The Invitation(53)
“Is that all you can say? You came all the way here to tell us we’re about to be wiped out, and there’s nothing to be done about it? What help is that? You say you’ll come back when it’s over with some invitation to join you, but how does that help us now? If we pass through this crises without your help, because that’s exactly what you said is going to happen, then maybe your help won’t seem so valuable when we don’t need it as much.”
“I can assure you, Mr. Conner, you will need help.”
“But you haven’t done anything to help us now. Please, I’m just asking, what’s the point of joining you if you’re not going to help us when we need it most? Where’s the benefit?”
“Protection is one benefit.”
“Protection from what?”
“Your solar system is a very dangerous place, Mr. Conner. As a courtesy to all civilizations that we add to our inventory, we monitor their solar systems for possible impact events, including yours.”
“How do you do that?”
“The same way you would. We optically scan all objects in your solar system that orbit your sun, all the way to the Oort cloud, all asteroids, all long- and short-period comets, all Kuiper Belt objects, anything large enough to pose a global impact threat, including every object in your teeming asteroid belt. These objects number in the trillions. Collision are prevented thousands of years in advance.”
“You can prevent an asteroid collision?” The Vice President asks.
“Yes”
“Have you ever done that?”
“Yes”
“Have you…ever prevented a comet or asteroid from striking Earth?”
“Yes”
“When did that happen?”
“Thirty-eight thousand years ago, when your numbers were a few scattered millions, a long-period comet passed through the asteroid belt and teased out of its orbit a massive object over twenty miles wide. It collided with another object even larger, and was ejected from its orbital path. For twenty-six thousand years it erratically orbited your sun. Crossing Earth’s orbit, it would have collided with your planet eleven thousand years ago, just as the dawn of human civilization was beginning.”
“And you prevented this?”
“Of course”
“What would have happened?”
“You’re a scientist, Mr. Conner. What do you think happens when a twenty-seven-mile-wide asteroid strikes a planet like your Earth? It would have meant human extinction.”
“You did this eleven thousand years ago?”
“We took preventative action long before that.”
A stunned silence comes over the Vice President as he tries to mentally digest the implication of what he’s just heard. If the words of his alien counterpart are true, it means literally that the human race owes its continued existence to the protective intervention of a race of beings twenty-six thousand light years across the galaxy that we had no idea existed. This is simply too much for a human mind to grasp. What exactly does one say after being told such a thing? A mere thank you seems ridiculous. As the Vice President grapples with this realization, all of coeval humanity hears, and ponders it as well. Finding it hard to believe, the Vice President asks again.
“Did you say that object, that asteroid, was twenty-seven miles wide?”
“Yes”
“That’s five times larger than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. Isn’t it? Isn’t that right?”
“If you’re asking if your arithmetic is correct, Mr. Conner, it is.”
“That would have destroyed the Earth.”
“It would have killed off all surface life. Over ninety percent of it was composed of iron.”
“It was made of iron?”
“That’s right Mr. Conner. Your science aptly calls such an impact a ‘total evaporation event’. When an object so large, and dense physically collides with your world, the enormous amount of heat energy released boils away all surface water, killing all indigenous life. Only specialized subsurface bacteria survive the onslaught.”
“I’m, sorry I…Are you saying a twenty-seven-mile-wide asteroid made of iron would have struck the Earth eleven thousand years ago, and you prevented it from happening?”
“Yes”
“I don’t know…that…that would’ve meant…”
“It would’ve meant the evolution of life on Earth would have to start over again. That has happened on your planet more than a few times, but at a very early point in Earth’s history, when only microbial life was present. For such a cataclysm to occur when advanced life is extant would be a pointless waste.”