Major Reagan put us back on track by saying, “You were talking about Lower Houses?”
“Lower Houses are very powerful,” Silva replied. “There are only one hundred and seventy-nine of them in the galaxy.”
“How does a Dynasty become a Lower House?” I asked; I just couldn’t keep myself from interrupting.
“They don’t,” Silva said strongly. Then in a somewhat more moderate voice he said, “At least it would be extremely rare and I suspect that it’s the Noridian’s plotting to become a Lower House that Earth’s gotten tangled up in.”
I hadn’t noticed Dr. Decker walk up but now he interrupted several people that were trying to follow-up on Silva’s last statement, “Ok, let’s keep this on a logical progression or we’ll never learn anything. Captain Silva, please finish explaining about Dynasties and Houses and then maybe we’ll be able to understand your explanation of what exactly we’re caught up in.”
“Well, Lower Houses are revered by everyone including dynasties. They’re powerful because their knowledge and technology is off the charts – they are so advanced that they rarely interact with anyone else in the galaxy. Lower Houses freely share and trade ideas with each other that most Dynasties might not even grasp – Noridia attaining that status would immediately elevate their technology and power to an unimaginable level.
“The Lower Houses and Upper Houses together make up The Accord. The Dynasties pretty much fall in line with the principals and edicts The Accord puts out.”
“And the Upper Houses?” Dr. Decker prodded.
“Yes, finally there are the Upper Houses. We only know the names of a few Upper Houses but there is reason to suspect there are many; no one knows for sure how many.
“The Upper Houses are mysterious even to us. Meeting a member of an Upper House would be the stuff of legend and sometimes the physical descriptions stretch belief. Presumably the Lower Houses interact with them on some level but no one really knows for sure.”
“And what’s above the Upper Houses? Godhood?” Dr. Decker asked somewhat sarcastically.
“I have no way of knowing,” responded Silva. “Do you?”
When Dr. Decker didn’t immediately respond I asked why Noridia thought it had a chance at making Lower House status.
“The Noridian Dynasty has made several important contributions to galactic society in the areas of genetics and temporal physics,” Silva said. “If they can make another large contribution they might just be elevated. Of course, they can’t afford to have anything blemish their reputation in the meantime.”
“Did you say Temporal Physics?” Dr. Decker said.
When Silva nodded Dr. Decker continued. “You’re talking about controlling time. My goodness, if the Noridians can travel back in time there’s no hope for any of us. Can they do that yet?”
Shaking his head Silva said, “No, just theory and some hypotheses that they would need the help of a Lower House to test.”
“Wait a minute. How would you know?” Decker continued. “I mean, if they could go back in time they could change things to the way they want and you’d never know it.”
Silva suddenly reminded me of a favorite professor of mine that would display incredible patience when I asked some really stupid questions. He said, “We know they haven’t altered the past to change the present because they don’t have what they want – they’re not already a Lower House.”
As Decker was feeling incredibly stupid – I know that feeling – Major Reynolds broke in with a voice that was meticulously polite but edged in cold hard steel. “I want to know why the Coridian Dynasty murdered 300 of our people.”
Chapter 25
Major Mathew Reagan, US Army
I couldn’t bring myself to think of Silva as a captain anymore. He was obviously an imposter who had somehow infiltrated my Army – and I wanted to lock him up and throw away the key.
My team, however, and on a bigger scale Earth itself could not afford to turn away any friends right now and it did appear that Silva had ridden to our rescue, but how could we know that for sure?
I would let him keep the uniform and the rank but I was removing him from the chain of command; all personnel would understand that he carried no authority and deserved no trust.
There were so many important questions to be answered that I was having trouble prioritizing them all. When we moved from the conference room to the much larger hub I took the opportunity to put my head together with Iron Jaw. We both agreed that a free flow form of conversation would be much more efficient than a straight interrogation and that the scientists probably should be allowed direction and input. We would make sure the conversation stayed on track and that our important questions were answered.
“We didn’t,” Silva responded while looking directly at Major Reynolds. “Your space platform being removed from earth orbit was actually the first indication we’d had that the Noridian’s had rediscovered earth. Until then we thought you were our secret.”
“You’re saying that the Noridian’s murdered our people?” Dr. Decker asked. “But why?”
Silva grimaced and then said, “That is a rather long answer and you need to know it but are there more urgent issues you’d like to address before we go down that path?”
“Yes there are,” I said. “At this moment are we safe?”
“For the moment yes,” he responded. “I have taken control of the ship and we are currently headed on a different vector than was expected. By tomorrow at midmorning ship-time we should arrive at a friendly planet and you will be able to decide your course of action.”
