Here Comes Earth: Emergence (7 page)

“But
that’s just it,” I said. “You made a great breakthrough and uncovered a major
piece to our evolutionary puzzle – how can that be disappointing?”

“Major,
I’ll be fine. You know my specialty is genetics. I guess I just had my hopes up
that the Noridians could take me to the cutting edge of gene manipulation and
genetic engineering. The knowledge they have in these areas must be incredible.
Of course it’s a little disappointing to find out that the subject is taboo for
them. They consciously won’t educate us in this area until our civilization is
more advanced.”

Yeah
this was out of my area of expertise but I felt like I should have realized
this. “I’m sorry Toni; I didn’t stop to think about it that way. Surely there’s
a lot of valuable work you can focus on isn’t there?”

“Of
course,” she said smiling brightly. “The Noridians have been eager to supply us
with their own personal genetic samples and have promised us unlimited samples
from plants and animals once we reach their world. Evolutionary Biology isn’t
my passion but it falls well within my expertise – and there’s going to be a
lot of history that needs to be rewritten before all is said and done.

“Major,
please don’t worry about me. You have far more important things to worry about
than this. As you said, I have a tremendous amount of work and discovery ahead
of me and who knows; if I identify a new genus maybe I can name it after you!”

I’d
started the conversation by trying to make sure she was ok and she ended it by
making sure I was reassured. What a remarkable woman.

Summary

Noridian
Interview Blogcast #2243

Security Classification:
Ultra Secret
Black Diamond

Access Authorization:
Broken Star
Personnel Only

Operational Priority:
Level 1

In Attendance:

For the Noridian’s: Denyet

For Earth Team: Dr. Toni Andretti –
Genetic Engineering, Biochemistry

Subject Tags:

Chextigan

Evolutionary Interference

Origin

Genetics

Great Flood

Ancient Astronauts

Summary:

There is another planet (or group of
aliens?) that had contact with Earth. They are called Chextigans and spent
considerable time here about 200,000 years ago. Although they did not establish
a true colony, they did establish a base of operations that was manned until
just a few thousand years ago. Their primary purpose is unclear but a
consequence of their outpost colonization was genetic manipulation of the genus
Homo erectus.

This timeline roughly merges with the
appearance of Homo sapiens – it is very possible that what we call modern man
is a result of genetic engineering.

The Noridians have explained that involuntary
genetic engineering on a pre-sentient or sentient species violates the mores
(laws, superstitions, taboos) of greater galactic society and that any genetic
engineering of a pre-spaceflight species is by definition ‘involuntary.’

The Chextigan civilization went into
decline and the Earth outpost was abandoned over 4,500 earth years ago.

The Noridians claim to be aware of
these events only because they absorbed (conquered, rescued) the Chextigan
civilization when it collapsed, and took possession of its records and history.
Only recently was there a need to explore the portion of those records that
might pertain to earth.

Dr. Mark Spencer

Word
came down the next day that we were leaving; or more precisely, that we should
prepare to leave. No one seemed to be sure how many days we had left before we
boarded a Noridian spacecraft, only that we needed to be ready.

Everyone
was busy making sure the data we’d already collected was secure and, more
importantly, accessible on our journey. The Noridians had been unusually vague
on exactly how long the journey would take (something about hyper-spatial
quantum fluctuations) but nobody wanted to miss out on the chance to continue
our studies and review interview video or summaries.

Data
storage wasn’t a problem; we’d been provided with the highest technology earth
had to offer. I’d actually fallen asleep one evening during dinner listening to
our Blue Squad’s IT and CSE expert go on and on… and on about the incredible
versatility and memory density of our hardware, the networking/computational
capability of our software, and the amazing security of our encryption. Julie
had nudged me in the ribs –
hard
. Apparently the CSE (Computational
Science and Engineering) capabilities we were carrying with us would allow us
to computer model just about anything we wanted to build (to decide if it was
worth building) or possibly reverse engineer things we didn’t understand. All
we needed was enough data – we had the computational ability by networking
everything from the science team’s specialized equipment, to HQ’s computer
core, even to my smartglasses.

Don’t
get me wrong, Dr. David Cook was a good guy he just kind of lived in his own
electronic world. He wasn’t autistic or anything, but let’s just say I probably
wouldn’t be trying to discuss the last Super Bowl with him – unless they
finally get around to installing those sensors in the ball, boundaries, and
goal line in which case he’d be the perfect guy to talk to (for a while).

Even
I had to admit, however, that the smartpads, communication devices, and smartglasses
we were issued were incredibly cool – way beyond what was available on the open
market.

I
hadn’t spent much time in my lab. There were also a handful of other
Anthropologists and History professors on the Earth Team (I think our official
designation was B Company – which made me wonder whatever happened to A Company
but when I’d asked Major Reagan he’d just stared at me). We all shared that one
lab but until recently there really hadn’t been much for us to do except read
reports and watch interviews, and I could do that anywhere.

