Here Comes Earth: Emergence

by William Lee Gordon

  Toni laughed. “Major do you know how hard he worked and how long it took him even with our most advanced nano supplementation to get even half the muscle mass he carries now? We had to resort to hormonal treatments and other pharmacological aids to get him where he is – and he’s barely fit enough to sit a desk in your Army.”

  “Sit a desk? What does he do?”

  “I really should let him tell you this Major but you’ll find out soon enough that he’s an analyst for Army Counterintelligence. As a matter of fact, it’s his CI experience that is responsible for letting us infiltrate the Noridian Dynasty in the first place. Galactic culture doesn’t have a lot of experience with what you call ‘cloak and dagger’ but you Earthers have perfected it.”

  “So that’s how he got himself appointed to this mission,” Major Reagan reflected.

  “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that because I was under the Nevada desert with the rest of you when that came about. I can tell you though that he has been with Army intelligence in all its various forms over a number of generations. For any details you’ll need to speak to him.”

  Major Reagan wasn’t one to wear his emotions on his sleeve but Julie could tell that this disturbed him.

  Wanting to continue the line of thought Julie asked, “How did you get assigned to the Earth Team Toni?”

  “I happened to be in the right position academically; my degree and credentials are real you know,” she said with a smile. “And when the opportunity came I jumped on it. I suspect that one of us was in a position to influence the selections somewhat but I have no idea who that would be.”

  The Major was obviously having trouble with that last statement. “Toni, you can’t claim to be loyal to our mission while still trying to protect other Coridian operatives,” he said.

  “Coridian operatives,” she repeated. “I think Captain Silva would like that term but I’m not sure it’s really appropriate. What you were told about galactic society being nonhierarchical on anything but a societal level is largely true.

  “We didn’t put together a team with leaders and subordinates like you did Major. When we decided to visit Earth likeminded people came together and discussed the idea. We approached some others that had expertise we thought we’d need but in the end each of us came here because we wanted to. We told you that our Head of Mission was still in France and that is true, but not because she has any titles or authority other than that we all respect her and tend to listen to her.

  “I didn’t create an academic career in genetics because someone told me to; I did it because I thought it might be the best thing for us collectively. Whoever recommended me for this mission didn’t come to me first and create a plan; they did it because they thought it might be a good option. I had no idea Captain Silva was going to be a part of this until I saw him on the base. I know this way of thinking is foreign to you but it is the way of things.”

  Julie could see the Major was thinking things through carefully. After a moment his body language suggested he had made a decision; he leaned forward and said, “Toni why are Coridia and Noridia at odds and why does the Coridian Dynasty care what Noridia does to us?”

  Now it was Toni’s turn to pause. With a sad look in her eyes she said, “The Noridian Dynasty becoming a Lower House would be a disaster for Coridians. Lower House members are treated with a respect among planet bound populations and spacefaring dynasties that is on the same level as a minor deity. If Noridia became a Lower House all they would have to do would be to mention in passing their dislike for us and we would be shunned by entire star systems. In your terms it could impoverish us. Our loss of respect galaxy wide is something we might never recover from.

  “As to why we don’t like each other, I’m going to defer to Captain Silva on that. Actually I suspect he will also ask you to wait but just a few hours. I think I know where he’s taking us and if I’m right the Coridian you will meet there will be able to answer all your questions.”

  Chapter 29

  Dr. Mark Spencer

  Toni was a Coridian! Dr. Mom! Man, I didn’t see that one coming and she didn’t look or act anything like Jaki or the others. For one thing she was a happy person; Jaki always looked way too serious even when she… well. Also, Toni’s body fat was much higher. I wonder if that was just part of the disguise. Come to think of it, didn’t we learn that their medical nanotech kept them healthy and lean? I’ll bet she hasn’t had access to that for a while. Interesting.

  Silva was a different story though. Now that I knew he wasn’t from here it was hard to see him as anything but an alien. He still seemed more masculine than the male Noridians I’d met but not by much.

  I approached the small group that included Captain Silva and had been waiting for us in the hub. Without explanation I informed them that Major Reagan was delayed and that we should continue.

  Dr. Decker and Captain Silva were already in a deep conversation regarding molecular manipulation so I let them continue while I settled back in my sofa chair and reviewed my strategy. I already had a general outline of questioning I wanted to pursue but determining which line of questions would bring the fastest insights was a throw of the dice.

  Most of the larger questions still remained unanswerable. Silva had told us that the Coridians hoped to openly influence our course of action from this point on but did they just want us to join the Coridian Dynasty rather than the Noridian Dynasty? What Earth really needed was the opportunity to make our own way in the universe. We didn’t need to be owned or absorbed by anyone but could we stand up to the Dynasties if it came to open conflict?

