Here Comes Earth: Emergence (27 page)

“How
do we shorten that time frame Semi?”

“You
can’t. One of the Lower Houses would have to intervene and make you a dynasty
by proclamation – and that hasn’t happened for several hundred thousand years,
but major even if you could get the attention of a Lower House you’d have to
have a space presence and something of extreme value to offer to galactic
society. I suppose you could argue that you had a space presence until the
Noridians took it away but as to a valuable contribution, do you have something
like that?”

No.
No we don’t; at least not that I’m aware of but I wasn’t about to throw in the
towel.

One
of the most overlooked benefits of military training is the sheer exhaustion
you go through in boot camp and then if you are so Blessed by God to be
selected into the Special Forces you discover a whole new level of physical
endurance and mental toughness that gives you a confidence that few others
could ever know. I didn’t know how we were going to do this; I didn’t have any
idea how Earth could survive but I did know that we were going to keep putting
one foot ahead of the other and keep going.

Right
now though I was tired. I glanced at my watch and realized it had been almost a
20 hour day – for both me and my team.

“Semi,
I thank you for your candor and I’m going to take you up on your offer to put
more thought into our situation, but for now my team is exhausted. With your
permission I’m going to hit the sack and we can continue this tomorrow.”

She
responded with an, “Of course,” and one of the Stigerians quickly appeared
offering to show us our rooms.

“Are
you coming doctor?” I asked Anzio.

“You
go ahead major,” he responded. “I’m going to be talking a while longer with our
wonderful host.”

∆∆∆

Another
wonderful benefit of having gone through military training is that you learn how
to wake up instantly no matter how tired you are. It couldn’t have been more
than four hours later that Anzio was shouting my name and shaking my shoulder.

“Major!
We have a problem,” he said in a somewhat more controlled voice. “We’ve lost
contact with the team on Stiger.”

I
was already velcroing my boots when I asked, “What do we know.”

“I’m
not sure but they just woke Semi and they seemed very upset. Apparently her
staff was trying to contact their enclave on Stiger to make arrangements for
our return but couldn’t reach anybody. I thought you should know.”

“Thanks
Anzio. Get Silva and Dr. Decker up and ready to go. Where’s Semi – I’ll see
what else I can find out.” I almost asked him how he knew Semi’s people were
upset when they woke her but it just wouldn’t be fair.

I
found her in the main room and noticed Dien and one of the Stigerians carrying
boxes and bundles up the stairs and presumably to the ship.

As
usual, Captains Hiromi and Kamiko were ahead of me and were packed; ready to
ship out.

“I
assumed you would want to leave now,” was the first thing Semi said.

“I
take it that it’s not normal for you to lose contact?”

“Major
I do not want to cause you distress but it is all but impossible unless the equipment
has been destroyed. I try to never speculate but I am very concerned for our
people – as I am sure you are.”

She
was speaking to me but she was looking at Anzio.

“Semi,
at your best speed how long will it take us to get back?” I asked.

“It
will be the same major; a few hours. There is nothing we can do to shorten it.”

The
trip out to the retreat had been relaxed and pleasant. Our return was
excruciating. It was my job to be prepared for every contingency so my mind
kept playing morbid images over and over; everything from an asteroid strike
that would doom the planet to an invading army of Noridians. From everything
Semi had said I just couldn’t see an innocent explanation; something had gone
horribly wrong.

I
knew that the team, and Julie, were in good hands. Iron Jaw was one of the very
best and he had 14 of Earth’s finest warriors with him – which wouldn’t matter
a bit if that valley was now a bunch of molten magma.

I
pulled Captains Hiromi and Kamiko together and they confirmed that Silva and
Dien were insisting they had no weapons – which was the same response I’d
received repeatedly from Semi.

When
we finally arrived in orbit around Stiger we discovered a Noridian ship that
was much larger than ours but smaller than our old one that used to be sitting
above what was now a fiery crater at the apex of the valley. The valley itself
and the city thank God, were still there.

