Starship Genesis

by Linda M. Miller

  “As well as we can expect. I don’t want to say over the phone, however. Let me get back to you over a more secure line. You’ll have to go to my office and use the line there. I’ll set it up like a conference so you can chat with the others.”

  “Sounds good. What time?” Matt asks.

  “Let’s shoot for tomorrow around 08:00? Will that work?”

  “Yeah, that’s great. The other two will be working with their tutor. Our friends’ world has expanded greatly, in a good way. Talk to you tomorrow morning. Bye.”

  MATT CATCHES UP WITH SIGMAS

  “Well, you’re all dressed up today, Matt. You look like you’re going to a job interview.” Kim smiles.

  “Just heading to Mark’s office at Sigmas.” I answer. “I have a conference call with Mark and company down in Peru.”

  The tutor, Andrea has arrived just in time for breakfast with us before Kim and I head out the door.

  “I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” I tell them.

  I arrive at Sigmas Solutions, and find the conference room with three other individuals joining me.

  “Greetings from Peru all.” Mark says. “Let’s get started.”

  “So, what am I missing down there, Mark? Did you make any progress with the blue stream?”

  “Yes, we’ve managed to successfully tune the blue stream from the engine. We can dial any time period. It’s a little tricky, though. We also discovered we are limited to the time period only around the engine.

  “What does that mean?” I ask.

  “It means travel on the other side of the portal is limited to the location where the engine resides. And we’re also limited due to the small size of the portal. We’re talking about sending drones through instead of people.”

  “Well, Mark, I think I have some really good news for you that rivals the portal even.”

  “Really?” Mark replies. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

  “We bought Cassie and Korban cell phones last night. We thought they needed a way to contact us and their tutor,” I inform him.

  “That’s fine,” Mark approves.

  “Cassie was excited they finally have a way to communicate with us in our absence. She shared with me that she has continued to keep the ship’s logs clear up to the present.”

  “How does she do that?” Mark asks. “I’ve never seen any equipment on her.”

  “She wears it all the time, Mark. It’s sort of invisible. But the recorder is intuitive according to Cassie. It sees what she sees. Apparently, that was her mission on the Genesis.”

  “I’m speechless, Matt.”

  “She showed me her database. It, too, is holographic and the database seems endless. It appears like a vortex out of her hand and the most current record is in her palm,” I continue.

  “Is she going to share that with us, Matt?” he asks. “I mean, obviously she trusts you.”

  “She said she would, Mark. She said they both have a lot of technology on them still. However, according to Cassie, a lot of their technology will not benefit us because we have no use for it.”

  “I wonder what that means.” Mark replies. “Definitely game changing. This is a longer-term relationship, anyway. They’re great people. Where is Talon?

  “Talon would have made it in, but he’s got sick kids today,” I answer.

  “Well, we can discuss possibilities when we get back. I would like to discuss the recovery of the stones with Talon. I think we should find them and destroy them. This thing with ice wraiths and guygores has been a disaster.”

  “Yeah...I’d like to forget that.” I respond.

  “Inform Talon I’d like him to be present after we unpack and set everything up. Let me explain the stone eggs to them. Don’t discuss that with him or the others yet.”

  “You know, Mark, sometimes I get the impression they look at us as their test project to some extent. They definitely have the advantage in comparison.”

  “That’s possible. But I don’t expect that, knowing Talon. Technically, I see all three of them as ambassadors from another world. But I think they’re resigned to make Earth their new home now. Talon has the highest ethics of anyone I’ve ever met. Anything else to report?”

  “That’s all for now, Mark.”

  “When we get back, we’ll have a meeting and invite Korban and Cassie to join us.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll bring Talon up to date as well,” I reply. The call ends.

  “What a world,” I say out loud. “Yesterday, archeology had always been my top subject.”

  I then call Talon at his home. “Talon?”

  “Matt? How is everything?” He asks. I can hear sick children crying on the other side.

  “You sound like you’ve got your hands full, Talon.”

  “It’s measles, Matt. You know my people never had that where I come from. This is a first for me.”

  “Yeah. About that. Are you ever going to tell your wife about all of this?” I ask him.

  “I do want her to meet Cassie and Korban. But I need Mark’s clearance first before I do that. We have a lot to talk about. How are they doing?”

  “Andrea’s tutoring them right now. They’re moving pretty fast. They’ll be starting college in a couple of months. Tomorrow I’m teaching them how to drive.”

  “That should be interesting,” Talon laughs. “Where we come from we had no need for that type of thing.”

  “Really?” I ask. “Are we that primitive, Talon?”

  “Matt, you may be primitive. But you’re not savages. At least most of your people are not savages.”

