth. We’d be... and I know this sounds corny... but we’d be pioneers. And it needn’t be forever. If we don’t like it, we come back.”

“And we can always return to visit friends.”

He nodded, looking at her. “The thing is, do you want to go?”

“Yes, Geoff, I do. And you?”

“Me too. I’m ready for a change, a challenge.”

She laughed as if with relief, squeezed his hand. “I’m glad that’s settled, then. We’ll talk to Hannah about it later. There’s bound to be tears.”

She stopped and looked up, aware of something in the air.

“Sal? What is it?”

“I don’t know... Don’t you feel it? Like before a thunderstorm, a charge in the air.”

He shrugged. “Sorry...”

She looked around the garden. It seemed to have filled suddenly with a dozen well-dressed drinkers, but she thought the sudden odd atmosphere had nothing to do with the newcomers. She looked beyond the garden, as if searching there for the answer.

She shivered. “I don’t know... for a second there I certainly felt something.”

The people on the next table, two men and two women Sally had never seen before, drank and chatted amongst themselves. As Sally’s gaze passed over them, a woman happened to look up and catch her eye. She looked away quickly, and Sally felt uneasy.

“Sal, are you okay?”

She had the strangest feeling of premonition, as if something was about to happen that should concern her – the strange intimation she’d had once as a student when Kath Kemp and other friends had thrown a surprise twenty-first birthday party for her.

Now she felt suddenly panicky. “Geoff, let’s get out of here, okay?”

“Sal?” His expression was a strange mix of concern and amusement.

“No, I mean it. Something’s not right.”

At the nearby table, the woman who’d caught her eye briefly stood and moved towards their table. Sally watched her. The woman was heading for Geoff. She seemed to be moving in slow motion, or Sally’s perception had been somehow retarded. Later she recalled thinking what a beautiful blue ring the woman was wearing...

A dozen figures appeared on the periphery of the garden. One second they were there, a golden enfilade of self-aware entities surrounding the startled drinkers, and then they were rushing inwards towards the woman who was approaching Geoff.

He looked up, startled, as a golden figure flashed by him, and Sally watched it collide with the woman who was reaching out with her right hand towards Geoff, her blue ring resplendent.

The golden figure slammed into the woman, seemed to absorb her. She noticed a man run towards Geoff, only he too was intercepted by a self-aware entity.

Screams filled the garden and innocent drinkers caught up in whatever was happening cowered behind tables or ran towards the pub. Geoff was on his feet, tugging at Sally’s arm.

He turned as someone said his name, a bearded man who smiled and reached out. He carried a small blue disc – which was inches from Geoff’s chest when a golden figure slammed into the man. One second he was standing there, reaching out, and the next second it was as if he had been replaced by the self-aware entity who spun in search of other attackers.

Calmly, two golden figures walked towards Sally and Geoff, and she was startled to hear a voice in her head. “Do not be alarmed...”

The golden figures approached and did not stop, and Sally cried out as one of the self-aware entities came face to face with her and enveloped her in its warmth. She felt a sudden jolt of energy, a heart-stopping surge of power that made her gasp and cry out again.

Then she was moving, and before she knew it she had left the garden and was travelling at speed; trees and bushes passed in a blur. She tried to cry out for Geoff, and was aware of another figure at her side.

She had the impression of covering vast distances in an instant, and seconds later she passed out.





SHE CAME TO her senses and she was enveloped in blackness. She no longer felt the energy of the golden figure surrounding her. She was alone again, or rather not alone... She felt someone nearby in the darkness, reached out and with a thrilling sense of relief found a hand she knew to be her husband’s.

“Geoff!”

“Sal. We’re okay. As the golden figure said, don’t be afraid.”

“But where are we?”

It was a blackness she had never known before, total and unrelieved, and she felt nothing beneath her feet. She had the sensation of floating.

She repeated her question, and Geoff responded.

“I think I know...”

“But where?”

“Just walk.”

“How?” she almost wept.

“Move your feet. Lean against me and just move your feet.”

As she did so she had the strangest sensation of something gaining solidity beneath her shoes, as if the very action of walking had brought the ground into existence.

Light appeared ahead, an undefined brightness that suddenly exploded dazzlingly in her vision. She exclaimed and threw an arm across her face to protect herself, and she stumbled as solid ground came up to hit her feet.

Geoff steadied her and laughed aloud.

She lowered her arm and, when her vision adjusted to the sunlight, stared around her.

They were in the back garden of their cottage, beside the gate. Before them was the cherry tree and the bench. At the end of the garden the old rectory stood, mellow in the sunlight; Sally thought it had never looked so beautiful.

She stared at Geoff and whispered, “What happened?”

He shook his head in wonder. “We were saved. The golden figures saved us.”

She recalled the men and women bearing blue discs. “From what?”

“I don’t know, Sal. I honestly don’t know. All I know is that they saved us, brought us here – home... but not home.”

She stared at him. “What do you mean?”

In reply he pointed to the sky, and Sally looked up.

Only then did she see the gourd-shape of a silvery moon tumbling erratically through a sky that was a deeper blue than any she had ever seen on Earth.

Geoff took her hand and almost pulled her towards the house. They hurried down the side path, then down the garden path to the front gate.

There they came to a halt, and stared.

Their house, their one hundred and fifty-year-old rectory, was perched on an escarpment overlooking a vast rolling green plain, at once alien and yet oddly familiar. Gone was Wem; gone was the rest of Shropshire.

She turned and saw that their house was one of a dozen lining the very lip of the escarpment, each one of a different design. She made out domes and poly-carbon villas, A-frames and things that looked very much like giant snail shells.

No sooner had she cried out, “Hannah!” than a golden figure appeared on the path from the back garden, a sleeping child in its arms.

The figure approached, halted, and held out the small girl. Sobbing, Sally reached out and embraced her daughter.

The golden figure stood before them, silent, and slowly its swirling depths took on the appearance of a human being.

Kath Kemp smiled. “Welcome to Mars,” she said.