When Thay Came

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. The Thay say a human would be dead in 15 seconds if we tried. So would the Thay. My father barely remembers life before Thay came. His dad, my Grandpa Andy tells of a time when “little green men” were a joke told as stories around campfires. Thay were the only life I knew on earth. Resident aliens. The ruling class.

Gramps was always going on about injustice and false pretenses and conspiracies against the Thay. He said the Thay were bullies. He said the same thing happens whenever a bully comes into power. I wasn’t so sure. Bullies were bullies because they wanted something. The Thay claimed to be there just for our benefit, for the benefit of our kind, to teach humans a better way. Grandpa didn’t believe it.

Dad was six when it happened. One day life on earth was one way, then it wasn’t. You could read about it in history books:

“In 2025 The Thay arrived in ships across the world’s atmosphere. Many people tried to rage war against these aliens, but The Thay were seeking only peace. There was a conflict for a time, but once humans acknowledged the reason Thay had come, life on earth has only been bettered.”

Life on earth was good. Of course I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Grandpa said Thay probably watched everything we did, and censored everything published about them to brainwash us. I had read plenty of negative stuff Grandpa’s friends shared with him about the Thay, so it was hard to believe that was true. Grandpa said it was hard to tell since they were probably so much smarter than we were. Mom said they had just been around more.

They had been around more. Their lives were twenty percent longer than a human life span. Their language was hard to shout. They had been traveling the Galaxy for ten thousand years – they said. We had no way of really knowing.

When I was ten I got to visit the Thay museum in Roswell New Mexico. Apparently the Thay had been watching humans for a while. Mom’s mom, my C-ma, remembered her grandma talking about a man they knew who claimed he had met an alien when he was young. It was tall and slender with large black slanted eyes, just like the Thay, but people said he was crazy. That was in the 1960s. Grandpa Andy says the only difference between a conspiracy and the truth is about six months. I tried to imagine people fighting against the Thay and winning – it didn’t seem possible.

Unlike some parts of history that had been hidden, the Thay did not hide what had happened when they came to earth. They said the battle was a necessary part of compliance. They had only responded adequately to quiet the foolishness. Back in the 2020s the countries of our world had been on the brink of war. My dad remembers when nuclear shelters began to be built in his city. Then came the Thay. Grandpa said a lot of people tried to fight them, but that only resulted in death. He admitted he was ready to defend his family with a weapon, but the Thay made no move against the human race. They had come in peace.

I didn’t see what the problem was. The world was great. There were no more countries at all. Instead the land was divided by agricultural regions. You could live anywhere and do anything as long as it was approved. I guess that’s what grandpa had issues with. He said when he used to live in The United States of America it was more free, you could do what you wanted. It did not sound like a good way to live to me. Grandma said the Thay saved us. People were selfish and took no responsibility. That was why the Thay came. If you broke their laws you were sent to a rehabilitation center. Dad said they used to have places called jail when people broke laws. It was basically a cage for humans. It was like a timeout for adults with no guidance to be better. It seemed pointless to me. Grandma Ally said a lot of things were pointless back then.

“When a wrong choice is made, behavior must be corrected. When social contracts are broken, trust must be earned again.” That was what the Thay taught, one of the many things. It didn’t seem like a high price to pay to just learn to be better. I hated page 278 of my history book. There was a picture of The Second Wave and it was scary.

The Second Wave was what happened after the First Resistance. The second phase of the Thay’s arrival was they destroyed everyone’s weapons of mass destruction. A long time ago humans had made weapons that could kill millions of people at a time. I could not imagine how anyone let that happen. The Thay had outlawed things like bombs and guns that could shoot more than two bullets at a time. When the Thay did that, a lot of people were angry. Grandpa says the biggest guns always win, dad says the best ones do. The Thay have the best guns.

One shot from a Thay gun turns the matter of the person into ash. Pulverized. That was a lot of power.

I watched my sister Lila finishing her picture for the “Thay Day” art contest. She was pretty good. She had the details of the Thay life cycle but it somehow looked very family.

“Why do you think Thay are green for the longest?”

“What?” Mom asked where she was chopping up dinner.

“Well, my teacher said that Thay are born pink. Then they turn purple when they are four, then tan when they are ten, then green by the time they are sixteen. Then when they are seventy they turn Gray. Human’s hair turns gray then too,” she giggled.

“Well, it probably has something to do with puberty,” mom smiled.

Lila made a face and went back to coloring, “Oh yeah, I know what that is.”

“How can you tell how old a Thay person is?” I quizzed her.

“I guess by their color,” she shrugged. She grinned at me mischievously and I thought she looked like a chipmunk since her two teeth next to the front two were missing, “How come you always know the answer to everything?”

I didn’t know everything. Not even close. Why else would I have been reading fifty pages back in my history book? I stared at the photograph of the world leadership forum on page 279. The Thay were ten centimeters taller than the average human. Their bodies were slender. They wore boots most of the time to cover feet that were like human’s but with only two large long toes. They had only four fingers on each hand. Females had only one breast with three nipples. In clothing, human and Thay looked about the same shape. Their eyes were what made them look scary. They had no irises. Their eyes were large compared to their faces. Their mouths were small and their front four teeth were pointed. They had only slits for a nose and tiny ears.

“Do you have extra practice tomorrow after school for the concert?” Mom asked.

I sighed, “Yes.”

“I thought you would be happy since you get to stand next to Velvet Rider?” my sister teased.

“Velvet Rider from third grade?” mom chimed.

“Mom, please. Yes. Lila is just a nosy little punk with an over-active imagination.”

“I know something you don’t know,” Lila said in a lyrical way.

“Are you sure I want to know?” I asked putting as much irritation into my voice as possible.

“My friend Clay, her brother, gave a paper from one of her notebooks to me yesterday.”

“What does that mean?”

“It had your name and hearts all over it.”

“You’re lying.” I sat up so that mom couldn’t hear. “Why did he give it to you?”

“He thought it was funny. I only want you to use it for good,” she pulled it out of her jacket pocket and waved the folded note in front of me. “What will you trade me?”

“Don’t you think this falls under the greater good clause?”

She scrunched up her little face in thought, “Maybe I should have just thrown it away for Velvet’s benefit. Right to privacy and personal sacredness?”

She had beaten me at my own game! Fortunately for me Velvet Rider’s right to privacy only cost me three sticks of chewing gum and one of my old carving knives. So then I held it in my hands that night in bed. Velvet was a doodler like me, she was better than me. I laughed as my eyes surveyed her work from science class. I knew it was from science class because she had drawn a very good likeness of Master Farsi in the middle of the page. There were little illustrations of the soil regeneration process in a pattern around his head. In all four corners there were hearts. The hearts were filled in with different patterns. In each corner there was also a name, “Calvin Weber”. I nearly leapt out of bed in disbelief. She had written my name. My name. I was breathing too hard. I might as well make use of the energy. I dropped to the ground and started counting push-ups.

Tomorrow was looking good, but I could regulate. I had never felt like this before. I was in danger of breaking several laws by having and using the paper my sister had given me. I would not use it. I would simply log this information away for my own educational purposes. My eyes leveled with my paper disintegrator.

Then out of habit as I pumped my arms I chanted under my breathe the Thay human creed:

“I can regulate. I will do better as I know better.

Meditation breeds consciousness and reflection. I will put in the time.

I can excel through study and practice. My future is limitless.

I will make a better tomorrow.

I will foster growth. Growth is the key to earth.

Strong bodies breed strong minds.

Strong minds make smart choices.

Smart choices create opportunity.

Opportunity benefits humankind. Humankind must regulate.”