7.GERARD
Gerard is a scientist who works for NASA. He lives and works at the Great Lakes Science Center in Ohio. He is a microbiologist researching life in outer space with the panspermia theory team.
Gerard is a quiet man in his late 30’s. His co-workers do not know much about him. They know that he came to work at the Center six years ago. They are told that his doctoral and post-doctoral dissertations were on studies of micro-organisms found in remnants of meteorites. He is actually an immigrant whose mother was Austrian and father was Slovakian, though he allegedly was raised in Turkey then studied in France, Japan and Germany before he came to the United States to do his post-doctoral project, according to his employee profile. The profile reads that he is consequently a polyglot. Also, it says his parents (now deceased) were scientists; his father is said to have been an astrophysicist and his mother an archaeologist who were living in Europe before their deaths. Gerard sometimes confirms this information and may add that he is an only child. To his colleagues, he is too much of a “brain.”
The exotic biography prompts some observers to wonder whether he is actually involved in or connected to some secret service. “You know these quiet genius types. It could be he’s either up to no good or is some kind of spy,” comments one co-worker or another from time to time. “Spies keep to themselves a lot. They can’t be very social, in a lot of cases,” offers one person replying. “Yeah, they tend to be shrouded in mystery,” states another. The rumours and gossip crop up, but Gerard is the sort of person who does not attract a lot of attention. Rarely does anyone bother to look and voiced comments are sparse. In fact, any time he is absent from work, his absence usually goes unnoticed.
Gerard’s appearance is rather bland. He has dull medium brown hair, is of medium height with unremarkable grey-blue eyes, pale but clear complexion, and a correct but average looking face. His movements are quiet. He wears soft soled brown faux-suede shoes and plain brown or grey short-sleeved shirts with no-press brown or charcoal grey pants. Somehow, he never seems to get creased. His straight hair, combed to the side and kept short just above the ear, always appears smooth and constantly groomed. His face is always clean shaven. He is seen sometimes wearing thin black rimmed glasses, and sometimes without, if he is noticed at all.
Gerard arrives to work precisely at ten before the hour every morning. He performs his duties meticulously and in a timely fashion. He does the routine lab tests and paperwork, and completes the necessary correspondence.
Actually, Gerard finds that he often has free time. Whenever he has the chance, he gets up to no good. He likes to hack into email accounts and websites. He has the habit of pretending to be the email account or website owner and sending messages with their identities. Also, he enjoys a little creative writing, deliberately falsifying scientific information that travels through these channels, and on his paper and digital reports—not just among competing scientific teams and projects, but among the staff at the Great Lakes Space Center. He creates online pages and forums to spread spam and false or misleading information meant to confuse or stymie other research projects. He tries to wreck the work on the panspermia theory. He uses the identities of others to send and receive messages from secret correspondence. He even joins video games where avatars can communicate directly with each other to convey messages to his network or read those coming from it. He is very clever at this secret communication and sabotage.
His communications report on the work of the Center and that of other projects in the field of space research, particularly regarding the question of life in space. His partners (conspirators is a term that can be used here) in the secret society share this interest. They want to get updates on what scientists are thinking and saying. They want to know the latest. They also conspire to hatch up counter postulates and float conflicting and diverting ideas.
One day, Gerard is caught in the act of internet hacking. A quality control team at the Ohio Center has noticed something fishy. There have been complaints and investigations point to him as a source. His computers at home and in the lab are confiscated for examination. He is interrogated. Finally, evidence of his wrongdoings, at least of mischief, forms the bases of formal charges and Gerard is let go and told to show up in court.
Instead of going to court, Gerard fakes his own death. He encounters an unemployed microbiologist that fits his own general description and age. At a café, he listens patiently to the man’s sad story. He was orphaned, and raised by a distant relative who died two years ago, abandoned by a wife who fled with his child incognito in fear of his out-of-control drinking that had often turned violent. The man eventually cleaned himself up, he said, and has been trying to land a real job. He confides in Gerard that he has been taking “survivor” jobs, usually using false names and falsifying his resume so that employers would not learn of his criminal history and addiction issues. “In fact, my name’s not really Paul,” he eventually tells Gerard with a weak grin.
