The Scalian Legacy

It was still morning in the Amazon. Chris had been trying to sleep for a couple of hours when another drop fell on his face from the tree above him as he lay on his hammock. It hadn’t even rained, it was simply the condensation of the morning dew dripping from the trees. Exasperated, he sat up and jumped out of his hammock.

“Even the damn trees sweat here!” Chris exclaimed as he walked towards the now extinguished fire ring.

Kenny had been deep asleep until Chris’ outburst. “Do you ever think of others?” Kenny asked as he tried to re-adjust himself and get back to sleep.

“Sorry.” Chris said. “I just can’t sleep. You really think we should stay here?”

Kenny had closed his eyes again, but now began to realize that Chris wasn’t going to let him sleep anymore. “Chris, we talked about this already.” Kenny said. “No one is going to believe us and when we show them that burned piece of the forest, they may even arrest us for it. Without the three of them, we have enough food to stay out here a couple of more days. We might as well do that just in case they return.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Chris acknowledged again although he wanted nothing more than to leave.

“Now, can I get some more sleep?” Kenny asked.

“Sure, I’ll try to start the fire for breakfast.” Chris replied. “Did you guys bring lighter fluid? Where are the matches?”

Kenny sighed. This guy is impossible! Kenny thought to himself. How did Jack become best friends with him? Kenny knew that he had to get up. If he let Chris try to cook breakfast, he just knew that it was going to be trouble. Kenny sat up on his hammock and jumped down.

As Jack opened his eyes, he realized he was in a bed, with some kind of mask on his face. The mask was softly taped to his face and was easy to remove. He breathed deeply to make sure oxygen levels were adequate. They seemed to be; he did not feel any shortness of breath. The room was well lit and smelled clean. In fact, he couldn’t detect any odors at all.

His body felt strong and rather well recovered. He lifted his hands and moved his fingers around without difficulty. He raised his legs and moved his feet around, also without any problems. He then remembered his ankle injury from his fall, but it seemed healed; at least, he couldn’t feel anything wrong with it. He remembered the scrapes he suffered when he first climbed into the alien ship; but his knees, chest and elbow also seemed perfectly healed.

Jack looked around the room while still lying flat to avoid causing any alarm. The room seemed to be a private, hospital-like room, about the size of an average bedroom. It was rather bland, with no decorations. Just white walls and a door with no handles. He appeared to be alone; no tubes or instrumentation of any kind was connected to him. He decided to sit up. He noticed the bed was quite large. It seemed to be well over eight feet long and about as wide as a typical double bed. Odd holographic displays hovered above him that seemed to be showing his health information. He could recognize some vital signs—blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration; however, he had no idea what other signs were. He reached up to see how it worked. Just then the door swooshed open.

A large alien-looking creature entered. “Good morning! I saw from the monitors that you had awoken. How are you feeling?”

It was well over seven feet tall, with a sort of humanoid body type. The face had two eyes, a rather flat, thin nose, a mouth with a thin section inward that seemed to be lips and ears in all the right places. However, the skin appeared rough, uneven and somewhat greyish. Also, the alien did not appear to have hair, or at least certainly not on its scalp; nor did it seem to have eyebrows. It was dressed in what looked like a long one-piece white robe with some insignias on the shoulder.

Its voice was quite clear, and even melodic. Jack didn’t know where to start. He stuttered as he gawked at his visitor.

“Oh sorry. You probably don’t even understand me, do you?” The alien’s mouth curled upward at its edges—it smiled. “I must say. You are a curious creature.”

“No, I do understand,” Jack finally said. “But that’s what I’m confused about. How is it that you speak English?”

“Fantastic! We had no idea what language you might speak.” It brightened and titled its head slightly to the left. “As for English, well I’ve spoken it since I was about two, so I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to speak?” It chuckled at the silliness of his question.

“I kind of have a lot of questions…” Jack started.

“I think we have quite a few for you as well, but that’s not what I’m here for. I just wanted to make sure you were healing well.” Jack noticed it had a small device in its right hand as it approached him. The small device looked like a rectangular piece of glass surrounded by some greyish plastic around the edges. As the alien walked, its hips swayed just slightly. These mannerisms, its voice, and dress made Jack get the sense that it was a female.

She asked Jack to remain still as she placed the device above his ankle. The device lit up as she touched it. It seemed to be displaying his bones. Then, with a touch of the screen, it appeared to display his muscles. Both times there seemed to be some information on the screen, but Jack was unable to read it. She nodded as if satisfied with what she had seen. “You appear to have healed very nicely.” She turned and started to walk out.

