The Strangers
Somewhere in suburban America...
A young boy is riding a bicycle in front of his parents while his brother is playing baseball with some friends. A little girl is wearing her mother's oversized hand-me-downs for a tea party with her dolls. A young engaged couple is holding hands after a fine meal. All are being watched by the Strangers.
"Do you think the time is right for our arrival? Perhaps it is time for us to bestow upon them our gifts," Imelda said peering through the camera eye of the starship to see these bright and wonderful pictures of human culture.
"You know I'm certain that the people who orbit Solaris will be absolutely overjoyed to see our gifts and especially the miracle element of orichalcun, Kelvin" she said as she placed in her paw in her husband's.
"Yes, as President Kelvin of Lupina, the second planet from the Dog Star of Sirius..." the dignitary said preparing his shimmering blue toga and robe, the customary formal garment for all Lupines for an official meeting. While many humans knew of the aid that Lupines had offered them in the past, only the Romans had acknowledged their help, offered when an unknown female Lupine suckled the city's founders, Romulus and Remus. Out of deference for the Romans who admired the wolves, the government of Lupina wore the tunics and robes of ancient Rome and designed their city to look as Roman as possible. Yet the languages these wolves spoke on their planet were English, with German a distant second.
The irony of these two words in different languages struck a chord with the wolf. The Lupines had never met the humans- thusly they were strangers but as intellectual equals and possible future trading partners, they were also friends. And some humans had known the Lupines as strong protectors whose strength and encouragement gave hope to many important people.
"Oh, your formal title is not necessary for me, your wife. Take off the title and think of yourself as an adventurer, brave enough to take on an interstellar voyage to the planet Earth. We learned their spoken languages, adopted democracy, and protected their most important people all with no regard for our safety. Now we must repay them for their generosity with our bountiful treasure."
"Sir, I mean President, we are approaching Solaris having cleared the asteroid belt and moved past the planet the humans call Mars. We will be making planetfall in only a few minutes on the city of Washington D.C.," the captain spoke through the videocom to the President and Team Discovery, themselves dressed in tunics of shimmering blue.
"Land this ship safely and we will pay you your weight in refined orichalcun when we return home, Stepjan. You have proven to be a great pilot," President Kelvin said, offering words of encouragement to the unflappable leader of the Lupines who after an election against a conservative candidate, was able to convince the Lupines, a proud race of anthropomorphic wolves to vote for him Some of the more conservative elements of Lupine society were opposed to this idea from the very beginning- a public meeting between the leader of Lupina and the leader of the United States of America, who Gabriel the undercover liaison between the people of Earth and the Lupines said was the most powerful man in the planet. Continuing with their respect of Rome, Pope Clement would have been their first choice but Gabriel said President Gerald Stevens, winner of the 2028 election was a kind enough person. Many world leaders and Popes had been visited by the Lupines through the use of Transcendental Dreaming, a way for the soul of the Lupine to cross the universe and appear in the dreams of others. Others had met in private at weekends disguised as outdoor retreats.
"And to think, Imelda we will soon be able to trade with them our secrets for theirs. And whether it is a fair deal matters not to us. We simply have too much orichalcun, Imelda and we would like to give it away for human artwork, human books, the chance to see all of human culture. That and a few other things..."
"I hate to eavesdrop on you two but human culture would be an ill term for what they have. Unlike us, there are many countries on the planet of Earth, each with its own specific culture. You have the Japanese culture, the Thai culture, the French culture et cetera. There is more variance in cultures in this planet than on our entire stellar system." That was the voice of Albertus Magnus, the most learned and wise of the Lupines, who served as the President's Advisor, second only to the President and Vice President in Lupine society in terms of authority. A skilled philosopher, chemist, and biologist with an inquisitive nature about the human race, Albertus ("Magnus" was a title, similar to our "sir") had planned this trip for decades and was lit up with anticipation at learning more about humans.
"We don't mind- our entire civilization has been unknown to the humans for so long and if anything, we want them to eavesdrop on us. It's almost time to meet their President and his staff and maybe all the world leaders and interest them in a business deal which would benefit them," Imelda said. Out of their window, they could see the atmosphere of the Earth getting closer and closer until they saw the buildings of Washington D.C. and the White House. The cloaking device was on so that no one would fire at them as they entered into that airspace. Stepjan would land their ship on the White House lawn perfectly. And so after turning the cloaking device off and with only the slightest of bumps, the ship hovered in midair before landing almost dead center on the White House lawn.
Crowds of onlookers gathered, the Secret Service readied their guns for whatever would come out of their metallic spaceship and started wasting ammo at the ship.
"Stop!" yelled the President. "These men are foreign dignitaries... they call themselves the Strangers but they're not strangers to me. They've spoken to me on several occasions in private and now they want to make themselves known to the entire world. They've waited centuries to make an announcement so we should be respectful to them!"
After a long time, the door to the ship opened and out stepped in a blazing blue robe and tunic, President Kelvin and Imelda, his wife. The two wolves were followed by an entourage of bodyguards and other members of the Discovery Team including Albertus and Stepjan. Albertus, making sure the cameras were rolling and a news crew was covering broke the silence.
