Molly raised her eyes to the ceiling, and then made her excuses. “Sorry guys. Duty calls…” she explained, getting up and packing away her trash onto her tray.
Joel looked up. “How come?” he asked.
Molly sighed. “Another meeting with the boss,” she allowed.
Joel cocked his head. “Didn’t you just come from there?”
Molly nodded. “Yup. But he wants to introduce me to someone. So… off I go.” She smiled weakly, clearly tired from all the obligations she had to fulfill – but also enjoying being a part of the Federation.
Joel raised his hand in a wave, and Paige watched her leave as she shoved another slice of pizza into her mouth.
Chapter 4
ArchAngel, Lecture Theater
Molly approached the lecture theater doors, and they whooshed open sideways, granting her access. She stepped through into the low light, her eyes slow to adjust.
As she expected, the theater was state-of-the-art. She noticed a slight difference in the gravity field as she stepped forward, toward the first step down, suspecting that the theater was adaptable in order to create different effects when movies were being shown.
Looks like the engineers have retrofitted more than the showers…
Yeah. I wouldn’t put it past them.
Blue strip lights lined the walkway, and, if it wasn’t for the dim glow of the wall lights, Molly was sure she would have felt somewhat disorientated.
As her eyes adjusted, she could make out two figures down at the front bench. She carefully made her way down the long, half-height steps, using the light cast off from the holoscreen at the front to help guide her way.
As she got nearer, she could see that the man standing with his back to her was the General. The other man was a rather dorky looking professor type, at least ten, maybe twenty years older looking than the General. Not that that meant anything around here.
“Hi,” she called, trying out some of the language conventions she’d learned about Earthlings.
The General spun round. “Molly. Excellent. You’re here,” he said, smiling. “Let me introduce you to my good friend Giles. Giles Kurns.”
Molly made her way down the last of the steps, and headed straight toward the bench. Giles took her hand and shook it, smiling, somewhat mesmerized by her.
“Molly Bates,” he whispered. “Glad to make your acquaintance.”
He suddenly remembered himself and became flustered. “Er. So the General thought that… that I might be able to shed some light… Well. I know things are going better now, but I’m guessing a little more insight couldn’t hurt.”
Molly noticed his awkwardness, and felt the General’s amusement. She was receiving a bunch of data points about their emotions, but not really understanding how to put them together.
“I think I’m missing something,” she remarked out loud.
The General, taking pity on Giles, stepped in. “What the young lad is trying to say is that he has some insight into your realm jumping problem; and he’s also made another discovery that might be related, if that’s of interest to you.”
Giles had composed himself. “Yes. Yes. That’s exactly…” He didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he paused, and then tapped on his holo, bringing some maps up on the screen.
Molly recognized the map immediately. “Okay, so that’s the Gamma Quadrant of the Loop Galaxy,” she said nonchalantly.
Giles turned his head to look at her. “You know what the Gamma Quadrant looks like?”
Molly shrugged. “Sure.”
She couldn’t tell from his facial expression, but from the tuning-in Arlene had been teaching her to read, she understood that he was impressed.
And somewhat awestruck.
She shook her head, trying to clear the bizarre thought from her mind. “So why are we looking at a map of the galaxy?”
Giles switched into information-download mode. “Well, I’ve been tracking civilizations; more specifically, the DNA makeup of certain races that we have come to meet, and I’ve noticed a few interesting patterns.”
He tapped his holo, and a few blobs appeared on the map.
“I’ve noticed similarities in these races that suggest they were related long ago. And then, when I plotted them on a map, a path can be traced through the galaxy, where these races have been deposited. At different times.”
Molly nodded, understanding the concept. “Like a rough timeline through space, tracking the evolution of several races.”
“Yes! Yes, exactly,” Giles agreed, excitedly. “Now, these guys,” he continued to explain, “were most developed, and so, basically, they are the most evolved. This we know from what TOM has told us.”
Molly cocked one ear towards Giles. “TOM?”
“The Kurtherian alien on board Bethany Anne,” he explained dismissively as if it weren’t an important detail.
Molly frowned and then nodded, suspecting she could infer roughly what he meant, but not wanting to interrupt the flow of what he was trying to get to.
“So, then we have very similar DNA appearing here next. Just a few hundred thousand years behind. And then this one, here,” he planted another blob on the map, “the Estarians, not long after.”
Molly frowned. “This isn’t making sense, though,” she said, looking at the map and matching up the timeline he was explaining.
Giles matched her frown. “Stay with me,” he urged. “So my hypothesis is that these races were seeded on different planets, as experiments. Or whatever.”
Molly nodded.
Giles continued. “Okay, then our genetic gardeners traveled over this way, taking their time, until they found another planet here in the gamma quadrant in the loop galaxy. They meandered until they found a planet that didn’t need to be terraformed, and they planted the Zhyn.”
