Ambassador

fiction by michael werneburg

The bare farms and flaming red trees of central Ontario were gorgeous under a crisp blue sky where low clouds skudded by just above the tree-tops. It was my favorite time of year, but it didn't really suit our disgraced situation at all. The three of us maintained an unhappy silence as I drove.

How far we'd fallen was evident in that we'd been told to leave the compound on our own. The alien Ambassador was now being transported back to the landing site, where the long-awaited media event would finally happen. I'd been told our attendance was optional. Watching a tractor navigate an intersection ahead, I asked, "Do we know if the Chinese or Europeans made any breakthroughs?"

Jane shrugged at me. Cuong was texting. To my eternal resentment, they had both seemed largely checked out over the second half of our contract. The nature of our dismissal today surely hadn't helped with the mood. Maybe they'd realized, with the government's worsening treatment of us, that I wouldn't be able to pay them their bonuses. I decided that we'd have to make a stop so I could deliver the bad news.

"It boggles the mind that they're going through with this," I told them both.

Jane wearily said, "You mean, hosting a globally televised event, trotting out Rover before we've been able to convince it to talk to us?"

I had asked her not to call the Ambassador 'Rover' about fifty times but yeah, that's what I meant. We couldn't talk to the alien visitor, or even understand its physiology. We couldn't even scan its ship, let alone understand how a space-craft could transport the alien through vast distances of space but appeared to have a mass no greater than about five kilograms. We were completely in the dark, and the closer we'd been getting to the day, the worse my feeling of dread. I had a lot riding on this, and thought I'd pulled together a top team.

"How mandatory is the big event?" Cuong asked, finally speaking. They'd blocked cellphone reception at the research site after a couple of embarrassing leaks, and he was clearly catching up.

I looked up at his drawn appearance in the mirror. "We don't have to go. I know a place in town where we can watch the show on a screen."

I took their silence for consent. I'd lower the boom about the money when their stomachs were full.

"Just look at that gait." With a look of distress upon her face, Jane watched some footage of the alien Ambassador on the TV above the bar. The insectoid Ambassador was six-limbed like a big ant, with four articulated legs supporting its lower torso and two others mostly used for grasping or climbing. Its hairless head had a high forehead capped with three long antennae, and its prominent pupil-less eyes were rarely blinked. It had a rough chin and a mouth full of pointed teeth. It had a whip-like tail with which it occasionally manipulate a pencil to draw uncertain shapes and characters.

Jane waved her hand in an exaggerated motion. Now that she was off the clock she'd got a buzz on in a hurry. "I mean, the creature just isn't meant for walking around on hard ground."

Cuong's head bobbed in agreement, but he didn't break away from sipping his beer and morosely watching the screen.

Indeed, as the alien loped along on its four short legs, its low body seemed to roll awkwardly. The alien held its upper two limbs stiffly away from its body, like a toddler steadying her steps.

"Maybe that's just how they walk on his planet," countered the waitress. Her tone sounded like she was standing up for the creature. Seeing the careful way the woman was watching Jane, I wondered if she was going to be trouble. Some people were pretty touchy about the extraterrestrial and its recent landing. This media event was being held to give the people what they wanted - a bit of spectacle and some answers after weeks of shock and official silence.

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