Here Comes Earth: Emergence

by William Lee Gordon

  Semi and her two Coridian companions were now accompanying the group. This made for five total Coridians, 26 Earthers, and 2 Noridian prisoners. Semi was willing to answer endless questions and seemed genuinely trying to help while being transparent in her desire to have Earth align with Coridia.

  Tomorrow they’d arrive at Larga and no one seemed any closer to having a course of action…

  “How do we win?”

  “What do you mean Julie?” said Major Reagan.

  She’d been sitting off by herself across the seating area at the front of the shuttle. Now that she was speaking loud enough to get the major’s attention everyone in the shuttle paused to hear what she had to say.

  “I mean just what I said,” she stated in a calm but strong voice. “I want to know how we beat this. I don’t want Earth to just survive and I don’t want us to settle for picking the best jailors; I want to know how we beat Noridia at its own game. I want to destroy their ambitions with us. I want to hit them so hard they won’t even think about coming after us again.”

  Slowly shaking her head she said, “I’ve been sitting here for the past week going back and forth with all of you trying to figure out what Earth’s best course is… and you know what? There is no best course. We’re screwed no matter what we do. So if all the outcomes are bad then let’s roll the dice. I don’t care how long the odds are I’m not going to hand over the future of my planet to other people. Whatever it takes, whatever we have to do; if the only way we can keep our freedom is to take over the whole damn galaxy I don’t care. I’m not going down without a fight.”

  The confidence in Julie’s voice was a statement in and of itself. She wasn’t trying to convince people, she was simply stating her reality. Every eye in the cabin was on her as she finished.

  “I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure that out,” Mark responded slowly. It was obvious that he didn’t want to upset Julie but he needed her to see reason. “We all have. We can’t just push pause and take all the time we need to figure this out. Noridia either has, or very shortly will have, a ship above our planet that can take out entire cities and battle groups from orbit. Not to mention the fact that they’ve apparently got a shipload of very respected Earthers bamboozled into thinking they’re the good guys. If we didn’t have those time pressures then sure, I might have some ideas that would perfectly fit your description of a long shot – but with the Noridian threat literally hanging over the heads of everyone on Earth we don’t have that luxury.”

  Julie and Mark held each other’s look for a long moment until she turned to Iron Jaw. “Major, when the Noridians attacked us on Stiger what did you do?”

  Iron Jaw exchanged a glance with Major Reagan and then said, “I removed the threat.”

  “So why can’t Earth just do what you did and take over the Noridian ship,” she asked?

  Major Reagan jumped in, “We could probable handle any ground attack from the Noridians but Julie you’re right about the real threat being their ship. It could take out any ground forces we muster and it’s a longshot that our missiles could bring her down. I’m sure the generals would love to board the ship and take it over but they won’t be able to. By the time our people realize the threat I doubt the Noridians are going to be giving tours.”

  She turned to Captain Silva, “After we arrive on Larga tomorrow can you immediately get me on a ship bound for Earth?” Before he could answer she said, “I’m also going to need you to get me aboard the Noridian’s ship once we get there. You’ll do that for me won’t you?”

  “Julie, what are you thinking!” said Mark at the same time that Semi said, “It could be suicide for you and Earth.”

  In a firm soft voice Julie informed them, “Maybe no one from Earth can get on that ship but Silva can get me onboard. I’m going to do what Major Reynolds did; I’m going to remove the threat.”

  Chapter 32

  Dr. Mark Spencer

  “No Semi, once again you need to please understand that Julie she is serious,” said Anzio.

  “But this is insane,” said Semi. “She is not a violent person and if she fails the Noridians could retaliate against the whole planet!”

  When Julie had walked out of the shuttle a heated debate had started up.

  “Then I guess we’ll have to make sure she doesn’t fail,” Major Reagan interjected.

  I was about to speak up when Hiromi said, “We volunteer to go with her.”

  I had no doubt who ‘we’ referred to but I was momentarily distracted by the fact that they were both wearing what looked like Japanese Katana swords strapped to their backs. Where did they get Katanas?

  “Silva, I want to know how many Noridians are on that ship and I want a layout of where they’ll probably be,” was Major Reagan’s prelude to taking charge of the conversation. “Semi, I also need to know if I can count on you to be our ally; not our protector and not our owner, just our friend that will help us in our time of need.”

  It was obvious to me that Semi was somewhat out of her element. She was used to a universe that plodded along in a methodical manner and where everyone took the time to come to the most rational decisions. She was simply behind the curve when it came to keeping up with short-lived Earthers that could and would make quick decisions based on principal and a sense of justice – rationality be damned.

  “It is not that simple,” she exclaimed. “If Silva and I aid you it could be seen as the Coridian Dynasty initiating conflict against the Noridian Dynasty. I cannot endanger our entire Dynasty no matter how strong my personal feelings are.”

