10101001

10101001

The six armed solders stood near the door like they had for that past three days. No one went inside that wasn't authorized, if you tried you died, plain and simple. She always felt nervous at this point, is she still on the list or would they gun her down?

She showed them her ID then they did a biometric scan of both eyes before they let her in. When everything checked out the first soldier handed her a piece of paper with a single word on it, "Peanut butter". It was the safe word of the day not that she needed it.

They would be watching and listening of course. If they felt anything was wrong they would rush in and more than likely kill everyone in the room to contain the situation. She tried to smile at them but like always they just stepped aside when the door opened.

She stood there staring at the gray humanoid like alien sitting at the table reading a book. It called itself an "Observer"; it liked to read and had read many thousands of earth books over its life. But now, as it had told her, this was his last for it would soon be dead.

That was something they couldn't figure out. Numerous medical exams had shown that it was similar in biology to humans, albeit did have several extra organs they could not identify, and of course it had no idea what they were, or so it told them.

Everything told them it was healthy and showed no signs of dieing anytime soon. They had speculated that it must have a self terminating life span even though it had told them it could live as long as five hundred years. It refused to speak on the subject again.

The only thing it could tell them was how old it was and why it was here, not in the room here, but why it was here on Earth. It was a replacement for the last Observer who had died in an unfortunate accident while making repairs to the ship. This Observer was born on April sixteenth, eighteen ninety seven.

The old Observer was then jettisoned in a burial pod to burn up upon reentry into the atmosphere leaving no evidence of their existence to the locals. But the pod somehow survived and crashed in Aurora Texas on April seventeenth. Ironically, it was the same fate the current Observer was to have five days earlier, but that didn't happen either, it and the pod had survived.

The super secret agency that recovered the pod shortly after it crash landed brought it to a super secret location everyone knows about but would never suspect. When they opened the pod they found the current Observer still alive. The Observe was not injured to badly in the crash and was soon up and talking.

That was where she came in, Doctor Elizabeth Parsons, Medical Doctor and Surgeon. She was the only one who was stupid enough to help when asked by the government to examine a very important person but could never tell anyone anything about it.

Sure they had other specialists who had been working closely with the secret, "men in black" as she called them, but they wanted a fresh perspective and found her. She only wished she could turn back time and tell them, no.

She signed and smiled when it looked up at her.

"Good morning Doctor Parsons." It said. She could never tell if it was male of female but according to it, it was neither. Something they had confirmed during their exams, it had no male or female genitalia or organs.

"Did you sleep well doctor?" It asked when she sat down in front of it.

"As well as can be expected in this place." She replied. She looked up at the clock on the wall then wrote down the time and date before starting: nine a.m., August tenth.

"Now where were we yesterday?" She said opening up her note book. No electronics were allowed outside her office so it was back to paper and pen when taking notes. If needed she could request the audio recordings of the session from security but felt uncomfortable asking.

"I believe you were asking me about my duties. And, as I explained, it was merely to observe your people and report back to the Controllers."

"You also mentioned how you interfered with us on several occasions after receiving permission from the Controllers. Did that happen a lot with the other Observers?" It sat back then looked at the book.

"Alas, I will never know the ending of this story." He muttered then closed the book. She read the title smiling, Alice in Wonderland.

"Alice gets home." She told it. They sat there for a moment looking at each other.

"Now back to the times you interfered?"

"I do not know what the past Observers did or did not do, their files and reports were locked out. It was not for me to know only to do what was expected of me."

"And yes, three times in fact. The first was during a British Nuclear missile launch. I detected the missile had an anomaly that would detonate it before it reached orbit. The devastation would be extensive and affect the course we saw before you, so I requested permission to disable and destroy it."

"And did you?"

"Yes."

"What about the second time?"

"Another top secret missile launch this time in the pacific by the United States. The missile would have gone astray landing in an unfriendly country and possibly cause another world war. Once again permission to disable and destroy it."

"What about the third time?" It leaned forward.

"What is it like to be female?" It asked. Shocked at the question she sat back dumb founded.

