“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.
When the Major had called a break I made sure someone was getting Captain Silva whatever he wanted (I think he asked for an apple) but I still had questions and I was, well… impatient.
The main thing I wanted to know was exactly how long Captain Silva had been on Earth. If he really was Captain Silva as he’d said then he would have needed to enter the military 12 years ago just like it said in the personnel file that Julie had shown me on her smartpad.
He also looked more muscular than the other Noridian males; why was that? Were the two cultures physically different? Also, how had he managed to infiltrate the mission without the Noridians knowing who he was?
Unfortunately Captain Silva didn’t want to address them, it least not immediately. He politely agreed that they were good questions and that he would answer them but it was part of a larger answer that Major Reagan deserved to be present for.
“Ok,” I said. “At least tell me one thing that I believe I already know the answer to… there are other Coridians on Earth, aren’t there?”
After hesitating a moment he looked at me and said, “Yes doctor, there are.”
Once the leadership team returned and shortly after the questions and explanations had started Captain Silva declared it would be a good time to jump into the long explanation he’d been promising. As he was saying this he gave me a long glance that seemed to say, ‘Here’s where you’ll get all your answers.’ At least I hope that’s what it meant.
“The first thing you need to put in perspective,” he started. “Is just how incredibly old the galaxy is.
“The universe was created 13.7 billion years ago in the Big Bang and what you call the Milky Way galaxy coalesced a half a billion years later. Your sun didn’t form until 4.6 billion years ago so your solar system wasn’t even around for two-thirds of galactic history and Homo sapiens didn’t evolve until around 200,000 years ago—so Homo sapiens have missed everything.
“The galaxy is old; and your part of it, out here towards the edge of the Orion spiral, is relatively new. If you’ll forgive me for saying so these are the backwaters of galactic society.
“Some of what Jaki told you about history is correct and some of it isn’t; and there’s a lot more she just left out. So I’m going to give you the broad brushstrokes and we can clear up the details with your specialists at a later time.
“First of all a little over 500 million of your years ago there was life in Earth’s oceans but that was about it. The people you have dubbed the First Prometheans finally made their way to this backwater at about the same time and started their bioforming project. They seeded the earth with what has now become the common genetic ancestry of the galaxy. Your scientists cannot fully explain this sudden expansion of life but do have a name for it; they call it the Cambrian Explosion. This much of what Jaki told you is true.
“It is also true that this small portion of our galaxy was invaded by others around 66 million years ago. You probably owe them a big thank you because they put your evolution back on the ‘right’ course when they bombarded your planet and created an extinction event. Our common genome, for reasons we don’t yet understand, has a propensity to evolve two legged primates that look remarkably similar to each other but it doesn’t always happen that way. Up until that point Earth’s evolution was off track.