“This is a perfect candidate,” Gerard tells himself, pleased that he has been lucky enough to come upon a victim so easily this time around. On one such encounter at a coffee shop, he injects a drug into his coffee after the gets up to go flirt with the server. When is “Paul”, having returned to his seat and sipped some coffee, starts slumping in his seat and drooling, Gerard tells the server that he will take his “friend” to the hospital.
Gerard takes the wheel of the man’s sedan after donning gloves in the darkness of the unlit parking lot. He drives off, registering the man at a hospital emergency ward with Gerard’s own name and i.d. as the patient, but leading the guy away shortly thereafter, telling the hospital staff that he seems to be better and that, anyway, his family wants him to report to a different hospital in another town. At a hospital in a neighboring town, Gerard fills out the registration forms then stuffs them in the guy’s hands and leaves him alone at the reception to wait. The busy staff do not clue in. The man gradually recovers there and tries to tell the woman taking the information that he was at a café when he suddenly felt sick. He turns around to thank his companion who took him to the hospital but does not see him. The receptionist never noticed Gerard and cannot give him a clue. The man checks out of that hospital. He cannot find his car outside. Confused, he calls a cab, and pays with some bills from his wallet, not noticing that he has someone else’s wallet in his hands.
Gerard shows up at this man’s house a day later with the pretext of checking on him. “How are you making out?” “Oh, whatever that was has passed. Say, wanna come in for some tea or whatever? There’s juice…” Gerard says that he only can stay for a few minutes. The man expresses gratitude for his assistance on the previous day. He asks Gerard if he knows where his car is. At the first opportunity, Gerard slips the guy a drug laced mickey. “God, this tea is strong. Next time, I won’t have it black,” he comments. He then slides off the chair. Gerard takes him to the hospital out of town, fills in the papers for him, displaying a doctored driver’s license that indicates it has expired, and referring to a medical plan number whose file exposes his past excesses and criminal behavior, but in Gerard’s old name. He explains that this is a former drunk who seems to have fallen off the wagon again, and leaves.
Gerard makes a phone call to check on this man, “Paul.” The man is upset and confused about what has been happening. “I swear I have not touched a drop of booze in three years. Really!” Gerard offers to take let Paul stay with him at his house so that he can be monitored and get immediate assistance if needed. The man, lonely and in need of friendship, is happy to take Gerard up on this offer.
At home, Gerard injects him with a fatal drug and leaves him lying in his own pyjamas in his own bed after burning his finger tips with acid and rearranging his hair. He writes a suicide note and signs it, “Gerard” putting it under the pillow. Gerard is busy all night switching photos and personal effects between the houses, and combing Paul’s place for all traces of his life story especially his laptop and wiping the whole place down thoroughly. He knows Paul’s house is rented. Gerard packs up some things, destroys some stuff in both homes and deposits it in a landfill in a neighboring county. Before dawn, he is ready to move to the other side of the country taking Paul’s car, mobile phone and i.d. Gerard has emptied his own bank accounts and collected most of his cash and other valuable items from the vaults to take with him until he can find a new way to store them. Paul, who is penniless and without property, has nothing much to brag about in the bank, so Gerard leaves it alone. The record will show (for a few months, at least) that Gerard died after committing suicide and that Paul, totally unconnected with the Gerard scenario, has done what he has done before and pulled up stakes to move on to some unknown destination.