  I couldn’t help but notice that she’d said this last part while looking directly at Anzio. Apparently I wasn’t the only one that noticed. He walked over and sat down beside her with his arm around her shoulders.

  Silva’s voice broke the silence.

  “Semi, I have overwhelming respect for you and unending gratitude for what you’ve contributed to our dynasty over the millennia but I’ve learned some things living and working with the Earthers and I can tell you that, even if they invited our protection now, in a few decades or centuries they’d rebel against us.

  “In all the galaxy they really are unique. I’m not saying that makes them better and I wouldn’t trade places with them, but they think differently than the rest of us. If they can find their potential they really could make an impact on the galaxy, and if Coridia can’t harness that then I hope we would at least be smart enough to make them our allies and leave them considering us friends.”

  Semi started to respond but Silva continued, “I am going to help them. I would prefer to have your blessing but I am going to help them.

  “Major Reagan,” he continued. “We need to find a way to do this that doesn’t endanger the Coridian Dynasty.”

  “Do you have any ideas on that?” the major asked.

  “Yeah, and you’re not going to like it one bit but I’m afraid it’s the price for my cooperation.”

  Majors Reagan and Reynolds shared another glance and then looked back at Silva.

  “I can’t give you any of our weapons.”

  There was silence in the entire shuttle. Everyone had assumed that once we got to Larga with its galaxy-wide connected databases there would be no problem giving us the kind of weapons that would let us stand up to these guys one-on-one.

  “I can get you onboard that ship but if I give you advanced weapons,” Silva continued, “then Semi would be right; the rest of the galaxy would assume that the Coridian Dynasty was pulling the strings.”

  Before a red-faced Major Iron Jaw Reynolds could speak Silva quickly went on, “Think about it major; inside their ship you’ll be at close quarters anyway. If we do this right your biggest weapon is the element of surprise. I’m going to need your help but I think I can offer that to you.”

  ∆∆∆

  I was sitting in a padded chair with Anzio in a room on the Noridian ship that made no sense whatsoever. All six chairs faced a huge observation port or view
screen that occupied the entire wall, but it was totally blank. Maybe it was a window or even a communications screen that just couldn’t operate at superluminal speeds or maybe it was just broken. For that matter it could have been the Noridian equivalent of a movie theater and we just didn’t know how to load the film. At any rate because there was nothing to see it wasn’t a very popular room and Anzio and I had created a habit of using it to share a midnight snack and some private conversation.

  Tonight’s hors d'oeuvres were courtesy of what the ship’s food processor thingy produced when I asked for an appetizer. This was actually its third attempt after I’d rejected the first two. It was some type of course cheese that tasted slightly gamey accompanied by a fruit mixture that was spreadable. It was really quite pleasant once you got used to it.

  “There’s no dust,” I said. “We’ve now been on three different spaceships and never once have we seen a speck of dust.”

  “No odors either,” added Anzio. “This is actually more impressive to me. You know that was the hardest thing for our scientists to get used to on your space platform, Laze Fair One – no one ever figured out how to remove the smell of 300 people living in a closed environment.”

  I nodded and said, “That reminds me of the assignment I always gave my 600 level history students – it was a paper on time travel. If you could only travel backwards in time and it had to be at least 800 years where and when would you go and what would be the hardest part of your journey… In seven years I only gave out two ‘A’s.”

  “Smell?” Anzio asked.

  “One of them yes,” I said. “Everyone else would create these elaborate scenarios and situations and then be devastated when I downgraded them. They’d come to see me during office hours to lobby for a better grade and I’d just ask them, You want to travel back before there was toilet paper, toothbrushes, or modern sewers and you ignore your sense of smell?”

  “So one of them, he was thinking right,” Anzio said. “But you said two they made the ‘A’s…”

  “Yep, one of the kids came back a week later with a note from his doctor confirming that he suffered from chronic sinusitis – said he wouldn’t be able to smell anything anyway.”

  Anzio laughed. “So his disability got him a better grade!”

  “Maybe,” I said. “I didn’t really believe him but I figured if he was that determined and smart enough to get his doctor to lie for him he deserved an A.”

  “Ah Mark,” Anzio said after a while. “I’m not sure what I should be deserving of in this moment…”

  “Semi?”

  “Yes. She is exquisite, an incredible intellect that is refined, cultured, and incredibly randy. She’s over a thousand years old yet looks and acts like a teenager when I take her to my bed. I find myself genuinely attracted to her and I somehow know she feels the same, yet our relationship, I fear, is causing her great internal conflict. She really wants to help us but she has a responsibility – perhaps you would say a debt – to Coridia that she cannot ignore.”

  “Anzio my friend, I do believe you’ve fallen for this gal,” I said. “I’ve seen it before; the best and brightest of us single fun-loving bachelors waking up one morning and discovering a self-imposed felt-lined ball and chain around your ankle.”

