Peggy Sue (The T'aafhal Inheritance) (8 page)

“I figured as much,” Bear said, ducking down and to his opponent’s left, raking the standing bear’s stomach with his sizable claws in passing. This brought the brute back down on all fours, but before he could turn, Bear slashed his hindquarters. The non-speaking bear yelped and bounded forward, out of claw range before turning around.

Instead of standing up for another charge, the would be suitor ran at Bear on all fours. What happened next was hard to make out exactly—Bear grasped the head of the charging aggressor between his clawed paws and rolled backward, letting his opponent’s momentum carry him up and over. From a position on his back and underneath his opponent, Bear kicked out with his rear legs, sending the big male soaring head over hindquarters. The belligerent male landed with a whomp on his back and rolled sideways, partially stunned.

Bear sauntered up to the still shaky disputant and began pummeling him on either side of the head with repeated blows. Finally, red blood starting to show on his coat, the desperate male rolled away and beat a hasty, if somewhat unsteady retreat toward the next rise. Bear rose to his full height and yelled, “That’s right, run shithead! I know kung fu!”

Quite pleased with himself, Bear dropped back to a four legged stance and turned to the two smaller bears. “Hello, Isbjørn, how have you been?” he said to his one time mate. “You’re still looking good, babe.”

Station House, Parker’s Station

The assembled group of scientists and ship’s officers were just finishing an evening’s repast, highlighted by local beef, salad with avocados and fresh cantaloupe with vanilla ice cream for desert. As coffee and brandy were being served the Captain stood at the head of the table and waited quietly for the group’s attention. The crowd, highly animated during the course of the meal, quickly fell silent.

“Once again, I would like to say how pleased we are that all of you could come tonight,” Jack began. “First, I would like to thank Maria for preparing this wonderful meal for us and Lt. McKennitt for thoughtfully fetching the fresh fruit from Adelaide.” There was a murmur of agreement from the seated diners. “Earlier, I introduced the founder of this project and the driving force behind the construction of the Peggy Sue, Mr. TK Parker. TK, is there anything you would like to say before I begin?”

“Naw son, you go ahead,” the old man said, seated in his electric wheelchair at the far end of the table. “I’d only confuse everyone if I tried to explain the situation.”

“As you wish, Sir,” Jack replied. After a brief pause to collect his thoughts he continued. “I’m going to start with the genesis of this project. It starts in the wastelands of eastern Saudi Arabia in the mid 1980s. A young Texan, prospecting for petrochemical deposits in the rocky desert of the empty quarter came across a man, half crazed by Sun and thirst, crawling along a wadi. After getting the man under cover and giving him some water, he proceeded to tell the strangest story.”

“It seems that the man was an archaeologist, who had been investigating a dig somewhere in the surrounding mountains. According to the young scientist, he and his colleague had discovered a strange, ancient artifact in a mountain side cave. A huge structure with holographic writing etched into its metallic surface. Having devised a way to open the structure, the two archaeologists were accosted by Bedouins before they could unlock their find. The senior investigator was shot and presumably killed, but the younger man managed to elude the bandits by entering the structure at the last second.

“After spending an indeterminate amount of time inside the alien structure, the surviving archaeologist was expelled miles from the site of the dig. He proceeded to tell his rescuer a tale of strange visions concerning an interstellar war more than four million years ago, aliens landing on Earth and a desperate gamble by the original inhabitants of the structure, which was actually a starship.”

This last statement caused a ripple of low conversation among the diners. Jack paused to take a sip of water, then continued.

“It would be logical to pass off the man’s story as the Sun addled ravings of someone lucky to escape death in the desert. However, he had with him physical evidence that his story was not fantasy. Wrapped in the tatters of his jacket was a sizable object, a clump of amber-like material that he claimed was the memory of the ship’s computer. This clump of translucent golden stuff supposedly contained the story of why aliens landed on our planet and why they took the actions they did.”

