Here Comes Earth: Emergence (14 page)

“Is
that all?” Dr. Spencer said with a grin. “Create world peace for breakfast and
then solve world hunger by dinner?”

“Think
outside the box, Mark. Maybe I’m asking the impossible but I’m thinking we’re
going to need to demand the impossible from ourselves. Pull in who you need;
just don’t give anyone the impression that you’re going against the mission
brief or the powers that be. You’re the best person for this and if you can’t
do it I don’t think anyone can – but I’m putting my money on you.”

Dr.
Spencer didn’t look totally convinced but I was confident he’d step up to the
task so I turned my attention to Julie.

“Dr.
Schein, I’d like you to play an important role also. I need to know who is
honestly lobbying for what they believe to be earth’s best interests or who
might have a hidden agenda.”

“Major…
how do you expect me…? I’m a psychiatrist but that doesn’t mean I can read
minds. I would need extended time in counseling with each subject to able to
give an accurate mapping of how they think, let alone their motives.”

I
think she was ready to go on but I didn’t give her the chance.

“No
Julie, you don’t need a tremendous amount of time. You have great instincts and
more to the point you’re the best person we have to do this. I don’t need a
medical report that would stand up to peer review and I don’t need wild-assed
guesses. This is important, it needs to be done, and I trust your instincts.
You need to trust them too. Can we count on you?”

I
felt like I could actually see the wheels moving in that brilliant mind of hers
as she looked from person to person in our group. If she was seeing what I was
seeing she’d know that she had our support.

After
a few moments she said strongly, “Ok, I’ll do my absolute best.”

“Good
deal,” I said. “I need all the Squad Leaders to keep doing your job and keep
your eyes open and your ears to the ground. We’ll regroup in a few days but in
the meantime if you stumble across anything that could be important bring it to
us immediately.”

Captains
Kamiko and Hiromi were the last to leave and, as I suspected, they had something
they wanted to discuss with me.

“Why
would we put our ear on the floor?” they asked.

∆∆∆

Two
mornings later we woke to discover that all of the hallways leading to 2
^nd
Platoon had been closed off. Once again it was seamless; there just weren’t any
hallways where there used to be.

Although
we’d still had no official word, rumor had warned us that they were leaving
today – we’d just assumed that they would board another vehicle. It appeared
however that each Platoon Hub, complete with surrounding rooms and quarters,
could function as an independent vessel. This notion was driving our engineers
crazy but personally I didn’t see it as any more astounding than a dozen other
revelations we’d experienced.

Starting
early afternoon the large view screens that surrounded the HQ Hub, Squad Hubs,
and remaining three Platoon Hubs all focused on a greenish brown planet. What
started as a bright dot against the background of space quickly expanded into a
view from orbit and then suddenly switched to a ground perspective. We could
see Major Stephanie Hall (USAF) and members of her 2
^nd
Platoon
walking through thigh-high brown grass towards some type of buildings.

It
had looked as if there might have been some structures in orbit but the view had
moved on too fast and there wasn’t any way for us to control it. If the
Noridians could hear our requests they didn’t acknowledge them.

I
was momentarily startled when I caught a glimpse of Dr. Tony Decker with the group
on the planet. For unexplained reasons a small number of other scientists had
been invited to accompany 2
^nd
Platoon on this excursion; Dr. Decker
had been asked from my platoon.

On
impulse, I reached up to my right ear and tried to call him. There was nothing.

The
group was spread out across a field and looking into a late-afternoon sun. They
were approaching what now appeared to be a line of buildings on the edge of a
metropolitan area. Over the low rooflines of the buildings ahead we could see
what looked like spires and earthly skyscrapers.

Once
they reached the buildings it was obvious that they had crested a ridgeline and
were now effectively looking down into a valley at a small but advanced city.
At this distance it still looked how screenwriters might well depict a city of
the future; large buildings but no roads or anything resembling cars.

