Note from the writer:  Africa is entering the space age as a result of global geography, mineral resources, and political imperatives. Human civilization must expand into the solar system to survive. However, other nonhuman economic parties may emerge to stick their claws into Mother earth. See what  happens when galactic aliens meet modern Africans in: "The Chains of Gravity."

The Chains of Gravity

by Stafford L. Battle

Resonance Flower, the bride, was furious. Her large dark eyes squinted with rage. The full, perfect lips were pressed tightly together. Galaxy Eyes, the groom, anxiously readjusted his ritual wedding robe. In the zero gravity, the elegant, bright colors of the Kente cloth swirled around his thin, straight frame. The celestial marriage ceremonies had been ruined by the entrance of the mysterious Alien that called itself James. It was very insistent that no one could escape Space Station New Ethiopia in geosynchronous orbit over Africa.

The wedding guests, some of the world's top scientists, professors, and students from major technology universities in the European Union, New African States, and the Americas, had overcome their initial surprise and fear. Now, the dozens of men and women were restless and there were angry frowns, dangerous whispers. But they were bound by magnetic shackles to the metal bulkheads.

Electronic interference blocked all communications. There was no way to radio for help or warn anybody back on earth.

James and his raiders had melted their way in through the forward airlock. Fiery red tendrils welded shut all hatchways. Now, James alone drifted a few meters above the floor -- a blistering hot snowflake. The only sound was the hiss of self-sealing bulkheads as precious air refilled sections of the wounded space transport.

"We are a very civilized people," Galaxy Eyes repeated. An intimidating wall of smokeless flame surrounded James. "Don't make us resort to violence," warned Galaxy Eyes.

When James spoke, its body colors fluctuated from deep blood red to pale sky pink. "Nonviolent. I have a dream." The hot crystalline entity then added, "Let's make a deal." The temperature in the station's stellar observation bubble had risen significantly. But the modern, space faring Africans could deal easy with much greater discomforts than this. They were well trained both physically and mentally to withstand the rigors of space.

The Snowflake spoke again, "Your people have great value. Sky's the limit. Afraid of the dark?"

"The world's been expecting your arrival for decades since the Sahara Long Range Extra-Solar Scanners first detected your ship back in the early 21st Century." Galaxy Eyes stroked his rough black beard. "We were prepared to offer diplomatic welcome. Both our civilizations could benefit through economic and cultural exchanges. But your ship vanished."

"No welcome necessary." James shuttered ominous violet. "Nothing personal, just business."

Silicon Stone struggled to push his large frame away from the wall. Despite his genetically enhanced strength, he couldn't break the grip of the heavy magnetism. "You tread dangerous ground," he growled. He was Bambara, ancient warriors. "How large is your crew? What type of drive do you use for interstellar transit? What weapons do you carry? How did you escape detection?" The muscles in the big man's face were tight and grim. He stared down at the whitish snowflake alien.

James ignored the questions and pulsed periwinkle blue, "Impressive, Are you without genetic defects?"

The big man twisted his lip into a defiant sneer. "You would be ridiculously easy to neutralize."

James stiffen gray. "Talk is cheap."

"Why am I not confined?" asked Galaxy Eyes with a sharp glance to his outspoken Bambara associate.

"You bring me more slaves," said James. The words slowly sank into the hearts of the humans. "What is your name, earth born?"

"Galaxy Eyes," then he pointed to the big black man, "He is my assistant Silicon Stone. And, that is my bride Resonance Flower."

"Galaxy Eyes, Silicon Stone, Resonance Flower?" the Alien shuddered from violet to bright green. "Your names confuse me."

"Were you expecting Amos and Andy Jefferson?" growled Silicon Stone.

"Yes," said the Alien.

"Release my wife."

"Of course," was the simple response. Resonance Flower drifted into the waiting arms of her husband. They embraced tightly. There was a moment as they looked into each other's eyes. Emotion passed silently between them. Resonance Flower murmured softly to Galaxy Eyes. The multicolored gemstones in her long thick braids clicked together softly. The petite diamond in her nose sparkled. After a moment she said, "My love, they've been receiving old 20th century entertainment broadcasts."

Silicon grunted in agreement. "These monsters must use relativistic drives, probably fusion."

Galaxy Eyes nodded. "That explains its usage of American slang. Americans transmitted more television signals than any other nation." He turned to the Alien, "Your knowledge of our world is more than 60 years out of date. We have unique sets of names now-our birth names given to us by our parents, and our adult professional names that we chose. For instance, I am an astronomer. And when we marry," he stopped as he gazed at his beautiful woman. He longed to kiss her and make her safe. There were so many plans for the little voices of children, long walks at dawn along the lake, passionate nights. "And when we marry, we add the name of our spouse's clan."

"Your wife, good genes?" Long tongues of flame licked the floor.

"What do you want with he r?"

"Trade," said the red-hot snowflake. "I purchase!"

Anger edged into Galaxy Eye's voice, "We don't enslave easily."

