Here Comes Earth: Emergence (37 page)

We had a lot of similar conversations
on that journey, many of them public and some of them private. Most of the
conversations were punctuated with laughter – put a bunch of people in a
stressful situation together and comic-relief becomes mandatory - but some of
the conversations were sober. Whereas every woman I’d ever dated or flirted
with required that we
play the game
and keep the conversations on silly
or frivolous topics I found that Julie and I could easily talk about the
important things in life. There weren’t any more sleepovers but I couldn’t help
feel that we’d built a bond.

ΔΔΔ

“Just because I won’t use
a gun doesn’t mean I’m out of the fight,” Dr. Decker insisted.

He had approached me at
the beginning of that incredibly busy last week before we reached Earth orbit.
He was the only civilian that had flat refused to take part in the boarding
raid of the Noridian ship and at first I thought he was just trying to assuage
his somewhat arrogant ego by once again reminding me of how important he was,
but it sounded like he had something else on his mind.

“I need to know,” he
continued. “Is it true that the government might try to hide the Noridian
treachery from the public?”

“It’s a possibility,” I
replied. “We have no way of knowing what, if anything, Earth’s leaders have
decided at this point. Jaki, Dr. Helmer, and Colonel Memphis have been back on
Earth for several months now and there’s no telling how persuasive they might
be. It’s all guesswork until we actually arrive and can assess the situation.”

“So what if,” Dr. Decker
continued. “We take out their ship and the powers that be had already made the
decision to go with the Noridians? They’d probably lock all of us up so fast
that no one would even know we’d returned.”

“That’s certainly a chance
we take… Look, I’ve thought a lot about this too. If what you’re suggesting
happens then there’s not a damn thing I can do. I’ll take out the Noridian ship
before anyone has a chance to tell me otherwise but if I’m ordered to stand
down and shut up afterwards that’s what I have to do.”

“Exactly, but that’s not
what I’d have to do.”

I stopped what I was doing
and locked gazes with him.

“Everyone on our planet
has a right to know the real score,” he said. “Maybe you have to follow orders
but I don’t. A number of my colleagues and I have decided to download a video
diary onto the planetary net immediately upon our return – that way the truth
gets out no matter what happens to us.”

“You could start a
worldwide panic,” I said.

“Or, we could save the
Earth,” he said.

“Why are you telling me
this?” I wanted to know.

He actually looked a
little startled when he said, “Because we want your permission!”

After a pause I said
carefully, “I can’t give you permission to do any such thing… but, if it were
to happen without me knowing about it I would hope it would be coordinated
through Dr. Schein so it doesn’t give our game away too soon.”

We continued holding each
other’s gaze as he slowly started to smile.

“I can promise you if we
would have had your permission we would have certainly done that but since we
won’t be doing anything…” he said while still smiling.

ΔΔΔ

There she is. Home. The
most beautiful sight in the galaxy is a little blue ball with touches of brown
and cottony white. The night side sparkles like the finest diamond and the
dayside is bluer than Lapis.

Growing from just a spec,
we’d all been mesmerized watching Earth emerge on the view screens. Within
hours we would be in orbit and the history of Homo sapien sapiens would be
changed forever.

This was becoming real for
everyone; what we were getting ready to do and the terribly high stakes of potential
failure were sinking in. All of our military personnel had gone into combat
with rookies at some point in their careers so we knew that look; we also knew
what we needed to do.

You could hear Captains
Hiromi and Kamiko as well as Iron Jaw quietly talking with different members of
the boarding party. Checking equipment here, giving encouragement there.
Getting an occasional laugh and giving the frequent advice to ‘trust your
training.’

Even though I was mentally
preparing and putting my own game-face on I couldn’t help feel a little surge
of emotion as I suddenly realized how proud I was of my people. The
professional soldiers I’d selected for my team, both living and dead, really
were the cream of the crop. Finding a like-minded Iron Jaw Reynolds on the
Earth Team almost felt preordained – for a man like that to decide to follow my
lead was an honor. The civilians were certainly smart but they were also gritty
and tough in their own way. And then there was Julie…

We had determined that Dr.
Decker (who didn’t want to be on the boarding team), Dr. Cook and two other
scientists (whom just didn’t have what it took to be on the boarding team),
Julie (whom we wouldn’t let on the boarding team), and myself (who was sending all
the others into harm’s way) would take a cloaked shuttle to the surface
immediately prior to the raid.

That left 18 people
including Major Reynolds to be divided up into 9 two-man teams to board the
ship, quickly spread out, and take out an unknown number of Noridians. There
were only 7 experienced military personnel available to the boarding party and
they were each matched up with a civilian; but that still left two teams without
experienced leadership. It couldn’t be helped.

The boarding team was
already assembled in the large room outside of the pressurized shuttle bay.
They would be taking a stealth shuttle to the Noridian ship and we would be
taking one to the planet’s surface. It was here that we’d all been watching our
approach to Earth on the view screens. Silva pulled me aside just before I
started moving my team into the bay.

