Alien Opportunities Ch.4 : Suspicions Part 3

    Tony had changed since Chris last saw him, that was for sure. He had never been interested in politics before, unless it was office or management politics. Now he was espousing the politics of resistance to the alien threat. Perhaps he was right. Chris had to admit that there were so many questions about the aliens unanswered. Caution in dealing with them was only good sense. He had enjoyed his stress free alien employment so much, and his developing relationships with those seemingly harmless and attentive characters, but he could not deny that the longer he stayed in their employment the more dependent he and those thousands, who knew how many, of humans like himself, would become on the aliens. What if Tony was right and the Starmanenans eventually chose to tighten their control over the humans they employed? What kind of dangers were the people of Earth in for? He found it hard to believe the aliens he knew could ever be as evil as Tony suggested, but control could take many forms, and he had to admit the dangers.

   “I can see what you are saying. Our increasing dependence on them is dangerous. We don’t really know what they intend,” agreed Chris.

    “I’m glad you see my point,” said Tony. “I wanted to see you because you could help to make a difference against the aliens.”

    “What do you mean?” asked Chris, surprised by this sudden coming to the point by Tony.

    “Have you heard of the Earth Patriotic Movement?” asked Tony.

    “Yes. I have a recollection of hearing them on the news. They believe we should not welcome the aliens.”

    “Right,” said Tony. “Do you know anything else about them?”

    Chris tried to rack his brains. “Not really. They’re quite new aren’t they, a political party, but they’re a fringe group. Some journalists have accused them of violence, I’m sure I heard that recently.”

    “You have actually heard quite a lot about them, and you’ll be hearing a lot more about them soon. We are a political movement, a coalition of different groups who have banded together for the sake of freeing us from the yoke of the monsters. We span the nations of the world, any party who want to stand up to the aliens are welcome.” Tony had certainly changed. His zeal was now directed towards this political goal rather than the career advancement he had once espoused. Or perhaps this was merely another direction of his single minded ambition.

    “We are going to fight back against them,” said Tony.

    “In what way?” asked Chris innocently, wondering what lengths the Earth Patriotic movement would go to.

    “In every way we can,” said Tony. “That means political, of course. We have put our constituent parties on a unified political platform, in all our nations. We want votes in every election possible, quickly, because we need to make an impact quickly. When the people hear our arguments they should flock to our support. We will contest all institutions we may; congress, senate, parliaments, state assemblies and councils everywhere. Wherever we have control or influence we will use it to keep out the aliens from our world, which is not theirs. We will outlaw their businesses, close them down by whatever legislation we can use. We will restrict the places where they are permitted to live, or to park their spaceships. We will make it clear to them that they are no longer welcome here. We will make them want to go home. We will enquire about the missing youths they have taken to the stars, and demand they be returned. If they cannot return our missing sons, daughters and colleagues, we will find the aliens responsible for their abduction and have them arrested. We will make them want to go away and leave us well alone.”

     Chris went with Tony to a deep dark basement hall. It was below some public building, made of architecture more than 100 years old. This was the meeting place of one of the affiliate movements. Tony did not go into detail about who they were, following protocols established by the group itself concerning newcomers. Men and women filtered in, not many of them were young. They were people of the older orders, respectable, not the types, he thought, who would be likely to ferment revolution or terror. And yet they were devoted to ousting the aliens from their planet, to restore the balance of the world to what it had been.

   In the interval of the meeting, when teas and coffees were served Tony introduced him to a number of people. Many it seemed were personally known to Tony, and evidently he was popular among them. Chris saw how Tony was popular as he was never left alone to talk to Chris. Always someone would come up and say ‘hi’ to him, and he would talk excitedly to them. To Chris’s continuing surprise he realised that Tony was being what he had always wanted, to be in control, to be a man who people looked up to, someone who could mould the thought of his community, and be highly thought of by them.

   “We never invited them here in the first place, and look at them now,” said one mature middle aged man. “They are thinking that they run this country. They’ve already taken over in some countries. But they don’t belong here. They think they can dominate us, but they’ll find that it isn’t so easy. Glad to find you with us.” The man reached enthusiastically to shake his arm strenuously. Chris found himself irritated by the assumption the man made that he was fully committed to ‘the cause’ just by being here. Truly he could not trust the aliens because no human being could be sure that those impetuous and   trusting travellers were safe and would ever return. But the aliens had implanted dreams in the heads of many humans. Some of his own dreams, sexual ones, had appeared to be answered. He understood the appeal which the Starmanenans must have had for those who chose to travel. They were like the pied piper calling the childlike adults of Earth into the hillside, perhaps never to be seen again. Who among humans could say whether they would find the dreams they were looking for. Chris for one hoped that they would find what the Starmanenans offered. This man had probably never felt those dreams. How could he understand.

    “They have offered an easier existence to many, they say,” Chris suggested. “Economically,” he added in answer to the man’s vacant, slightly shocked expression. Chris sensed that perhaps he had said too much. He was pleased that Tony was talking to someone else and would not have heard. “I mean that is why so many young people have gone willingly in their starships. Haven’t many of us been tempted by their more leisurely approach to life, by their interest in and enjoyment of our culture, by their apparent generosity towards us?”

     The man looked angry, as if about to burst, but he controlled himself, perhaps kept unsure of Chris’s true loyalties by his ambiguous suggestions. “You sound as if you have been taken in yourself by the monsters. You should be more aware of the dangers which are upon us. We must have eyes in the front of our heads to see what is coming. You should know how lucky you have been not to have been enticed into their ships. I am glad that you are here where you will find the questions you need to fortify yourself against them.”

     “Perhaps I was too trusting in the past,” Chris admitted. “I never felt I should go on the long voyage however. Now I have healthy doubts too.” The use of the words ‘in the past’ seemed to placate the mature man enough to the assumption that Chris had had a complete change of heart and would no longer countenance value to the alien enemy. Chris had no desire to make enemies here. He was here as an observer, he told himself. Maybe he would be persuaded of Tony’s arguments and join his movement, but at present he was merely learning.

    “Have you met the aliens up close?” asked Chris, content not to state his own ambiguous thoughts too obviously, but he was now in a mood to pry subtly into the motivations and experiences of these people.

    “No,” said the man, unselfconscious of the impression he gave of one who perhaps knew little of the alien people he was so ready to consider his enemy. “I wouldn’t have any truck with them. They don’t belong here and should have no influence on us at all. I only have to look at the state the world’s in today to see that they’re encouraging the rot to set in to all our institutions. Look at the slowdown in economic activity, last year’s stock exchange falls, the collapse of the property boom, the ‘drop out’ rates from universities, colleges, and many professions, and then there is the ‘brain drain’. Our society’s crumbling thanks to them.

     “Employment levels are quite good though, and none of these economic slowdowns have resulted in serious hardship.” Chris wished he hadn’t said these words as soon as he said them, afraid that he would upset the man again, but the aliens’ case on that had to be mentioned.

    Luckily the man no longer seemed to regard him as soft on the aliens, taking the points as an invitation for him to reveal his superior knowledge. “Ah but for how long. Its well known that employment is the last thing to fall when the economy starts to suffer. No, confidence has been eroded by the alien’s brainwashing, and investments are already dangerously down.”