James chuckled orange. "There will be no violence. No chains." James glowed a barely visible infrared. "Sell humans to the highest bidders in the known universe. Great value."

"Dirty slaver!" Silicon Stone spat out the words.

James glided quickly of the path of the spray. "You, we chain!"

Hesitating, as the ghost of a plan began to coalesce, Galaxy Eyes said, "What do you offer? Perhaps, you and I can come to an agreement." There were gasps from his colleagues. Resonance Flower held even tighter to her husband.

"Gravity."

The wedding guests glanced at each other. They whispered among themselves.

James went on to say, "Control of gravity. Your assistant, terrible wet stone face, brashly assumed we use dangerous nuclear fusion to travel between stars. No. Use gravity drives. But suffer effects of relativity. When we left our planet, two months ago, it was mid-20th century earth."

"So," pondered Galaxy, "by nullifying gravity around your ship you can easily lift off your planet. Then you could repulse from larger celestial bodies, say a star, to build up to a large fraction of c, the speed of light. A great scientific achievement."

"It works," said the Alien. "Trade? Ten human slaves for one gravity machine. Africa's power in world's economics will be greatly enhanced. Your tribe can rule your entire planet," he said. "Here! Gift." From an orifice on its body, a tiny black cube small enough to fit in a child's palm dropped on the table. There were three small toggle switches on one side.

A spiral of flame pointed at the cube.

"This off switch. Here on. Here intensify. Graviton field lift 747 Jumbo. Last long time. Then you can replace it with another."

"And we can manufacture these?" questioned Galaxy Eyes as he held the mysterious device.

"No! You no build. Look gift horse in mouth ... explode!" The hellish snowflake twinkled white. "Is price right? Decide. My crew soon return. Time is money."

Galaxy Eyes spoke confidently in the language of the Bambara. The low pitched chant was more like music than guttural tribal language. "Yes. Make me rich. But it would be better, if you buy frozen human embryos. Much profit. Consume less room on ship. Agree?" His wedding guests who did not understood the Bambara language were shocked into silence.

James twinkled its confusion. Resonance Flower cooed back in the melodic Bambara tongue. "Good, good, my wise husband. The Bambara never transmitted their language on communications nets. The Alien is befuddled."

James glided close to its captives. "What say you?"

Waves of heat swept over Galaxy Eyes as he responded in common English, "Make better deal."

"Is that all?" demanded the Alien. "If they try to escape. They will be damaged. Lose great wealth. You will be slave!"

In pure English, Galaxy Eyes said slowly, "These adults will make terrible slaves. They eat too much. And they will revolt. I have a much better bargain for you."

"Better deal?" queried the Alien.

"Yes. You can buy frozen human embryos. They take up less room, consume no food, and develop into perfectly functioning slaves who have never known freedom."

"Yes, yes," it glowed ecstatically. "What price?"

"Twenty gravity boxes per embryo."

"12!"

"18!"

"12!" persisted the snowflake. "Final offer! You take or I make you slave!"

"Okay," smiled Galaxy Eyes. "Partner?"

"Partner. Where human embryos?"

"On Earth. Kushite City. I have to contact my government."

The snowflake pulsed interstellar black, "No trust government."

Pointing to the wedding guests, Galaxy said, "We keep their top scientists as hostages. They are very important people."

"Good idea."

"And, you can take my wife as a gift. With my portion of the profits I can buy a younger, prettier wife." Only for a moment did Resonance Flower flash ire.

The Alien twinkled in hot delight. "You wicked smart partner. But will your government go along with trade?"

"Centuries ago, the African tribes warred constantly and the losers were sold as slaves. Did you ever see Roots?"

The Alien pulsed green, "Yes, Kunte Kente. I concur. Black traders rounded up and sold slaves to Europeans. Me European, now. Good! You Arab slave trader."

"Yes." Galaxy Eyes set his jaw firmly. "There are groups of ambitious humans on my planet who would consider this commerce most lucrative. After all, embryos aren't people. And your gravity machines can make us very powerful." He pushed Resonance Flower roughly away. Her metal bracelets locked onto the metal deck next to Silicon Stone.

The big man nodded grimly and said, "When I get free I will kill!" The words were aimed at Galaxy but the eyes told another story.

James hovered just out of spitting range. "Quiet slave! Or I melt you down ... By any means necessary."

Galaxy Eyes had firmly made up his mind. He never glanced back at his fellow earth people. "I will get you many embryos, and you can make me very rich and powerful." He clutched the gravity cube tightly.

"Yes."

"Let's get started. I will call my government."

"We will have many profitable trades together. You travel with me ... as guest. Rich, honored guest. Galaxy Eyes see real civilizations. The universe is huge and has many people. Even stranger than you." He paused. "You may call home, partner."

"Yes." Galaxy Eyes glided to the closest comlink. Dozens of messages were waiting. Many were from worried relatives, but quite a few were from the United African Space Authority that was concerned about the radio blackout. Galaxy Eyes requested a direct line to the Kenyan Ministry of Space Exploration. In Bambara, he rapidly explained the trade agreement with the Alien. The Kenyan authorities on hand reacted exactly as he expected.