  “Yeah, I think we’re going to have to prep our two friends with the politics of this world pretty fast. Our problems today don’t always show on the surface of things. But I’m sure you can help with that. Mark sends his regards, by the way.”

  “When are they coming back?” Talon asks.

  “Monday. Mark wants us all to meet Monday afternoon.”

  “That’s great. The Kids should be better by then. Catch ya later, Matt.”

  I return to the house, just as Andrea is headed out. “How’s school?” I ask.

  Cassie greets me in Latin. “Salve, Matt.”

  “We have a lot of homework, tonight,” Korban says. “Sounds like I should order pizza,” I reply.

  “What is pizza?” Cassie asks.

  “It’s a surprise,” I tell her. I order from Peter Pan Pizza via my laptop.

  Kim arrives and all three of us are sitting around the room with laptops. “Well now, this is looking normal,” Kim says. “Has anybody talked about dinner yet?”

  “Pizza is ordered,” I answer.

  “Typical Friday night,” Kim says. She kisses me on the forehead and runs up the stairs. She returns in jeans a few minutes later, and picks up her own laptop. “Matt, Dearest. A reminder that in five days it will be Christmas Eve.”

  “Christmas Eve is coming fast.” I respond. “Are we...?”

  “I just wanted you to know I’ve done some shopping for you know who.” She points to Cassie and Korban.

  “Excellent, Sweets. Do I need to do anything?”

  “Yeah, pray for snow and let’s go ice skating. I’m sure these guys would love it. That and we can start introducing them to Christmas carols.”

  “Sounds good.” I answer.

  “Matt, Kim, I have a question about the animals in Africa.” Cassie states. “Andrea was teaching us about them. I saw some animals like we had on TerraNorre. We had elephants, tigers and horses. But I’ve never seen apes and gorillas before.”

  “Sounds like we need to visit a zoo.” Kim says. “How about it, Matt?”

  “What is a zoo?” Korban asks.

  “It’s a park where people can go and see animals in a similar environment to where they originated. The National Zoo has elephants, apes, and gorillas.” I respond.

  “Yes. We’d like that.” Korban acknowledges.

  The next morning I take Korban and Cassie over to a high school par
king lot and give them driving instructions.

  “As soon as you feel good enough about this, we’ll get you your own car,” I advise them. I explain the steering wheel and the brakes first.

  “I just hold the wheel still in order to go straight...and I take my foot off the brake pedal.” The car still has enough power to roll forward on its own. I let the car roll forward for a ways. Then I step on the brake to stop the car.

  “I know this is primitive to you both. Talon told me you had no need for this back on your world, but you’ll have a need for it here.” I open the door and let Korban switch places with me.

  “Korban, just do what I did and get used to that brake. The brakes on all cars are a little different as far as tension.”

  Korban adjusts the seat back because of his height. “That feels comfortable,” he says. “Better than the wagons and carts down in Peru.” Korban then takes his foot off the brake and lets it roll some and brakes a couple of times. Then he trades with Cassie.

  Cassie gets behind the wheel and shifts the seat forward. She holds on to the steering wheel and takes her foot off the brake. The car rolls. She brakes very hard the first time and we all jerk forward.

  Cassie laughs. “Oh...sorry...sorry,” She says. She then takes her foot off and brakes a little more gently the next time. I then explain the gas pedal and demonstrate by stepping on the gas and braking. We all trade through the cycle again.

  In less than two hours both Cassie and Korban are driving around the parking lot and around the school. My cell phone vibrates. I press blue tooth and answer, “Hey, Kim.”

  “How’s the driving lesson going with everyone?”

  “They’re doing great!” I answer.

  “I hate to interrupt, but if we’re going to the zoo we should get down there early while they’re feeding the animals.”

  “Oh yes!” Cassie says. I get back in the driver’s seat and we pick Kim up. I explain further about driving as we head down to the zoo. I cover speed limits, road signs, the yellow line, and traffic lights.

  “I really want to see the elephants!” So we visit the elephant country first. Then we visit the other exhibits. Cassie comments on each.

  “We did not have giraffes on TerraNorre,” She says.

  Korban looks a bit unsettled when we come to the gorilla cage. “We did not have these on TerraNorre, and we did not have apes.”

  “Some people believe man descended from apes,” I respond.

  “No,” Korban tells me. “We have logs of seeing a man and a woman in a garden when we arrived here,” Korban tells me. “This kind developed on its own. Either that or the Life Seeds created them. The Life Seeds were supposed to create man as well as other life. I believe this kind is a mistake,” he adds.

  “Well, we’re used to them and they’ve never been a threat to us like the ice wraiths and guygores have. If the ice wraiths had expanded beyond that mountain, the continent could have been endangered,” I tell him.

