Starship Genesis

by Linda M. Miller

  “It seems more like the camp is largely shifted off to the side of it. We didn’t move any of the rocks to set up. But the pottery is something we can’t replace.”

  “Unfortunate, Ray. You know I care about archeological history. Do your best.”

  “Mark, I’m more concerned that there could be more stones out there we haven’t found yet. And if they activate, something else will pop up after we leave. What about that?”

  “In that case, it will be Peruvians’ problem, I’d guess.”

  The next day, I begin supervising the transfer of the Genesis. I’m not going to let this transfer happen without me. I board the last C-17 as with the wreckage containing the blue stream time portal and sit in back of the pilot.

  The plane makes the usual stops for refueling and completes its trip at Andrew’s Air Force Base. A wide load convoy is conducted via midnight transfer. Traffic is stopped around I-495 to allow the convoy through and on to Bowie, Maryland as planned.

  “Sir, The Department of Transportation is wondering what they should tell the public about blocking the freeway ramps.”

  “Let’s just call it the usual ‘incident’.”

  Monday morning, I meet with those who returned, as well as Matt, Talon, Leesa, Korban, and Cassie.

  “Welcome everyone. Korban, Cassie, good to see you again. Talon, glad you’re doing alright. You gave Matt and Kim quite a scare. Let’s talk later about getting your wife, Daniele, read into the program, shall we?”

  “Let me cover our progress on this project so that everyone is up on things. We have successfully transferred the wreckage to its new location. It’s been unpacked and the blue stream appears to be operational.”

  “Talon, I want you to take a lead on that project. Your experience is invaluable. Our plans are to send drones through to the past and see what we can get back. We are currently in test mode, however. We will not undertake a more serious project until the portal has been successfully verified to be stable and controllable. Maybe we can even discover what makes it work.”

  “The next item of business are the stones or “Life Seeds” as Cassie calls them. We’ve only recovered two stones so far. My question is to Cassie, Korban, and Talon. How many stones or “Life Seeds did you plant, and can you tell us where you planted them?” I ask.

  “From my logs, Life Seeds were planted in six different locations in groups of two,” Cassie answers.

  “When we discovered the garden, we had four Life Seeds left. We were going to plant two where the garden location was sited, but we cancelled that upon our discovery. That left us with four Life Seeds on the ship.” Talon adds.

  “So that totals 12 Life Seeds on Earth. Do they have a limited life span?”

  “They’re designed to set up a complex system and then eventually die out.” Talon states.

  “We’ve only recovered two in Peru,” I tell them. “That means there are possibly two more seeds out there. Talon, I know you said the continent was one when you planted the Life Seeds. Can you still give us an estimate from your records where you may have planted the others?”

  “We’ll have to analyze the old map locations from the logs in comparison to the continental drift. It may not be 100 percent accurate. But we will let you know,” Talon replies. “Maybe some calculations will help us pinpoint the plantings.

  “It looks like time is on our side everyone. I’m concluding this meeting and I want to meet further with Korban, Cassie, Matt, and Talon.”

  Everyone else leaves to work on their projects.

  “You all are incredible. I want to thank Talon and both of you for your contributions, and I hope you’ll stay with us for future endeavors. It is your choice. Regardless of what you choose, we’ll still set you up for a good life: college, jobs, a home, you name it. We’ve done it for Talon, and we’ll do it for you. Talon has been a wonderful partner in our business and a trustworthy associate.”

  “We’d like that Mark,” Korban answers. “We also want to help in recovery of the Life Seeds. It seems they have adapted themselves according to the areas they were planted.”

  “Technically, they actually did evolve,” I point out.

  “Well, yes. But they did not measure up to their intended purpose. They were not intended to produce new kinds of creatures like gorillas, apes, wraiths, and big foots. They were meant to duplicate life as we knew it on TerraNorre.”