“Major, we’ve confirmed
that the Noridian ship is in orbit and we’re now close enough to pick up
Earthnet news feeds… it’s not good.”

“Put it on the screens and
tell us what’s going on,” I said.

A number of the view
screens now shifted to scenes of absolute devastation. Most of the screens were
filled with smoking ruins; what might have been the wall of a building or two
could still be seen but for the most part the screens were filled with a
blackened rubble strewn landscape. As the viewpoint panned out it became clear
that the rubble fields surrounded huge craters.

Except for a few gasps
there was total silence until Silva started giving us a narrative…

“Most Earth cities are
still intact,” he started. “Our ship is processing 1,139 different news feeds
showing live and recorded events. What you are seeing are a score of cities
that have been targeted by kinetic bombardment.

“I am sorry to report that
Wa
shington, Los Angeles, London, Moscow, and Beijing are all gone. It
also looks like a number of military bases have been hit along with several
impact sites that don’t correlate with any of our records; possibly secret
bases or missile launch sites.

“The atmosphere is heavily
loaded with particulate matter and weather patterns are affected but it doesn’t
appear to be severe enough to cause a nuclear winter.”

“Why did they do this?” I
heard Dr. Decker ask

“We’re correlating the
stories now,” Silva responded. “But from what is being reported Jaki gave the
planet a deadline to come together and invite their protectorship. When that
deadline passed she took the gloves off and dropped all semblance of
friendship. She gave an ultimatum and another deadline; and even though there
was a significant international movement led by Dr. Helmer urging world
governments to accept, the politicians still couldn’t stop arguing long enough
to get their act together in time.

“As punishment Jaki
ordered a number of cities destroyed – taking out a huge part of Earth’s
political structure in the process.

“Several national
militaries tried to strike back both on the ground and in orbit but that fight
lasted all of two days.

“It looks like Jaki is consolidating
Earth leadership around the French Prime Minister and declaring him the world
leader. There is to be a major speech this evening from the front steps outside
the Château de Versailles.

“In short, the Noridians have
taken Earth.”

ΔΔΔ

We paused just long enough
to incorporate our new found intelligence into our plans. We still didn’t know
how many Noridians were on the ground or still on their ship and we didn’t know
the location of Dr. Helmer, Colonel Memphis, or anyone else from the Earth Team
but at least we knew were Jaki was going to be – and we were going to be there
too.

If anything, I think the
images from Earth steeled our team to what we had to do. Amazingly I didn’t
sense any panic – only a hardened determination to win the day.

We were all wearing the
communications devices that Silva had printed for us. He assured us that unless
the Noridians were specifically looking for our signal they would never detect
it. We couldn’t afford any risk of detection at all but we were doomed without
communications so, like in so many other things, we didn’t have a choice.

Our teams were set and
ready as we reached Earth orbit. Right before our shuttles departed I let Julie
speak to everyone. It wasn’t a dramatic speech; it was simply her thanking
everyone for their efforts and a good luck and Godspeed. I had the last word
with the team…

“Ok, we all have a job to
do and it’s time to go to work. We’ve been over it a hundred times but I’ll say
it again; when you encounter the Noridians on that ship don’t hesitate, don’t
try to understand what they’re doing or try to communicate. It is critical that
we take each and every one of them out before they can warn Jaki on the ground
or other Noridians through their long range communications.  And remember, all
they have to do is ‘think’ a warning and their bioware does the rest so act
quickly and without hesitation.”

We were ready.

Silva was staying on the
Coridian ship and his team was already interfacing with the Noridian ship. It
‘knew’ we were here but it also ‘knew’ that we were friendly and that there was
no need to mention our presence. As soon as my shuttle deorbited Silva would
have the Noridian ship ‘welcome’ our boarding party’s shuttle and then the fun
would begin.

My shuttle departed first.
Toni had volunteered to pilot us and had made a good argument that she knew us
as well as anyone and would be less likely to confuse our orders. Apparently
any Coridian could pilot a shuttle with reasonably equal skill so we accepted.
She was now telling us that since we were stealthed it would take 40 minutes
for us to reach Versailles.

“Mike,” I said through my
earpiece. “Have your shuttle in position in 38 minutes and prepare to board on
my mark.”

“Aye, aye”, Iron Jaw
responded. “We will be in position in three-eight minutes and board on your
mark.”

As I glanced around the
interior of our shuttle I noticed Julie watching me. She was very calm and I
gave her a quick thumbs up which she returned.

One aspect of both of
these shuttle flights that we’d emphasized to everyone was that the last ten
minutes of both would be without cabin lights. It wasn’t a total blackout, we
could still see each other, but it was important that our eyes not have to
adjust to any low light conditions we might face.

With Coridian technology
there was of course no sound or sense of motion but it almost felt like we were
in an old paratrooper plane ready to parachute behind enemy lines.

We had the press
conference on our view screens now and it appeared that the French Foreign
Minister was just finishing with some long-winded proclamation to a glorious
future for a Noridian Earth.