Here Comes Earth: Emergence (23 page)

“We
didn’t put together a team with leaders and subordinates like you did Major.
When we decided to visit Earth likeminded people came together and discussed
the idea. We approached some others that had expertise we thought we’d need but
in the end each of us came here because we wanted to. We told you that our Head
of Mission was still in France and that is true, but not because she has any
titles or authority other than that we all respect her and tend to listen to
her.

“I
didn’t create an academic career in genetics because someone told me to; I did
it because I thought it might be the best thing for us collectively. Whoever
recommended me for this mission didn’t come to me first and create a plan; they
did it because they thought it might be a good option. I had no idea Captain
Silva was going to be a part of this until I saw him on the base. I know this
way of thinking is foreign to you but it is the way of things.”

Julie
could see the Major was thinking things through carefully. After a moment his
body language suggested he had made a decision; he leaned forward and said,
“Toni why are Coridia and Noridia at odds and why does the Coridian Dynasty
care what Noridia does to us?”

Now
it was Toni’s turn to pause. With a sad look in her eyes she said, “The
Noridian Dynasty becoming a Lower House would be a disaster for Coridians.
Lower House members are treated with a respect among planet bound populations
and spacefaring dynasties that is on the same level as a minor deity. If
Noridia became a Lower House all they would have to do would be to mention in
passing their dislike for us and we would be shunned by entire star systems. In
your terms it could impoverish us. Our loss of respect galaxy wide is something
we might never recover from.

“As
to why we don’t like each other, I’m going to defer to Captain Silva on that.
Actually I suspect he will also ask you to wait but just a few hours. I think I
know where he’s taking us and if I’m right the Coridian you will meet there
will be able to answer all your questions.”

Dr. Mark Spencer

Toni
was a Coridian! Dr. Mom! Man, I didn’t see that one coming and she didn’t look
or act anything like Jaki or the others. For one thing she was a happy person;
Jaki always looked way too serious even when she… well. Also, Toni’s body fat
was much higher. I wonder if that was just part of the disguise. Come to think
of it, didn’t we learn that their medical nanotech kept them healthy and lean?
I’ll bet she hasn’t had access to that for a while. Interesting.

Silva
was a different story though. Now that I knew he wasn’t from here it was hard
to see him as anything but an alien. He still seemed more masculine than the
male Noridians I’d met but not by much.

I
approached the small group that included Captain Silva and had been waiting for
us in the hub. Without explanation I informed them that Major Reagan was
delayed and that we should continue.

Dr.
Decker and Captain Silva were already in a deep conversation regarding molecular
manipulation so I let them continue while I settled back in my sofa chair and
reviewed my strategy. I already had a general outline of questioning I wanted
to pursue but determining which line of questions would bring the fastest
insights was a throw of the dice.

Most
of the larger questions still remained unanswerable. Silva had told us that the
Coridians hoped to openly influence our course of action from this point on but
did they just want us to join the Coridian Dynasty rather than the Noridian
Dynasty? What Earth really needed was the opportunity to make our own way in
the universe. We didn’t need to be owned or absorbed by anyone but could we
stand up to the Dynasties if it came to open conflict?

If
we were to believe the Coridian’s story – and I was inclined to – then
Noridians had already demonstrated their willingness to covertly murder our
people. Would it be possible to play them off each other? Were there other
Dynasties or parties that might affect the dynamics? How much time did Earth
have before events came to a head?

Then
of course there were going to be factions on Earth made up of people like
Helmer and Memphis that would sell the idea of greater technology and greater
comfort at any price. Conflict and restraint on our part was a hard sell
compared to an increased standard of living for all, peaceful integration, and
no more worries. I could almost convince even myself with an argument like that
except we would lose our freedom; we would lose our ability to ever stand on
our own or be considered an equal in galactic society. It was scary to think
that the majority of people on Earth might not really care about that. What was
it that Anzio had said? Someone had to represent the higher thinkers?

Maybe
this is what history has always boiled down to; when leaders or small groups of
leaders have been put into a position to make history making decisions they did
it. They didn’t take a vote, they didn’t try to guess what the majority would
want; they pushed for what they believed would be best. Sometimes that belief
was self-serving or insane but on occasion you had true statesmen that
propelled the course of civilization forward. Gandhi didn’t seek the approval
of the British. Churchill didn’t apologize for standing up to the Nazis even
when it frightened his own countrymen. The
Spartan
king Leonidas didn’t bow to the Persians and broke his people’s most sacred
rituals in doing so. The Founding Fathers of the United States neither sought
nor had the approval of most of the people in the colonies.

Plato wrote that a true democracy would never work. That if
each person truly had a vote on every issue then as soon as the majority
realized they could vote themselves largess from the public trough,
disproportionally benefiting from the efforts of the minority, then that
civilization was doomed.

I
was under no illusion that I had all the answers. Right now I’d settle for just
a few. Major Reagan however had asked me to figure something out and he just
wasn’t a man I wanted to disappoint. I also knew that Julie and Anzio were
depending on me but what could I do?

∆∆∆

By
0640 the next morning we were all in Major Reagan’s quarters; apparently no one
else had been able to sleep either.

I
was the second to arrive and was a little surprised to find Julie already
there, sharing coffee and in deep conversation with the major. I don’t know why
I was startled but when Julie turned to me and gave me that great smile of hers
I got a warm feeling inside and went to join them.

The
others started trailing in not long after.

“Captain
Silva and Dr. Andretti have been assigned new quarters just off the platoon hub
while the Noridian prisoner will stay in the small conference room with the transparent
walls. Captain Kamiko is in charge of their security,” Major Reagan was
explaining to us.

