“Ah Mark,” Anzio contributed. “This doesn’t sound like you. Do you really expecting us to believe that you sat quietly by while Helmer acted like big shot and ignored you—especially with the history you two have?”
“Expect us to believe,” corrected Julie.
“What history?” asked Toni.
“I’ll fill you in later,” said Julie.
“Hey, I was on my best behavior,” I said at the same time I was wondering how Julie knew about my past with Helmer. “I’m not some undisciplined firebrand that can’t control my emotions. I don’t want to be excluded from the interviews so I’m playing nice; regardless of how inept some of our so called leaders can be.”
“Mark,” Toni asked. “Did you get the impression that they were excited to get Noridian technology or were they cautious?”
“I never even once heard them consider not getting it,” I answered truthfully.
I was trying to let my friends know that I was in control of the situation and that any pettiness on Helmer’s part wasn’t going to distract me. I still thought there was a whole lot more that we needed to know before dickheads like him sold-off our future, so I was formulating a plan. And it would be a great plan. Like all great plans, of course, figuring out the first step was the hardest part, but I was confident that things were moving in the right direction.
“I’m meeting tomorrow morning with Dr. Bell and the other Historians and Sociologists on the team and we’ll pool our thoughts,” I informed the group.
“Anzio you’re snoring,” Julie said gently.
As my guests left my mind returned to what Jaki had asked me; did we really want the Noridian’s help? Maybe a better question was, would we have any choice? With so much going on I knew the best way for me to process it all was to get a good night’s sleep and let my subconscious work on it.
Hiromi slipped into my bed sometime after midnight. At least I think it was Hiromi; years ago I’d learned not to question the ethereal machinations of the female species.
“Mmm… Hey, how did you get in the door?” I sleepily asked
“Ninja stuff,” she replied dismissively.
“I thought you were Samurai!” I distractedly said.
“General Nesbit is going to be ok,” she said.
“What was wrong with him?” My mind was suddenly alert and I turned over to face her.
“Didn’t you hear? The Noridians are claiming to have saved his life. Some sort of stroke that they detected and prevented. Dr. Sullivan was with him when it happened and he said it was incredible.”
“When did this happen?”
“Last night,” she responded. “That’s why Memphis was in charge when everyone was so panicked. You remember; that’s when you made your girlfriend a hero by shouting down Helmer and letting her speak.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I said. “And besides, she doesn’t even really like me.”
“Be quiet.” Hiromi put her fingers over my lips and coyly said, “I’m going to show you a Shinto move that will take your mind off of her.”
“I’m not thinking about her,” I whispered the lie.
Chapter 19
Major Mathew Reagan, US Army
It wasn’t until our first morning on the Noridian ship that I learned about General Nesbit’s medical episode from the night before. I can understand the military desire to keep information like that compartmentalized but for Memphis to keep it from his Platoon Leaders was inexcusable.
Captain Silva tipped me off that I would want to talk with Dr. Sullivan immediately. Apparently the Noridians had been giving General Nesbit and Dr. Sullivan a tour of the ship which included the belowdecks areas that the rest of us had no access to. When they walked into the room that served as a medical bay lights started flashing and several other Noridian’s appeared and asked the general to lie down. On a view screen they showed Dr. Sullivan, in high detail, an artery in the general’s brain that was swollen-up like a small pea-sized balloon. After asking and receiving the general’s permission they somehow sedated him and then non-invasively proceeded to treat the potential hemorrhage.
The treatment itself had Dr. Sullivan, a normally dignified and reserved man, exuberant. The Noridian’s had used micro force fields to strengthen the weakened artery and then used a negative polarity to attract certain electrolytes into forming a sheath around the weakened area; a treatment which would take several days to complete. Dr. Sullivan had been assured that the general was no longer in danger but until the force fields were no longer needed it was necessary for him to remain sedated to guarantee perfect immobility.
I had mixed feelings about a number of things. I was certainly glad the general was safe and I’m glad they caught the problem but the timing was incredibly convenient or inconvenient depending on your point of view. We were deprived of quality leadership at the exact moment in time that our team had so far needed it the most. In addition to that there was something about the whole episode that was raising red flags in my subconscious that I couldn’t seem to put a finger on. Colonel Memphis had been no help and while some of the team, especially a few of the scientists, were actually buoyed by the idea of chasing of into the depths of a technological space-time abyss, most people had realized that they were rather horrified by the idea.
Just bringing everyone together like Julie had, let alone her comforting words, had gone a long way towards reminding everyone that we were in it together and that we had a purpose.
Mark’s interview with Jaki the next day had also helped. To the chagrin of Dr. Derrick Helmer, Dr. Spencer was quickly becoming a folk hero to many on the team. It was obvious from the interviews that Jaki was attracted to him and, logical or not, people felt that aided our cause.
And that was another thing I had mixed feelings about; just exactly what was our cause? Most people including Colonel Memphis and Ambassador Rutledge seemed to think that attaining Noridian technology should be our prime focus regardless of cost. Our mission, however, was to discover the extent of that technology, determine if we had anything they valued or wanted, and learn everything we could about the Noridian and galactic cultures so that earth could formulate a strategy. Without General Nesbit around to remind everyone the group was quickly losing sight of this.
I wasn’t anti-technology but there were a lot of questions to be answered before we dove head-first into this. I knew that with a direct technology transfer from the Noridians there was zero possibility we could be an equal partner with them. Getting the technology was one thing; maintaining it was something different. Did we want to be trained monkeys using tools we didn’t understand or was there a way we could develop our knowledge and understanding at the same time? If not they would gain a tremendous amount of control over us and I’m not sure we knew what their true agenda was.
The other side of that same equation, which could give the devil chills, is who was going to get that high-tech equipment first? Would it be individuals, corporations, or countries? Surely you couldn’t just give that stuff to anyone that asked for it? It would be one thing for people to know how to create clean water in the desert, it was quite another for every terrorist on the planet to suddenly be able to create plutonium 239.
Whoever first controlled such technologies would effectively control the world. As a military man I couldn’t imagine wars not being fought over the issue. I also couldn’t imagine any circumstance where scientists and politicians wouldn’t say, ‘give us more’ when it came to acquiring it. If the Noridians wanted to destroy us it wouldn’t be very difficult; just give us what we wanted.