Discovering a New Earth

by Robert Mattingly

“I don’t see what the problem is,” the President said. “After all, they’re the ones that came down to us, who made the First Contact.”

The three aides, looking haggard and worn out from the recent events, looked at each other. “Sir,” said the first aide, “that may be true but the ETs also have some . . . er, demands, you might say . . .”

“I didn’t think they made any demands on us.”

“Not _demands_, so much,” said the second aide, the one most informed on the Contact. The first aide was involved with worldwide reaction to this monumental event and the third aide to long-range results. He was the one most generally ignored.

“Requests,” continued the second aide. “Requirements, if you would.”

“I would,” said the President. “Requirements for what, may I ask?”

“Admission,” suddenly injected the third aide. “Trade. Technology and social adjustments. Contact.”

“They’ve already made contact,” said the first aide.

“They can always leave.” The flat statement caused a nervous silence in the room, adding to the general nervousness that preyed on all of them until the third aide was sufficiently ignored again and they could continue.

“First off, there’s that world government they want,” said the first aide.

“We can use the UN for that.”

“Only if we get in every country in the world. And that means every country, all of the people, not one left out or one disavowing the UN as final arbitrator and contact with them.”

The President thought this over a moment. “Chance?”

“Better than before they came but . . .” The first aide let the sentence stretch out, ending it with a snort that signified his opinion of the chances it had.

The President shook his head. “With their help,” he said, “giving us an overall goal and guidance, perhaps in a few years . . .”

“Step one,” said the third aide. They looked at him.

“Er,” said the second aide, “there _is_ another point to consider: this world government would only be the _first_ step to their acceptance of us.”

“What else could they want of us? Everyone in the world represented	”

“All the human beings, yessir,” said the second aide, “but . . . you see, coming from an interstellar civilization as they do, with so many different races and societies belonging, they seem to have different standards than . . .”

“Get to the point,” said the President.

“They want all mentally superior beings represented.”

A pause. “There ain’t no such animals on this big blue planet but us.”

“Dolphins,” said the third aide.

“What? Oh, yes . . . there was something in Congress about them, wasn’t there?”

“Trying to restrict their slaughter when being used by the tuna fishing industry. The bill didn’t pass.”

The President thought this over. “That’s not going to make for congenial relations between us, is it?” he said. The three aides shook their heads politely. “Well, with their help, we’ll manage contact with them, see what we can do	”

“They aren’t the only ones, though,” added the second aide.

The President looked flustered. “What others . . ?”

“Four or five other species of primates,” said the third aide. “Termites.”

“Termites?”

“According to their definition,” said the second aide.

“Two other unusual species of primate we didn’t know about,” continued the third aide. “Or at least couldn’t prove. Roughly comparable, according to them, to our legends of the Abominable Snowman and Bigfoot.”

The President made a sound in the back of his throat. It was noncommital.

“Did we forget whales?”

“Whales?”

“Yes,” said the first aide. “The ETs suggested we use them as the initial contact with the dolphins.”

“Figures. Anything else?”

“A species of actual mermaid, living in the oceans of the world	”

“Now wait a minute! There’s no such thing.”

“They found some,” said the third aide. “A fair-sized civilization. They demand we include them.”

“They have ways of finding out about sentient beings of a world,” said the second aide, “that make our social studies of other animals look sick. They’ll give us a hand but they said it’ll mostly be our work to do.”

“The ion-creatures they discovered in the ozone layer have to come in too,” said the third aide.

“What creatures?!” shouted the President.

“Er, we’ve done some research on this,” said the first aide, “and there is a slim theoretical basis for this possibility.”

“Except it’s no possibility,” said the second aide. “We’ve got to count them in.”

“As well as the hollow-earth dwellers,” said the third aide.

The President turned slightly purple below the jawline. “How can they expect us to contact all these crazy creatures?” he again shouted.

“ ‘There are more things in heaven . . .’ ” started the second aide.

“The hell with heaven, where did all these things come from down here?”

“Mr. President,” said the third aide now, “there have been theories quite often about such creatures, and some small basis in actual fact. Simply because we haven’t expanded enough to contact these . . . other sentient beings, _intelligent_ beings, which you’ve called ‘creatures’. . .”—the President flushed a deep pink with this—”. . . doesn’t mean they don’t or can’t exist. On our level they may not but on the level the ETs are demanding of us before allowing us into their own high civilization, it’s required, even necessary.”

The calm tones seemed to bring down the wildly expanded problem brought out in the room to grappling proportions. “Well,” said the President slowly, “I suppose . . . working at it over a number of years . . .”

“The ETs calculate about four hundred years before we present a panomorphic civilization unit for them to begin introducing their society,” said the second aide.

The President seemed to choke again but fought it down. The sound at the back of his throat was no longer noncommital. “It’s a big step,” he said finally, “a long series of steps for all humanity . . . and others . . . to start on. A purpose with a high goal. We had best start on the first step as soon as we can.”

“Good,” said the third aide. “That means we can talk now.” The trio regarded the President intently.

Silently, aide number three began peeling off his forehead. His scalp fell back, revealing pointed ears and silky, braided hair that fell down behind him. The glint in his eyes seemed enchanted but appropriate to his new look.

“Now,” he said, “speaking on behalf of all the elves left in hiding	”