“As the story was told, the ship’s computer—an Artificial Intelligence, an actual sentient being—was the only one left of the ship’s crew. It had been left by its organic companions with a mission to accomplish. The ship and its crew were involved in a great conflict, an interstellar war involving many different lifeforms. Evidently there were two sides in this conflict, a loose alliance of creatures from nearby star systems and an opposing force commanded by creatures referred to only as the ‘dark ones’.” With that the room erupted into conversation and shouted questions.

“Surely you must be joking with us, Captain,” said Elena Piscopia. “You ask us to believe alien refugees landed on Earth four million years ago, fleeing a war with the forces of darkness?”

“Yes, Elena’s right,” added Olaf Gunderson. “This is science fiction, a Hollywood movie script!” Sandy McKennitt and Nigel Lewis had not heard this story either—both were sitting in dumbfounded silence.

After waiting for the initial shock to subside, Jack called for silence. “Please, I know you all have a multitude of questions, but if you will let me finish the story things may become clearer. Then I will attempt to answer your questions.”

As ordered was restored, Jack cleared his throat and picked up where he left off. “As I said, the refugee from the desert told the tale of an ancient war that raged across the Galaxy, a war that was as old as the collective memory of all the races in the Milky Way. Supposedly, the alliance cause had suffered a significant defeat in our little corner of space. The aliens were dying, their ship damaged and their enemies trying to run them to ground. Desperate times lead to desperate measures and the aliens hit upon a scheme that defies the imagination.”

Jack looked around the room at the faces—some anxious, some stunned, some showing open disbelief. “Bottom line: the alien plan was to have their ship’s AI, its self aware computer, carry out a program of genetic manipulation on the local life forms. This manipulation was aimed at creating an intelligent, cooperative race that also possessed a sufficient amount of aggression—a martial spirit if you will—to eventually take up the struggle with the alien’s ancient enemy.”

“Once the breeding program bore fruit, the ship’s computer was to reveal the truth to the new race. And in order to give their successors a leg up on preparing for war, the ship was to provide a repository of advanced knowledge and technology. In short, the aliens, knowing they were dying, arranged the forced evolution of their own relief. Ladies and gentlemen, we are the result of that breeding program—we are the ones who are supposed to carry on the struggle against the ‘dark ones’.”

“And you expect us to just believe this?” asked an incredulous Prof. Gunderson.

“No, Professor. I offer as proof what you see on the screen behind me,” Jack said, stepping to one side. On the screen floated an image of the Peggy Sue. “That is the starship Peggy Sue. In it, several of us in this room ventured into space and traveled to another star system. If you will withhold judgment for a while longer, we will show you the video records of the first flight of the Peggy Sue, or Parker’s Folly as she was known at the time. Once you have seen the chronicle of that voyage, we will offer as further proof a trip to the ship itself, where it will become clear that it was built with advanced alien technology.”

“Why do you tell this to us?” asked Elena. “Why not tell the government, the United Nations? Surely this is something the whole world should know about.”

“We intend to do just that, Dr. Piscopia. All of the video images you are about to see are going to be delivered to the Secretary General of the UN and to the heads of state of all the nations of the Security Council.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why you lured us here,” Olaf said. “Why Elena and myself?”

“Because your reputations are impeccable. Prof. Gunderson, we would like you to work with Dr. Tropsha to analyze the timeline and description of the human genetic manipulation program described in the artifact’s datastore. There are also alien tissue samples to be examined, though we have more biologists coming to help with that.” Jack smiled at the biologist and then turned to Elena. “And you, Dr. Piscopia, we would like you to help us plan a next mission. A reconnaissance to see if we can find any remnants of the civilizations that are supposed to inhabit this end of the Galaxy.”

“If you have a ship that can actually travel to other star systems I will be glad to help, assuming I get to come along.”
I don’t care what outrageous tales you tell,
Elena thought,
if you have a working starship I will do anything to be on that voyage.
“But tell me why you are so intent that the man’s story be believed?” 

“Because I was the oil prospector who found the archaeologist in the desert, young lady,” TK said. “I smuggled the artifact back to the US and figuring out how to read that damned pile of amber has consumed me for nearly thirty years.”

