"Shades of Gray"

[BolianAuthor]

-- CONTINUED --

NORMAL, ILLINOIS - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The population of the town lined the sides of the main thoroughfare of the historic downtown district, as wide all-American banners spanned the expanse between buildings, declaring the world's welcome to the Orvani, as an all-out parade was making its way down the streets, while in the sky, a group of a dozen Orvani saucers treated and dazzled the citizenry of the town with an aerobatics display, while another group of saucers joined a wing of American Air Force fighters, in doing a flyover of the town's main street.

The people of Earth were absolutely amazed by the array of movements the saucers could perform... and at what fantastic speeds they could do it with, for within the mere blink of an eye, a saucer would be in one point, and then vanish from view completely, with not even a sound...not even a sonic boom. Another saucer would execute a dizzying series of rolls, as if someone were flipping a coin in midair, only to come to a complete and sudden stop, before banking hard right, and vanishing from sight, only to become visible again, on the opposite side of town, where it would streak back into position, again, in the blink of an eye.

On the ground, there were even some Orvani mingling with the human population. But not everybody was reacting to the Orvani well...

One father held a small child, who was crying, as he looked at one of the Orvani... the appearance of it obviously scared the child, and the father tried to comfort the child, to no avail. The offending Orvani saw this, and wanted to help, and went over to the father.

"Excuse me, Sir... may I help? I think I can calm him." it said.

The father did not know what to make of this offering, and he was reluctant to just hand his child over to an alien being that he had never met, but he also did not want to offend the being.

"I don't know... I dont' want to be rude, but I think he's afraid of you... I don't want to scare him." the man said.

"Please, Sir... I believe I can make him feel better. I will stop as soon as you tell me to, if he continues crying." the Orvani offered, as finally, the man relented, lowering the child to face the Orvani.

For a moment, the child looked into the large black, almond-shaped eyes of the Orvani, and began to again start crying, but after not even a second, the child's cries began to turn to laughter and giggling, as if he were watching a large group of brigtly colored balloons, or other happy image. The child even reached out to try and touch the Orvani's face, as it smiled with glee.

The father was amazed, as he looked to the being.

"My god... how did you do that? What did you do?" he asked.

"Simple... I merely went into his mind, and called up a memory of something happy for him... in this case, the clown from his third birthday... you see me as I am now, but he is seeing a clown, smiling and making funny faces at him." the Orvani stated, as it nodded repsectfully, and walked to another part of the crowd.

At that point, a man's voice boomed over the town's PA system, capturing the attention of the crowds.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, and honored guests... if you will direct your attention to the two large monitors we have set up over the First Normal Bank, you will be able to view the feed from the Orvani fleet in Earth orbit, as they broadcast another good deed that they wish to perform for us..." the man stated, as the people of the town looked to the monitors, which showed a group of a dozen Orvani saucers, holding formation, as Earth rotated behind them.

For a few seconds, nothing happened... but then, a massive wall of rock began to loom into view, and as it continued towards the Orvani ships and Earth, it revealed itself to be an asteroid... an utterly massive one, as the "camera" from the Orvani ship that was "filming" the event zoomed out... the rock had to be miles in size... fully capable of laying waste to all life on Earth.

The "camera" suddenly zoomed in tight again, to the Orvani fleet, as the ships now broke formation, and began to unleash the might of Orvani weaponry on the object, firing brilliant electric blue beams into the rock, as after but a second, the entire massive asteroid exploded apart, sending smaller fragments hurtling outward, in all directions, as the saucers pursued, firing on the fragments, until they were all small enough to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. The screens then went dark again, as the transmission ended.

At that point, the people were directed to an Orvani who was walking up to a podium... the first Orvani anyone had seen with anything that could be considered as clothing... the Orvani was wearing a tight-fitting suit of metallic silver, that hugged his form. A lone sash ran down from his right shoulder, and blended into his belt, which matched the sash... both were simple straps of a material that looked metallic.

The Orvani regarded the masses for a moment, before delivering its speech.

"Greetings. I am the Commander of the military contingent of our fleet. The asteroid you just saw our ships lay waste to, was due to impact with your planet, in 502 years, 3 months, 1 day, 87 hours, 43 minutes, and 21 seconds. As you can see, that will no longer happen." it said.

