Ancient Birthright (39 page)

Breathsword and the Chief-of-Staff scrambled from the room, leaving the President to contemplate the unraveling of his plans for the first American Royal Family.

It’s not going to end this way, I’m not going down without a fight. There has to be a way to make all of this disappear or at least not come back on me.

The President rose slowly to his feet, walked from the room and entered the elevator that would take him back to his office.

His wife was waiting for him when he came in. “How’s your day going, dear?”

“Wonderfully. One of the best days I’ve had since taking office.”

“That’s nice. I just stopped by to let you know I heard about this magnificent auction of antiques at Sotheby’s tomorrow. I thought I’d take Air Force One to London and pick up a few things. After all, when you have this dreary mausoleum knocked down after the election, we’ll need more furnishings for the new Presidential Palace.”

“Maybe you should slow down on the shopping for a while? You know our economy is in pretty bad shape, and we don’t want to give the American people the wrong impression by spending money outside of the country.”

“Save it for your political speeches, dear. Shopping is the only fun I have anymore. I’ll see you when I return from London.”

Chapter-47

Universe Explorer
: Transjump plus 7 years, 63 days:

“Hey, Beldon. Come on in,” Saigg said from behind his desktop workstation. “How are Cindy and the baby doing?”

“Mother and daughter are doing great. Dad, on the other hand, is having a hard time adjusting to the middle of the night wakeup calls. It was wonderful how your fabrication crew figured out how to make baby bottles and a breast pump from my crude drawings. Marra asked Cindy if she could have a sample of her milk to analyze. She’s is trying to figure out if the food dispensing unit could synthesize it. So far, she has had only limited success. Apparently some of the vital amines are missing in the synthesized milk.”

“What do you mean when you say vital amines?”

“They’re the essential components the human body needs in trace amounts to develop and grow properly. The two words have been combined for so long that we now call them vitamins. On Earth, we have companies who specialize in producing small tablets that provide most of the vitamins we need every day if we don’t get them in our food.”

“Do you think the inability of the food dispensing units to deliver these vitamins could be causing the infertility in our species?” Saigg asked.

“I think your scientists would have known what the various species needed, and would have adjusted the food dispensers to provide it, but Marra is looking at the possibility that something is being filtered out by the waste recycling system and not making it to the food dispensers.”

“I figured that would have been way too easy a solution.” Saigg waved Beldon to a chair. “Let’s move on to another topic. I wanted to get your take on how we should approach Earth. We have less than a year before we get there, and I’m afraid that if we just show up in orbit, we will have more reactions like the ones from the American and Russian governments.”

Beldon kneed a couch into position next to Saigg. “I’ve been thinking about this for days now, and the best I can come up with is to post the story of our arrival on the Internet and get people adjusting to the idea of a visit from non-humans. We have all the video equipment from the
Endeavour
. We could make a series of short videos that introduce the various species on the
Universe Explorer
and get people over the initial shock of seeing them. In the process of making the videos, we could show them the ship and how life is conducted in a closed environment for an extended period. Maybe Dantee, Reedn and Tuuan would like to star in some programs made especially to appeal to children. They could tell them about their adventures in helping rescue the Russians and the crew of the
Endeavour
. The biggest problem is going to be our lack of experience making videos. People on Earth have gotten used to certain levels of sophistication in video production, and if we can’t reach the minimum expected, I don’t think many will watch.”

“I assume you have a solution to this, or you wouldn’t have told me about it.”

“When we get closer to Earth and have access to the Internet, we can tie into a worldwide communication system and place calls that include video, to anyone with a telephone or computer with the right software. I suggest we contact one of the independent television networks and try to convince them to take the raw video we send them and turn it into a program that will appeal to a majority of people. They might even be willing to assist us with long distance expertise from their camera and production people. Time is going to be a problem. Generating the videos and getting them on the air so a majority of people can view them will take time and have to fit into established viewing seasons. Once we reach Earth we’ll run out of time when we go into orbit.”

“What if we didn’t go into orbit around Earth?”

“You lost me.”

“When the
Universe Explorer
left Earth on its outbound trip, we had established scientific and research outposts on the Moon and Mars as well as small units on several of the Jovian moons.” Saigg tapped his terminal, and a display of the solar system popped up.

“With the aluminum from
Endeavour
and the external fuel tank, we have enough fuel to go into orbit around Earth, the Moon, or Mars.” He stroked a few pads to display possible paths for the
UE
. “I propose we take up a synchronous orbit on the backside of the Moon where we can establish communications with Earth. We will be hidden from direct visual observation from Earth. This will give you the time you need for the video production and give the scientists on the
Universe Explorer
the opportunity to visit the facilities on the Moon. I don’t expect the base to be operational after all this time, but we may be able to find out what happened to our society and the souls on Earth.”

“Do you really think the base would still be intact after all this time?”

“Unless the facility took a direct hit from an asteroid, it should be. It was constructed hundreds of feet under the surface from fused bedrock. There was access from the vertical wall of a deep crater on the backside of the Moon. It was easier to start at the bottom of the crater and dig horizontally rather than from above. This also provided protection for the construction crew from micrometeorites and solar flares. A Helium-3 fusion power plant with an unlimited life expectancy powered the facility. If the facility is still intact, we may be able to restart the reactor.”

