Alien Opportunities Ch. 4 : Suspicions Part 1

   The following day Chris was back at the household of Urilt and Braidt in the afternoon. This time Braidt was more in the mood for talking.

     “You have not been happy, amongst your people,” observed Braidt, as they talked about the content of books.  “You have preferred the company of the Starmanenans to that of your own people. What is it that drives you away from them?”

     “I am not entirely happy amongst my own people but I am not driven away from them. I have many friends amongst them. It is just that I do not see them all very often at the moment. They are busy and so am I.”

     “I know your work was a strain, so you came to work for us. There must have been much that was wrong to encourage you to leave your own people in that way,” she pried.

      “I would not say that I am here with you permanently either,” he said, rising to the challenge to his own people. “You see many of us on Earth cannot see why we work in the way we do. Life had become a little too dull, the games of our managers a little too pointless. We no longer believed in what we were doing at work. It all depends on where you work and what you do of course.”

       “And have you found meaning with us?”

   He wasn’t sure what to say here, did not wish to upset his employer, or to risk his job in any way. But Braidt was his friend now. She had shown herself to be understanding and intelligent, possessed of a great desire to understand Earth society and its complex structures of motivation and control. She asked these questions only to understand more, not to entrap him. “Not entirely. I needed a change from the pattern of life I was in before. Most of all I needed a reduction in pressure. I certainly got that. Working in your office is a pleasure. The staff, Starmanenan and human, are a pleasure to work with. We have fun while we work, which is something, which has not always been possible in the Earth jobs. The work, satisfying the orders and requests of  Starmanenans for ‘Earth culture goods and services’ is unexpected and quite enjoyable for someone like me who appreciates Earth culture very much anyway. Buying and finding the products and services for sale is enjoyable too. And the other job which I do for you here in your household is different again. I enjoy talking to you and the other wives and family. I find that it is not what I would call work. I have worries sometimes about this job. It’s a leftover from my Earth upbringing, I suppose. Maybe it’s irrational, but I feel ‘guilty’ that I am not working harder. I feel I am being paid for doing something which is not work. I accept it happily, but it does make me feel guilty sometimes. I can’t help it. I don’t do enough cleaning to make me feel I am working, and even if I did cleaning would not fulfil me. I need to feel I am making use of the abilities I have.”

    “I can see what you are saying. We of  Starmanena do not have the same concept of work as you humans appear to. We have the view that unless something needs to be done we do not do it. Yet many of you humans wake up with a series of tasks to be performed each day, and even if something is not necessary you do it. I presume that this is done to make a good impression on each other. Your status amongst your colleagues derives from your ability to take on responsibility and to work hard.”

    “Surely your status does also. Urilt, for example. He has responsibilities, is the owner of the business. He has status because of that responsibility and leadership,” suggested Chris.

    “Urilt is the head of our household and he has status, but it does not come through hard work,” explained Braidt. “You will never see Urilt working hard. He oversees the business, talks to suppliers and clients alike, but he does what he enjoys. You will rarely find him ‘working’. When you say he owns the business, you are not quite correct. In fact the business is owned by the Household, that means by the members of the household, myself included. You will find that we have status between ourselves which is more related to our generosity, personality and friendliness.”

         Braidt listened to Chris as he poured out his problems regarding his previous work and his inability to find girlfriends in human society. Now he was much happier. Like many he had left the old worries about finding a suitable career, and fitting in to it, far behind. Humans were having to change their old hard edged economies in response to the arrival of the aliens whose economic desires were so different from the old earth. New demands and imperatives were being introduced to the Earth economy, which were not entirely new to it, but which were actually replacing the old priorities and creating job and life opportunities which only certain groups of humans had previously been able to enjoy. Chris found that he was no longer obliged to search for work in dull numerical or analytical tasks, or in largely valueless exchanges with other humans, with whom he would much rather have exchanged interesting conversation or friendship. Now he had found ‘work’ which once he would have been glad to pay for as pleasure. The aliens valued his imagination and his consciousness. They wanted his honest feelings, imagination and thoughts. They admired his intellect, and those of most, but not all humans. For some strange reason they valued human thoughts, fantasies and the jumbled trials and stories of our past. We had a culture and an imagination which they, although rich in their own, did not possess. In addition his ideas and opinions were being appreciated by aliens. They paid him to go among them to mix with them, talking and teaching about his judgements and opinions on many matters to do with the culture of Old Earth. The whole economy of Earth was already greatly affected in only a few years by the arrival of the aliens, as their influence brought new choices to its people. Workers fled the unpleasant jobs, which many of them had been, forcing the conditions for those who remained to improve. Those humans who had secretly desired to seek sexual pleasures made the choice to work for the aliens. Many even accompanied alien flights back to the alien home planets, where there was ‘pleasant’ work for them in abundance.

    There must be a catch to the aliens’ kind fascination, a crueller more self interested side. So many of the speculations and predictions of alienness had been disproved by these unexpected grey beings, who had proved to be so similar to humans. But it occurred to Chris, sometimes, in moments of rationality, that there could be dangers to Earth in accepting so much of the gifts and attention which the strangers gave to us. Perhaps our friends presented a false visage when they expressed the deepest interest in everything, even the arts, we produced. What knowledge might they be trying to acquire, which might be turned to their advantage when they had finished their scrutiny of us? Were they looking for the keys to penetrating our defences in some later battle for the planet, or were they trying to understand the depths of our psychology before using their knowledge to undermine or control us in some unexpected mental tactics? Perhaps they wanted us as slaves or servants? Their employment of humans was growing alarmingly on Earth. Would it be turned to exploitation and control when the time came?

And the most alarming thought, which was being expressed in some quarters, was that the growing thousands of Earth people being encouraged to travel to the alien planets might never be able to return. Perhaps when the aliens had imported enough of them they would hold them as slaves and withdraw from the Earth again.