The Truth?
? Chapter Fifteen
THE STORY SO FAR: The great Eagles have said that they are not Eagles after all – but human ancestors!
“Ancestors?” exclaimed Dalton. “That makes no sense! You are far ahead of us technologically! How could you be from the past?”
“And how can thirteen years be more than a thousand?” added Rainera. “And your size? I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.”
“Let’s start with time,” said the giant Eagle woman. “We were the first people to journey to a star. When we left Earth, we traveled immensely fast – at nearly the speed of light. Time, relative to its pace on Earth, slowed for us. A great Earth scientist of long ago named Albert Einstein predicted this would happen. Speed, he said, alters time. Our round-trip voyage took us roughly three years. But when we returned, three hundred years had passed on Earth.”
Rainera and Dalton looked at each other with their mouths wide open, thunderstruck.
“I know,” continued the giantess. “It’s complex and confusing. We knew when we left that this would happen. We would journey into space and we would see the future! We were dedicated, willing to say good-bye forever to our families, friends, and culture for a higher goal. ‘Every worthwhile adventure requires risk and sacrifice,’ we told ourselves. ‘We are explorers! Our journey to the stars is for the sake of all mankind.’ We imagined the treasures we’d find, the marvels we’d see, the hero’s welcome we’d receive. Instead, we came back to catastrophe. Our beautiful cities lay in ruins. The atmosphere was choked with dust. There had been radioactive wars and ecological disaster. And people, why … “
The giantess looked at Rainera. “Yes, we are big, Rainera,” she said. “Giants, as you’ve said. But not because we’ve grown.”
Rainera’s head began to throb. Her palms were sweating. She didn’t understand. But she was beginning to. And she didn’t like it. “What do you mean?” she bravely asked.
“In order to survive those dark, stressful times,” the giantess said slowly, “all living things shrank, in order to become more energy efficient.”
“Oh,” said Rainera. “Oh, no. No.”
Dalton’s head dropped. He stared at the ground.
“Everywhere we went,” the woman continued, “we found wandering bands of tiny people struggling to survive amidst ruins. Their culture contained fragments of our lofty past jumbled up with primitive elements. These little people could generate force fields, yet they carried spears. We taught them agricultural skills and left them several advanced instruments. Some of the little people bowed to us as gods. Others tried to fight us.”
Rainera’s fists were balled tight. She wanted to run. It took an effort to stay seated. She looked at her own, seemingly normal-sized hands, then at the huge hands of the visitors. This wasn’t the gift she’d imagined.
Dalton’s head was in his hands.
“I know this is hard,” said Eagle Mother. “You are doing well. Really. May I go on?”
Rainera felt they might as well hear it all, and Dalton seemed to agree. Bleakly, they nodded.
“We didn’t want to be gods, or monsters,” Eagle Mother said. “Our ship was a second home. We had been trained to explore. So we left. But the voids of space we traveled, the frozen worlds and the boiling ones we found, only made us miss Earth more. Sunlight and trees, flowers and grass, birds and bugs, not to mention our families and friends – we missed them like a drowning person misses air.
“After three more years we returned. By then another three hundred years had passed on Earth. Now we found that our descendants – your people – were rebuilding villages and communities. We saw that the skills and technology we’d shared had helped. Our journey had meaning after all, though one we had never foreseen. Our return from the past had helped restart the future!
“We were the last of our kind now, and we wanted to come home. But we feared that if we revealed ourselves too soon, we might destabilize your society. So we decided to be patient.
“We traveled for shorter distances and at slower speeds, we continued to bring gifts, and we awaited the time when you would be able to bear the truth.
“We feel that that day has come. Your culture is stable. We want to come home and grow old here where we were born. Our gift to you this time is special. It is ourselves. All we know, all the marvels of technology that our ship contains, will be yours, if you – your people – let us stay. Our fate is in your hands.”
Rainera was stunned, her mouth so dry she could barely speak. Finally she managed to say, “How do we know this is true? My people have a story of eternal giants from space. It’s given us hope and steadiness. How can we just let it go and believe this?”
“You see, some claim you’re up to no good,” Dalton added, lifting his head. “They’ll say this is a trick and demand proof.” He paused, then added, with an urgency of his own, “And why the lightning and thunder? Why scare us so?”
“Scare you?” said the woman. “That was never our intent. These are simply side effects of the energy field we use to clear the mountain in winter. The summery meadow recalls for us the springs and summers of our past, reminds us of home, and makes it possible to receive Emissaries outdoors. We didn’t realize how frightening this might be. I – we – are sorry for our thoughtlessness.”
Dalton sighed and nodded, deep in thought.
“As to proof,” continued the giant woman, “there are things in our ship – pictures that move, for one – that might help.” She shrugged. “But pictures can be faked. For those who doubt, there must be something more … tangible.”
She motioned. One of the giant men stood up and lifted a heavy device. It looked like a weapon.
Dalton gripped Rainera’s hand. Together they rose anxiously to their feet.
“Jenson was right!” Rainera thought, panicking. “They mean to use force!”
• NEXT WEEK: The Honored Dead