“Wait!” Jack called out. “Can I ask you some questions? Like where am I?”

She turned back towards him as she reached the door. “Someone will be here soon enough.”

And then she was gone.

Jack tried to snap himself out of the shock he was feeling. He stood up and tested his new ankle as he tried to remind himself how lucky he was just to be alive. Heck, his captors had fixed him up, could actually communicate with him and, at least for now, they didn’t seem hostile. Still, his mind kept coming back to the obvious question: What in God’s good name is that thing, and how could it speak English?

Jack pondered the possibilities for the next thirty minutes as he waited…. Could they be related to humans? What about those hairy things that took Robbie and Marcelo? How do they fit in? Do they speak English as well? They certainly spoke something else earlier. However, they had to be familiar with these aliens, or how else could he have come to be here? But, how can any alien species possibly know English? Could they have picked it up from radio waves escaping from Earth? The questions circled Jack’s mind rapidly, but nothing seemed to make sense.

Finally, the door swooshed open once more.

This time there were three of them. They were also dressed in white, but they appeared more intimidating than the female before. They appeared to be over eight feet tall, wider, thicker and generally more masculine. Their skin was still appeared as rough and even, if not more so than the female. Two of them seemed stiffer and larger than the third as they barely looked at Jack. The third was at least a couple of inches shorter, but still very stout. They dressed differently as well: they wore fairly tight pants and comfortable-looking buttonless shirts, although the insignias were similar.

The shorter one moved forward and reached out his hand as if for a handshake. Jack looked up at him. He stared briefly at the hand with trepidation—but reached out his hand for a handshake nonetheless. As they shook hands, Jack felt the odd, rough, bumpy skin and got chills. The thick, rough skin almost felt armor-like; closer to what he imagined a rhino’s hide would feel like than anything else. Then, the realization hit him. He was shaking hands with an alien! Not something he could ever have fantasized just a day ago, when he was in the steamy forest.

The alien said something as they shook hands, but Jack was so fascinated with the odd feeling of the alien’s hand that he missed most of what the alien was saying, and he asked if the alien could repeat himself. Annoyed, the alien repeated, “I said, my name is Commander Anterian Rivas. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” This alien smiled as well, but it seemed forced as the eyes looked coolly on Jack.

Jack introduced himself. Commander Rivas explained to Jack that he was being taken to a conference room to speak with an admiral, the captain of the ship and three other commanders.

“Can you tell me where I am?” Jack asked.

“Not just yet.” The shorter one replied while the two larger ones surrounded Jack and placed their hands on each of Jack’s shoulders. This pretty much stopped Jack from asking any more questions.

As he exited his room, Jack could see the larger medical area. At its center stood what appeared to be a circular control section with several holographic monitors similar to the one above his bed. The alien that visited him earlier was there, and she looked up and smiled at Jack as he departed. Someone near her was moving one of the holographic displays with her hands. This central section was surrounded by doors similar to the door that Jack had just exited: other hospital-like rooms, Jack conjectured. Overall, the cleanliness and sterile nature of the place was what stood out to Jack.

As he exited the medical area, he entered a well-lit corridor that was also rather bland, with mostly white-and-grey walls. Jack then noticed a couple of other alien creatures coming in his direction. Although it was not easy to tell with their uneven faces, they did seem surprised to see Jack: they fixated on him and whispered once he was far enough away. Suddenly, a feeling of loneliness rushed in. Would he ever see home again—or even another human? Would these aliens help him retrieve his brother and Marcelo? Why wouldn’t they allow anyone to talk to him until he met with these folks?

Finally, they arrived at their destination. Double doors swooshed open in front of him to reveal a sizable conference room. The first thing to catch Jack’s attention was the long window at the other end of the room. It was a clear view of space and its many distant stars. He had supposed that this was a possibility, but to see it was a very different thing. Mesmerized, Jack drifted towards the window, ignoring the rest of the room.

Commander Rivas was going to stop Jack, but one of the other aliens stood up and put his hand up as if to tell Rivas to let Jack go. Jack continued all the way to the window. Tears began to well up from within. The feeling of loneliness, which began on the way to this meeting, exploded within him. He felt so small and so far away from anything he could remotely call home that the situation had become completely overwhelming, even though he still didn’t understand what was going on. After a few long seconds, Jack cleared his throat, wiped his eyes and turned around to face his captors. He had to remain in the present and clear-minded. He was here for Robbie and Marcelo. He still had a purpose and needed to try to focus on it.