After
spending a few moments in discussions with Semi, Silva came over and explained
that the Noridian ship was giving only automatic responses to our hails. He believed
it was unoccupied and further explained that this might be good news; the ship
should have automatically relayed our hails to the Noridian ground team. If
they weren’t answering it was probably because they couldn’t.

At
Silva’s suggestion and with my permission we matched orbits and he managed to
board the ship. Once we established communication with each other we deorbited
and overflew the city. It looked deserted.

I
ordered Silva to give us air cover and had our ship land just outside the building
the Coridian enclave had been housed in. It was only later that I realized I
hadn’t had any authority to order any of them around but if they objected they
never said anything.

Selika
found us as we were exploring the devastation on the Coridian floor. It was
probably a good thing we didn’t have weapons. After seeing the bodies of 23 of
our team members respectfully laid out in the foyer on the ground floor, and
with the word ‘Bravo’ spray-painted across the closest wall, we were all a
little bit ‘twitchy.’ She explained to us what had happened, including Major
Reynolds taking the surviving team members out of the city.

When
I relayed the information to Silva he gained altitude and promptly reported
that he’d located several hover cars following an erratic course at high speed
roughly 117 miles south of the city. He asked if he should fly out to them and
I told him ‘no’ – if he was sure he had total control of that ship to come
collect us.

Point
Bravo referred to a copse of trees 300 yards from a small group of buildings
we’d noticed from orbit when we’d first arrived. It was located 37.3 miles
‘southeast’ of the city. I assumed that Mike used the hover cars to get
everyone there but then sent them on so that he couldn’t be traced.

While
we were waiting for Silva to land I went and looked at each of the 23 bodies.
I’d put myself into that wartime mindset that hardens our soul in self-defense
so we can go on and do the things we need to do, but I still swallowed a lot easier
when I realized she wasn’t one of the 23.

Dr. Julie Schein

It
just wasn’t fair.

She
still had a vivid memory of saying this to her father – one of the few
childhood memories she hadn’t blocked out. She must have been five or six? She
knew it was still a few years before he’d died. Something in her life wasn’t
fair and when she told him he had just laughed. He picked her up and hugged her
and told her that life wasn’t fair. It wasn’t supposed to be; it’s how we deal
with an unfair thing that’s important.

So
how do you deal with the imminent death of yourself and everyone you care
about?

She’d
already said a prayer and was probably calmer than she had a right to be but…
it still wasn’t fair.

They’d
arrived at what Major Reynolds called Assembly Point Bravo not more than 15
minutes ago. They were hiding in the trees because he’d told them that the
Noridian ship still in orbit might very well come after them.

And
apparently it was.

They
were deep enough in to (hopefully) be out of sight, but close enough to the tree-line
that they could see the Noridian ship as it slowly approached. It was coming
straight for them so sending the hover cars away and hiding in the trees hadn’t
fooled anyone.

Mark
had been called over to where Iron Jaw was squatted down behind what looked
like a huge triple trunked oak and was trapped there once the Noridian ship was
sighted. Julie almost wanted to laugh; the closest person was maybe ten feet
away but everyone she could see was keeping their head down even though the
ship obviously knew exactly where they were.

Her
grip tightened around the newly manufactured Ka-Bar style knife. There’d been
no time to learn how to use it; there hadn’t even been time to make a sheath.
They were literally running for their lives and it was amazing that Major
Reynolds had been able to keep them together, doing what needed to be done, and
focused only on the immediate next step.

Julie
knew she’d use the knife if she had to. She’d never been hunting, she’d never
killed anything, but she didn’t need to psychoanalyze herself to know that
she’d seen enough. Somehow deep down she just knew that she’d defend herself and
her people no matter what - even if it meant a hopeless charge with a knife
against a heavily armored enemy host.