Beldon got up and paced the room. “To pull this off, we need to escape from the VLA’s tracking signals, and for that we need to get Striker involved. He can advise us on the best way to appear to disappear.”

“I’ll call him and see if he can join us.” Saigg put out the call to Striker. Each of the humans had an “Itsme” button implanted in their left hand shortly after joining the crew of the
Universe Explorer
. This permitted them to use the ships internal communications systems and answer ship wide roll calls.

“Striker.”

“Colonel, this is Saigg Garuu. I was hoping you could join us in my office. We have some questions and plans we’d like to get your opinion about.”

“I’ll join you in a few minutes,” responded Striker.

Beldon took his seat, and he and Saigg exchanged notes on raising children and handling females while they waited for Striker.

“What’s up guys?” asked Striker as he and Becca entered the office.

Beldon jumped up and offered the very pregnant Becca his chair. She took it with a grateful smile.

“Thanks. My back has been killing me today,” Becca said. “How are Cindy and Soleene doing?”

“They were taking a nap when I left. Before that, everything was fine. Other than her naps with Cindy, I think someone has been holding Soleene every minute of the day. Dantee and the other two are fascinated with Soleene and have actually been a big help. Reedn spends as much time as he can flashing her various dorsal coloration displays. It’s better than having a mobile over a crib back on Earth. I think it’s starting to tick Dantee and Tuuan off because he can do something for her that they can’t,” Beldon told them.

“Have her eyes started tracking?” Becca asked.

“Oh yeah. She’s even starting to smile. Reedn’s the king of getting her excited and smiling.”

Saigg jumped in before this became any more of a proud parent moment. “Beldon and I were talking about ways to ease the shock of our arrival in Earth orbit. He suggested we make video programs and post them to Earth’s Internet and television. Maybe even get in touch with one of the television networks and work with them.

“Unfortunately,” Saigg explained. “That may take more time than we have before we arrive. I told him about the research facilities that the Earth of our time had established on the Moon, Mars and several of the Jovian moons, and proposed that if we could escape the Earth’s tracking systems, we could take up a synchronous orbit behind the Moon and use the Moon facilities if they are still intact. That way we would have all the time we need to contact the video production companies on Earth and get them to help us

Becca pushed her distended body from the chair and began pacing the office in a slow side-to-side waddle. “I can’t seem to get comfortable these days. My back is aching, and I feel like a beached whale.” She massaged her lower back as she walked.

“We wondered if either of you had any suggestions on the situation and possibly a method for the
UE
to escape the tracking beam.” Saigg looked at Striker and Becca and waited for a response.

“Yes, to a possible way to escape from the tracking system.” Striker backed up and leaned against the wall to give Becca more room to maneuver. “Go over that part again about research facilities on other planets and moons.”

“When the
Universe Explorer
left Earth, we, as a planet, had established fairly large research and living facilities on Earth’s Moon and on Mars. The facilities on the Jovian moons were small, and only populated for short periods to install new equipment or service the existing scientific systems. The facility on the Moon has an He-3 fusion-reactor power system that should be usable if it still exists. We have equipment aboard that can extract He-3 from the soil, we should be able to use it and restart at least some of the facility,” Saigg explained.

“How large was this installation?” Becca asked.

“When we left, there were about five-thousand souls working there. Much of the frozen embryo research and production was handled there as well as the growth of the initial PTO ships. It took a lot less energy to deliver large quantities of material like PTO ships from the Moon with only one-sixth the gravity to overcome.”

“Do you think it could still be useable after two-hundred and thirty-million years?” Striker asked.

“The power plant should be okay as long as the facility didn’t take a direct hit by an asteroid. I’m sure any organic machines are dead, but much of the equipment in the facility was constructed like your equipment on
Endeavour
, with glass, metal and plastic. We will have to install new environmental systems and food processors, but if the installation is still airtight we have the systems and equipment on board the
Universe Explorer
to make at least a portion of it livable again,” Saigg told the group.

Becca interjected, “I’m just a little confused. With the infertility problem and the need to be perceived as friendly by Earth’s population, why would you want to expend the resources to bring an old research facility back to life?”

Beldon took the chair beside Saigg’s desk to give Becca more floor space.

“The facility is situated at the southern pole on the horizon line between the Moons face that is constantly pointed toward Earth.” Saigg elaborated. “Establishing a working base there would give us the ability to contact the ISP satellites around Earth without having to expose the
Universe Explorer
to optical observation. I’m also hoping that some of the aluminum produced at the facility is still there. The builders constructed a production operation that extracted bauxite from the soil as the base was constructed. The extracted aluminum powered many of the Moon base machines and helped fuel the
Universe Explorer
. Also, there is a strong possibility that records of what happened to our civilization may be stored there. We might be able to find answers to what caused its decline and extinction on Earth.”

“But, wouldn’t all the databuds have died?” Becca continued on her pace track. “I’ve seen how you use them to make recordings and store your computer information. I know that they are grown and are living organisms that need nourishment to live.”

“That’s all true, but what you probably don’t know is that the information stored in a databud is held in a crystalline matrix that’s not living tissue. The databud dissolves and reforms layers of crystal as the information it holds changes. Once the organism dies, the information is locked and will not change. We have crystal readers that can take the databud core and extract the information, even after a very, very long time. I’m hoping the souls on the Moon left records of what happened to Earth and its population.”