James hovered nearby. "What say you?"

"I explained your offer in their language. Less chance for confusion. Control of gravity offers much wealth to many of my tribe. My chief will decide favorably. But, there are several officials that have to be notified and preparations made. You don't want inferior merchandise. "

James stuttered blue, "I must learn this new language."

"As I travel to your world, I will teach you."

"Good. No secrets. Many profits!"

Time was slipping away, so Galaxy Eyes acted quickly. "Is your spaceship large enough to transport the product?"

The Alien chuckled, " My ship is small but very powerful. We can tow this space station. It can store all human embryos. We'll return it later, maybe." James twirled. "Tell your government, I release payment in good faith, now. I await payment."

Galaxy Eyes pushed off to the nearest portal. He stared down at the great blue planet of his birth and fought to keep his true feelings out of his expression. Millions of families, young couples, children were unaware that their world had entered a deadly new phase of its existence. He was risking a lot.

Slowly, a gray sphere surrounded by a rainbow ring faded into view. It was like a tiny version of the planet Saturn, an evil smaller twin. A tiny package popped out of a hatch and began a slow glide to earth. In a moment, it had disappeared into the clouds.James pulsed happily. "First delivery made. Thousand gravity cubes. Neat trick to bend light with gravity. Like invisible man." An Alien laugh filled the station.

Yes, very neat trick thought Galaxy as he noted the pinpoints of light rapidly rising up from the continent of Africa. He counted the minutes. Timing was critical.

"Crew ready to load human embryos," said James gleefully yellow. "I think we keep hostages, make even more profit." The Alien bounced up and down, heating the air. Its fiery tendrils brushed against the ceiling, scorching it but it carefully avoided the emergency fire detectors. "Like other planets, soon your world will be completely dependent on gravity cubes. All your transportation and defense will depend on little black box. Next time, I bring huge cargo vessel and we buy millions of slaves!"

Galaxy Eyes wasn't listening. He glided to his wife and touched her cheek gently. She smiled at his caress. The wedding guests who spoke Bambara were grim but thankful. The others were resigned to whatever fate befell them.

"There is only one problem," said Galaxy Eyes, the Kenyan Master Astronomer.

"What problem, partner?" The hot natured Alien came closer.

"We'll never embrace slavers again!"

Galaxy spat at the monster then threw the gravity cube to Silicon Stone. The Alien quickly backed away, avoiding the liquid stream. Silicon Stone caught the gravity cube in his teeth, heaved mightily-sweat flew off his forehead as he broke free. Then using the magnetized shackles, he pinned the gravity cube fast to an overhead strut on the main bulkhead of the space station.

The twilight sky over Kenya blazed into glorious day as an explosive detonation, nearly as bright as the sun, blossomed. Three anti-matter missiles had hit their target squarely, ripping the alien starship into disassociated atoms. The Nairobi space flight controllers were extremely accurate once their electronic telescopes had spotted the Alien ship.

As double insurance, the Americans followed up with a simultaneous blast from a Tetrawatt plasma beam spewed out of one of their largest and most lethal killer satellites. The brutal beam tore apart the free floating atoms into subatomic fragments, then swept the skies for more invisible invaders. Other countries launched their own space shuttles and orbital space fighters to make certain earth orbit was clean.

Microseconds prior to the attack, however, Space Station New Ethiopia reached nearly 50 percent of light speed as it repulsed away from the earth and the tremendous explosions. James, the Alien, saw its ship and crew evaporated from existence. It crumpled into a pink marble and tried to escape. But Silicon Stone moved fast and activated the automatic fire extinguishers. A fine mist of water filled the station. James had no where to hide. It sizzled like frying bacon. "Ridiculously easy to kill," complained the big man.

In a few minutes, the space station was safely in orbit around the moon. United African States lunar shuttles swarmed up to greet the human space station. Galaxy Eyes released a deep breath as he held tightly to Resonance Flower. They had conquered the galactic  slaver.

Silicon Stone dislodged the gravity cube from its niche. "At least we know it works. It may takes us decades before we discover how to manufacture these. But we will."

Galaxy Eyes grew stern. "We have about 50 years before more slavers arrive."

Resonance Flower assuredly added, "Our children will be united and ready. They will confront the fire demons and anyone else who threatens us."

Together the happy couple stared into the dark space beyond their solar system. Galaxy murmured thoughtfully, "There is a lot to be explored out there. Some of it will be unfriendly."

"Beloved," she whispered, "Let's create our first son now, and name him Shaki Galactus. Let him deal with it. You and I will be busy."

Their lips touched.

THE END ...  FOR NOW

Links You Want to follow:

The South African Space Agency: http://www.space.gov.za/

The Nigerian Space Agency: http://www.nasrda.net/

The Egyptian Space Effort: http://www.narss.sci.eg/

And others are emerging . . . .