The
ship settled to the ground just outside the tree-line and like many around her
she rose to her knees. Breathing heavy and with pulse pounding the ‘fight or
flight’ reflex set in dumping massive amounts of hormones into her system,
preparing her body for its best chance of survival. Time slowed and her vision
narrowed, focused only on the opening door in the side of the ship.

As
the first person stepped out of the hatch Julie felt her knees go weak. Her
vision suddenly became blurry and sobs started welling from deep within her
chest. All she could focus on was the sight of Major Mathew Reagan.

∆∆∆

Julie was rubbing her
sleeve across her checks and trying to figure out how to wash up; as soon as
she had seen some of the other female scientists (and a couple of the men) it
reminded her that tears leave streaks on a grimy face.

Intellectually and
psychologically she knew that women’s brains were wired to more easily show
emotion and that crying had no correlation whatsoever with bravery,
determination, or strength but she also knew intellectually and psychologically
that not many people really understood this – and something inside her was
determined that Major Reagan not think her weak.

Mark found her first; at
the spot behind the tree where their meager supplies had been dumped, washing
her face with some water and the bottom half of her khaki t-shirt. The fact
that this exposed the still perfectly flat abdomen that had driven her college
classmates wild was lost on her and Mark’s gentlemanly but obvious appreciation
was lost as well. For the moment Julie was caught up in putting her world back
together and all of her carefully built defenses were a part of who she was –
or so she honestly believed.

She wasn’t exactly rude to
Mark but there was a lot happening and no time for personal moments. She left him
somewhat confused after he’d attempted to hug her and sought out the new
arrivals. Somewhere along the way she had realized that she wanted a voice in the
outcome of this mission and the Noridians were going to find out just what we
were made of. They might have their technological advantages and they could
play their silly poligalactic games if they wanted, but there were no people
better at political intrigue than Earthers and if they really wanted a fight; so
be it.

∆∆∆

“How do we win?”

“What do you mean Julie?”
said Major Reagan.

They were sitting in the
forward section of the same Coridian craft that they had used to shuttle back
and forth from Semi’s retreat but this time the craft itself was actually
inside the cargo bay of the Noridian ship.

After reuniting the group
they had returned to the city and quickly decided on an immediate plan of
action. Semi had suggested that they travel to a world that was a Coridian
protectorate, and though it would take some time to get there they should be
safe from any overt Noridian attack. The problem was that while the Coridian
shuttle had sufficient seating and life support systems it didn’t have the
speed and shielding to travel interstellar distances; and while the Noridian ship
had the speed and shielding it was apparently more of a cargo ship with very
limited personnel accommodations.

It was Anzio that came up
with the solution. So most of them now sat in the Coridian shuttle which sat in
the pressurized cargo bay of the Noridian ship as it sped to the Coridian
planet Larga.

One very frustrating
downside to their situation was that they still couldn’t contact anyone, or at
least anyone they wanted to talk to. It turns out that superluminal
communication (sending messages faster than the speed of light) was actually
possible as long as the sending and receiving ship were traveling slower than
the speed of light and, most importantly, it required a sending unit and a
receiving unit that were specifically paired. The two units could be spread
across the galaxy but could only send and receive from each other; so if one of
the units were damaged the other was worthless. Anzio had gotten very excited
about the physics that must be involved – something about paired quarks but
once Julie realized there really was no chance of immediate communication she
lost interest.

On a mainstream world like
Larga there would be a large number of these units with connections all across
the galaxy, but on a parochial world like Stiger there had been only one; the
one that had been destroyed at the Coridian compound. The Noridian ship did
have a superluminal communications unit and a message could be routed through
it to Noridian interests, who could theoretically link it to Coridian interests,
who could then link it to the unit on Earth, but no one believed that would
actually happen and from a security standpoint it would be foolish to try. So
they spent their travel time trying to figure out what to do and what to say
once they did get to (relatively) secure communications.

They’d been in route for
over a week now and no one could seem to get past the idea that Earth had
limited choices; become a protectorate of Coridia or become a protectorate of
Noridia. Presumably there were other dynasties out there to choose from also
but there was really no time to get to know them. Noridia had taken the gloves
off and was going to press the point.