As the Commander uttered the last word of that speech, before anybody even became aware of it, faster than a blink of an eye, a dozen Orvani saucers suddenly appeared into view, about a hundred feet above and behind the Commander.

"And here they are, once again." he stated, as he looked to them, and gave a gesture similar to an Earth salute, as the dozen saucers again broke formation, and before anyone knew it, again vanished from sight, as the crowds gasped in awe at the speed of their ships. "As you can see, time plays a role in how we travel the universe... but it is but one element of a larger ensemble of instruments we use. And as you can see, our military power is great... but you also see that you have nothing to fear, for we pledge not to use it against you, but rather, for your protection, should need be." he continued. "Among our race, only our star ships have weaponry... individual people do not... no form of personal weaponry exists on Orvan. There is a reason for this... we Orvani believe firmly, that weaponry must be used not to destroy life, but to ensure it. This should not and shall not change, now that we are away from our own world." he added, as the crowd now broke into a massive round of applause.

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

 

[Mistral]

Um, you ever seen the miniseries V? Just wondering.....

 

[BolianAuthor]

Um, you ever seen the miniseries V? Just wondering.....

No... as with all my fanfics, I make it a point never to watch anyone else's fanfilm, or read any other fics, so that nobody can say I stole from them knowingly. I have never seen "V", but if my story, or parts of it are similar, it is not intentional... guess I'll have to rent it.

I HAVE however, seen "Alien Nation", and I knew going in, that certain parts of "Shades of Gray" would be almost identical to that series.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Um, you ever seen the miniseries V? Just wondering.....

No... as with all my fanfics, I make it a point never to watch anyone else's fanfilm, or read any other fics, so that nobody can say I stole from them knowingly. I have never seen "V", but if my story, or parts of it are similar, it is not intentional... guess I'll have to rent it.

I HAVE however, seen "Alien Nation", and I knew going in, that certain parts of "Shades of Gray" would be almost identical to that series.

I hadn't thought of Alien Nation when reading this, I always thought it was over rated. I like where your going with this..keep it up..

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Mistral]

V is about the Visitors, nice, friendly advanced aliens who come to Earth in peace-and harbor a dark secret. You'd have to watch the mini-series to get the full context of my previous post.

 

[BolianAuthor]

V is about the Visitors, nice, friendly advanced aliens who come to Earth in peace-and harbor a dark secret. You'd have to watch the mini-series to get the full context of my previous post.

Well, the Orvani do have deep dark secrets, but they aren't what you think they are... I'm trying to do something new with this story, and as time goes on, I think you'll begin to see where things are going, and hopefully, it'll work.

 

[BolianAuthor]

-- CONTINUED --

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The image of the two evening news anchors filled the television screen, as the story box to their side announced a report on the Orvani arrival.

"Greetings, and good evening, San Francisco." the man began. "As we all know by now, yesterday began like any other day, but quickly became the most important day in Earth's history, as mankind made contact with the Orvani Nation... a group of self-described refugees, from the planet Orvan, which is the second planet in the Zeta Reticuli system." he said, handing the rest of the intro over to his female co-anchor.

"That's right, Barry." she continued. "We wanted to see what the public reaction has been so far to the Orvani's arrival, so we sent our cameras out to the streets to poll the people... here is that report." she said, as the report box to her side zoomed in to fill the screen, and show a male reporter holding a microphone to a group of people.

"Tell me... what do you think of the arrival of the Orvani? The Orvani themselves?" the reporter asked.

"This is the best thing that ever happened!" one woman called out. "This is the end of all our problems... they'll be able to wipe out all our diseases, end our hunger... unite Earth, and bring peace to our world!" she stated.

"There's so much we can learn from them." another man spoke out.

"They seem friendly." another man began. "I just hope we're careful... I mean... we've seen their power... and I'm sure that was probably only a small fraction of it." he added, as the reporter now nodded, turning back to face the camera.

"And there we have it... just a sampling of public opinion of the Orvani." he said, turning the report back over to the studio.

"Thanks for that, Rick." the male anchor said, taking over, as now he began a new story on the Orvani. "And in other Orvani news, the Orvani representative met today with the leaders of the Earth's nations, at the United Nations Security Council, in New York. The meeting was said to have gone well, but some have said that Yuri Gladinov, Premiere of the Russian Union, remains apprehensive about the Orvani's action of initial contact with the United States. Also not present at the meeting, were the representatives from the Vatican, which has prompted many to ask the question of how the religions of the world are reacting to the Orvani's arrival, if at all." he stated.

