Contact across the Solar System

In Rome

Rome was the big exception, with the SSC people's visit only continuing the controversy there.

The SSC people's first stop was the Stadio Olimpico, where they met with the President and Prime Minister of Italy, and various other dignitaries. No big surprises there, though Kalna and Ilmuth and Orthon and the other SSC people dressed in jumpsuits. Early that afternoon, they got into some SSC scouts and went to the Campo de' Fiori. There was room for only one scout at a time, so the scouts took turns landing behind the statue of Giordano Bruno and dropping off their passengers.

The statue showed him wearing a hooded monk's robe, and it towered above them, 4 meters / 15 feet tall, on a base that was 8 meters / 30 feet tall. On the base was an inscription stating "A Bruno - il secolo da lui divinato - qui dove il rogo arse" - "To Bruno - from the age he predicted - here where the fire burned".

Then when everybody was seated in front of the statue, Orthon got up, looked upward at the statue, then walked to it and turned around to face the other visitors. Some SSC people and Italian dignitaries joined him, and he stated "I have an announcement to make."

"Giordano Bruno was one of our contactees."

He then described the SSC's contacts with him and Bruno's career. "Yes, that's why he sounded like us," Orthon said. He related how Bruno talked about how the stars are suns and how these suns have planets like what the Sun has, he talked about how every bit of the Universe has some divinity in it, and he described about how when we die, we will return to live another life. After describing GB's imprisonment, trial, and execution by being burned alive, Orthon described how guilty some of his contacts were that they had let him suffer such a horrible fate. Orthon also described how he once put his hand in a flame to see what it was like, and he described how painful it was.

"We were too cautious with him, and we were too cautious with George Adamski," Orthon said sadly. "We are now trying to avoid the mistakes that we made with them."

This was old news, but to see it reaffirmed in this manner was still startling.

Other dignitaries made plenty of speeches, and reporters then quizzed the SSC people.

A reporter asked about Giorgio Dibitonto. Orthon was not sure what he meant and the reporter explained that he was a contactee who had written a book in the 1980's about his experiences, a book called "Angels in Starships". "He mentions that you and others had contacted him."

Orthon checked his smartphone and he reported "We do indeed know about him. I was one of a group of us who tried to contact him psychically to see how well he might do in further contacts. It didn't turn out very well. He ended up writing a book that looked a lot like George Adamski's 'Inside the Spaceships'. He even claimed that some of us had physically contacted him".

"So you never contacted him"?

"Not physically."

The reporter asked the others about that, and they also said that they had not gone on any such physical contacts.

Kalna said that she first learned of the book when discussing some intelligence on Earthers in the Saanalokam Earth-observation center. Someone said that this book mentions her, and she got curious. "I remember the first thing that this guy made me say. That the people of your world need some great hero figure to lead them. That seemed bizarre. Haven't the people of your world had enough of leader-worship? I thought."

Ilmuth said that she wasn't very impressed by that book. "It made me look like some Bible worshipper. And I'm not even very familiar with the Bible. Yes, we Earth observers learn about that book as part of our training, and yes, I know some things about it, but I wouldn't call myself an expert on it."

After that visit, they went off to visit the Roman Coliseum, where there was more room for their scouts. Orthon revealed something fun: some video of gladiatorial games in it taken by long-ago residents. Then back to Stadio Olimpico with the SSC people returning to the Aurora for the night.

The next day, they went to Stadio Olimpico again, then off to just outside St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. The SSC people dressed in jumpsuits there, as a sartorial compromise. The Pope decided that he did not want to continue a silly squabble, and he sent a representative to invite them in to his palace. They accepted, and they then gave the Pope a ride in a scoutcraft.

After some more touristy events, they returned to Stadio Olimpico for some sports and music and dances, and they returned to their ship for the next stop of their tour.