As
the viewpoint now shifted to the city-side of our closest buildings the look of
abandonment and long disuse was apparent. There were gaping holes in the
single-story structures and the brown grass that seemed so prevalent appeared
to be growing inside the nearest building as well. There was no audio with our
video but it wouldn’t have surprised me to hear the low moans of the wind we
could see moving the grass back and forth.

From
the next building in line several Noridians appeared to be leading some sort of
wheel-less vehicles out into the open. They bobbed slightly in the wind and
skimmed along but without the ground effect or skirts of a hovercraft. They
were open-topped and could hold about eight people apiece. From their pristine
looks I suspected that they were Noridian in origin.

I
think the Noridians were using their bioware; there were no visible controls on
the ‘cars.’

The
convoy that was 2
^nd
Platoon moved towards the city proper. The
skyscrapers were spaced further apart than you would find in an earth city and
either the roads, walkways, and plazas had been uniformly buried in dirt and
flora or this culture just had different ideas about habitation and
commercialization.

Once
the group entered the shadows of the tall structures the devastation became
apparent. The buildings were gutted. The ruins were too ancient to tell if it
was caused by quake, fire or riot but it was pervasive.

Halfway
across the city the group came across a significantly large mound of rubble. It
took a few moments but everyone soon realized that this was all that remained
of one of the large structures. Sitting in our platoon hub several scientists
started debating whether the collapse was pre or post apocalypse but I don’t
think most people cared.

Soon
after dusk the ‘cars’ returned to what was apparently the 2
^nd
Platoon Hub portion of the Noridian ship and entered a similar garage portion
of the ship as we first had done on earth.

We
thought the show was over but after a few minutes the view switched to what
looked to be 10,000 feet of altitude. The craft was obviously moving at high
speed and soon caught up with the terminator and crossed again into daylight.

Our
viewpoint had crossed over several puzzling valleys until someone shouted out
their recognition accompanied by an, “Oh my God…”

These
were former cities. There was nothing left but glass craters. In one case, even
the mountains surrounding one side had melted away.

Eventually
they landed at another more or less intact city and the group left on foot to
explore some of the edifices. I know some of the scientists continued to be
fascinated but frankly I’d had enough. This was a dead world. The local inhabitants
hadn’t bombed themselves back into the Stone Age; they had eradicated
themselves.

As
a military man I’d seen a lot of destruction in my lifetime but these scenes
were deeply disturbing. I wasn’t the only one feeling this way; Julie was
sitting near me and it was easy to see the water in her eyes.

Over
her shoulder I noticed Dr. Spencer enter one of the elevators. We made eye
contact and he raised an eyebrow to me. He then spoke a few words and the door
morphed shut. I don’t think anyone else had seen him leave and I could only
guess where he was going.

Dr. Mark Spencer

“How
can you do that?”

“Do
what?” I responded.

“THAT.
How can you stay like that?”

How
am I supposed to answer that? I'm sitting cross-legged staring at a beautiful
woman that's also sitting crossed-legged directly in front of me. This wasn't
even my idea... Not that I'm complaining mind you but I really didn't
understand the necessity of this whole exercise. Jaki had explained that this
was a traditional method of building trust between two people.  To sit in
silence, sans clothing, totally exposed, accepting each other for what we are
without subterfuge or guile; to focus on trust and openness without
reservation.

The
thing is I didn't think it was working. I already trusted Jaki as much as I was
probably ever going to and I had the nagging suspicion that her motives were to
get me to trust her - not the other way around.

And
that's what I mean when I say it wasn't working... Jaki was increasingly having
trouble maintaining her focus. Of course it might have had something to do with
the breaks we kept taking...

“Stop
doing that.”

“I'm
not doing anything. I really think this must be my natural state.”

Jaki:
(unintelligible)...

"Are
you ok Jaki? Are you sure...” Ok, another break.

This
was the third time she’d launched herself at me, breaking my meditative-like
focus. I didn't think this was going according to her plan.

Thirty
minutes later we're setting at her refreshment table fully clothed, drinking
some kind of juice, with Jaki glaring at me. At least I think she was trying to
glare. Every time she'd start to say something she'd stop and sigh.

