Here Comes Earth: Emergence (28 page)

Dr. Mark Spencer

“No Semi, once again you
need to please understand that Julie she is serious,” said Anzio.

“But this is insane,” said
Semi. “She is not a violent person and if she fails the Noridians could
retaliate against the whole planet!”

When Julie had walked out
of the shuttle a heated debate had started up.

“Then I guess we’ll have
to make sure she doesn’t fail,” Major Reagan interjected.

I was about to speak up
when Hiromi said, “We volunteer to go with her.”

I had no doubt who ‘we’
referred to but I was momentarily distracted by the fact that they were both
wearing what looked like Japanese Katana swords strapped to their backs. Where
did they get Katanas?

“Silva, I want to know how
many Noridians are on that ship and I want a layout of where they’ll probably
be,” was Major Reagan’s prelude to taking charge of the conversation. “Semi, I
also need to know if I can count on you to be our ally; not our protector and not
our owner, just our friend that will help us in our time of need.”

It was obvious to me that
Semi was somewhat out of her element. She was used to a universe that plodded
along in a methodical manner and where everyone took the time to come to the
most rational decisions. She was simply behind the curve when it came to
keeping up with short-lived Earthers that could and would make quick decisions
based on principal and a sense of justice – rationality be damned.

“It is not that simple,”
she exclaimed. “If Silva and I aid you it could be seen as the Coridian Dynasty
initiating conflict against the Noridian Dynasty. I cannot endanger our entire
Dynasty no matter how strong my personal feelings are.”

I couldn’t help but notice
that she’d said this last part while looking directly at Anzio. Apparently I wasn’t
the only one that noticed. He walked over and sat down beside her with his arm
around her shoulders.

Silva’s voice broke the
silence.

“Semi, I have overwhelming
respect for you and unending gratitude for what you’ve contributed to our
dynasty over the millennia but I’ve learned some things living and working with
the Earthers and I can tell you that, even if they invited our protection now,
in a few decades or centuries they’d rebel against us.

“In all the galaxy they
really are unique. I’m not saying that makes them better and I wouldn’t trade
places with them, but they think differently than the rest of us. If they can
find their potential they really could make an impact on the galaxy, and if
Coridia can’t harness that then I hope we would at least be smart enough to
make them our allies and leave them considering us friends.”

Semi started to respond
but Silva continued, “I am going to help them. I would prefer to have your
blessing but I am going to help them.

“Major Reagan,” he
continued. “We need to find a way to do this that doesn’t endanger the Coridian
Dynasty.”

“Do you have any ideas on
that?” the major asked.

“Yeah, and you’re not
going to like it one bit but I’m afraid it’s the price for my cooperation.”

Majors Reagan and Reynolds
shared another glance and then looked back at Silva.

“I can’t give you any of
our weapons.”

There was silence in the
entire shuttle. Everyone had assumed that once we got to Larga with its galaxy-wide
connected databases there would be no problem giving us the kind of weapons
that would let us stand up to these guys one-on-one.

“I can get you onboard
that ship but if I give you advanced weapons,” Silva continued, “then Semi
would be right; the rest of the galaxy would assume that the Coridian Dynasty
was pulling the strings.”

Before a red-faced Major Iron
Jaw Reynolds could speak Silva quickly went on, “Think about it major; inside
their ship you’ll be at close quarters anyway. If we do this right your biggest
weapon is the element of surprise. I’m going to need your help but I think I
can offer that to you.”

∆∆∆

I was sitting in a padded
chair with Anzio in a room on the Noridian ship that made no sense whatsoever.
All six chairs faced a huge observation port or view screen that occupied the
entire wall, but it was totally blank. Maybe it was a window or even a
communications screen that just couldn’t operate at superluminal speeds or
maybe it was just broken. For that matter it could have been the Noridian
equivalent of a movie theater and we just didn’t know how to load the film. At
any rate because there was nothing to see it wasn’t a very popular room and
Anzio and I had created a habit of using it to share a midnight snack and some
private conversation.

Tonight’s hors d'oeuvres
were courtesy of what the ship’s food processor thingy produced when I asked
for an appetizer. This was actually its third attempt after I’d rejected the
first two. It was some type of course cheese that tasted slightly gamey
accompanied by a fruit mixture that was spreadable. It was really quite
pleasant once you got used to it.

“There’s no dust,” I said.
“We’ve now been on three different spaceships and never once have we seen a
speck of dust.”

“No odors either,” added
Anzio. “This is actually more impressive to me. You know that was the hardest
thing for our scientists to get used to on your space platform, Laze Fair One –
no one ever figured out how to remove the smell of 300 people living in a
closed environment.”

I nodded and said, “That
reminds me of the assignment I always gave my 600 level history students – it was
a paper on time travel. If you could only travel backwards in time and it had
to be at least 800 years where and when would you go and what would be the
hardest part of your journey… In seven years I only gave out two ‘A’s.”

“Smell?” Anzio asked.