"That's right." the female co-anchor took over. "Pope Benedict has been out of the public view, ever since the Orvani fleet arrived on Earth, and that is causing the faithful to wonder if he's going to make an announcement soon, or if there are some other plans in the works." she added. "Finally, the one sad Orvani-related story to relate... the first fatality associated with the Orvani arrival..." she said, handing it over to her male anchor.

"That's right, Stacy... a man died earlier today, after he fired his gun at the underside of an Orvani saucer. Apparently, the man's brother reported that he had wanted to see if there was any shield around the ship. There was not. Instead, the bullet bounced off the saucer's hull, striking the man in the head, killing him instantly. The Orvani have expressed their deepest regrets over the incident, and have asked that the citizens of Earth not indulge in firing weapons or throwing objects at their ships." he said.

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Again, you really nailed the tone of the media. Oddly enough, it's these bits with the press that I'm enjoying the most in this story--I can just about hear this really being part of an actual newscast.

(BTW, it's interesting that you suggest that the religions would not react. Ever read Eifelheim by Michael Flynn?)

 

[BolianAuthor]

-- CONTINUED --



PART TWO: "The Blue and the Gray"



JULY 7, 1947 - EARTH

The small Orvani saucer screamed towards the upper atmosphere of Earth, but something was wrong... its course was not stable... the craft appeared to be having problems maintaining full stability, as it wavered from side to side slightly.

As the craft flew through the layers of atmosphere, a long trail of fire surrounded and followed it, until finally, the craft emerged into the lower altitudes, and unable to sufficiently slow down, sped towards the ground below.

Suddenly, the craft flew through a massive thunderhead, falling into the heart of the mighty dark clouds, like a pebble vanishing into a puddle of mud.

Just as the craft emerged from the dark cloud, a powerful bolt of lighting struck it, sending it reeling, as it spun around and around, like a coin spinning in midair, before regaining attitude control, and leveling its descent.

This saucer was Orvani, but it was not perfectly ovular and smooth, like modern Orvani saucers, though the color was exactly the same... a totally featureless outer hull, with a bright brushed aluminum color. The hull of this craft was more like a double-layered hat, in appearance.

The craft began to trail some form of smoke, which was tinted ever so slightly blue, as a second later, some sort of hatch was blown, on the upper part of the saucer. Seconds later, three figures appeared... Orvani. Two of them struggled with all their might, against the furious force of the wind, to clamp onto the hull of their craft, as the third looked on, and had second thoughts, returning to the inside of the craft. Finally, the wind blew the other two off of the ship, as they began to fall to the ground below.

A second later, the saucer plowed into the ground, at an extremely high speed, sending a massive plume of dirt exploding into the air, and creating a deep ditch in the ground, near where it impacted.

61 YEARS LATER

NEVADA, EARTH

The two Orvani saucers casually flew over the desert, scanning for places suitable for them to settle down on. The majority of the Orvani fleet had settled in Africa, but they needed more room. The American government was gracious to them, and allocated a stretch of desert along the Nevada/Arizona/New Mexico region, for them to occupy. Essentially, the Orvani were going to be living on reservations.

Suddenly, one of the two saucers paused, as the other kept flying by.

ORVANI SAUCER - CONTROL ROOM

The Orvani at the central control table looked to the Commander, as he entered the room.

"Sir... this is most puzzling." it began. "Our sensors are reading Orvani life signs here... but they are under the ground, Sir." it said, as the Commander looked to him.

"How many?" he asked.

"One." the Orvani replied. "There appears to be an elaborate network of structures underground... expanding sweep..." he began, as he continued working. "Okay... now reading multiple human life signs as well... armed... and... hmmm.." the Orvani commented, puzzled.

"What is it?" the Commander asked.

"It seems, Sir... that there are also numerous fragments of material from the hull of an Orvani ship here... as well as trace amounts of Elelment 115." it said, looking to the Commander.

"AREA 51" - SOMEWHERE IN THE NEVADA DESERT

RECREATION LOUNGE

The elderly Orvani male sat at the small table, staring at the checkers piece... it was now his turn. He looked to the military officer who was sitting at the table with him... a middle-aged human man, who wore a military rifle, that was slung over his shoulder on a strap.