  “Technically, what’s done is done,” I tell them. “We do not intend to rid the world of harmless creatures such as apes and gorillas. But ice wraiths are another matter. And in the rest of the world where there are big foot sightings no one has disappeared or been injured. It seems Peru was just unique.”

  “There are plenty of archeological sites on this planet for us to investigate. You can all help with that as much as you like. I have a special case with the New Mexico ship. We recovered that ship and it has holographic maps with the ship’s crew, including recordings of the crew’s voices. We’d like you to translate the recordings.”

  “You should know in the history of this earth there have been alien contacts with peoples of Earth. Some are good. Some have been not so good. I think Talon knows about that. There may be a day when we have to defend ourselves from hostile aliens. Are you willing to help defend this planet?”

  “Yes,” Korban replies. “Earth is our home now.”

  “Yes, of course,” Cassie answers.

  “Welcome home folks!” I tell them. Then I turn to Talon.

  “Talon, we’ll read Daniele into the program. Just in case you have any further medical problems.”

  “Thanks, Mark. Let’s read her in and then we’ll have a party at Matt’s house.”

  “I think I saw that one coming,” Matt smiles.

  “Talon, I’ll be over to read your wife in tomorrow morning.”

  TALON’S AFTERMATH

  It’s the eve before Christmas. The next morning, true to Mark’s promise, he knocks on my door.

  “Mark. What an unexpected pleasure.”

  Mark smiles. Daniele comes to the door to greet him wearing an apron.

  “Actually, I’m here to see Daniele, Talon.” Daniele looks surprised. “You can sit in Talon. Let’s go into the kitchen.”

  “What’s this all about, Mark?” Daniele asks as she pours juice for the three of us.

  “What? No coffee?” Mark asks.

  “Mormon,” I remind him.

  “Oh, right. I forgot,” he answers.

  “The other day was a wake-up call for all of us, Daniele. It could have been a disaster for all of us if we had lost Talon.”

  Mark continues. “Talon has something he would like to share with you. And then I will need to read you in, because it’s considered classified information. You are a United States Citizen, are you not?”

  “Yes, Mark. I am.” she responds.

  I take Daniele’s hand and tell her, “Daniele, I’m not from around here.”

  “Well, I know you lost your memory. But...”

  “It’s not like that Daniele. I was afraid to tell anyone, including Mark. I didn’t think anyone would ever believe me. But some new developments have made it necessary for me to tell you now.”

  “Talon, what are you, a spy or something? Do you have a wife in another country?”

  “No. Nothing like that. Honey, look at me...I’m not from Earth. Okay?”

  “What?” She asks as her jaw drops two inches.

  “I’m from another world, Honey. It’s going to take some time to bring you up on all of this. It’s very complicated. My starship crashed on Earth a very, long time ago,” he continues.

  Daniele looks astonished.

  “My husband is...an alien?” she states. She looks at Mark. “Are you an alien too?” she asks.

  “No, Daniele. I’m from Earth,” Mark replies.

  “The crash caused my ship’s engine to create a time portal. We actually crashed on Earth at the beginning of your planet. But the time portal brought us to y
our time.”

  Daniele holds her hand to her chest and starts to hyperventilate.

  “I know you’re shocked. But my people are just like your people here on Earth.”

  “Well there is one exception,” Mark reminds me.

  “What’s that?” Daniele asks.

  “Well, the people on my planet live a little longer than people here on Earth,” I tell her.

  “What?” She asks. “How long?”

  “I’m 310 of your Earth years. My people’s average life span is 930 years.”

  Daniele becomes so shocked she has to sit down. “You mean...” she pauses. “You mean...I’m going to live to be an old woman and you’ll still look like you’re 30,” She asks. She starts to cry. “How am I supposed to deal with that?” she asks.

  Talon responds, “Well, I think we promised to love and cherish each other for as long as we both shall live, if I remember correctly.”

  “What about the children, Talon?” she asks.

  “Well, it’s possible they may live a little longer as well,” he said. “Do you still love me?” I ask.