After a couple of weeks, the real Gerard has assumed a third identity, one harvested from his society’s crop of identities cultivated over the years from the seeds of persons deceased long ago and nurtured until they have matured and borne social security numbers, savings accounts, university transcripts, driver’s licenses and passports. Now he is an expert researching new species, and exploring the possibility that discoveries of new DNA may show hybridization between Earth species and alien ones. He works at a private institute in California, and is deeply involved in debates about the mysterious ancient people known as the Olmec, questions that challenge the conventional evolutionists’ assumptions about the coexistence of non-homeo sapiens with other hominids and dinosaurs in prehistoric times (that simultaneously challenge the pace of geological activity over the ages along with freezing and flooding, migration and population, and many other subjects), and alternative ideas about the construction of ancient monuments and ancient scientific knowledge. His current i.d. states that he is 41 years of age and a doctoral graduate from MIT.
It does not take long before he is up to his old monkey business, hacking systems and fudging data.
One spring, this regenerated Gerard, now known as George, gets consent to take a short professional development leave. He is supposed to attend a conference in Nevada. At the venue in Nevada, he arrives to sign the registry, collect his conference package and certificate of attendance, but proceeds down into the third underground floor where his secret society is holding a parallel meeting there.
He wears a tag bearing his original name, something he rarely reveals and displays in company. It is Jeraterik. He greets some colleagues, noticing some familiar faces. There is some time for mingling and enjoying appetizers and drinks, which is rarely fitted into conference schedules. This particular time, it is an occasion for some celebration.
The program is predictable: welcome speeches, guest speakers, reports and assessments, and decision making. However, the theme fosters some excitement. It is “Celebrate our Achievement, and Initiate the Next Stage.” There will be some awards today, too, and Jeraterik is slated to be a recipient.
The members stick to their respective groups. Gerard stays among the hybrids. The clones and cyborgs keep to themselves in respective sections. Only a couple of guest speakers and their entourages and some observers are bona fide Anukis. They must wear special protective gear.
Security guards block outsiders. Some of the hotel staff have been stunned or hypnotized so as to immobilize and disorient them for security purposes.
In a common language that is not English or any other human tongue, the first invited Anuki addresses the congregation in a robust husky and somewhat low voice. “Welcome, and most heart-felt congratulations! You have reached the targets for infiltration, research and influence. We are now in a position to take the next steps.”
Applause and many “hoorahs” are sounded. (Well, it is the Anuki word for “hoorah”.)
A high-ranking hybrid female steps forward to present the Earth Secretariat’s report. He starts with the history beginning with the early observations and foraging, followed by some early naïve attempts at contact and cooperation, then the period of conflicts with other intergalactic contenders with some interest in Earth and its abundant resources. After that period, there was a hiatus when troubles and politics at home and in the satellite colonies, which resulted in a civil war, which made the Anuki homeland and settlements vulnerable to opportunistic aggressors. When Anuki expeditions returned to Earth, they found different conditions that could not be penetrated in the old ways. They then set about a series of scientific investigations. The investigations involved abductions and experimentations.
The Anuki speaker takes the podium to remark upon the historical advances made in the explorations and investigations of the Earth. Amid more bouts of applause, he appraises the growing accumulation of detailed scientific findings and points out that a lot of the information is now being used for other explorations and problem-solving in the Anuki territories.
“Finally, we were able to begin infiltration. We have achieved so much since the start of this phase! Hybridization has occurred so that we have a population of human-Anuki hybrids in strategic locations playing strategic roles according to our plans. They are in the top echelons of the national governments and corporations. They are various privileged and highly skilled scientific specialists, media specialists, administrators, and military and business leaders. We are grateful for your commitment and hard work. Many of you merit special recognition.”
“Here! Here” is called out. More audience members cheer and clap.
Another Anuki leader appears on the stage to give out the awards. Soon, the name Jeraterik Eketarias is read out. “You have displayed outstanding courage and dedication in your work for our great cause. You have made great sacrifices and carried out heroic acts. We wish you would accept the Purple Sun medal. It is the least we can do in return for you.”
There is a standing ovation as Jeraterik Eketarias accepts the medal. He bows to the crowd and raises a hand making the secret sign of their society, which ignites a thunderous chorus of cheers.
END