“And because,” the Captain added, “once we did get a ship built and went to take a look around, we found more evidence that the archaeologist’s story was true,” the Captain added.

“That is correct,” said Ludmilla, who had been quietly observing the others reactions up to this point. “Because at Beta Comae we discovered a world that bore the unmistakable signs of a global technological civilization.” The image of Peggy Sue was replaced by a view of the same planet Rajiv had shown to Elena in the bistro in Melbourne. “Unfortunately that world was dead, devoid of any life more complex than simple bacteria. It appears that it had been purposely scoured clean of higher life.”

“Moreover, what alien life we did encounter proved to be implacably hostile,” Jack concluded. “What we are trying to tell you is that the war of four million years ago may still be raging, and if so, we are about to be drug into the middle of it…”

* * * * *

Several exhausting hours later, the meeting broke up with plans to reconvene after breakfast. Jack turned to Ludmilla and asked, “do you think we won them over?”

“Not entirely. But remember, Jack, it took you a while to convince me.” A coy smile played across her lips. “Once Olaf starts to go over the records of the genetic program he will be hooked, I guaranty it. As for Elena, you could not drive her away now, not as long as she has a chance of getting on board the ship. She might even try to seduce you to make sure, I saw it in her eyes.” Ludmilla raised a single shapely, ash blond eyebrow in an unvoiced challenge.

“That might prove interesting,” Jack said smiling. “I’m already as seduced as I can handle.”

“And do not forget that while I am away,” she said. “I understand that Yuki is leaving early in the morning. I should depart myself the day after.”

“We are sending the government information packets out tonight, which will also alert Japan and Russia to Yuki’s and your respective survival.” Jack turned to the woman he could not imagine living without. “So, we are agreed that you will meet with ROSCOSMOS on neutral ground, at the UN headquarters in Vienna?”

“Yes, yes,” Ludmilla agreed. “The Chief will accompany me in one of the small shuttles.”

“I also want you to take a couple of the crew along, just in case.” Ludmilla began to protest but Jack cut her off. “They don’t have to leave the pinnace if things go smoothly, but if something goes wrong you many need help.”

Realizing that this was the best compromise she could arrange, Ludmilla grudgingly acquiesced. “Very well, my Captain. You treat me like some kept woman, a princess or a queen.”

“You are the queen of my Universe, Luda,” he said in a quiet voice. He only called her ‘Luda’ in intimate moments when they were alone.

“Da, of course, Captain of my heart,” she smile and took his hand, leading him toward the hallway, “and now your queen has need of you in her bed chamber.”

Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan

The pinnace dropped Yuki off on Okinawa, from which he took a flight to Tokyo’s Haneda airport. As he rode the multistory escalator down to the main lobby floor he marveled at the soaring glass, metal and concrete structure. After spending six months on the ISS and then two more on board the Peggy Sue, such large open spaces seemed an extravagance. He also thought how nice it was to be in a crowd of people where everyone was speaking Japanese. He had not realized that he was so homesick until he boarded the plane at Naha airport for the two and a half hour flight to the Japanese mainland.

His plan, as far as he had one, was to catch the monorail into the city, change to the Yamanote Uchimawari Line at Hamamatsucho and then take the bus from Ueno station to the University. What he was going to do once he got there was not clear, he was just making it up as he went along. Stepping off the escalator, he was looking forward to some home cooking and the hustle of Greater Tokyo. Distracted by his thoughts, Yuki did not notice the man wearing a dark suit, leading two uniformed airport security police.

“Dr. Hiroyuki Saito?” the man asked, stopping in front of him and bowing.

“Hai,” Yuki replied, returning the bow. “I am Dr. Saito.”

“I am Inspector Isamu Takashi, from the NPSC,” the man replied. “Would you please come with me?”

Japan’s police are a mostly apolitical body under the supervision of a number of agencies. At the top sets the NPSC, the National Police Safety Commission, an independent agency not directly controlled by the central government. Officials involved in the criminal justice system are, for the most part, highly trained professionals and are allowed considerable discretion in enforcing the nation’s laws. They are kept in check only by an independent judiciary and scrutiny from a free news corps.