Contact across the Solar System

One Last Earth Visit

As they moved ahead with their contact plans, Orthon and the rest of the Adamski Gang decided to visit the Earth while visiting that planet was still a known quantity. They would have to use false identities, but that was well-trodden territory for Earth residents. But after they made contact, then it would be hard to tell how they would be received. Would the Earthers hate them? Try to lynch them? Try to extract information from them by torturing them? Love them too much? Worship them as gods and heroes? It was a depressing thought that even after the Earthers learn of the SSC, that they still might have to travel incognito on the Earth.

They selected Earther names for themselves. Orthon chose Bob Wood, Kalna Betty Kaminsky, Ilmuth Sharon Hernandez, Firkon Chuck Miller, Ramu Rick Novak, and Zuhl Harry Black. They then reported to the training center. Orthon and Zuhl had to start from scratch, Firkon and Ramu had to learn about a lot of electronic devices, and even Kalna and Ilmuth had to do some learning, like of Earther smartphones. But surprisingly little else had changed as much.

Kalna got (informally) drafted into treasurer duty, with Ilmuth and Firkon as backups, because they were the most familiar with recent Earther electronic devices.

Then where to go. The Earth had so many interesting things to see and do that it would take nearly forever. So they decided to restrict themselves to the Earthers' most powerful nation, the United States, and in the US, to some of its more interesting spots.

The Adamski Gang's first stop was to be the Kennedy Space Center, still the US's main spaceport. However, Cape Kennedy had long ago been renamed back to its original name, Cape Canaveral. They found a pair of residents in nearby Orlando who were willing to let them stay at their home, and they arranged to get a pickup at a western-Florida beach. The scout dropped them off with their bags at that beach not long before dawn, and they watched the waves come in and crash on the beach.

Zuhl, especially, was fascinated by the endlessly crashing waves, and Firkon explained that some Earthers have a sport called "surfing", which is riding a wave while standing on a board.

"It must be awfully hard to avoid falling off," said Zuhl.

"I don't know about that, but some surfers are really good at it," said Firkon.

"I once went to a beach and I saw some surfers in action," said Kalna. "I remember putting on a lot of sunscreen. I was afraid that I'd use up the whole bottle," she said, laughing.

Orthon then described how some people in his hometown once proposed a wave tank for making some big waves to surf. When someone worked out the necessary size of the tank, it turned out to be rather big for such a limited use, and the proposal did not go any further.

The residents, Elladin and Yemnaki, a man-woman couple, soon showed up in their passenger van. It was an old used one, but it was still functional, and everybody and their luggage could fit in. Elladin said about it that "telepathy is great for buying used cars." Yemnaki laughed, and Kalna explained to the other Adamski-Gang members that many Earthers consider used-car dealers to be less than honest. Firkon confessed that it was a while since he last bought a car.

The residents took turns driving over the flat land on the way to Orlando, passing by numerous farms along the way. On the way, the conversation turned to global warming and how vulnerable Florida is to it. If the Earth's polar ice melts, most of the Florida peninsula would drown, taking all that farmland with it. Then how some fossil-fuel supporters have obstructed action to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by making misleading and false claims about it, claims that some of them knew to be false. Also how some Florida politicians seemed to believe these supporters, despite the vulnerability of their land. Not a very pleasant thing to think about as one was getting ready for making contact with the people of the Earth.