Jack turned to see that there was a long rectangular white table at the center of the room surrounded by ten chairs, five of which were populated by aliens. Jack noticed that the alien that had stood and motioned to Rivas was dressed in a similar uniform, but it was black as opposed to white. He was also slightly taller than Rivas. Next to him was what appeared to be a female alien, as she was dressed in a robe, similar to the robe Jack saw on the alien in the medical area, except that this one was grey. Finally, there were three other male-looking aliens dressed in grey on the other side of the table. They were all as impressive and large as the others Jack had seen. Jack noticed that the alien at the far end of the table seemed a little older, as he appeared to have wrinkles around his eyes. How can that skin even wrinkle? Jack thought to himself.

Jack nodded at them all and took a seat at the far end of the table. Rivas took a seat as well, while the two guards left the room.

“I’m not sure where to begin,” the alien in black started. “I suppose I should start with introductions. I am Admiral Jonathan Alterman. To my left here is Captain Joanne Malarde, who is in charge of this ship we call The Explorer.” He pointed to the female alien. “And this is her senior staff.” He pointed at the other four. “I believe you have met Commander Rivas, and these are Commanders Johar, Liu, and Simon.” The admiral paused and then added: “Do you mind sharing your name with us?”

“Sure,” Jack started. “My name is Jack Felder. I’m a computer engineer from a planet called Earth.”

This seemed to draw varied reactions. Rivas snickered, apparently in disbelief. Johar quietly said, “What?” to himself. Liu gasped. Simon just smiled, and Captain Malarde leaned back in surprise. Meanwhile, the admiral’s expression only slightly changed to one of concern.

“Can you give us your date of birth and location of birth so that we may search for you in our systems?” the admiral quickly added.

“What?” Jack asked, anxiety clearly building in his voice. “How would you have me in your systems?” He tried not to think of the scenarios going through his mind, as none of them were good.

“Please. We will explain what we can in due time,” the admiral said. “If you would indulge us?”

“Okay, fine.” Jack’s mouth dried as his heart started racing again. “I was born on May 14th, 1986, in São Paulo, Brazil, if any of that makes sense to you.”

Rivas chuckled to himself, but loud enough to be heard.

“Commander.” The captain looked sternly at Rivas. “Let’s look it up.”

“Yes, sir.” Rivas placed his hands on a slightly darker square portion of the table next to him. A holographic display appeared over the far end of the table.

“Commander Rivas authenticated,” a disembodied female voice sounded off.

“Information on Jack Felder, born May 14th, 1986, in São Paulo, Brazil,” Rivas commanded.

“Searching,” the disembodied voice replied. “Information found. Jackson Richard Felder, born May fourteenth, 1986, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Robert and Soria Felder. Youngest of three siblings. Other siblings are Kenneth Santiago Felder and Roberto James Felder. Bachelors, Masters and PhD in Computer Engineering from M.I.T. Summa cum laude. Coauthor of three papers on nanophotonic chip design. Married to Ellen Francine Felder on July third, 2010. Disappeared near Macapá, Brazil, on June twenty-second, 2015. Declared deceased on June twenty-second, 2016.”

Jack’s heart was now pounding out of his chest, and his palms were sweating. “How do you have this information? How is this possible? And what the hell was that about being declared deceased a year from now?” Jack noticed that his throat was now completely dry as he forced down a swallow.

“Is there any media?” Commander Rivas said, without addressing Jack’s questions.

“Yes.”

The computer replaced the text on the holographic display with Jack’s Facebook profile photograph. Then a photograph of him accepting his M.I.T. PhD. Then a photograph of his wedding day. Then a photograph with Chris Anderson accepting an award for their research.

“Enough.” The admiral stopped the displays, as he noticed Jack had turned white and was on the verge of hyperventilating. “Son, are you okay?”

“Son?” Anger suddenly boiled up within Jack. What was going on had been reduced to a few possibilities—and all stirred strong negative reactions in Jack. He looked up and firmly added, “Don’t call me ‘son.’” Jack then paused and stared at his captors. “What year is it?”

“It’s 4984,” the admiral replied with empathy.