"C'mon..." the soldier began. "I'm getting older by the second here... you gonna move?" he asked, as the Orvani looked to him, and outstretched its arms, in preparation to move the piece.

Before the Orvani could make the move, he was suddenly enveloped in a curtain of brilliant blue light, as he vanished from sight, as a stunned soldier jumped out of his seat, and ran to call for help.

The military men ran with everything they had, down the corridor, that led to the stairway to the desert surface, as they began to climb the steps.

ORVANI SAUCER

In the middle of the control room, a wash of brilliant blue light revealed the form of the elderly Orvani, in his chair, as he sat, and now looked up, to see two more of his own kind, for the first time in decades, his face wearing a look of some bewilderment.

"AREA 51" - SOMEWHERE IN THE NEVADA DESERT

The hatch to the outside world sprung open, and the military men rushed onto the surface, and stopped short, gasping with both awe and terror at what they were now looking upon...

The lone Orvani saucer hovered low in the sky, just over them, as it very slowly rotated in midair. For a couple of seconds, the saucer moved lower and even closer to the men... right up to their faces, as if to appear confrontational. Then, suddenly, without any warning at all, and faster than the blink of an eye, the saucer vanished, streaking forward into the sky, as seconds later, the wake of wind blew powerful gusts over and past the men, as they stood, bewildered by what had just taken place.

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Uh-oh...this spells D-I-P-L-O-M-A-T-I-C...I-N-C-I-D-E-N-T...

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

It's awkward, to say the least.

 

[Mistral]

I can hear Brent Spiner saying, "As you can imagine, they don't let us out very often."

 

[BolianAuthor]

-- CONTINUED --

THE WHITE HOUSE - OVAL OFFICE

The President sat atop his desk, facing the leaders of Russia, Germany, and France, as suddenly, a wash of brilliant blue light signaled the arrival of the Orvani saucer Commander, and three of his crew, as he looked directly at the President, to a stunned group of people.

"We're kind of in the middle of a meeting..." the President began.

"All of you, except the President... get out." the Commander stated, not taking his eyes off of President Bensen.

For a long second, nobody moved, as everyone was stunned at the sudden appearance and remark by the Commander. Finally, he turned to face the others.

"GET OUT!" he shouted, as now the group got up, and hurried out of the room, closing the door behind them, to leave the Orvani delegation alone with Bensen. "You know..." the Commander stated, now slowly walking towards Bensen. "...we came here, asking nothing more than a place to live. We have power that can wipe your entire species, and every shred of your history from this world, yet from the start, our intent and actions have been nothing but peaceful. Imagine my surprise, and dismay, when I come to discover that you have been lying to us." he stated.

"What the hell are you talking about? I've not lied to you... not once!" Bensen offered.

"There was an Orvani already on this planet, before we arrived!" the Commander said back, in a raised voice. "In your Nevada desert... we found the debris of the saucer... the traces of Element 115, and we have recovered the Orvani citizen himself!" he pressed. "Why were we not told of this survivor? Why was this kept from us?" he said, unrelenting.

"Maybe because I myself, knew nothing of it!" Bensen called back, trying to defend himself. "As far as I knew, your fleet was the first contact anyone from Earth have had with your people. Don't you think if I did know about it, I would have told you? You did after all save my life... I am in your debt." he added.

For a moment, the Commander looked at him, and then motioned for two of his officers to go to either side of the President.

"Hold him, so he doesn't fall." the Commander instructed, as the officers each grabbed one of the President's arms, while the President looked to the Commander, who was now focused on the President's eyes... his own eyes drilling into the mind of the President, digging deep, searching, one by one, the memory engrams of the President's entire life.

The President's eyes began to roll back up into their sockets, as he began to slump down, growing incredibly dizzy and weak, while the Orvani officers held him up, so he wouldn't fall down.

The President's face showcased a full array of emotional responses, as he was being forced to basically relive every momet of his life, within a matter of seconds. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the Commander released the President's mind, and the officers gently lowered him into his seat, as he recovered, now coming back to reality, as he wiped his brow, and caught his breath.

"You're not lying... you have no knowledge of this matter." the Commander stated.

"Was that neccessary?" Bensen asked, now looking again to the Commander, as he regained his full composure, and the two officers moved back to the Commander.