I
was walking past the Chemical Engineering section (or was it the Material
Sciences lab?) when I heard the raised voice of Dr. Tony Decker. This in and of
itself wouldn’t be anything unusual but I caught Hiromi’s reflection in the
glass of the open door. I decided to pay attention in case Hiromi needed
rescuing. Ok, who was I kidding? Hiromi could handle herself just fine but I
was curious; so I eavesdropped…

“I don’t
care how many are working; I’ve got three atomic absorption spectrometers that
aren’t working. These are important pieces of equipment and it’s your job to
make sure I have them,” roiled Decker.

Hiromi’s
demeanor was always controlled and she had a number of different voices she
used depending on the situation; this was her calming voice, “Dr. Decker I know
you wanted one of these machines for everyone in the squad but realistically
everyone will be busy and will have their own collections and analysis to
perform. You are mistaken about it being my job to procure your equipment but I
will do everything in my power to obtain replacements before we leave. Please
make sure that the four that are working are packed and tagged. You need to
contact security and let them know you have equipment ready to be moved to the
loading bay.”

She turned
and walked out into the hallway while Decker was still trying to say something
to her retreating back. I didn’t think she’d known I was there but without
missing a step she walked by and said, “Come with me.”

I quickened
my pace to keep up when she asked me, “Have you noticed how much equipment
everyone is taking?”

I really
hadn’t thought about it. Months ago they’d asked us to list everything we
wanted to take with us and like all properly indoctrinated scientists that were
used to working with government bureaucracies I, and I assume everyone else,
had given them a complete wish list – knowing that they’d come back at us with
orders to pair it down for financial, weight, or storage capacity reasons. Come
to think of it though they’d never come back to us.

“Are you
saying,” I asked, “that everyone is being allowed to take everything they wished
for?”

“As far as
I know, except for a few accidental circumstances like Dr. Decker’s yes,” she
said.

“How big is
the Noridian ship?” I wondered out loud.

“Mark, HQ
has decided that the Noridian’s must have built a new ship just to take us
back. We believe that this could explain how patient they’ve been with our
questions until now when they’re suddenly ready to leave.”

While I was
mulling over how they could possibly build a ship without us noticing, she
continued…

“Had you
noticed before they yesterday turned off our access to outside media that every
program available to us was on a two-hour delay?” she said as we continued
walking. “The government didn’t cut our feed because we’re leaving; the rumor
is that something happened they don’t want us to know about. I’ve heard that
several nuclear bombs were detonated.”

“Are you
serious? Where? Why?”

“The only
thing I know is that word of us working with the Noridians somehow leaked. The
bombs went off in the Middle East or possibly in Europe or Asia close to the
Middle East. Take care of everything you need to take care of Mark… by this
time tomorrow we’ll be in orbit.”

I asked the
only immediate question I had left on my mind… “Are you going to get Decker his
replacement equipment?”

Hiromi just
looked at me as she turned into a corridor that I didn’t have clearance for.

Summary

Noridian
Interview Blogcast #1879

Security Classification:
Ultra Secret
Black Diamond

Access Authorization:
Broken Star
Personnel Only

Operational Priority:
Level 1

In Attendance:

For the Noridian’s: Pancet

For Earth Team: Dr. Hilbert Sullivan
- M.D., Contagious Diseases, Microbiology

Subject Tags:

Medical

Nanotechnology

Disease

Health

Summary:

Dr. Herbert Sullivan began the
interview by identifying 232 common earth-domestic diseases and attempting to
correlate to known diseases the Noridian population might suffer from. There
were mixed results.

‘Lifestyle Diseases’ such as Type 2
Diabetes, Obesity, and Cirrhosis, for example, are known but not experienced by
Noridians.

Likewise, genetic diseases such as
Sickle Cell Anemia, Hemophilia, and Huntington’s disease were either unknown or
had not been experienced in millennia.

From a disease standpoint, the main
threat to the Noridian population came from infectious diseases. Some Viral and
Bacterial infections that were domestic to earth had their counterparts but not
all. Likewise, the Noridian’s assured us that there were a plethora of
bacterial and viral infections that we had never been exposed to.

Standard Medical Care (SMC) for
Noridian civilization includes the use of medical nano. These are microscopic
machines that can be injected into the bloodstream and programmed to do just
about anything.

They can absorb cholesterol, fatty
acids (Body fat), bacterium, and viral invaders and remove them via
elimination. They can repair muscle, cartilage, bone, and to some extent organ
damage.

Medical nano are designed with a limited
‘lifespan’ therefore ongoing ingestion and programming is necessary.

The Noridians claim nanotechnology
has no direct benefit to geriatric medicine (It does not directly affect
lifespan).

The Noridians will not discuss
nanotechnology in the context of genetic modification.