The general's eyes bugged still further. "_He talks!_" he accused.
"Yes, sir," Dermott said. "He had some kind of a machine. He put it over
Tim's head and seconds later he could talk."
"Nonsense!" the general snapped.
Further discussion was interrupted by the screaming arrival of several
motorcycle patrolmen followed by three heavily laden patrol cars.
Overhead, pursuit planes zoomed in and began darting about nervously
above the field.
"Sure, and it's quite a reception I'm after gettin'," Dameri Tass said.
He yawned. "But what I'm wantin' is a chance to get some sleep. Faith,
an' I've been awake for almost a _decal_."
* * * * *
Dameri Tass was hurried, via helicopter, to Washington. There he
disappeared for several days, being held incommunicado while White
House, Pentagon, State Department and Congress tried to figure out just
what to do with him.
Never in the history of the planet had such a furor arisen. Thus far, no
newspapermen had been allowed within speaking distance. Administration
higher-ups were being subjected to a volcano of editorial heat but the
longer the space alien was discussed the more they viewed with alarm the
situation his arrival had precipitated. There were angles that hadn't at
first been evident.
Obviously he was from some civilization far beyond that of Earth's. That
was the rub. No matter what he said, it would shake governments,
possibly overthrow social systems, perhaps even destroy established
religious concepts.
But they couldn't keep him under wraps indefinitely.
It was the United Nations that cracked the iron curtain. Their demands
that the alien be heard before their body were too strong and had too
much public opinion behind them to be ignored. The White House yielded
and the date was set for the visitor to speak before the Assembly.
Excitement, anticipation, blanketed the world. Shepherds in Sinkiang,
multi-millionaires in Switzerland, fakirs in Pakistan, gauchos in the
Argentine were raised to a zenith of expectation. Panhandlers debated
the message to come with pedestrians; jinrikisha men argued it with
their passengers; miners discussed it deep beneath the surface; pilots
argued with their co-pilots thousands of feet above.
It was the most universally awaited event of the ages.
By the time the delegates from every nation, tribe, religion, class,
color, and race had gathered in New York to receive the message from the
stars, the majority of Earth had decided that Dameri Tass was the
plenipotentiary of a super-civilization which had been viewing
developments on this planet with misgivings. It was thought this other
civilization had advanced greatly beyond Earth's and that the problems
besetting us--social, economic, scientific--had been solved by the
super-civilization. Obviously, then, Dameri Tass had come, an advisor
from a benevolent and friendly people, to guide the world aright.
And nine-tenths of the population of Earth stood ready and willing to be
guided. The other tenth liked things as they were and were quite
convinced that the space envoy would upset their applecarts.
* * * * *
Viljalmar Andersen, Secretary-General of the U.N., was to introduce the
space emissary. "Can you give me an idea at all of what he is like?" he
asked nervously.
President McCord was as upset as the Dane. He shrugged in agitation. "I
know almost as little as you do."
Sir Alfred Oxford protested, "But my dear chap, you've had him for
almost two weeks. Certainly in that time--"
The President snapped back, "You probably won't believe this, but he's
been asleep until yesterday. When he first arrived he told us he hadn't
slept for a _decal_, whatever that is; so we held off our discussion
with him until morning. Well--he didn't awaken in the morning, nor the
next. Six days later, fearing something was wrong we woke him."
"What happened?" Sir Alfred asked.
The President showed embarrassment. "He used some rather ripe Irish
profanity on us, rolled over, and went back to sleep."