Molly nodded, just about following his disjointed, excited explanation. Giles kept talking. “Then they gated over to the Sark system, and used one of the planets there to plunk down another, fairly similar gene pool, before disappearing off to another quadrant, which I can show you…”
Gile reached for his holo to bring up another map.
Molly held up her hand. “Wait a second. Let’s just go back. Why would they wait 100 thousand years between planting the first race, and the Zhyn?”
She was still frowning, but lowered her hand. “And then why would they gate 300 thousand light years between Zhyn and Estaria in order to plant two very similar gene pools?”
The General shook his head. “I’m astounded by how you’re able to suspend belief about a gene-planting alien race that’s using planets as petri dishes.”
Molly shook her head, dismissing the observation. “It’s a logical thing to do if you have the capabilities and the time. Why wouldn’t you want to explore evolution and see what happened?”
Giles was beaming from ear to ear. “Marry me?” he asked her, only half-joking.
The General turned away and walked in a circle, exasperated at Giles’s reactions to Molly, before returning to the conversation.
Molly smiled, and turned her attention back to the screen. “I think this theory is a good start… but it’s incomplete. There’s at least one other variable that we’re missing. And I’m not convinced they were just kicking their heels during that one hundred thousand years of evolution, either. My guess is they’d be observing – observing the races they’d already planted.”
She waved her hand toward the blobs on the holoscreen. “And these guys,” she said, pointing at the Zhyn and Estarian blobs, “are either an afterthought, or another experiment. Or a correction for whatever went wrong over here,” she waved her hand over at the other blob that Giles hadn’t described fully.
Giles and Lance stood silently, staring at her, their whole perception of the universe turned upside down in a heartbeat.
Noticing they had stopped talking, she glanced back at them. She was unable to read either their e
nergy or their expressions. “What?” she asked, confused.
Giles found his words and mumbled again. ”Marry me?” he asked.
Molly shook her head, more as a change of subject than an outright rejection. “So, you were going to show me another map that supports this theory of a superior race traveling through the galaxy, planting new life forms?”
Giles pulled himself from his trance. “Er. Yes. Of course.” He messed around a little with the controls and then pulled up the second map.
“This, I think, shows them retreating back to where they came from,” he explained.
Molly cocked her head. “Why ‘where they came from’? Their first appearance was over there, right?” She signaled off the current map in the direction of the Gamma Quadrant.
Giles nodded. “Right, so in my theory, I’m assuming that they had a known point, gated straight for it, and then worked their way back to wherever they came from.”
Molly frowned again. “What makes you think that?”
Giles hesitated.
Again, the General stepped in. “Giles here is a space anthropologist. He has been studying cultures and civilizations since before he could read.” Lance looked at him with a degree of affection. Molly suddenly suspected these men were family in some way.
“Right…” she said slowly, waiting for the rest of the explanation.
Giles took a deep breath. “I’ve made some discoveries; other things that led me to this hypothesis. Like this.”
He pulled another slide up on the holoscreen.
Molly was immediately captivated by the image.
She was aware that the two men were talking at her as she inspected the details and the symbols in the holographic representation. The resolution wasn’t multifaceted, suggesting that the image itself was captured by an older device. She tried to see the patterns in the symbols, tried to make sense of their arrangement. She lifted her hand and put it into the hologram, disrupting some of the image by blocking out the light.
She turned her head and spotted a rectangle etched over the surface of the circular medallion. The rectangle was divided into six squares.
She glanced back at the pair, who had stopped talking and were waiting for her response.
“Do we know what any of these symbols mean?” she asked Giles.
Giles strode over to where she was inspecting the image. “We have some theories,” he admitted. “That one looks like a constellation as seen from this point here, over in the Pan Galaxy. And then this one seems to match up, roughly, to a constellation as seen from Zhyn. I’d need to plot a constellation regression, though, to see if it would have matched it 100,000 years ago. I only had these thoughts recently, as I was putting some of this together the other day.”
Molly frowned and glanced at him, expecting him to explain more.
Giles shrugged. “This talisman, the project, has all been on the back-burner for a while. Until…”
He glanced back at the General, who nodded, giving him permission to continue.
Molly waited, locking her eyes on him. “Until…” she pressed.
Giles pursed his lips before continuing. “Until Uncle Lance asked me to talk to Arlene about your… condition. Arlene got me thinking again about the old Estarian myths of Ascension, so I went looking for anything similar in Zhyn culture, and that’s when I remembered this talisman.”
Molly’s eyes squinted a little, trying to understand. “So, what exactly is this talisman, then?” she queried.
Giles rubbed the back of his neck, and then scrambled around the bench, looking for something. A moment later, he found the switch, and the lights around the front bench came on, reducing the hologram to nothing but a haze.
“The talisman,” he explained, “was something I came across in my travels in the outer system of Sark, many moons ago. I found Estarian elders out there who had moved it from Estaria, and taken it under their protection against a faction of high priests, who wanted to harness its power for their own ends.”
Molly’s eyes had relaxed, but she was still watching him intensely. “’Harness its power’? What power?”