"Well, that's kind of hard to explain..." She did not know how to finish.

"I apologize if that question made you uncomfortable doctor. I rescind my question."

"It must be difficult not understanding the difference between males and females." She said.

"I understand the differences, I just do not understand the... feelings. Both emotional and sexual. They had been removed from my DNA so I have neither desire not wants in the mater, only... curiosity."

"I can't imagine what it's like not knowing either way." It sat back then continued.

"The third time was September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty three. And shall I say the events that occurred did not happen the way they were reported years later."

"That... was the day the soviets thought the US launched nuclear missiles at them wasn't it?"

"Yes, however it was not the US they detected it was me, or should I say my probes. Strange to think that they were actually detected by chance due to a simple atmospheric storm. I took precautions after that to insure it did not happen again." He looked up at the clock them back at her picked up the pitcher of water poured them both a glass. He handed one to her then drank it.

"I had to act fast, or the world you knew would end and it would have been my fault. So I contacted lieutenant-colonel Petrov directly, of course he did not believe me so I did the one thing he could not do."

"And what was that?"

"I contacted his wife."

"He believed you after that?"

"After a few moments talking to her, yes. When it was over I also contacted the President of the United States and let them talk. It was a momentous day that changed both their lives."

"The Controllers approved of course."

"No. My decision nearly coast me my life." It was silence for a moment then looked up at the clock, she turned and looked up too, it was nine forty-five. The door opened up behind them and a tall man dressed in a black suit came in. He stopped next to the doctor and began to whisper.

"I can hear you Mr. Smith. If you have something to ask me then just ask." He slowly stood up looking at it.

"We were able to restore power to the burial pod..." He said.

"And all you could got to work was the monitoring screen." It asked knowing the answer.

"Yes. It keeps displaying one zero, one zero, one zero, zero one."

"And?"

"What does it mean?" It leaned forward looking intensely at them.

"Did you ever wonder what the end would be like?" It asked. "Is there really an after life? If there is, can one who was created by science like myself, go there?"

"Why did you leave your ship to die in the burial pod?" She asked him. "You're in very good health and as you said you can live for up to five hundred years. So why die now?"

"My time was up anyway. Soon the ship would return to be overhauled then reassigned to another world to observe along with a new Observer. It is something I can not undertake."

"Why?" She asked again.

"To each new world observed, a new Observer must be assigned. One that has had no outside experience of other races, other worlds. No allegiance to any race not even to ones own kind because they have no kind. Another reason why we have no gender, so as to not conform to either ideals of male or female. To know no love or hate for another gender. Neutrality at its finest you might say."

"That still doesn't tell us what the binary code means."

"It is not a binary code, it marks... the end."

"The end of your life?" She asked.

"The end of everything." They were silent as he continued.

"One of my duties as Observer is to analyze world events and map potential outcomes. During the last mapping we concluded the time of Earth is up. World war will soon arise and it will begin and end in nuclear fire." She sat up looked at the clock then back at it, nine eight am.

"August tenth, ten oh one. That's what the number mean! Is that when it starts?" She pushed away from the table jumping up and stepping back. "You could have told us! Warned us!"
"It wouldn't have mattered. In three minutes, twenty nuclear warheads placed months ago by terrorists, will go off simultaneously at key points around the world. The end result will be all out retaliation by the countries affected ending your world in total annihilation."

"You should have called the Controllers and told them!" She was yelling trying not to cry, Smith quickly left. It looked at her curious as to why she was crying.

"I did. They refused me permission to interfere this time. The mapping showed that eventually the same thing will happen again just at a later date. There is no alternate future, your course is set and your future ends today." It looked down at the desk then back up at her she was sitting on the floor near the door crying even harder.

"I broke the one rule an observe has. Do not get involved with those being observed. I did not want to witness the destruction of your people because I grew fond of you, so I was given permission to end my life in the burial pod."

"Your people had such promise, if you just learned to work together." They looked up at the clock watching the minute hand as it hit reached ten oh one. The room started to shake, the ceiling starting to collapse in on top of them.