Here Comes Earth: Emergence (10 page)

Dr. Julie Schein

Julie
had taken a seat in the common living area or hub of their squad and laid her
head back – it was still early evening and she was so tired. All she wanted to
do was sleep but how could anyone sleep with everything that was going on? They
were in space!

What
a weird, long, incredible day! Their shipboard accommodations were unreal and
the look on Anzio’s face when Suzi, their Noridian escort, had demonstrated the
shower – it was priceless. Of course Mark had been wearing a silly grin ever
since. It was ironic that out of a group of scientists it was Captain Hiromi
who had asked all the questions.

For
a moment Julie seriously wondered if she’d been drugged.  It wasn’t normal for
her to be fatigued like this, and then she started noticing the other people
around her…

Dr.
Tony Decker was sitting on another sofa-like chair, leaning forward with his
head in his hands massaging his temples. On the outer edge of the area close to
one of the hallways the Ito sisters stood quietly conferring with each other. Kamiko’s
arm was on the shoulder of a third woman from her Blue Squad (Jennie?) and it
was obvious that the scientist had been crying. Across the squad hub you could stare
straight into the conference room (apparently the wall could be made
transparent) and see Anzio leaning back in a chair with his eyes closed. The
only way you’d know he wasn’t asleep was the slow movement of the chair
swiveling from side to side.

“How
are you feeling Julie?” the voice of Dr. Mom interrupted her thoughts.

“Toni,
(yawn) I didn’t hear you sit down. I’m just a little tired. Why do you ask?”

“Oh,
I’m just thinking with all the stress everyone’s been under that it’s amazing
there isn’t more anxiety or depression to deal with; my husband died of a
stroke and everyone was convinced it was because of stress. And while I’m sure
the Noridian’s didn’t mean to do it right at the point when everyone is most
stressed about leaving home and what we might find, they bring us into this
magical environment. I feel kind of like an ant in the food court of a tap
dance studio,” said a smiling Dr. Mom.

“That’s
actually a great analogy,” Julie responded thoughtfully.

“Tell
me Julie, as a Psychiatrist, if the pressure were to start getting the better
of me what symptoms should I look out for?”

“Well,
it depends. An anxiety response wouldn’t be unusual. In our situation it
wouldn’t surprise me if people didn’t start going into a mild form of shock…”
Julie’s voice trailed off.

“And
what would the symptoms of shock be?” Toni prodded.

“Oh,
feeling cold, feeling despondent, feeling sleepy…” After a moment Julie looked
up and said, “Thank you Toni. Thanks for putting me back on track but I’m the
psychiatrist and it’s time I started doing my job.”

With
a determined look on her face Julie looked around the room again, “How about
you, are you ok? And where’s Mark and Dr. Cook?”

“I’m
fine dear. I’m going to hang around here and talk to anyone that’s lonely. I’m
pretty sure that David is in his cabin and he looked like he was doing fine but
I’ll check in on him. You might want to touch base with Dr. Sullivan at mission
HQ and you might even want to stick your head in on Ambassador Rutledge. Mark
was supposed to brief with him this evening.”

Julie
smiled, patted Toni on the hand as she got up and started walking to the hallway
that was marked 3
^rd
Platoon. She’d quickly touch base with Major
Reagan and then move on to the mission HQ. As crazy as a certain history
professor was there would be no telling what kind of trouble he could be
getting into.

∆∆∆

The
Platoon Hub was empty so she checked the schematic that was drawn/marked/painted
on the wall just inside each hallway and continued to the HQ Hub.

There
was something acoustically weird about the hallways because even without doors
they remained quiet; and that was quite a trick considering the three-way
argument she walked into. The HQ Hub was huge and could probably accommodate
the entire Earth Team. Right now there might have been 30 or 40 people sitting,
standing, or wondering around; including these three idiots trying to outshout
each other.

After
spending ten minutes with them she still didn’t know what they were arguing
about but she had managed to remind them that they were distinguished
professors and this was a high-pressure, emotionally charged situation that
needed their leadership.

She
could see Ambassador Rutledge and Mark in one of the conference rooms (the HQ
Hub had several) and they looked fine so she started casual conversations with
any individual or group she ran across. She suspected that there was a mild
form of mass hysteria at work here. Most people were fine but not quite all
right. Many were understandably a little anxious and a number had fixated on
the smallest of details.

For
example: a geologist couldn’t quit thinking about the fact that all the
elevators only had two buttons. That was significant he explained because we
knew there were at least three floors (the ‘garage’ level we’d entered on, the
level we were currently on, and the level right below us where our equipment
was stored) and presumably the Noridians had some levels of their own. We could
go back and forth between the garage and here – that was it.

Another
scientist was perplexed at the design of the ship. Had anyone else noticed, she
wondered, that there were exactly the right amount of living quarters for our
team? That the ship was sectioned off and labeled exactly to our hierarchy of
HQ, Platoons, and squads?

