GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 4 ... OLD EARTH ... World Presidents Office

President Ahmed Daniel Sayed, was a worried man.

The narrow, ice blue eyes. The frown. The back and forth pacing and impatience with those around him were symptoms. He was a man of small stature. His iron-grey hair had receded with a speed that was extremely depressing. He turned to his Senior Advisor. "What have you deduced from that infernal message?"

"Mr. President, at this moment in time we have nothing more to add. We are still trying to determine how to open the capsule without destroying the message," said his Senior advisor. A reed thin man whose grey suit needed ironing. It hung on him like an empty sack of potatoes. He wiped his wet, shiny head with a sopping handkerchief.

Sayed stare out the office window of The New White House.

With hands held stiffly behind his back Sayed turned and faced the number one man he trusted the most. "We need this, Blondie."

"True enough, Mr. President. With the polls as they are at the moment, we are down by another percentage and a half."

"Damn that Chinese liberal prick," Sayed's blue eyes spat fire. He rubbed a hand through his hair and turned to stare out the large window once again.

"Polls nearly every fortnight and the world crowing in delight as I drop out of favor half a percent at a time. I'll be known as the only president to have a fucking boring term. All seven fucking years of it. Maybe Ch'ing Tao was right, maybe I should get the KGB and the CIA to meddle in a Second World country like Australia or Iceland and create instability to declare war on them." He punched the wall beside the window and swore through the pain. "And that damned Chinese liberal free-thinking prick - we should declare all liberals dangerous and shoot the lot. There's enough fucking food, prices are down across the board. Enough housing, more than enough jobs to go around now that the that last batch of Planetariums are gone,. One of the only things in short supply at this fucking moment are human beings for fuck sakes. And, to top it all, that Chinese fucker wants my job. FUCK." He turned to face Blondie standing patiently and waiting. "Tell me what you've found out concerning this capsule, Blondie. I need cheering up. Three months, Blondie. Three fucking months is all I have. This capsule could be the answer to our prayers." He walked around his large desk and slumped dejectedly into the padded chair.

"Nothing much to tell, Mr. President. We do know that whomever sent it is human and can write English. It's made from an unknown metal. Extremely dense and impenetrable. Weighs three hundred kilograms and has the shape of a large grey egg. A seamless large grey egg at that. Were it not for the engraving of what we believe to be a bird and those two words impressed on its side, we would not have known what we had found. Of course, it does help that a radio signal is being transmitted from inside the thing. That's how we found it in the first place."

"Do you know what's inside? Is it hollow?" Sayed asked. "Is it human or alien?"

Blondie shook his head. "Definitely human. The engraving and the words confirm it. Those two words have every scientist in a tizzy. We were about to start x-raying the thing Mr. President, when you sent word that you required my presence."

"Oh, cut out that stiff upper lip crap, Blondie, we're friends you arsehole. What's eating you?"

"It's these interruptions, Say'. Every few hours you ask the same questions. It's disturbing enough to sit with an unknown object when we all know there are no aliens, except for that crap about a woman on a flying horse a year and a half ago." He chuckled in derision. "No aliens but quite a few billions of humans out there and with all probability, this egg may have come from one of the Planetarium groups we sent out in the past. It's exciting stuff Mike and ..." his eyes glowed with excitement.