“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 2nd 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 2nd 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 2nd 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 2nd 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 2nd 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.