“One of them yes,” I said.
“Everyone else would create these elaborate scenarios and situations and then
be devastated when I downgraded them. They’d come to see me during office hours
to lobby for a better grade and I’d just ask them,
You want to travel back
before there was toilet paper, toothbrushes, or modern sewers and you ignore
your sense of smell?
”

“So one of them, he was
thinking right,” Anzio said. “But you said two they made the ‘A’s…”

“Yep, one of the kids came
back a week later with a note from his doctor confirming that he suffered from
chronic sinusitis – said he wouldn’t be able to smell anything anyway.”

Anzio laughed. “So his
disability got him a better grade!”

“Maybe,” I said. “I didn’t
really believe him but I figured if he was that determined and smart enough to
get his doctor to lie for him he deserved an A.”

“Ah Mark,” Anzio said
after a while. “I’m not sure what I should be deserving of in this moment…”

“Semi?”

“Yes. She is exquisite, an
incredible intellect that is refined, cultured, and incredibly randy. She’s
over a thousand years old yet looks and acts like a teenager when I take her to
my bed. I find myself genuinely attracted to her and I somehow know she feels
the same, yet our relationship, I fear, is causing her great internal conflict.
She really wants to help us but she has a responsibility – perhaps you would
say a debt – to Coridia that she cannot ignore.”

“Anzio my friend, I do
believe you’ve fallen for this gal,” I said. “I’ve seen it before; the best and
brightest of us single fun-loving bachelors waking up one morning and
discovering a self-imposed felt-lined ball and chain around your ankle.”

“I’m not dragging the ball,”
Anzio laughingly said. “But she must have a lot of experience with men and yet
there is this sexual naiveté that is as attractive as it is confusing. What I’m
trying to point out Mark is that even though I’m ok in the bed department I’ve
never had anyone respond like I’m some kind of Greek god. I like her but there
is an intellectual mystery at work here too.”

 “No, don’t try to defend
yourself or change the subject; there is nothing you can say – you’re already
lost to the rest of us dedicated bachelors.”

“Oh, and you say that as
if the great Dr. Mark Spencer hasn’t already – how do you say – gone down with
the ship!”

I did my best to give an
innocent and bewildered look to Anzio but the truth is my heart wasn’t in it. I
kept thinking back to what Hiromi or Kamiko had said to me, about not waiting
until it was too late.

“At first I was worried
about Julie,” I said. “This change in her… it’s hard to describe but I know it’s
very real. She has a determination about her that I’ve never seen before and
it’s not… unattractive.”

“Mark my friend, why don’t
you just go to her?”

“As much as I want to Anzio
I can’t, not right now. Look, I know she’s attracted to me and I think, I hope,
it’s more than just attraction, but now isn’t the right time. She has something
inside her that she has to do and I get the strong feeling that pushing the
issue would be a mistake.”

I couldn’t remember ever
feeling this conflicted before. With all of the other momentous events going on
I’d fallen for a girl. Actually, she was an incredibly gorgeous, sexy woman
that was as smart as she was pretty. She was also totally focused on the same
thing I was trying to focus on, keeping the Earth independent and free.

“Anzio,” I said. “I think
what we talked about before is starting to happen. I think our actions are
going to determine the entire world’s future and there isn’t any time to
consult anyone. We’re going to be making up decisions as we go that will affect
billions of people. Do you still think we have the right to do that?”

After a couple of moments
Anzio replied, “I think you ask the wrong question. I think you need to ask
yourself if you’ve got the right to set back and do nothing while our planet
either goes down in flames or becomes enslaved. If there is a chance we can
change that my friend then how can we justify not taking whatever actions are
necessary?

“Besides, I’ve come to
know you Mark,” he continued. “And I’m thinking that you maybe have a plan,
yes?”

“Not a plan, Anzio. Maybe
an idea but it’s dangerous and risky – and it’s something I’m going to have to
do alone. I think the team needs to get back to Earth and deal with Jaki and
the rest of her Noridians asap but I need to go a different direction. ”

 “Why you need to do this
by yourself?”

“Because it probably won’t
work and that means I probably won’t be coming back - which is another reason
it’s probably not a great idea to chase Julie right now. We arrive at Larga
tomorrow morning and I don’t know how long it’s going to take the team to prep
for the return to Earth but I’m going a different direction. ”

“Ah then,” Anzio replied.
“So on this trip of yours it’s not like I’ll be breathing too much of your
oxygen or running us out of food. That’s good because I get hungry when I get
nervous.”

“Anzio, you’re not coming
with me.”

“What exactly is it that
I’m not coming with you on?”

“When the rest of the team
heads back to Earth I’m going to sneak off and find a Lower House to plead our
case to.”

“And what exactly it is
our case?”

“I’m not sure yet but I’ll
figure something out.”

“It is sounding to me my
friend like you’ll be needing our midnight snack/thinking-out-loud sessions now
more than ever… and I’ve always wanted to see the other side of the galaxy.”

ΔΔΔ

Larga was an incredible
world with a significant ring of orbital habitats with what looked to be
industrial manufactories and even ship repair or construction yards. I couldn’t
be sure because there was so much to see and we went straight to one of the
larger habitats, but I thought I saw several ships in various stages of completion.
It’s almost impossible to explain how large a planet is from orbit – pictures
can’t do it justice. The orbital ring therefore was indescribable with only a
small portion of it close enough to make out any detail at all.