"I...
I think we are done for the day. We will finish the exercise... We will
definitely do this again." 

I
left feeling a little concerned for Jaki. I didn't think I'd ever seen her more
distracted and less sure of herself.

∆∆∆

Anzio
and I were sitting in my quarter’s living area and he was acting as my sounding
board. I’m used to talking out my problems and Anzio was a good listener and
friend. I’m not used to talking about my relationships with women because I
don’t usually have problems in that area and I’m usually the model of
discretion, but in fairness the fate of our planet was in the balance and
Jaki’s honor probably wasn’t really worth protecting anyway.

“The
other weird thing,” I said. “Was that when I first got to her apartment AC/DC
was blaring at high volume and she asked me if we were jamming.”

Anzio,
as calm and unaffected as always said, “Sex and Rock ‘n’ Roll. All you need is drugs
to totally win her over.”

Yeah,
I thought. Sex, drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll launched a cultural revolution in the
United States in the 1960s and ‘70s that eventually went worldwide. The Soviet
Union still blames the infiltration of that culture as one of the reasons for
its downfall – that and the Black Market blue jeans that went hand-in-hand with
it. Oh, and then there was that whole Star Wars SDI missile defense thing but
that’s getting off point…

“Somehow
I don’t think we can count on Noridian kids to rebel against their parents and
even if we could I don’t see how that could help us,” I ventured.

“How
can we accept technology without being owned by the suppliers or killed by our
own?” I asked.

“In
physics, when stumped I always find it helpful to go to beginning and define
problem,” Anzio said. “My first question is what do the Noridian’s want?”

“They
say,” I responded thoughtfully. “That they feel responsible for the actions of
the Coridians in hijacking our space station because the rest of galactic
society doesn’t always distinguish between them – and presumably they need the
good faith of that society.”

“Yes,
excuse me Mark. Maybe you hear something I don’t but you just told me why they
are supposedly here; you still haven’t told me what they want from us. Is it
possible they are two different things?”

“Of
course it’s possible,” I answered. “But what could they possibly want?”

“I
no have any idea,” Anzio said. “But I think it is an interesting question, yes?”

Anzio
is a good friend and at times like this I think he is not only one of the
smartest but also one of the wisest guys on the planet. It was a very
interesting question.

“Secondly,”
Anzio continued. “What do we want from them?”

“Which
we do you mean?” I responded.

“Ah,
exactly,” he said. “We are made up of different factions that may want
different things.”

“For
example, I know that many of my fellow
scientistas
would be happy if the
Noridians would just share knowledge with us – and don’t give much thought to
the price of that knowledge.

“The
politicos,” he continued. “Well, I would guess they would like to control that
knowledge or technology because that is their nature. It is what they do; and
therefore they have control over the governed.

“Many
of the common man I suspect would just like to be left alone; and if ignoring
the problem gains him a better TV or a shorter work week he is all the happier.

“The
only question remaining then is what does Dr. Marquis Spencer want?”

“What
do I want?” His question had surprised me.

“Yes
Mark; what do you want? I also suspect that there are a large number of higher
thinkers on our planet that do care about our long-term future. People that
want to see the human race – our human race – free to capture and mold our own
destiny.

“Maybe
I watch too many SF channel but I think you are one of those people that really
do have all of our best interests at heart and you’re smart enough to lead us
in the right direction. So, you figure it out and I follow. I suspect many
others will also.”

Long
after Anzio left I kept thinking about it; what did I want the outcome to be?
On the one hand I felt extremely selfish for reducing it to this, not to
mention terribly arrogant to think I could influence events to any great extent,
but if I didn’t take the altruistic side, if I didn’t try to influence things
for the common good who would?

For
once I was glad my sleep was undisturbed. It took me a long time to drift off
but I needed the downtime to let everything sink in. I didn’t wake with any new
thoughts or revelations but I had a terrible craving for bacon; and bacon is
always a good place to start.