  If we were to believe the Coridian’s story – and I was inclined to – then Noridians had already demonstrated their willingness to covertly murder our people. Would it be possible to play them off each other? Were there other Dynasties or parties that might affect the dynamics? How much time did Earth have before events came to a head?

  Then of course there were going to be factions on Earth made up of people like Helmer and Memphis that would sell the idea of greater technology and greater comfort at any price. Conflict and restraint on our part was a hard sell compared to an increased standard of living for all, peaceful integration, and no more worries. I could almost convince even myself with an argument like that except we would lose our freedom; we would lose our ability to ever stand on our own or be considered an equal in galactic society. It was scary to think that the majority of people on Earth might not really care about that. What was it that Anzio had said? Someone had to represent the higher thinkers?

  Maybe this is what history has always boiled down to; when leaders or small groups of leaders have been put into a position to make history making decisions they did it. They didn’t take a vote, they didn’t try to guess what the majority would want; they pushed for what they believed would be best. Sometimes that belief was self-serving or insane but on occasion you had true statesmen that propelled the course of civilization forward. Gandhi didn’t seek the approval of the British. Churchill didn’t apologize for standing up to the Nazis even when it frightened his own countrymen. The Spartan king Leonidas didn’t bow to the Persians and broke his people’s most sacred rituals in doing so. The Founding Fathers of the United States neither sought nor had the approval of most of the people in the colonies.

  Plato wrote that a true democracy would never work. That if each person truly had a vote on every issue then as soon as the majority realized they could vote themselves largess from the public trough, disproportionally benefiting from the efforts of the minority, then that civilization was doomed.

  I was under no illusion that I had all the answers. Right now I’d settle for just a few. Major Reagan however had asked me to figure something out and he just wasn’t a man I wanted to disappoint. I also knew that Julie and Anzio were depending on me but what could I do?

  ∆∆∆

  By 0640 the next morning we were all in Major Reagan’s quarters; apparently no one else had been able to sleep
either.

  I was the second to arrive and was a little surprised to find Julie already there, sharing coffee and in deep conversation with the major. I don’t know why I was startled but when Julie turned to me and gave me that great smile of hers I got a warm feeling inside and went to join them.

  The others started trailing in not long after.

  “Captain Silva and Dr. Andretti have been assigned new quarters just off the platoon hub while the Noridian prisoner will stay in the small conference room with the transparent walls. Captain Kamiko is in charge of their security,” Major Reagan was explaining to us.

  “According to what Dr. Spencer learned from Silva last night the Noridian has been blocked from the ship and that includes access to our communications. In the last meeting of the evening, when we brought Silva and Andretti together, we were assured that they were not monitoring those same earpiece communications but Silva was very forthcoming in admitting that all it would take to change that would be a simple thought to his bioware – this is why I asked all of you to leave your earpieces outside the room.”

  “Major,” I said. “Does he really need the earpieces to monitor us?” I had suspected Jaki of listening to several of my conversations that could only have come from some type of internal ship listening ability.

  Some of the things she’d whispered into my ear and other innuendo could only have come from private conversations I’d had with Anzio.

  “Dr. Spencer, the real answer is we don’t know,” he responded. “But when I asked him about it he claims that he isn’t able to access that level of ship control. Other than being able to lock an individual out of the system altogether he only has control over life-support, engineering, and astrogation. Security and long range communication aren’t included.

  “I’ve made the decision to assume that our conversations inside my quarters are secure – it seems contra productive and impractical to do otherwise. Silva also said that we might be able to get a message back to Earth from the planet we’re approaching but we would all know more once we arrived.”

  The Major turned to Iron Jaw, “Mike, any progress on figuring out how to control this ship?”

  Shaking his head Iron Jaw said, “No. We found a lot of rooms but no controls anywhere. Sorry Matt but I think taking control of the ship is a no-go.”

  “Ok, it was always a long shot anyway.”

  Changing the subject the Major continued, “Toni believes that we’re headed to a planet called Stiger.”

  I quickly interjected, “Captain Silva mentioned that name also.”

  “According to Toni the Stigerians are not a Dynasty; they’re simply a planet bound society that enjoys autonomy. There is, however, a small Coridian presence on the planet including a well-respected woman named Semi.”

  “The Coridians have also requested to take possession of our Noridian captive once we make planetfall. I agreed; I don’t know what else we’d do with him and I certainly don’t want to leave him on the ship.

  “For that matter,” continued the major. “I don’t want anyone staying on the ship tomorrow. As much as possible I want the team staying together when we’re dirt side. That means maintaining sight lines with at least two other members of the team at all times – spread the word.

  “In addition I want to know more about this Stigerian society. Any questions?” he asked.