Jack felt as though he had been punched in the stomach. He tried to calm himself, but he couldn’t seem to catch his breath. He felt as if he was about to throw up, so he stood and walked towards the window that had made him feel so small and far away just a little while ago. Now, it seemed to bring him peace; an escape from the insanity he was experiencing. Could this just be a dream? The most elaborate and detailed dream he had ever experienced? He placed his head against the glass.

“So, are you the species that took over Earth?” Jack said. Given they had all of this information about Jack and spoke English, Jack conjectured that Earth had to be their origin.

“Sort of,” the admiral answered. “We’re human.”

Jack turned swiftly in the direction of his captors. “I don’t have any idea what you are, but it’s not human.”

“A lot has happened in nearly three thousand years,” the admiral replied calmly.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Jack tried to gather himself. “So, time travel is now possible? Can you send us back to our time?”

The admiral seemed to hesitate. “‘Us’? There are more like you?”

“Yes. My brother Robbie and Marcelo Souza. They were captured by those hairy creatures.” Jack was still trying to catch his breath as he explained.

Admiral Alterman motioned to Rivas. “Information on Robert Felder and Marcelo Souza. Same time period and location,” Rivas spoke out loud.

“Roberto James Felder and Marcelo Souza disappeared with Jackson Richard Felder near Macapá, Brazil, on June twenty-second, 2015, and were also declared deceased on June twenty-second, 2016,” the disembodied voice sounded off.

This just angered Jack more. “I asked if you can send us back. Can you?”

The admiral sighed. “Jack, as far as we know time can only travel in one direction, and that is forward. So, we don’t know how to send you or your friends back to your time.”

“So, was I sleeping for three thousand years?” Jack asked. “Could those creatures have visited Earth three thousand years ago and I was somehow frozen on their ship for that long?”

The admiral looked uncomfortable for the first time as he answered. “No. Those creatures did not have the ability to get to Earth three thousand years ago.”

“So then those creatures visited Earth just a day ago and came back. Obviously, they’ve figured out how to time travel. The only reason I’m here in this godforsaken…time is because of them.” Jack couldn’t seem to control the emotions he had been holding back as he drifted from sadness to shock to anger and back to sadness again in a matter of minutes. He wasn’t used to being out of control.

“Why exactly were you on the Scalian ship?” the admiral asked.

“Scalian?” Jack looked confused for a moment. “Oh, that’s what you call those things? Are they also former humans?”

Jack’s question seemed to cause some amusement, although Jack didn’t find it funny.

“No, they are from a different planet,” the admiral answered, suppressing a smile.

“Okay, whatever. I told you already. I went on their ship because they took my brother and Marcelo. I snuck onto their ship to see if I could free them.”

“And I can’t see how you could have snuck onto their ship at all,” Rivas said with obvious sarcasm.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jack fired back.

Rivas straightened up as if preparing for a fight. Jack was not prone to violence. He remembered getting into a fight in elementary school, but that was about it. Still, his emotions were such that he didn’t seem to mind a tussle, even if his chances against a sturdy, over eight-foot giant with rhino hide for skin were not particularly good.

The admiral tried to calm Jack down. “Jack, please, have a seat.”

Jack shifted his glare from Rivas to the admiral, but decided to comply nonetheless.

“We’ve thrown quite a bit at you for now,” the admiral said. “How about we send you back to your room and let you process this for a while? We will then take this up again in a few hours.”

“What about my brother and Marcelo?” Jack hadn’t even gotten to his main point for being here and suffering through this. “Can you get them back from those…what did you call them?”

“Scalians,” the admiral said sympathetically. “I don’t know. It’s a bit complicated. We will discuss our options.”

That didn’t sound promising at all to Jack. “Are they friendly with you or not? They came here to talk to you, didn’t they? Why can’t you ask them?” Jack’s desperation was rising, along with all the other emotions he suddenly found difficult to control.

“I think we understand how important this is for you.” The admiral tried to keep his tone sympathetic, but firm. “We will discuss it.”

Jack was about to ask for answers to his questions, but stopped himself. “Fine.” Jack nodded. He was frustrated, but he didn’t have much choice. He didn’t exactly want to be in the room with these aliens any longer, anyway; he just couldn’t bring himself to think of them as humans. He wanted to get away and think this through. He especially wanted to get away from Rivas, who seemed to be accusing him of something. This was not the way he had expected the meeting to go. Instead of coming out with a plan to save Robbie and Marcelo, he was more confused than ever.