"Yes." the Commander replied. "I know now that I can trust you. However... it appears that now we have a mystery... one that we will both have to do work to solve. I want you to investigate this matter on the end of your own government... for my part, I will contact Orvan, and search for the records of whatever ship it was that crashed here, and why there was no record of it in our navigational database. I also need to confirm the identity of the citizen we recovered." he added, as he and his officers now walked to the door, to leave the room.

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Whoa...that could've gone so much worse! Though I find myself wondering what kind of rabble-rouser this rescued Orvani might be, or if the rescue might provoke dissenters in the fleet...

 

[Mistral]

I'm trying to picture a shouting Asgard. It boggles the mind.

 

[BolianAuthor]

-- CONTINUED --

ORVANI SAUCER - MESS HALL

The large group of Orvani sat at their tables, eating their food, as almost all of them looked to the far table, where the elderly Orvani survivor was sitting, alone, as he himself was watching the others eat.

The Orvani did not have facial hair, but because of his advanced age, this Orvani had a few small, almost stubble-like "whiskers" of white and gray hair, near his chin, and his face sported a few somewhat deep wrinkles, below his large eyes, and cheeks.

Suddenly, the saucer's Commander sat down beside the elder, and looked to him, smiling.

"May I join you?" the Commander asked.

"Do they have to stare like that?" the elder asked.

"Oh, they don't mean to be rude." the Commander began. "It's just that, well... you're unique... no Orvani in our modern history has ever lived as long as you have... you're over 100 earth years old! That's ancient... I can't recall any of our kind living past 40 Earth years." he added. "And that was the current record holder on Orvan, until we discovered you."

"Maybe it's the colder climate on this world." the elder offered, looking to the Commander's plate, with longing. "Mmm... native food... it's been forever..." he began.

"Please." the Commander offered, sliding his plate to the elder, who began to eat. "Well, you were kept in an underground facility... away from climate and the elements... in controlled conditions... but now that I think of it... what did you eat? Since we arrived here, we don't know what foods on this world are fit for our consumption... maybe you could offer some insight?" he asked.

"Trust me... almost nothing on this rock is fit for an Orvani stomach... my diet was VERY limited." the elder began. "Two fods... some kind of round red vegetable that they call a tomato, and a frozen dairy product they call strawberry ice cream... and, of course... water." he added. "One bit of advice... if you consume water on this planet... do so only if it's been filtered... you have no idea of the contaminants in their civic and ocean water."

"That's no problem... we can just reorganize the water on the planet molecularly... make it pure again." the Commander offered.

"Until these people pollute it again." the elder began. "Trust me... there's a reason why this species has not advanced farther than they have... they're remarkably set in their ways, unwilling to change. Did you know, that this planet has seen not one, but TWO world wars? And those were just global wars... there have also been numerous civil wars, as well as wars between individual nations." he added.

"Well... it may not be all their fault... it can be easy to forget the lessons of the past, as a culture moves on... there's an old saying I remember being taught... "We learn from history that we never learn from history", it goes." the Commander offered.

"Well, we learn now, because of how we're designed... but that quote descibes the humans perfectly." the elder remarked. "Thank you for the food, Commander." he added, sliding the empty plate back to the officer. "Any word on when I can speak to someone on Orvan? I'm anxious to return home." he added.

"Hopefully soon." the Commander began. "I sent a message to Orvan this morning... it should get there by midnight Earth time. As soon as I speak to someone, so will you." he said, as he began to get up. "By the way... how come no emergency signal was ever sent to Orvan from you, while you were here... why were you on Earth so long?" the Commander added.

"I can't talk about that." the elder began, but then realized how suspicious it sounded, so he looked up to the Commander, to add more to his comment. "At least... not now." he said, offering a slight smile, as the Commander just nodded, puzzled, as he walked off, leaving the elder to himself once again.

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Interesting: superior technology on Orvan--yet the longer-lived Orvani is on Earth?? So now the Orvani have found the Fountain of Youth on Earth? Our humble little world had better brace itself in case they get an influx of youth-seekers, Ba'ku style...

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Hehe... well, there's a reason technology on Orvan is so superior, and the lifespan of the Orvani has something to do with it.

You'll have to stay tuned for the rest.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEEEEOPLEEEEE!

Sorry, I couldn't resist...

 

[Mistral]

I caught that bit about"that's how we're designed" by the way.