Strangers

think these creatures would be capable of lying. Besides, if they could so easily take us over, they wouldn't require propaganda. And they sure as hell wouldn't bring us this encyclopedia that tells us they're going to change us."
        Ginger had noticed Brendan Cronin following the discussion even more avidly than everyone else, and now he said, "I know the religious metaphor may not be entirely appropriate here. But if they feel they come to us as the servants of God… and if they come to hand down to us these miraculous gifts, then you could almost say they were angels, archangels bestowing special blessings."
        Falkirk laughed harshly. "Oh, that's rich, Cronin! Do you really think you can get to me from a religious angle? Me? Even if I were a religious fanatic, like my dead and rotting parents, I wouldn't buy these creatures as angels. Angels with faces like buckets of worms?"
        "Worms? What's he talking about?" Brendan asked Bennell.
        The scientist said, "They look very different from us. Bipeds with forearms rather like us, yes. Six digits instead of five. But that's about all we have in common in the way of looks. Initially, they seem repulsive. In fact, repulsive is a mild word. But in time… you begin to see they have a certain beauty of their own."
        "Beauty of their own," Falkirk said scornfully. "Monsters is what they are, and they'd only have beauty in the eyes of other monsters, so you've just proven my point, Bennell."
        Ginger's anger with Falkirk drove her to take a couple of steps toward him in spite of his submachine gun. "You damn fool," she said. "What does it matter what they look like? The important thing is what they are. And evidently they're creatures with a deep sense of purpose, noble purpose. No matter how different they look, the things we have in common with them are greater than our differences. My father always said that, as much as intelligence, the things that separated us from the beasts were courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy. Do you realize what courage it took for them to set out on this journey across God knows how many thousands of millions of miles? So that's one big thing we share with them - courage. And love, friendship? They must have those too. Otherwise how would they have built a civilization that could reach to the stars? You need love and friendship to have a reason to build. Compassion? They've got a mission to bring other intelligent species to a higher rung on the evolutionary ladder. Surely, that takes compassion. And empathy? Isn't that obvious? They empathize with our fear and loneliness, with our dread that we're adrift in a meaningless universe. They empathize so much that they commit themselves to these incredible journeys on the mere hope of encountering us and bringing us the news that we are not alone." Suddenly she knew her anger wasn't directed so much at Falkirk as at this horrid blindness in the human species that led it frequently into spirals of self-destruction. "Look at me," she told the colonel. "I'm a Jew. And there are those who'd say I'm not the same as they are, not as good, even dangerous. Stories of Jews drinking the blood of gentile babies - there are the ignorant who believe that garbage. Is there any difference between that sick antisemitism and your stubborn insistence, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that these creatures come to drink our blood? Let us go, for God's sake. Stop the endless hatred here. Stop it now. We have a destiny that leaves no room for hatred."
        "Bravo," Falkirk said acidly. "A very nice speech." Even as he spoke, the colonel swung his machine gun toward General Alvarado and said, "Don't go for your gun, General. I assume you're carrying one. I won't be shot. I want to die in the glorious fire."
        "Fire?" Bennell said.
        Falkirk grinned. "That's right, Doctor. The glorious fire that will consume us all and save the world from this infection."
        "Christ!" Bennell said. "That's why you didn't bring more men with you. You didn't want to sacrifice more than necessary. "He turned to Alvarado. "Bob, the crazy bastard's gotten into the tactical nukes."
        Ginger knew that Alvarado was feeling precisely what she felt at this news, for his face twisted and went instantly gray.
        "Two backpack nukes," Falkirk said. "One right outside that door. The other in the main chamber downstairs." He checked his watch. "Less than