  “What do you mean ice wraiths, Matt? What are they?” Cassie asks.

  “Ice wraiths and guygores. One of our affiliates found a life seed in a stream way down the mountain. We had to climb up the last part of the mountain because we were looking for debris from your ship in the watershed. We didn’t expect to find the Genesis in as good condition as we found it.

  “Then we started to hike over the ice to get up to the saddle sooner. An ice wraith came up out of the ice and just took one of our men. It took all the heat out of his body and left him blue, lifeless. It attacked me before that; but I shot it.”

  “We never had anything like that on TerraNorre either.” Korban explains. “The Life Seed should not have produced that.”

  Kim is also surprised to hear about the ice wraiths. “Matt! You didn’t say anything about that.”

  “I couldn’t at the time. But now that you’re a part of this, I can. You should have seen the guygores or big foots.”

  “Big foots? In South America?” Kim asks.

  “What are big foots?” Korban asks.

  “They’re mostly legends. They’re supposed to be two footed like us; but tall and hairy all over,” I explain. “The guygores seemed somewhat intelligent, but very hostile. Their feet were very large. And the smallest one was only seven feet tall. Did you have those on TerraNorre?”

  “Not that I am aware,” Korban answers.

  “I believe Mark would like you to address a comparison of the animals on Earth to your planet. Why don’t we visit the Museum of Natural History when we’re done here. I’d like to know what you know about dinosaurs,” I add.

  “Dinosaurs?” Korban replies.

  “You’ll see. Think of them as fabulous monsters.”

  We visit the reptile building and view snakes, alligators and crocodiles. “Ohhhhh. I don’t like these. Let’s move on,” Cassie states.

  “Yes. TerraNorre had snakes too. But we eradicated them.” Korban states. “Looks like Earth has a long way to go with that one.”

  “We consider them the lower part of the food chain,” I comment.

  We complete our visit with the Lions and the Tigers. “Now, these we had back on TerraNorre. We also had little cats as well. I had one as a pet,” Cassie tells us.

  “You had cats?” Kim asks.

  “Is that what you call them?” Cassie asks.

  “Well, yes. We have cats here too. Would you like us to get you one? Matt, we need to visit a pet store later today,” Kim says.

  “Sounds good. I like animals,” I answer surprisingly.

  “Matt, you and Kim are fun to be with,” Korban says. “Life is so much better for us now. We’re learning here and someday we’ll be able to pay you back. Someday soon, I hope.”

  “You’re already giving back, my friend. You just can’t see it, yet.” We get into the car and drive further into Washington, D.C.

  Both Korban and Cassie comment on the architecture of the buildings and such.

  “It’s so romantic,” Cassie says. “This is a beautiful city.”

  “If you like romantic,” Kim comments. “You need to visit Paris.”

  “Paris?” Korban asks.

  “It’s across the ocean in western France. Very romantic.”

  Occasionally, I comment on the traffic and lousy drivers. A large group of people cross the street while the light is green and it drives me insane. “Only on a red light people!”

  “Matt, you don’t know traffic like Cassie and I do. TerraNorre was very crowded. We didn’t have enough space for homes such as yours. We had to build very tall buildings to accommodate our people. And people were leaving TerraNorre to find space on other planets, like Seth 5.”

  “And that was happening before our second star destroyed everything.”

  “It sounds like your people were extremely prolific,” Kim answers.

  I finally find a parking space and parallel park at a parking meter.

  “Maybe. But you see our people live longer than your people,” Cassie answers. “Our average life span is over 900 years.”

  I accidentally jerk the car. “Over 900 years? Do you mind if I ask how old you both are?”

  “Well, of course not. I’m 225 of your Earth years. And Korban is over 350.”

  “You don’t look a day over 30,” Kim says, astonished. “I’m 29 years. And Matt is 32 years. Is that natural for your people to live that long?”

  “Our scientists worked on improving medical and living conditions for our people. We were able to improve our society and eliminate disease. There was no crime. No wars. We became more innovative and we started to explore space as well. Our lifespan over the past 1500 years have improved dramatically.” Cassie continues.

  “That is what led us to developing the Life Seeds,” Korban adds. “Science was so successful I think we started tampering in things that we shouldn’t have, and I believe we just saw the results of it back at that zoo.” We walk into the Museum of Natural History. The first display lays before us.


  “This one is my favorites,” I tell them. “He’s called a Tyrannosaurus or T-Rex.”

  Korban smiles. “He is really big, isn’t he? We did have creatures such as these.” Korban says. “But it’s very ancient in our past. At one time they probably ruled TerraNorre before mankind appeared.”

  “Well then,” I reply. “We have a common story here, and lots of evidence to back it up.”