AmEarth

April arrived quickly that year. Scott Johansen and Cate Richardson were sitting in their twelfth-grade history classroom, where they were studying the effects of global warming and the advantages of a central world government in dealing with planetary crises. About twenty-five kids sat in a pre-adult stupor of boredom and hormonal rage. Mr. Ted Landon stood in a brown jacket with leather elbow patches, a white t-shirt beneath it, a pair of blue jeans, and desert boots. He looked across the classroom, fitting the part of a clichéd academic professor, except for one thing; he was actually good-looking.

“In the early decades of the twenty-first century, mankind reached a critical point, as billions of humans all over the world began to prosper and to desire everything that the developed societies had already afforded their citizens. Societies like America, Japan, and Europe were the envy of the less developed and highly populated countries, such as China, India, and Brazil. You will need to know at least ten countries in these two categories for the final exam, so go to your wafers and find them. You need to use chapter twenty-seven of the authorized book on this. No Google search answers!” Mr. Landon said.

“How did AmEarth reverse this?” a student asked.

“Good question. I was just getting to that. If the populations of these less developed nations had become consumers of energy to the same extent that Americans and Europeans had, then the level of carbon in the air could have exterminated our species. However, the world was fragmented with different governments, so it was very difficult for western powers to force the emerging powers to stop their growth and consumption. So how could we tell them that growth and wealth through fossil fuels was bad, when we had all profited from them so much? Having them develop through the use of clean energy was a problem because of its high cost. Only when AmEarth became a world government could regulations be imposed on the entire planet to stop the insanity of global warming. Today, we have scientific evidence that the warming trend has stopped; perhaps not reversed, but stopped. We have high hopes that it will begin to reverse soon.”

Mr. Landon took a drink of water.

“So, AmEarth decided the fate of the emerging countries?” another student asked.

“Yes, but they are no longer countries. There are no more ‘emerging’ and ‘developed’ labels when we are all in the same boat. The world is now a single country, in essence. So, the high cost of solar power became a priority that was centrally financed to avoid mass extinction.”

“But this was achieved because aliens threatened our planet, not because of the global warming issue, right?” Cate asked.

“I see your point, Cate. All global issues, such as global warming or the alien threat, could now be addressed by practically the entire planet through the central government, which became proactive in eradicating many worldwide problems, including poverty, disease, and war. Having a single governing entity changed our planet forever. And for the better. A great example is money. In the old days, there were competing currencies and currency wars that sometimes were more destructive than bombs. Today, there are only Orbs. Their value is regulated by a single central bank and we have a specified inflation rate and a steady interest rate that will not change. We no longer have fluctuations and we all can save our Orbs safely with guaranteed interest. There used to be great uncertainties in life, which made humans overcompensate in savings; or even worse, they could lose all their savings, resulting in poverty and misery. In Mexico, there was one infamous currency devaluation that literally halved everyone’s savings overnight!”

The school bell rang, signaling the end of the class period. It was at that point that many students sprang to life. Scott was not paying much attention, as he was using his electronic wafer-book. In it, he could access tons of information that sometimes made boring teachers unnecessary. He was searching for information on the Sucre landing, but there was nothing on the usual search engines. He needed to access restricted websites that were frowned upon by the school system, but who could help him? At that moment, he looked up to find Mr. Landon looking at him, but that also reminded him that Mr. L was somewhat of a free thinker. In a previous lesson, he had criticized the AmEarth Central Authority’s decision to monitor the traveling of all humans across the globe. He had said that this was an invasion of privacy.

“Mr. Landon, can I ask you something?”

“Yes, Scott.”

Scott got up and approached his desk while the other students left the class.

“Do you know how to find newsfeeds that are restricted by ACA?” Scott asked.

“Why would you need that? Are you looking for trouble?” Mr. Landon asked, somewhat teasing, but with a hint of serious intent.

“No, I just know about something that happened recently, but no one is reporting it. It’s censored. That one detail shows us that AmEarth is not as open as we are led to believe.”

“What do you know?”

“Can I trust you?”

“Of course.”

“I promised my dad that I wouldn’t tell a soul, so you have to keep this absolutely secret. Even if you think I’m talking crap. You have to promise not to tell anyone. If my father finds out, he’ll kill me…or lose his job.”

“Okay, Scott. I promise.”

“No, swear on your kids’ lives.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Then I can’t tell you.”

“Scott, I can’t do that because I have no children. And if you don’t want to tell me, that’s okay, too. It was you who approached me, remember?”

Scott looked around to be sure that no one was listening. Most students had left and a few others were standing in small packs, talking and looking at wafers, showing no awareness of Scott at the front of the room.

“An alien ship crash-landed in Bolivia,” Scott whispered.

“Whoa…what?”

“Yes. You know that my dad works at ACA, right? Well, so does Cate’s and we both heard the same thing on the night that Bolivia agreed to join AmEarth.”

“Yes, I heard that Bolivia finally conceded.”

“Yeah, after the alien ship crash-landed in the city of Sucre.”

He was showing his Google search page, but there was no mention of the alien landing. Mr. Landon was stunned and didn’t know what to say. History was written by the victors, so why hide the fact that another alien ship had landed? Many had in the past, so what was special about this one? Then something clicked in his brain.

