Chapter 8

The van was carrying a basic 2-person news crew, a cameraman and a reporter. They introduced themselves and said they had watched the live broadcast, which was going viral with several hundred thousand views in the three hours it had been online so far.

Elisha, the reporter, stated that Henderson Ranch was currently one of the top Internet searches as Gerald, the cameraman, asked where they should setup.

Mark just thought, Wow, this is going to be crazy by tomorrow!

Kat finally came out to meet the TV crew, saying, “The phone has been ringing off the hook with people wanting to book rooms at the lodge. It might have something to do with aliens, but I’m not sure?

I’m glad our reservation system is online and linked from our website. I’ve doubled the price of the rooms, but we’re booked solid for the next week. I’ve changed the voicemail message to tell people to visit the website to access our online reservation system and for more information.”

Fortunately, the reporters and TV stations had been quick to the phones and had booked all the rooms, with only 15 rooms available to rent, and most of the reservations booked two rooms. Professionals would likely be easier to manage than the public.

Kat suggested they could use the lobby or the courtyard for the interview, but then Mark got an idea and radioed Solara to tell her to ready the barn upgrade they had been working on. He was going to get the TV crew to film it being created, more proof for the nay-sayers that will inevitably think this was all being faked, plus it got Joe’s barn upgraded without having to do the whole staging thing.

Mark told everyone about his idea and suggested that the TV crew have the interview over by the barn, looking toward the loop feature and lodge. That would give them a scenic backdrop for the interview, plus they could easily turn around and have the best view to watch the barn getting rebuilt.

Liyana smiled, “That is a great idea. They’ll get to see a new technology they’ve never seen before.”

The TV crew were ecstatic. Not only were they first to arrive on the scene, but they were getting an exclusive interview, and be the first to witness some new technology.

Mark clicked the radio and asked, “Solara, do you have the barn upgrade ready to go?”

Solara replied, “All set to go, just make sure there are no horses in there and everything is in lockers or in the utility room at the front. I’m also going to upgrade the lane and give us a decent driveway before the snow.”

Mark gave them a thumb up to show that everything was ready to go.

The camera guy called in to tell the station that they were ready, as everyone got positioned and ready to broadcast. After a minute the camera guy said, “Going live in...,” and did the countdown from five on his fingers.

‘This is Elisha Romanson with a Global News breaking story. The question of... are we alone in the universe? Has been answered! I’m here at Henderson Ranch, which will go down in the history books as the place where beings from another planet have made first contact! I’m here talking to Ambassador Liyana from the Atlantean Federation, who hails from the planet ... Atlanterra, is it?’

‘That is correct.’

‘You speak English very well, is that the official language of the Atlantean Federation?’

‘Atlantean would be the official language, but there are hundreds of languages across the Federation. Our technology automatically translates what we say and hear, so language isn’t really an issue.’

‘I’m not going to re-state everything you said in your original social media broadcast, so we’ll have the link to it on our website. How far did you travel to come here?’

‘I’m not exactly sure. We were on our way back to Atlanterra after visiting a few other planets, Earth was on the way. I know that Atlanterra is still a little over 4 days in light drive from here.’

‘How often do you come to Earth?’

‘There is no schedule for coming to our ancestral world, we just stop by if we’re in the area.’

‘Why have you never made contact before this?’

‘We have tried a few times in the past, but were met with hostility and conflict, so we decided many centahren ago to just observe this planet. We had a research outpost here a couple of dectahren ago when your Internet was just beginning, but they have long since left. In the past dectahren, we have stopped by Earth roughly 20 times looking for our crashed ship, but we never detected it until now.’

‘So the reason you’ve made contact today is because you came to rescue your people, only to find out they had made friends here?’

‘Yes, the family of Henderson Ranch took them in and gave them food, shelter and protection. They displayed the Federation way of life by looking past their differences, demonstrating that beings of all kinds can live in peace and harmony, not only with each other, but with the planet as well.’

‘You said in the original broadcast that you will set up an embassy. How long will it be before the embassy will be open to the public, and where will it be located?’

‘We should have the embassy built in a few days. It will be in orbit around the planet.’

‘So it won’t be open to the public?’

‘It will be open to the public, we just have to work out some sort of shuttle service to get people up there. As that develops, Mark says he will create a website that will relay information about the Federation, and how to visit the embassy.’

‘So why haven’t you left the surface yet?’

‘We’ve been visiting with our new friends. Now that you’re here, we’d like to thank them by taking some research they had been doing for a new barn, and we’re going to use our construction technology to build it for them. Take a quick look at the old barn before we build the new one in its place.’

The TV crew walked to the barn and stepped inside as the cameraman panned around before returning to their previous position.

Suddenly there was a collective gasp as the barn in front of them transformed from the old wooden barn into the large white and green fabric barn that Joe had been wanting. The new barn was more than double the width of the old one and slightly longer. A few trees even got moved out of the way to make room for the larger barn. All the locker boxes got upgraded and moved to their new locations and the utility room rebuilt and moved, but not disturbed.