“According
to what Dr. Spencer learned from Silva last night the Noridian has been blocked
from the ship and that includes access to our communications. In the last
meeting of the evening, when we brought Silva and Andretti together, we were
assured that they were not monitoring those same earpiece communications but
Silva was very forthcoming in admitting that all it would take to change that
would be a simple thought to his bioware – this is why I asked all of you to
leave your earpieces outside the room.”

“Major,”
I said. “Does he really need the earpieces to monitor us?” I had suspected Jaki
of listening to several of my conversations that could only have come from some
type of internal ship listening ability.

Some
of the things she’d whispered into my ear and other innuendo could only have
come from private conversations I’d had with Anzio.

“Dr.
Spencer, the real answer is we don’t know,” he responded. “But when I asked him
about it he claims that he isn’t able to access that level of ship control.
Other than being able to lock an individual out of the system altogether he
only has control over life-support, engineering, and astrogation. Security and
long range communication aren’t included.

“I’ve
made the decision to assume that our conversations inside my quarters are
secure – it seems contra productive and impractical to do otherwise. Silva also
said that we might be able to get a message back to Earth from the planet we’re
approaching but we would all know more once we arrived.”

The
Major turned to Iron Jaw, “Mike, any progress on figuring out how to control
this ship?”

Shaking
his head Iron Jaw said, “No. We found a lot of rooms but no controls anywhere.
Sorry Matt but I think taking control of the ship is a no-go.”

“Ok,
it was always a long shot anyway.”

Changing
the subject the Major continued, “Toni believes that we’re headed to a planet
called Stiger.”

I
quickly interjected, “Captain Silva mentioned that name also.”

“According
to Toni the Stigerians are not a Dynasty; they’re simply a planet bound society
that enjoys autonomy. There is, however, a small Coridian presence on the
planet including a well-respected woman named Semi.”

“The
Coridians have also requested to take possession of our Noridian captive once
we make planetfall. I agreed; I don’t know what else we’d do with him and I
certainly don’t want to leave him on the ship.

“For
that matter,” continued the major. “I don’t want anyone staying on the ship
tomorrow. As much as possible I want the team staying together when we’re dirt
side. That means maintaining sight lines with at least two other members of the
team at all times – spread the word.

“In
addition I want to know more about this Stigerian society. Any questions?” he asked.

“Ok,
I’ve got a feeling we’re getting a lot closer to being able to understand our
situation and once we do we can start making our plans.”

∆∆∆

If
it wasn’t for the view screens we would never have known we’d landed. All
morning they’d been showing an approaching green, brown and blue planet, then
orbit, then planetfall.

The
screens were now filled on one side with a curious landscape of thinly trunked
trees with leaves ranging from dark blue-green to a funny shade of lime. Until
you got used to it, it played havoc with your depth perception.

Our
ship was sitting in a large clearing at the crux of what appeared to be a
medium sized ‘V’ shaped valley. The mountains on the two opposing sides were
relatively small and covered with foliage while the third side that formed the
apex of the ‘V’ (where we were) was filled with a steep sided monstrosity that
towered above the tree line and disappeared into the clouds.

On
the fourth side, stretched out slightly below us on the floor of the widening
valley was what had to be a city. There were no skyscrapers or smokestacks; as
a matter of fact you had to look hard to really see all the structures. Everything
blended in and there were beautiful buildings built right into the sides of
some of the valley walls, complete with multi-story glass walls and sweeping
curves. Except for the buildings themselves there was little in the way of
concrete or its equivalent. There were few if any noticeable streets and no parking
lots. If you looked closely you could notice two and three story buildings
sitting on the perfectly manicured valley floor amidst so many trees and
foliage that it reminded you of the ancient Mayan city of
Palenque
 
in
Mexico – except there was no indication of ruin. Everything was pristine.

Captain
Silva was guiding us and Toni was along to answer as many questions as she
could although she had admitted to never visiting this particular planet
before.

So
we had all travelled down to what I was thinking of as the Garage Level of the
ship and Captain Silva was showing us where the hovering car things were
stored.

Shortly,
forty-nine Earthers, two Coridians, and one bruised Noridian were slowly floating
down onto the valley floor.

As
we came into the city center we realized just how far apart the buildings were
from each other. We were also getting our first look at non-dynasty aliens and
except for the clothing I didn’t think they looked much different.

Many
people were on foot seemingly enjoying a very nice day; we didn’t see anyone
running or otherwise in a hurry. There were a few hover cars similar to ours
but I finally realized what stood out the most for me; the lack of people.
Unless they all lived underground or something this had to be the most sparsely
populated city I’d ever been in.

Also
lending to the feeling of a low population density was a curious phenomenon I
was noticing; whether on foot or in a hover car other people were getting out
of our way, sometimes well in advance of us.

We
eventually more or less took a left turn and I realized we were heading towards
one of the glass-walled edifices that were built into the side of the valley.
As we got closer to it I could see large open-air areas on the ground level
with multi-car sized openings leading deeper inside.

We
parked under the overhang of the edifice itself and walked through a
permanently open foyer and were greeted by three beautiful (of course) young women
who turned out to be native Stigerians.

There
were other people in the rather large foyer but again I got the impression of
emptiness. Maybe I had just gotten used to living on Earth with her eight
billion people but this definitely felt different.

Captain
Silva suggested that the group might enjoy some local refreshments and two of
our greeters hurried away to presumably accommodate him. They didn’t run or
look harried, but they were definitely moving faster than anyone else I’d seen
so far.

I
was busy looking at our surroundings and just paying attention to Captain Silva
and our Stigerian hostesses with what I had come to think of as my peripheral
senses. I have always had the ability to focus on something without losing awareness
of other things; for example I was calculating that this foyer had a two-story
high ceiling and held enough fountains, sofas, chairs, and tabled alcoves to
seat around 200 people when I heard our Stigerian hostess explain that Semi was
off planet.