“The aliens won’t give them the time of day,” he continued. “Apparently every time our guys try to talk about formal relations between our peoples they’re told nothing can happen until after the science guys know enough about each other to appreciate our differences. It’s driving my guys crazy.”
Mike, like all the other platoon leaders had brought his own command group with him to this assignment. Mike’s group however are… well, Marines. I had no doubt about their fighting ability. The other two platoon leaders were Navy and Air Force; services not especially known for their service-wide hand-to-hand skills. Being prepared is not the same thing as being paranoid and I’d found a kindred spirit in Mike.
From a tactical standpoint we had no idea where we were going, how long we’d be there, whether our hosts would remain friendly, or how we’d get back if they didn’t. Typical military FUBAR planning; but then that’s why they paid us the big bucks…
Chapter 7
Summary
Noridian Interview Blogcast #863
Security Classification: Ultra Secret Black Diamond
Access Authorization: Broken Star Personnel Only
Operational Priority: Level 1
In Attendance:
For the Noridian’s: Scampos
For Earth Team: Rev. Charles Rohn - PhD World Religions, Neo Christian (ordained)
Subject Tags:
Religion
Origin of the Universe
Monotheism
Summary:
While the Noridian representative, Scampos, expressed an Atheistic viewpoint that he claims is shared by all Noridians and a large majority of galactic society, the Rev. Charles Rohn feels the very fact that this is an issue in itself is revealing.
Apparently there are some few civilizations in the galactic sphere that believe in a Devine origin; most (all?) of them adhering to a monotheistic (one God as the Creator) belief.
Of note is that (according to Scampos) the idea that God sacrificing His son or otherwise giving humanity a human savior is unknown outside of earth. The closest thing he is aware of are some ‘mystic’ (his term) prophesies predicting a Chosen People saving all of humanity.
Although Scampos dismisses them, our concepts of Heaven, Hell, Angels, and Demons have their galactic counterparts and are common (in some variation) across these planets. Scampos seems to view these beliefs as a contamination and these civilizations as infected. Also of note is that these ‘backward’ civilizations are spread out across the full volume of known galactic space.
Scampos had no response as to how such common beliefs could have travelled over a large galactic area. Dr. Rohn wonders if there could have been a heretofore unidentified ancient galactic civilization that spread them.
The Origin Question is an area that Dr. Rohn was particularly concerned with and after deflecting, Scampos reluctantly admitted that there was no good answer while at the same time confidently insisting it was of little interest or importance.
He did confirm that some variation of the Big Bang Theory is held as valid by all advanced societies. In this theory the ‘order’ of the universe (everything from the speed of light and the laws of physics) were established on a quantum level within the first milliseconds of this grand explosion that created everything.
Life in our universe could not exist if the rules of physics were much different from what they are. For example, the four Fundamental Forces of Nature are criticaclass="underline" The strong Force (holds the nucleus of atoms together), The Electromagnetic Force (as in magnets), The Weak Force (cause of radioactive decay), and The Gravitational Force (an attraction between any two pieces of mass). If any of these forces were changed, or had different strengths, or weren’t present, life as we know it—even our universe as we know it—could not exist.
These are just four out of billions of physical constants.
What if chlorophyll couldn’t support photosynthesis? There would be no plants. What if oxygen was unstable with hydrogen? There would be no water.
We know the odds of all these constants randomly being set in just the right manner to support life are incalculable, but we also know that on a quantum level simply observing an event can order the outcome.
The Origin Question is: Who or what observed the Big Bang to give our universe its life-supporting order?
Chapter 8
Dr. Mark Spencer
“You’ve met the philosophy specialist in my sister’s squad, Dr. Bell?”
“Mmm Hmm…” I responded.
“Stop that… my sister Kamiko thinks you should speak with him,” said Hiromi.
“Yeah, ok. I can… hey wait. Did you just giggle? I didn’t think Special Forces knew how to giggle?”
“I wasn’t giggling. I was setting you up for an ambush but pay attention. She thinks this is important. Dr. Bell may have figured out why the Noridians aren’t cooperating with the Dips.”
Ok, that was important. Maybe not as important as trying to figure out what happened to that little love mark I’d left below Hiromi’s left ear yesterday but definitely right up there.
I threw the covers off, climbed out of the bunk and stretched. “Ok, I’ll talk to him today but right now I’m going to hit the head then come back and let you ambush me.”
“No. I’m going back to my room now. I’ll text my sister to set it up right after breakfast.”
“You know, it wouldn’t get you a demerit badge to be seen leaving my room in the morning; you Asians are so terribly formal.”
“I’m not always formal.”
As I stood there admiring her, I couldn’t argue.
It turns out that while Dr. Rasheed Bell had been interviewing the Noridian we were calling Zeke some interesting information slipped out. Actually, we weren’t sure if Zeke slipped or really hadn’t realized the impact of his tidbit but it didn’t sound as if the Noridians even have a government.
“How does that work?” I asked.
“I really don’t know. Zeke wasn’t really enthusiastic to my follow-up questions. He kept claiming we needed to stay on topic but I did get him to agree to meet me later today to explore the issue,” said a smiling Dr. Bell.
“What do the Dips think?”
“Ah, well… I don’t really know. I went straight to Dr. Helmer with this one. I thought it was a big deal but he kind of shot me down. He suggested that I’d misunderstood and then politely told me to keep my nose out of diplomatic relations.”
Yep, that sounded like Derrick.
“So this meeting is just with you and Zeke?” I asked.
“Well, Captain Kamiko thought that I should have you sit in; if you’re willing?”
“Rasheed, I wouldn’t miss this for all the tea on Noridia.”
It wasn’t going to be just Zeke, Dr. Bell, and I after all, Kamiko explained as she escorted us to a section of the base I’d never been in before. My questions to her were being interrupted just about every 45 seconds by another security checkpoint but I managed to gather that Jaki had suggested that the four of us meet informally in her ‘quarters’ to clarify some details. Kamiko waited (stood guard?) outside the hatch as we were welcomed by Zeke and lead to a sunken living-room filled with couches. These ‘quarters’ were beyond VIP and were the first obviously non-military space that I’d seen in the two months I’d been on base.