  “Ok, I’ve got a feeling we’re getting a lot closer to being able to understand our situation and once we do we can start making our plans.”

  ∆∆∆

  If it wasn’t for the view screens we would never have known we’d landed. All morning they’d been showing an approaching green, brown and blue planet, then orbit, then planetfall.

  The screens were now filled on one side with a curious landscape of thinly trunked trees with leaves ranging from dark blue-green to a funny shade of lime. Until you got used to it, it played havoc with your depth perception.

  Our ship was sitting in a large clearing at the crux of what appeared to be a medium sized ‘V’ shaped valley. The mountains on the two opposing sides were relatively small and covered with foliage while the third side that formed the apex of the ‘V’ (where we were) was filled with a steep sided monstrosity that towered above the tree line and disappeared into the clouds.

  On the fourth side, stretched out slightly below us on the floor of the widening valley was what had to be a city. There were no skyscrapers or smokestacks; as a matter of fact you had to look hard to really see all the structures. Everything blended in and there were beautiful buildings built right into the sides of some of the valley walls, complete with multi-story glass walls and sweeping curves. Except for the buildings themselves there was little in the way of concrete or its equivalent. There were few if any noticeable streets and no parking lots. If you looked closely you could notice two and three story buildings sitting on the perfectly manicured valley floor amidst so many trees and foliage that it reminded you of the ancient Mayan city of Palenque in Mexico – except there was no indication of ruin. Everything was pristine.

  Captain Silva was guiding us and Toni was along to answer as many questions as she could although she had admitted to never visiting this particular planet before.

  So we had all travelled down to what I was thinking of as the Garage Level of the ship and Captain Silva was showing us where the hovering car things were stored.

  Shortly, forty-nine Earthers, two Coridians, and one bruised Noridian were slowly floating down onto the valley floor.

  As we came into the city center we realized just how far apart the buildings were from each other. We were also getting our first look at non-dynasty aliens and except for the clothing I didn’t think they looked much different.

  Many people were on foot seemingly enjoying a very nice day; we didn’t see anyone running or otherwise in a hurry. There were a few hover cars similar to ours but I finally realized what stood out the most for me; the lack of people. Unless they all lived underground or something this had to be the most sparsely populated city I’d ever been in.

  Also lending to the feeling of a low population density was a curious phenomenon I was noticing; whether on foot or in a hover car other people were getting out of our way, sometimes well in advance of us.

  We eventually more or less took a left turn and I realized we were heading towards one of the glass-walled edifices that were built into the side of the valley. As we got closer to it I could see large open-air areas on the ground level with multi-car sized openings leading deeper inside.

  We parked under the overhang of the edifice itself and walked through a permanently open foyer and were greeted by three beautiful (of course) young women who turned out to be native Stigerians.

  There were other people in the rather large foyer but again I got the impression of emptiness. Maybe I had just gotten used to living on Earth with her eight billion people but this definitely felt different.

  Captain Silva suggested that the group might enjoy some local refreshments and two of our greeters hurried away to presumably accommodate him. They didn’t run or look harried, but they were definitely moving faster than anyone else I’d seen so far.

  I was busy looking at our surroundings and just paying attention to Captain Silva and our Stigerian hostesses with what I had come to think of as my peripheral senses. I have always had the ability to focus on something without losing awareness of other things; for example I was calculating that this foyer had a two-story high ceiling and held enough fountains, sofas, chairs, and tabled alcoves to seat around 200 people when I heard our Stigerian hostess explain that Semi was off planet.

  She then offered to take us up to the Coridian section.

  As several Stigerians arrived carrying trays with what looked like local juices Major Reagan determined that he along with me, Julie, Dr. Decker, Hiromi and Kamiko would go upstairs with Captain Silva, Toni, and the non-talkative Noridian.

  The ten of us divided up into two elevators that looked different f
rom what we had on the ship but apparently functioned just the same; the door opened and closed quickly and soundlessly and there was no sensation of movement.

  All of our hostesses and been pleasant and smiled the entire time but I realized what was missing when Julie spoke. She said, “I don’t think I caught your name?”

  Our hostess briefly glanced at Captain Silva and then responded to Julie, “I am called Tunica.”

  Julie told her it was nice to meet her and asked her a few polite questions about her work and even complimented her on her dress. By the end of the short conversation not only had our elevator arrived but Tunica was beaming; she had obviously felt flattered by the attention.

  ∆∆∆

  “Major Reagan,” Captain Silva said. “I have been in communication with Semi and she has invited you to join her at her personal retreat. It’s located on one of the moons of the fourth planet in this system and with the ship we’ll be happy to provide it will take you only a few hours to reach her.”