“Will we have a choice?” I asked coldly.
“Major, I can confidently say that we will not restrict your actions. I cannot speak for any other Dynasty or any unforeseen events and there are discussions we would like to have with you that might influence those actions but we will not force our will upon you. You have my word.”
Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to believe him his word didn’t carry a lot of weight right now; not after deceiving us for months.
“Our people that are still on the main Noridian ship, are they in any danger?”
“Obviously I’m not in control of that situation but I would think that they’ll be fine. The Noridian’s are desperate to have a shipload of Earthers that believe in Noridia. Unless someone openly and strongly opposes them they should be ok – they can’t keep killing off people without everyone else getting suspicious.”
“How were they going to explain us disappearing and how were they going to do us in anyway?” asked Iron Jaw.
“The plan was for your team to be taken to a planet that for us is heavily populated and under the control of the Noridian Dynasty. They would capture recordings of your team interacting with the local population and then once the recordings were edited and you were back on board ship they would remove the oxygen from the atmosphere and allow you to suffocate. Based on the recordings they have of you both on the planet and from the ship they would then create artificial scenes of various platoon personnel praising the Noridian influence and looking forward for the same on Earth.
“After the rest of the Earth Team saw the supposed real-time recordings it would be reported that your ship was attacked and destroyed by the Coridian Dynasty.”
“Why go to all the trouble?” Iron Jaw asked. “Why not just fake all the planet scenes?”
“They could do that but they only have images of your team in this ship. They don’t really know how each individual might act or react to environmental stimuli on the surface of a planet or when meeting aliens in an uncontrolled environment. Rather than taking a chance on raising some eyebrows for uncharacteristic behavior they decided not to spring the trap until after planetfall.”
“How do you know all of this?” I asked.
“As you may suspect Major Reagan I maneuvered my way onto this mission because we know the Noridian history and we can see their desperation to be named a Lower House. Although the Noridian’
s are stretching the limits this type of intrigue is not totally unknown in galactic history.
“Once I was embedded on your team and aboard this vessel I was able to use my own technology to monitor the Noridian systems and communications. When it became apparent that this was 3rd Platoon’s last cruise so to speak I was forced to take action.”
Even though Silva certainly didn’t look the part I felt like I was listening to James Bond calmly reporting the details of his last mission. Now that I knew he wasn’t from earth I could see that his stature was more closely related to the Noridian males that we’d met but he seemed more muscular and assertive.
Us military types try to always be vigilant and I confirmed the flanking positions of my team before I asked the next question.
Sliding forward to the edge of my seat I calmly asked, “What became of the real Captain Silva?”
I’m not sure what type of response I expected but laughter wasn’t it. It wasn’t even a diabolical laugh; it was more like relief.
“I’m sorry major, I should have explained right away. I didn’t replace Captain Silva; I am Captain Silva. I’ve been on your planet for quite some time.”
∆∆∆
I called a meal break and although Dr. Spencer and a few of the other scientists were still throwing questions at Silva we left Captains Hiromi and Kamiko (along with a couple of Iron Jaw’s people) to keep an eye on things while Iron Jaw, Julie, Dr. Decker and I retired to my quarters.
Once trays were passed around I looked to the group and said, “Comments?”
Julie was the first to speak, “All I can say is that we must be living right. Without Captain Silva we’d all be dead. No offense to you Major Reagan but I don’t think there’s a person on our team that could’ve figured out how to turn the lights back on.”
“That’s assuming that he’s not the one that turned them off in the first place,” Iron Jaw added.
“Dr. Schein, do you trust him?” I asked.
Julie sat back in her chair and then thoughtfully said, “Yes Major, I believe what he’s said so far. To do what he claims to have done I’m sure he’s a very accomplished liar but the body language of the Noridian prisoner is consistent with his story. Mark also backs him up about Noridian treachery and Mark is definitely not an accomplished liar.”
I thought I heard some steel in her voice as she finished that last sentence but she did make good points.
“At the very least then we’re agreed that Silva probably did save our bacon even if we’re still not sure of his ultimate motives?” I said as I looked around the group.
Mike nodded once and Dr. Decker murmured concurrence.
“What’s our next step then?” I asked. “We’ll be on their planet in 24 hours.”
“I still have a thousand questions and 24 hours won’t let me get through half of them,” responded Dr. Decker.
“We all have questions,” Julie stated. “But we need to first decide if we really want to go to this planet of theirs. It might be that this smaller ship could take us directly back to Earth.”