  “Talon, you know I love you. I just might not be able to keep up with you when I get older. That’s all. And that is not fair!”

  “Honey, let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. We’ve got a lot of years together. I want that very much.” I hug her and she smiles.

  She then gives me a serious look. “I always thought you were not telling me something. But I guess if this is all it is, I can live with it.” She shakes her head. “You know my religion. I’ve always believed there were other worlds out there with people like us. You’re just proof,” she says.

  “Great, honey. I want you to meet two more crew members from my ship. They’re the only other survivors and they just showed up.”

  “Are you serious?” she asks.

  “There were five survivors originally out of a crew of ten people,” I tell her. “Two women and three men. Remember, I told you my first wife Deonna died?”

  “Yes.”

  “Deonna was killed by early Indians in Peru. That’s where our ship crashed.”

  Mark interrupts. “I’d really like to stay and hear all of this. But I need to head out, actually. I have a family too, and we’re going to see the Wizards play this afternoon. But I need you to read and sign this,” he tells her. “Then you too can talk all you want.”

  “By the way,” he adds. “Talon’s shipmates are a married couple. They’re temporarily staying with Matt and Kim. They would like to meet you. And Matt has invited you over for dinner tonight. You can bring your kids. Will I see you there?” he asks.

  Daniele looks at Mark and I. “Of course,” she says. “I would love to meet them. You both are full of surprises, you know that?”

  “By the way, Mark.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Daniele and I met in Lima, Peru.”

  We all laugh. “That’s why we hit it off so well. We’ll always have Peru.”

  Mark just shakes his head and leaves.

  That evening we all gather at Matt and Kim’s. Matt grills steaks, chicken, and hot dogs. Leesa and the rest of Matt’s crew arrives also.

  “Now that Daniele has joined our party, we look forward to having many fun times together,” Matt tells everyone. We toast.

  “Here’s to archeology everyone.”

  EPILOGUE

  “Gentlemen. Thank you for coming.” Mark interrupts. “Come on in and let’s get started.”

  “We have an urgent matter and I need more information. Talon, you’re here because you were in charge of the life seeds. Cliff, you’re also an SME regarding the life seeds. The two of you are going to be working closely on this one. Matt, you’re here because of historical and archeological events as well.”

  “Has something happened?” Talon asks.

  “We’re going after the life seeds. From various recent incidents I’m not yet able to disclose, it seems they are showing up and there are other animals we were unaware of. I still need you to pin point your locations of the Life Seeds, Talon.”

  “There were 12 life seeds.” Talon answers. “We planted four of them on the far eastern coast—two in what would probably now be Australia and two in what would now be Indonesia. The rest went down with the Genesis.”

  “Okay ... that would make eight life seeds.” Mark adds.

  “Can you tell us where they are showing up—from a historical view,” I add.

  “Matt, I’m certain you’re familiar with the conflicts between Spain and England in the late 1500’s?”

  “Yeah...The British and their Dutch privateers and pirates would attack the Spanish Armadas and steal treasures they were transporting from the new world.

  “Correct.” Mark answers.

  “So what does all of this have to do with the life seeds?” Talon asks.

  “Apparently, an early explorer, Sir Francis Drake, captured one of the Spanish ships along with its treasure, including one of the life seeds. As one would expect, the life seed was mistaken for jewelry and presented to Queen Elizabeth herself. It became part of the Crown Jewels Collection.” Mark concludes.

  “So the British crown has had it for...”

  “over four-hundred years.” Cliff concludes.

  “Then the Spanish must have taken it from the Incas.” I suggest.

  “Correct!”

  “So then what?” Cliff asks.

  “From what we’re able to determine, a severe power outage and record temperatures has activated it. It’s started to leech green slime everywhere. They can’t stop it! Hell of a mess!”

  “Naturally, the British want to know if we’ve encountered anything like it.”

  Cliff adds.

  “Naturally.” Mark states.”

  THE END