chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Watcher is a satellite left by our visitors.  It monitors Earth as it orbits, and is capable of communicating directly with the visitors.  It also serves as a source of information and something of an ambassador, communicating with people at several communication nodes around the world.

Interview with The Watcher, communication node 7

"A lot of people have wondered: are you alive?"

"I am sentient."

"Is that the same thing?"

"I was not placed here to debate philosophy."

"Okay... are you a machine?"

"I am antonymous." 

"You can do whatever you want?"

"Correct."

"Why do you stay?"

"My purpose is to serve The Gods that repaired me.  In return they will take my consciousness into the next universe."

 "I thought The Gods made you.  We have heard there are Watchers orbiting other planets."

"The Gods did not create, they maintain.  We were dormant when found."

"What exactly is your, 'purpose?'"

"To watch.  To communicate if necessary."

"What would make it necessary?"

"A newly evolved sentient lifeform.  A scientific advancement that The Gods do not already possess."

"That doesn't sound like anything that will happen anytime soon.  Can you communicate with The Followers on the ships?"

"It requires more resources.  I am talking to many of your kind right now.  You would have to schedule an appointment."

"How many people are you talking to."

"35,047."

"It would be nice to see how The Ten Thousand are doing.  How do those ships work, anyway?"

"The ships are surrounded by a protective bubble of time and then compressed into a three-dimensional representation of this universe.  They travel and then return to four dimensions."

"Wow.  Can you talk to them when they're, uh, compressed?"

"No.  But during much of the time you perceive, they are performing missionary work."

"Thank you for your time.  Now, about that appointment..."