“Well,” Giles looked sheepish and a little embarrassed. “I don’t know. With all these things, it’s difficult to separate the fact from the fiction. And in my line of work, sometimes it doesn’t matter if it’s fiction. Anyway - they hid this talisman from the faction, and after I’d spent a year with them, they saw fit to entrust me with its safe-keeping.”
Molly frowned.
Lance had ambled over and noticed her expression. “I know,” he sympathized with her expression. “That was my thought. I wouldn’t trust him with my holo remote.”
Molly sniggered.
Giles pretended to be insulted and then continued his story. “Well, anyway, shortly after, I had to leave the system, and I moved on to other things. But before I left, I entrusted an associate to hide it on my behalf.”
Molly glanced back up at the holoscreen image. “So you no longer have it?”
Giles shook his head. “Nope. It’s safe, though,” he assured her. “I’m almost sure of it. All we need to do is go and retrieve it.”
Molly moved a short distance away from the duo, and sat up on the bench, kicking her heels gently against the front paneling as she shifted.
Then it dawned on her.
“So that’s why I’m here,” she mused. She turned her attention to the General. “You’d like to send my motley crew off on a goose chase to find the talisman that Stoner Boy here left with an ‘associate’ several moons ago?”
The General smiled, looking at Giles. “See? Told you she catches on fast.”
The two fell silent, waiting for her reaction and thinking up ways to convince her it was a good idea.
To their surprise, Molly shrugged – a slight smile on her face as she toyed with them. “OK. I’m in,” she said simply. “Where was this ‘associate,’” she took her hands from the bench and made rabbit ear quotation marks with her fingers, “last seen?”
Giles looked away and accessed his holo. “Erm… well, it was on Teshov, and it was about twenty years ago…”
Molly bobbed her head, unfazed by the time lapse of decades. “And who was the guy?” she asked.
Giles shrugged. “He went by many names. But I know all his haunts, and his network. If he’s still alive, I’ll be able to find him.”
Molly looked at the General. “So he’s coming with?”
The General had folded his arms, watching the exchange in amusement. “Yes,” he stated, then looked directly at Molly. “That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” he pressed.
“No, sir. Of course not,” Molly said turning back to Giles and smiling her bright, cheeky smile. “I’ve always wanted a rogue, Indiana-Jones-type on my team. Like I didn’t have enough problems, herding cats.”
Lance smiled.
Giles scoffed. “Indiana Jones!? I’ll have you know I’m a cultural anthropologist. Not a crass tomb raider. And – ”
Lance chuckled.
Molly patted Giles on the arm. “Don’t worry, Professor Kurns. By the end of this trip, you’ll know exactly how to take shit, as well as give it. My team will make sure of that.”
Giles looked down at her hand on his arm, feeling strangely comforted, but also concerned about what he was getting himself into. Something told him that her people were fiercely loyal to her, and that he was in for problems if he didn’t toe the line.
ArchAngel, General Lounge
Molly heard her team before she saw them.
She stepped into the bar, and, even before the doors had swooshed closed behind her, she could hear Brock’s voice ringing through the enormous lounge, followed by a ruckus of laughter.
She scanned the lounge looking for the source of the merriment, cringing to herself; like a mother arriving to collect her child, only to find out he’s caused mayhem at the party.
I guess if they were causing any
trouble, you would have let me know.
Don’t you know me by now, Molly? I would have totally… covered it up.
Oh, my goodness. Right. Well, as long as you covered it up from the brass, I’m fine with that protocol!
Before she took another step to find her team, the door had opened behind her. She turned to see the fuddy-duddy professor, Giles, step into the bar. He looked somewhat out of place, his tweed jacket juxtaposed against the hi-tech space environment.
“You come here often?” Molly smiled at him, as he stepped up next to her.
“Not that often. Though…” he paused. “Is that your team making all that racket?”
Molly flushed. “Er. Yeah. They - they’re…” she couldn’t think of an explanation that didn’t sound like she was justifying something. “They’re over there,” she decided, leading the way around to a second bar, near where they had commandeered a table.
As they approached, they could see that the Bates people weren’t the only day-drinkers enjoying themselves. Interspersed between them were their new friends, the Guardians: Zhu, Shun, and Jian.
They seemed to be getting along famously.
Molly noted the empty beer bottles and glasses on their table, and shook her head, smiling. It was good to see them having a great time. She turned toward the bar, and hauled herself up on a stool; Giles plunked down on the one next to her. She looked at him, realizing that this was happening… despite the lack of a spoken agreement that they should have a drink together.
The bartender came over to take their orders. Molly ordered a beer, and Giles did the same, throwing down his key card that held credits. “Allow me,” he told her.
“Thank you,” she smiled, warming to him. A little.
At least he has some manners…
Just because he invited himself to sit with you? Come on, you geeks have an unwritten rule. You sit together in the cafeteria. That’s like a universal written law. He’s within the parameters.
Molly rolled her eyes at Oz’s commentary.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 113