currently control the world. He sees any threat to that structure as an act of war, and what the grays are doing is such a threat, big time.”
“But what actually… are they doing?”
“That’s the incredible part. The miracle. They know what needs to be done for their survival. They need access to our genes. And they know what needs to be done for our survival. We need to understand how to fix our planet and how to start colonizing other worlds. But what they
Rob looked from Crew’s mild face to Simpson’s careful, acute eyes. “Who does?”
“They have found a way to give a super-intelligent human being access to their collective mind. This, we believe, is why they were on the ground tonight. They’ve begun this process.”
Rob felt his face flush, felt sweat breaking out under his arms. “And this person is…”
“It’s a child. Bred over dozens of generations for extreme brilliance. The smartest person humanity can produce. When they bridge him to their collective, he’ll be even smarter than they are. He will trump their genius and, they hope, figure out how to save us all.”
“A messiah?”
“You could say that, I suppose.”
“But this is all predicated on the collapse of our environment being a real thing. If it isn’t, then they need us but we don’t need them.”
“It’s real.”
“It’s not global warming, is it, because—”
“Global warming is one aspect of a very complex phenomenon. A sixty-two-million-year extinction cycle. The last time it struck, it killed off the dinosaurs.”
“Which was sixty-five million years ago. So what is it, late for the bus?”
“It started right on time, three million years ago, when what is now Central America rose up out of the ocean. This destabilized ocean currents and led to what we have now, a devastatingly lethal oscillation between ice ages and warm periods. The number of species has been declining since before there was a single human being on Earth, and the climax has now been reached. We’re finished, basically—at least, as far as nature is concerned.”
“But why? And why sixty-two million years? I don’t get it, who’s behind it?”
“Ah, the silent presence. Nobody knows. The grays don’t know. But they hope that their brilliant child will understand. They hope he will understand the universe, the work of God, as it were, because, unless he does, we are all going to suffer extinction, both species, for different reasons. Twelve billion vital, living minds, all hungry for life, for love, for children and all right about one thing: every single one of us, whether human or not, is exactly as important as he feels.
“The grays are going to arrive on Earth in force in 2012, around the time the planet comes apart at the seams. They’ve been racing against time for thousands of years, and now it’s down to a clock that’s ticking fast, and either they get that kid to figure this all out and fix the world, or both species crash and burn.”
“This is beginning to sound—well, to be blunt, horrible. Truly horrible.”
“You can understand the reason for the secrecy. For the grays’ terrible threats.”
“Keeping us from panicking and shooting ourselves in the foot.”
“And them.”
“So what has Mike got against all of this? And how can he stop them?”
“He and his buddies see this as an invasion, pure and simple. The grays are gonna show up in force and cream us and take our planet.”
“Why do they believe that?”
“They don’t know. Can’t know. They fear it.” Crew looked at Rob. “Do you fear it?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Good answer. Truthful. Neither are we. But Eamon Glass—you know, he was the first empath—he felt that the grays did indeed need us, and if they need us, they aren’t coming here to take the planet.”
“But how can Mike and friends possibly stop them?”
“First, they kill this child. That throws the grays off their timetable, because there won’t be time to breed another one before mankind goes extinct. They lose the tool they’ve been breeding across a hundred generations, that’s endgame for them.”
“But the other consequence—the environment falls apart and we go extinct. Where’s the win?”
“Mike and his group—they call themselves the Trust—intend to save about a million. Who they regard as the best people.”
“One million? Out of six billion?”
“There’ll be a few survivals on the outside, but the million people the Trust save are going to be the core of a new humanity, as defined by the Trust, of course. Their million survivors represent every race they consider valuable, every DNA group, all chosen to ensure an adequate long-term gene pool. It’s scientifically sound, certain to continue the species, and a nightmare of racism.”
“But why would doing this stop the grays?”
“For the same reason that they’re not coming to my world,” Crew responded. “Too little genetic material to help them. They need to create a new genetic foundation for billions of their own people. That’ll take a huge number of human donors. A million would be useless to them, so they’d go away and, presumably, die somewhere off in space.”
“The Trust isn’t stupid,” Rob said, “and Mike’s had unlimited access to Bob and Adam for years. He knows the grays as well as anybody.”
“And he would rather see the human species essentially brought to an end than live with the grays on what we believe will be at least equal terms. After all, this person who’s brighter than them, and thus able to control them, is going to be a human. They’re doing that for a reason, to give us a basis for confidence.”
“But if Mike’s concluded that life with the grays wouldn’t be worth living, I think we have to respect that.”
“Evil is a funny thing. It comes out of fear. Mike and his people think of themselves as the saviors of mankind. But they’re genocidal monsters.”
Rob found the scale of the thing so large he could hardly think about it intellectually, let alone morally. He shook his head.
“Here’s your question,” Crew said gently. “The one we need to ask you. In your mind, which is worse? Die, as a species, or take our chances with the grays?”
“Think carefully before you answer,” Simpson added.
The only possible answer was immediately obvious to him. “I don’t have a right to make a decision like that. None of us do.”
“You pass,” Simpson said. “Any other answer, and you would have failed the test, as a result of which, you would now know too much.”
“I came close, then,” he said.
“I don’t think so,” Simpson said. “I’ve always respected you. You have a good, strong conscience. You realize that this decision has to be made by every individual human being. This child, when he grows up, is going to give us the chance to do that.”
Rob thought of a question so crucial that he almost didn’t want to ask it. He did ask, though, he had to. “Are you saying that they might give us a choice? I mean, if we don’t like the idea of sharing our genes with them?”
“We won’t,” Simpson said. “We’ll say yes.”
“How can you be sure?”
“The grays will be here, billions of them, asking for life. We will say yes, it’s human nature, because we are fundamentally good. And this child, grown up by then, will help us do it right.”
“You know, I have another question. Why are
“We have less knowledge. We lost it during that ancient war, the basic knowledge of how the world really works, knowledge the grays have preserved intact. This is why we can no longer account for those engineering marvels you mentioned—Baalbek and such. We’ve literally forgotten how we did that.”