"Ahem, we are the Lupine delegation, from the planet Lupina in the stellar system of Sirius. We gave our word to Presidents in years past, and President Stevens that we would support and protect them. Through our history, we have helped and supported many who needed us, from Plato to Victor Hugo to Gorbachev all without acknowledgement and we would like to make ourselves known to your world. We have a history of cooperation with the people of Earth and we would like to continue this today with an exciting business deal. We come in peace and bearing amongst other gifts" he reached out to a grab a piece of dark blue metal, "the miracle element orichalcun."
Kelvin then spoke "It is beyond anything you could ever hope to imagine in terms of worth. This element helps us live for long times. When I was a cub, my father advised Eisenhower and as you can see, I am still filled with the vigor of youth. It cures any disease and our silk robes are sewn with it.", he said, scratching his arm with a sharpened claw causing blood to flow but when he held the glowing stone near the wound, it closed within seconds. Next Albertus scratched his razor-sharp claws against the hem of the robe but not a scar was left on the garment. "We will give it to you, at an extreme disadvantage, on some conditions. We demand that you stop the hunting of the wolf for this metal. We also want you to stop all wars and fighting on this planet as we cannot tolerate, nor trade with anyone who wages war. And we would like an allowance of your artwork, books, and other cultural items to trade for this, as we are obsessed with your culture."
The President mulled it over for a few minutes with a few advisors. "Sure, we would like your shiny metal but don't you realize that if humanity stopped all wars tomorrow so many people would be out of work. So many people will be out of a job not manufacturing weapons for our military. So we must politely decline."
"That is all we need to hear" Kelvin said. "We understand that some cannot follow the path of peace as we do. As disappointing as this may be, I believe we represented our planet with dignity and goodwill towards our old friends. But we cannot give our treasures to those who will not forsake peace. Good day!" As soon as he had finished speaking, the lupine left and headed to the ship which along with his wife and Discovery Team were headed back to their homeland.
"We tried", Kelvin spoke through tears, as he looked back at the rapidly-disappearing planet of Earth... and then the nearby asteroid belt... and then the outer planets... and watched as Solaris became another unrecognizable yellow star."We tried to reason with them, we tried to give them something we know they would like. And we get treated like this, flatly rejected! Don't they know how to accept a gift?" Turning to face his entourage who had gathered beside him he said "We will never again meet with their leaders!"
His wife came in, wearing her most beautiful robe and spoke softly to Kelvin, massaging his pointy ear. "Please reconsider- you were the one who decided that we should meet them. And just because the greatest people in the world treated us so rudely doesn't mean the rest of the world will do the same. The greatest people in the world refused our invitation for this valuable metal so now we'll just have to invite the small." And it was something about her beautiful golden eyes, her feminine appearance, and the hope she had in her voice that inspired the President even from his bed in the triage unit of the ship.
"I think you're the smartest wolf on any planet. Let us give our gifts to the people who have nothing, the poorest we can find and ask for nothing in return from them. Perhaps by our deeds for the world's most poor people, soon we can become respected in the eyes of human beings. But to avoid a reaction like the one we just got, we must do so in secret."
Imelda could not help but feel sorry for the great gift that the wolves of Sirius had in store for the humans... a gift that would have greatly expanded the quantity and quality of the lives of the Earth-people. "I know they call us the Strangers, and I feel ashamed that we never really met them to give them our bounty. But we had certain conditions that they ahd to meet and they could not meet them at all. Our ancestors left a record in their mountains and deserts centuries ago, and they believed the humans could have survived with only minimal assistance from us."
Her husband came to console her. "For the common man who is shackled by poverty and frustration of being empty-handed, our offers of generosity will be easily understood and accepted. And who are they to argue with our conditions? But for the leaders of the human race, for all their knowledge, it will take a million years to understand and accept our terms before we can give them a reward." Kelvin paused, taking one final glance at the blue-green orb fast receding in the distance.
"And it might be too late by then!"
Twenty years pass...
A poor doctor in Nigeria uses deep blue stones, given to her by a hooded man and notices the poor of Africa healed of their cholera. A single mother in London pawns one of twenty blue stones to pay for an expensive operation for her son to restore his sight, again given to her by a mysterious figure in a hood. A Catholic nun in an identity-obscuring veil gives her blue stones to a homeless man in Paris so that he could buy a home and enough food to eat. A minister from a poor church in Philadelphia receives a gift of azure stones to save his church from demolition. All are being helped by the Strangers.
A song I wrote after writing this story.
The Strangers
The wolves come from galaxies way out in space
Came to earth at the dawn of the young human race just to help us.
The wolves ride their starships much faster than light
They could master infinity in the span of a night just to help us
Chorus: They're strangers- they may have been
And we Earth people call them the Strangers
Traces of what they have done here before
Traces remain and yet nothing more
So we should know that they really exist as the Strangers
Secrets and signs that were buried in stone
Tell us that we're never lost and alone
And there are lupine brothers much wiser than we.
The wise lupine scholars predicted you see
That we humans would master our own destiny with wonder
We look to the east past the mountains so high
There is many a human who looks to the sky with wonder
They're strangers- they may have been
And we Earth people call them the Strangers
Traces of what they have done here before
Traces remain and yet nothing more
So we should know that they really exist as the Strangers (and they're on a mission)
Secrets and signs that were buried in stone
Tell us that we're never lost and alone
And there are lupine brothers much wiser than we.
Yes, they're our brothers but what could their message be?
I hope they come soon 'cause we all need their help
We all need their help, we all need their help, all need their help, all need their help, yes, we all need their help (fade)