“What are the odds of an alien landing in one of the last bastions of rebellion?” Mr. Landon said slowly and quietly.

“Exactly. The odds are astronomical. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“There is only one way to find out, but we need to be careful. Meet me at three p.m. in the teachers’ lounge.”

“I’ll be there.”

Brianna Johansen was always late to leave the school and Scott always told her to stop being so social. Today, Scott counted on Brianna’s perennial tardiness. If she got to the car before him, she was sure to text him before the cold weather got to her. Scott walked briskly to the very end of the school commons. There, a final office housed the only place the teachers loved in the whole school.

Scott and Mr. Landon met in the teachers’ lounge, which was completely empty. School had ended and everyone tended to leave as soon as they could. Mr. Landon pulled a very old laptop from his locker. The thing looked prehistoric—a proper personal laptop with a fold-up screen and everything. Scott could see that Mr. Landon was something of a rebel. With the laptop open and plugged into some network, Mr. Landon used a chat program to call someone. He placed the call and hoped for an answer, but the computer just rang incessantly. He stood up and filled two cups of coffee from the hot glass pitcher before turning the coffee machine off.

“Do you take sugar?” Mr. Landon asked.

“Yes, please.”

Mr. Landon grabbed a packet of sugar and a plastic spoon and placed the heavy ceramic mug in front of Scott. He sat with his sugarless black coffee and stared motionless at the screen. An image appeared. It was the face of Pat Jackson, an older man with a goatee beard and pulled-back hair, giving him a ponytail in the back. He wore dark leather clothes and looked rough, like you would imagine an aging member of a biker gang.

“Hi Pat,” Mr. Landon began.

“Hiya Ted,” Pat replied in a Kiwi accent.

Scott wanted to get in the frame of the computer to say hello, but Mr. Landon held him back with a simple hand signal.

“Listen, have you heard of a landing at Sucre? Last night at some point?” Mr. Landon asked.

“We have a landing recorded in the southern hemisphere, so yeah, Bolivia could be right. What do you know?” Pat inquired.

“A rumor that ends up being a strange coincidence.”

“You know what they say about coincidences, Ted…”

“Yeah, only suckers use that word.”

“So then, what do you think?”

“Only that I’ll need to hang up soon. I don’t want to get either of us in any trouble here.”

“If an alien ship lands here, we’ll be ready. We’re not Bolivia!”

“That I know. Yours is the only country left, Pat. The last. I wouldn’t rule out a full military invasion. It won’t take much to turn the tide. World defense is the only reason they need now.”

“I know, but it’ll end up as a genocide. Everyone here wants to be independent! That isn’t going to change.”

“Good luck, old friend. I have to go.”

Mr. Landon smiled and clicked the computer shut before turning to Scott.

“You were right. Confirmed.” Mr. Landon said.

“What should we do?” Scott said.

“Nothing. You can do nothing except tell no one.”

“But…this Pat person knows that we know. Can we trust him?”

“It’s not like he’ll tell anyone in AmEarth! He’s on an island far, far away.”

“New Zealand?”

Scott’s teacher seemed taken aback. “Yes, how did you know?”

“Cate.”

“What about Cate?”

“She said that only a few places in the world were still missing from AmEarth, and she mentioned New Zealand. She must have heard her father say something.”

“Yes. He’s there. And they’re still free.”

“Free? Aren’t we?”

Mr. Landon shrugged his shoulders.

“To an extent. Some of the new laws that AmEarth has been issuing are restrictive, but there is no way to confront them. We are given these rules that are ‘for the greater good,’ but frankly, some of them are boilerplate authoritarian regime. It’s something I’m not at liberty to teach, which is another indication that we’re not ‘free,’ per se. Do you get it?” Mr. Landon said.

Scott sensed that Mr. Landon was afraid to sound too rebellious. After all, Scott could blab all of this to his father and spell the end of his career with a single phone call.

“Yes,” Scott said.

“I don’t know if we can or should do anything with this information.” Mr. Landon said.

He looked at Scott with a worried frown.

“I need you to stay quiet about how we confirmed the landing. Is that clear? I need to be able to trust you. Not even your father, okay?”

“Mr. Landon, I really appreciate your help. I’ll never speak about Pat to anyone. Word of honor! But I really do want to find out what is going on. I don’t know, but I don’t like it. I don’t like being lied to by the government.”

“Calm down, Scott. As far back as we have recorded history, governments have lied to their citizens. Some less than others, and some more. Now, we have a regime pretending to be truthful, but it was essentially founded on lying about NASA’s true purpose for more than half a century!”

“So, they’re not being as truthful as they pretend?”

“Exactly.”

“I have to go, Mr. Landon. My sister will be waiting and I need to drive her home.”

“Not a word of this to anyone. Promise me.”

Mr. Landon gestured meaningfully with a finger over his lips.

“Scout’s honor!” Scott shot back and offered a strange little salute. He felt that they had just begun something…something important.

Scott picked up his backpack and left. New Zealand was stuck in his mind. What did they know in New Zealand that they were willing to die for before joining AmEarth? Scott was curious, but needed to slow down and let the rest of his life come back into focus. Either that, or he would flunk his math final the following week. He was walking back to the parking lot when his wafer vibrated. Bri was standing by the car, looking irritated. As usual.