  “I’m not dragging the ball,” Anzio laughingly said. “But she must have a lot of experience with men and yet there is this sexual naiveté that is as attractive as it is confusing. What I’m trying to point out Mark is that even though I’m ok in the bed department I’ve never had anyone respond like I’m some kind of Greek god. I like her but there is an intellectual mystery at work here too.”

  “No, don’t try to defend yourself or change the subject; there is nothing you can say – you’re already lost to the rest of us dedicated bachelors.”

  “Oh, and you say that as if the great Dr. Mark Spencer hasn’t already – how do you say – gone down with the ship!”

  I did my best to give an innocent and bewildered look to Anzio but the truth is my heart wasn’t in it. I kept thinking back to what Hiromi or Kamiko had said to me, about not waiting until it was too late.

  “At first I was worried about Julie,” I said. “This change in her… it’s hard to describe but I know it’s very real. She has a determination about her that I’ve never seen before and it’s not… unattractive.”

  “Mark my friend, why don’t you just go to her?”

  “As much as I want to Anzio I can’t, not right now. Look, I know she’s attracted to me and I think, I hope, it’s more than just attraction, but now isn’t the right time. She has something inside her that she has to do and I get the strong feeling that pushing the issue would be a mistake.”

  I couldn’t remember ever feeling this conflicted before. With all of the other momentous events going on I’d fallen for a girl. Actually, she was an incredibly gorgeous, sexy woman that was as smart as she was pretty. She was also totally focused on the same thing I was trying to focus on, keeping the Earth independent and free.

  “Anzio,” I said. “I think what we talked about before is starting to happen. I think our actions are going to determine the entire world’s future and there isn’t any time to consult anyone. We’re going to be making up decisions as we go that will affect billions of people. Do you still think we have the right to do that?”

  After a couple of moments Anzio replied, “I think you ask the wrong question. I think you need to ask yourself if you’ve got the right to set back and do nothing while our planet either goes down in flames or becomes enslaved. If there is a chance we can change that my friend then how can we justify not taking whatever actions are necessary?

  “Besides, I’ve come to know you Mark,” he continued. “And I’m thinking that you maybe have a plan, yes?”

  “Not a plan, Anzio. Maybe an idea but it’s dangerous and risky – and it’s something I’m going to have to do alone. I think the team needs to get back to Earth and deal with Jaki and the rest of her Noridians asap but I need to go a different direction. ”

  “Why you need to do this by yourself?”

  “Because it probably won’t work and that means I probably won’t be coming back - which is another reason it’s probably not a great idea to chase Julie right now. We arrive at Larga tomorrow morning and I don’t know how long it’s going to take the team to prep for the return to Earth but I’m going a different direction. ”

  “Ah then,” Anzio replied. “So on this trip of yours it’s not like I’ll be breathing too much of your oxygen or running us out of food. That’s good because I get hungry when I get nervous.”

  “Anzio, you’re not coming with me.”

  “What exactly is it that I’m not coming with you on?”

  “When the rest of the team heads back to Earth I’m going to sneak off and find a Lower House to plead our case to.”

  “And what exactly it is our case?”

  “I’m not sure yet but I’ll figure something out.”

  “It is sounding to me my friend like you’ll be needing our midnight snack/thinking-out-loud sessions now more than ever… and I’ve always wanted to see the other side of the galaxy.”

  ΔΔΔ

  Larga was an incredible world with a significant ring of orbital habitats with what looked to be industrial manufactories and even ship repair or construction yards. I couldn’t be sure because there was so much to see and we went straight to one of the larger habitats, but I thought I saw several ships in various stages of completion. It’s almost impossible to explain how large a planet is from orbit – pictures can’t do it justice. The orbital ring therefore was indescribable with only a small portion of it close enough to make out any detail at all.

  What attracted most of my attention however was a construct I still have trouble finding words for. A giant ring circled the planet. The closer we came the more apparent the scale was. What from a distance appeared as a solid ring turned out to be structures separated by tens or hundreds of miles; it was made
up of tens of thousands of these separate habitats or constructs – some of them the size of small cities. None of the different orbiting platforms as far as I could tell however were connected with each other in any way yet somehow managed to maintain their perfect orbital spacing. What I was focused on though was a huge gap in that spacing.

  As we drew closer it became obvious that all sizes of ships were constantly emerging from the ‘left’ side of the gap and many more were entering the ‘right’ side. Submerging from that gap in the ring was a long double-barreled tube that extended well down into the atmosphere until it was swallowed up in the clouds. From a little further out I had assumed that this was one of the fabled Space Elevators that writers like Clark had envisioned so many years ago but Anzio quickly denuded that thought with a number of precise observations and comments. We later learned that we were seeing what best translates as a Transorbital Corridor.