Others
were concerned with the ship’s interior lighting (you couldn’t tell where it
was coming from) and the seamless construction of the walls, floor, furniture,
and view screens (even though the sofas had a different color and texture from
the floors there were no seams). Like the view screens, the ‘glass’ walls of
the conference rooms had no frame – one section was a pleasant beige wall and
the next was perfectly clear, even if they felt the same.

It
didn’t take Julie long to realize that what was missing was leadership. She
eventually found the neatly labeled door to General Nesbit’s quarters and surprisingly
the door opened but no one was there.

When
she arrived at Colonel Memphis’ quarters the door didn’t immediately open and
Julie was just trying to find a button or bell. When it did open it revealed Dr.
Derrick Helmer with one arm held high against the wall and the other on his
hip.

From
an overly relaxed pose he said, “Well, hello.

“Did
you know,” he continued, “that the doors turn transparent from the inside when
someone is waiting outside? You looked pretty cute when you were trying to find
a way to get in.”

Ignoring
the comment Julie said, “I’m looking for General Nesbit. Is he here?”

“Nope,
just Memphis.”

She
pushed past Helmer and walked into the quarters. Colonel Memphis was in the
sunken living area, leaning forward from his seat on the edge of the sofa,
focused on the view screen that was displaying something technical.  A couple
of now empty food trays were on the ‘coffee table’ in front of him.

Julie
actually had to address him twice before he realized she was there.

“Colonel
Memphis, where is General Nesbit?” she asked.

“He
went with one of the Noridians when we first came on board and I haven’t seen
him since,” he responded. “Why?”

“Because
we need some leadership right now.” Julie went on to explain that people needed
to be focused and given something to do; that this was a big change and that
they needed to feel confident.

“It
sounds like your scientists need a babysitter,” Memphis dismissively said to
Helmer.

“Actually
Eugene, I think Dr. Schein is right. Why don’t we call the group together and
give them a pep talk.”

Colonel
Memphis shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sure.” He then immediately returned
his attention to the screen.

∆∆∆

You
could tell, Julie thought to herself, which platoon leaders had been paying
attention to their people by the way they entered the HQ Hub. They’d had to
send runners out with orders to gather everyone together in 15 minutes. Major
Reagan had arrived first with most of 3
^rd
Platoon in tow. The marine
major that had the Diplomatic Platoon came next with at least half of his team
and the other two platoons kind of wondered in on their own.

Except
for the wide walkway around the edge that bordered the doors and hallways, the
main floors of the hubs were sunken a step down. There was a simple but elegant
rail that ran around the inside of the walkway at about waist height, except
where it broke to allow people to step down to the main floor.

Julie
had waited against the rail opposite Memphis’ door as everyone assembled. After
about 20 minutes Memphis and Helmer walked out of the room and over to the
railing beside Julie. She hadn’t realized it but the raised walkway and railing
made a perfect speaking position.

Colonel
Memphis started, “I want to thank everyone for taking time away from your
busy
schedule to be here.” When no one laughed he continued, “I know that most of
you don’t have the self-discipline that the military demands but we have a
mission to perform and you people had better get you act together.

“A
fellow scientist of yours, Dr. Schein, has asked to speak to you so if it’s not
a rousing speech blame her.” With that, he turned and walked back into his
room.

A
stunned Julie tried to protest to Nesbit’s retreating back but Helmer stepped
in clearly intending to take over – except someone in a loud calm voice
overrode him… “Hey, she’s the psychiatrist; let her tell us what’s happening!”

Other
voices joined the clamor, so Julie looked over the crowd and spoke her mind.

“I’m
not ashamed to say that I’m scared,” she started. “It’s ok if you are too. Our
governments have placed a tremendous amount of responsibility on our shoulders
and that means we’re all under a tremendous amount of pressure.

“I
know,” she continued in a somewhat shaky voice, “that this isn’t easy. I
understand that it
would
be easy to get overwhelmed or to feel that our
whole culture is insignificant. That’s a terrible feeling but I know better and
so do you. We may not be as advanced as anyone we’ll meet but we’ve made it
this far and we’ll keep going. I don’t always know if it’s a good thing or a
bad thing but our whole history is full of stubborn people that didn’t give up.
It’s part of who and what we are.

“A
history professor friend of mind educated me a while back on what culture shock
is. I could intellectually understand what he was talking about but I didn’t
really get it until tonight. I believe this is what we’re all experiencing and
I’m asking each of you to rise above it. I believe that we’ll be ok and that
our people will have a great future - and you need to believe that too. So
here’s what I’m asking of you… do whatever you need to do tonight; hold hands,
pray, talk out your fears with each other but come morning we are the
professional representatives of our race.

“No
exceptions, no excuses. We will finish our mission and represent ourselves in a
way that God Himself would respect… thank you.”

∆∆∆

“Well,
it was a pretty short speech,” Mark said.

The
three of them were back in Mark’s room and Julie was still feeling buoyed by
Hiromi’s ‘thumbs up’ from a few minutes before.

“Yes,”
Anzio replied. “But it held gravity.”

“You
mean gravitas,” said Mark as he stood up and gave a theatrical stretch.

“And
I would agree with that,” he continued. “Except I think the timbre and tone
could have been… oof”