Page 13 (1/1)
PART ONE
KITH AND KIN
FILE NO 1398
NEWS REPORT—JACOB LAWSON, BBC LONDON
Location: Regent’s Park, London, England
A twenty-story-tall ent’s Park thisCaretakers at the London Zoo were the first to notice it at around 4 AM Standing on one of the Hub’s football pitches at the north end of the park, the figure, or robot, bears a resemblance, in both size and shape, to the UN robotas Theiant, however, appears to be a e of a man It is much more muscular than the slender feo, perhaps taller as well Its colour is also different, a lighter grey than the UN robot, and it is striated with yellow light, in contrast to the turquoise-veined Themis
According to early witnesses, the robot appeared out of thin air in the middle of the park “It wasn’t there, then it was,” said one of the zookeepers Fortunately, the football pitches at the Hub were deserted at this hour, and not a single casualty has been reported It is unknown, of course, whether this early appearance was deliberate, as we do not knohere this robot came from or who sent it If this is indeed a robot like Themis, and if it is controlled in the same manner as she is, there could be pilots aboard If pilots there are, are they Russian, Japanese, or Chinese? Or are they from somewhere else entirely? We can only speculate at this juncture There iant structure In the four hours it has been standing here, it has not moved an inch
The Earth Defense Corps (EDC) has yet to issue an official statement Dr Rose Franklin, head of the scientific division, was reached in Geneva, where she was to give a speech later this in of this second robot but has assured us that it is not part of the UN planetary defence If true, this would suggest that either a second alien robot has been discovered on Earth and kept from us or that this one does not come from our planet In New York, the EDC has scheduled a press conference for three o’clock London time
The Earth Defense Corps, which was founded nine years ago by the United Nations following the American discovery of the Theies from the alien artifact for the benefit of ainst extraterrestrial threats Only ti such a threat today
No word yet from His Majesty’s Government, but sources say the Prime Minister will address the nation within the hour The British people will not have to wait to hear from the other side of the aisle The official opposition was quick to issue a state for the Prime Minister to offer some reassurances Opposition leader A: “There is an alien device with potentially devastating power standing in the middle of London and all the Prime Minister has seen fit to do is to restrict access to one city park Can he tell the thirteen million people who live in the Greater London Area that they are safe? If he can, he owes the British people an explanation, and if he can’t, I for one would like to knoe aren’t talking about evacuation” The forest that Central London be evacuated first, so that, by her calculation, could be accoht hours
Londoners, for their part, appear in no hurry to go anywhere Perhaps as surprising as the robot’s appearance is the utter nonchalance the population has displayed since The towering figure is visible froht expect civic unrest, or a massive exodus froone about their business; ent’s Park to see this new titan up close The police have closed off the area south of Prince Albert and north of A501 between A41 and Albany Street, but soed to escape their attention and found their way into the park The police even had to evacuate a fa for a picnic, a iant metallic feet of the intruder
It’s hard to bla a creature siure They have been told that a race of aliens left her on Earth for our protection Her s are on the telly ale of every red top for nearly a decade There are The Londoners have grown up playing with Theures Themis is a star Her visit to another one of London’s Royal Parks a year ago feltfrom an alien world
This is a defining moile coalition, the organization has been called a public-relations stunt by its detractors Many have argued that a single robot, no ainst an invader By adding a second robot to its arsenal, or forging a for way in silencing its critics
FILE NO 1399
PERSONAL JOURNAL ENTRY—DR ROSE FRANKLIN, HEAD OF SCIENCE DIVISION, EARTH DEFENSE CORPS
I had a cat For so a cat I’ve been picturing her curled into a ball on the kitchen floor, slowly starving to death while waiting forthat Rose Franklin calad my cat didn’t starve, but part of me wishes she’d waited for me by the door I miss her My apartment feels incredibly empty without her small presence
Maybe she died She wasn’t that old, though Maybe I got rid of her when nize the person who ca to be me and ran away I wish She’d probably be afraid of me if she were still around If there’s a “real” Rose Franklin, chances are I’m not it
Thirteen years ago, I got into a traffic accident on ers pulled me out of my car and I woke up on the side of the road, in Ireland, four years later I hadn’t aged a day
How is that possible? Did I travel to the future? Was I…frozen, cryogenized for four years? I’ll probably never know I can live with that What I’one for those four years I—someone like me, anyas here Rose Franklin went to work the next day She did a whole bunch of things during those years Soiant metal hand I had fallen onto as a child She beca around and devised a iant alien robot called Themis Then she died