Elisha exclaimed, ‘Wow! Too bad we can’t do all construction like that! Quick, safe and environmentally friendly! Did you see the trees move out of the way? Will you be sharing your technology with us?’

‘Unfortunately no, we only share technology with federated planets. As poorly managed as this planet is, many of our technologies would cause mass chaos. You will see all of our technology though, as the people of this planet will soon be able to visit other planets, and some of our citizens will probably want to visit this planet as well. The embassy is just the first step in creating ties with the Atlantean Federation. Even if Earth does not join, some of your people may elect to move to a federated planet for a better quality of life.’

‘Is there a catch to visit or even move to one of your planets?’

‘I suspect it would be the same as moving or visiting between countries here. We have laws and you must follow them, and there is a short test people must pass before travelling between planets. We also offer educational courses to help people get familiarized with our society before becoming citizens.’

‘What kinds of laws?’

‘Laws that are very similar to many you have on this planet, I would imagine. As this is my first visit to Earth, I am not familiar enough with the laws of this country, or any countries, to make a comparison.’

‘How does the legal system on your planet work?’

‘That would take more explaining, so we will leave that for the website to explain, along with the answers to many of these questions. Although I do not know how soon it will be available.’

‘What about religion? What is the primary religion in the Atlantean Federation?’

‘We do not recognize religion in the Federation; any religion is simply a choice, it’s something almost every species we have encountered has in some form or another. Citizens are free to believe whatever they want, on their own time, as long as it does not violate any laws, and they do not force their views and beliefs on others. However, when we lived on Earth, we worshipped the sun, for it is the true giver of life—and it actually exists.’

‘What other technologies do you have that could improve our way of life?’

‘There is energy, construction, food, water, transportation, medical, education, recycling, communications, security, legal systems ... and probably others too.’

‘What about military technology?’

‘The Federation is a peaceful society, we never use our technology offensively. Our society doesn’t even have a military as you call it, our everyday security personnel handle any conflicts. The Atlantean Federation will never fire the first shot to start a conflict, but we can definitely end one!’

‘You said in your original broadcast that you update information about this planet for your education system. What do you teach about Earth?’

‘It is our ancestral world, so we obviously use it in our history programs, but it is also referenced for social, political, environmental and economic programs.’

‘So what’s it going to take for Earth to join the Federation?’

‘That is where the problem lies with this planet, and why we have been skeptical of setting up an embassy here and why we’re building it in space and not on the surface. This planet is unusually hostile and very poorly managed! Usually by the time a planet has reached your level of evolution, population, intelligence and technology, people have learned that their petty little conflicts are insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe.

With that realization, your leaders should have learned to work together to improve the quality of life for everyone, and to live in peace and harmony with your planet. You create an unbelievable amount of pollution and waste so much money on military peacocking that would better be used to help lesser developed countries.’

‘What do you think has caused us to be this way?’

‘I’m not exactly sure why so many of your leaders are so ignorant and stubborn, but it has stifled the planet’s development, especially considering all the military peacocking, which would be absolutely useless if you were to face a planetary invasion by a hostile race ... and we have encountered them out there!’

‘Have you ever encountered other planets, like Earth, where the leaders don’t get along?’

‘A few, but there are regions of those planets that do join the Federation. On every planet we have found, many people dislike or disagree with the way their planet is being managed. Knowing there’s a better way to live and it’s accessible, they’ll try to make changes at home or they’ll opt to move to a federated planet.’

‘But won’t your planets get over-crowded or over-populated?’

‘We currently have eleven planets in the Federation. So there’s lots of room to live in peace and harmony.’

‘When will we be able to go to these other planets?’

‘Once we have established the embassy, we will begin regularly scheduled transports to and from Earth. We would expect no one to make such a life altering decision as packing up your life and living elsewhere, without experiencing it firsthand. Seeing is believing!’

Gerald tapped on his arm, showing they were about out of time.

‘That’s all we have time for today. Thank you for your time Ambassador Liyana and welcome to Earth! This has been a Global News Special Report from Henderson Ranch, I’m Elisha Romanson.’

The crew then looked around the new barn, still not really believing the construction they just witnessed.

The old barn was fairly well lit, but natural light filled the new barn, making the old one seem like a dungeon in comparison. There were lights hung from the trusses overhead for when there was no natural light and there were two heaters suspended above the doors at each end to create air circulation around the whole barn.

Instead of the long central hallway with 20 stalls per side, there were now two hallways with four rows of 15 stalls and the floor was a black material that resembled recycled rubber, which would be easier on the horse’s hooves. The stalls all had automatic waterers, front access feed chutes and really nice looking black gates. The back of the barn now had an indoor groomed clay/sand arena, enabling them to do riding lessons and training regardless of the weather.

Soon the lane and driveway transformed into a black material like the rubber-like surface that was also in the barn. It even had white lines around the edge, and there were lines for parking stalls along the north tree line. It also felt warmer than the ambient temperature, but that could be because it was just made.