“As far as I’m concerned it’s your show Major Reagan,” said Iron Jaw. “But, I don’t think going back to Earth right now is an option.”
When Julie looked at him questioningly he continued. “It doesn’t accomplish anything. We know the Noridians are vile but they’re still offering technology that everyone’s going to want. Maybe we could deal with the Coridians instead but we don’t know anything about them. There’s also the question of our original mission brief which includes getting an understanding of galactic society and determining if we have anything of value to offer.
“I know that Silva just told us all the great things we want to hear about how special and unique us Earthlings are,” he said rather wistfully. “But I’m not really sure I understand what he’s talking about. I think we have a whole lot more to learn before we can go home.”
Iron Jaw was right and I think everyone realized it as soon as he said it.
“Ok then,” I said. “Let’s be figuring out what we need to accomplish once we arrive at their planet and let’s get as much information as we can from Silva before we get there. Dr. Decker, I’m going to ask the science team to coordinate their questions with you so we can stay on track. Accommodate as many people as you can but stay focused on our objectives. Oh, and give Dr. Spencer and Dr. Schein some leeway; they’re enough in the picture to keep things going in the right direction.
“Major Reynolds, I’m going to ask you to screen all questions from military personnel. Keep me informed and let’s make sure you and I stay on the same page.”
∆∆∆
“I want to know what happened to General Nesbit,” was the first thing I said after we all resumed the questioning.
As the realization struck her Julie quietly muttered, “Oh my God!” into the silence.
In that tone of voice we only use when speaking of the dead Silva said, “He was murdered.”
“There was never anything wrong with him,” he continued. “The Noridians put on a show for him and Dr. Sullivan and convinced them both that he needed to be treated. Once he was unconscious it was simply a matter of turning off his breathing at the right moment.”
I had been uncomfortable with the explanation Julie had given me from the first time I heard it. What was it Dr. Sullivan had told her? ‘We entered the room and lights started flashing…’
Why the flashing lights? The Noridians controlled everything with their bioware. They didn’t need lights to know there was a problem and the only way they would have had lights ready for us is if they had planned it in advance.
That clue had been in front of me the whole time and I just hadn’t realized it. I’d been trained to learn from my mistakes, not to beat myself up over them; but this felt like a real body blow.
Right before we’d started up again after the break Dr. Spencer and Dr. Decker had brought Dr. Spelini to me with a question that I thought was relevant.
Now seemed like a good time to let him ask it.
“Dr. Spelini,” I said. “Your turn.”
Anzio looked around and actually grinned. It was a tough time for all of us and I know he was sensitive to that but at the same time he was like a kid in a candy store; the constant revelations were confirming or denying scientific speculations he’d held for years.
“Captain Silva, you said two things earlier that I think we need clarification on, yes? You mentioned that you hadn’t realized that the Noridian’s had rediscovered Earth. Before that though you stated that the Noridians were desperate to become a Lower House and couldn’t afford to have anything blemish their reputation.
“Jaki told us about the Chextigans visiting Earth and your two statements by themselves they seem innocent but when I think of them together I think there is more to know, yes?”
“You are very perceptive Dr. Spelini,” said Silva.
I hadn’t been sure I’d totally understood Dr. Spelini’s reasoning but he was a genus and Dr. Spencer assured me that Anzio had an eidetic memory and would be best suited to keeping Silva from prevaricating.
Sometimes you just had to trust your team and so far I’d been pretty pleased with mine.
Looking directly at me Silva continued, “This is going to take us down that path of things you need to know but it will probably take all afternoon. Should we start now?”
I glanced around at what I was starting to think of as my inner circle and not seeing any hesitations I nodded assent.
Chapter 26
Dr. Mark Spencer
I was fascinated by the political intrigue that was apparently taking place between the Noridians, the Coridians, and the rest of the galaxy.
I’m not a political person in the sense that I have no desire to shape current policy, but as a student of history and mankind I have to recognize and understand that politics are the fundamental driving force behind everything historical except natural catastrophes or other changing environmental conditions.
The better I could understand the political forces and dynamics that shaped history the better I could understand where we might be headed; and now with models of somewhat similar civilizations that have already progressed beyond where we currently are the easier it would become. The intellectual in me would have been content to spend the next few months just learning but the realist in me knew that now was the time for action – just as soon as we figured out what that action needed to be. Also, I hadn’t forgotten the fact that the Major had given me an assignment; find a way for Earth to survive without violence.
Up to this point I’d been stymied. The introduction of a third political force, the Coridian Dynasty, could change that. I wasn’t yet sure how but it opened up a new world of possibilities.
Here Comes Earth: Emergence Page 17