The question no one had
the answer to was just how much time did they have left? Had Jaki taken the
rest of the Earth mission to another staged planetfall or had she headed
directly back to Earth? Once they reached Earth how long would the Noridians
give the planet to decide upon accepting their protection? What would they do
if they grew impatient? What if the powers that be on Earth accepted before we
had a chance to warn them?

Semi and her two Coridian
companions were now accompanying the group. This made for five total Coridians,
26 Earthers, and 2 Noridian prisoners. Semi was willing to answer endless
questions and seemed genuinely trying to help while being transparent in her
desire to have Earth align with Coridia.

Tomorrow they’d arrive at
Larga and no one seemed any closer to having a course of action…

“How do we win?”

“What do you mean Julie?”
said Major Reagan.

She’d been sitting off by
herself across the seating area at the front of the shuttle. Now that she was
speaking loud enough to get the major’s attention everyone in the shuttle
paused to hear what she had to say.

“I mean just what I said,”
she stated in a calm but strong voice. “I want to know how we beat this. I
don’t want Earth to just survive and I don’t want us to settle for picking the
best jailors; I want to know how we beat Noridia at its own game. I want to
destroy their ambitions with us. I want to hit them so hard they won’t even
think about coming after us again.”

Slowly shaking her head
she said, “I’ve been sitting here for the past week going back and forth with
all of you trying to figure out what Earth’s best course is… and you know what?
There is no best course. We’re screwed no matter what we do. So if all the
outcomes are bad then let’s roll the dice. I don’t care how long the odds are
I’m not going to hand over the future of my planet to other people. Whatever it
takes, whatever we have to do; if the only way we can keep our freedom is to
take over the whole damn galaxy I don’t care. I’m not going down without a
fight.”

The confidence in Julie’s
voice was a statement in and of itself. She wasn’t trying to convince people,
she was simply stating her reality. Every eye in the cabin was on her as she
finished.

“I’ve been wracking my
brain trying to figure that out,” Mark responded slowly. It was obvious that he
didn’t want to upset Julie but he needed her to see reason. “We all have. We
can’t just push pause and take all the time we need to figure this out. Noridia
either has, or very shortly will have, a ship above our planet that can take
out entire cities and battle groups from orbit. Not to mention the fact that
they’ve apparently got a shipload of very respected Earthers bamboozled into
thinking they’re the good guys. If we didn’t have those time pressures then
sure, I might have some ideas that would perfectly fit your description of a
long shot – but with the Noridian threat literally hanging over the heads of
everyone on Earth we don’t have that luxury.”

Julie and Mark held each
other’s look for a long moment until she turned to Iron Jaw. “Major, when the
Noridians attacked us on Stiger what did you do?”

Iron Jaw exchanged a
glance with Major Reagan and then said, “I removed the threat.”

“So why can’t Earth just
do what you did and take over the Noridian ship,” she asked?

Major Reagan jumped in, “We
could probable handle any ground attack from the Noridians but Julie you’re
right about the real threat being their ship. It could take out any ground
forces we muster and it’s a longshot that our missiles could bring her down.
I’m sure the generals would love to board the ship and take it over but they
won’t be able to. By the time our people realize the threat I doubt the
Noridians are going to be giving tours.”

She turned to Captain
Silva, “After we arrive on Larga tomorrow can you immediately get me on a ship
bound for Earth?” Before he could answer she said, “I’m also going to need you
to get me aboard the Noridian’s ship once we get there. You’ll do that for me won’t
you?”

“Julie, what are you
thinking!” said Mark at the same time that Semi said, “It could be suicide for
you and Earth.”

In a firm soft voice Julie
informed them, “Maybe no one from Earth can get on that ship but Silva can get
me onboard. I’m going to do what Major Reynolds did; I’m going to remove the
threat.”