“Galactic society has long ago passed beyond planet based cultures,” Silva was explaining. “Planet bound cultures are for the most part ignored. They’re like small islands to a seafaring culture; they’re places to stop over, rest and vacation but they’re not home.
“Some relatively few cultures will reject being bound to a planet and embrace the stars. Just like that seafaring culture they make their homes wherever they are; whether that’s a temporary layover on an already occupied planet or an unoccupied planet they find use for or on their ships themselves.
“If such a spacefaring culture does have something to offer and becomes respected for its knowledge and contribution to galactic society it can be considered a Dynasty. Many times these Dynasties are the historical remnants of powerful corporations, religions, or extended family lines that had become a culture among themselves. There are thousands of Dynasties in known space and its members receive far more respect and have far more privileges and courtesies offered to them. Planet bound cultures can tremendously benefit from the new knowledge the travelling dynasties can bring to them and look up to them almost as royalty.
“Occasionally, if a dynasty likes or finds enough use for or wants to protect a planet bound culture it may offer a Protectorship. This is what Jaki hopes to convince Earth of—but we’ll revisit that in a moment. You need to understand galactic society to fully comprehend the ramifications.
“Above Dynasties in the galactic social hierarchy sit the Lower Houses,” Silva continued.
“Wait a minute,” I interrupted. “I thought we were told that hierarchical thinking was primitive and had been left in the past.”
“Jaki lied, Mark. On a smaller scale when it comes to titles or working together she was right but we are all social creatures and we crave status; we’ve just learned that it’s only important on a cultural level. Didn’t you ever question that?”
“Why would she hide it?” I asked.
“Probably because she didn’t want you figuring out her real agenda,” he replied.
Except for the Noridian and his two guards we had all moved into the hub and every member of our inner circle was present. Captain Silva had also somehow put a live image of himself answering our questions on the view screens. Word had gotten around fast and we’d taken the time to catch the latecomers up on events. For a while it had reminded me of what it felt like when I was a child and Aunt Sally would visit. As her favorite daytime soap opera would start Mom would whisper and quickly fill her in on all the convoluted happenings of the last four or five episodes. I actually enjoyed listening to Mom’s succinct explanations and Aunt Sally’s exclamations of disbelief far more than I did watching the shows.
Major Reagan put us back on track by saying, “You were talking about Lower Houses?”
“Lower Houses are very powerful,” Silva replied. “There are only one hundred and seventy-nine of them in the galaxy.”
“How does a Dynasty become a Lower House?” I asked; I just couldn’t keep myself from interrupting.
“They don’t,” Silva said strongly. Then in a somewhat more moderate voice he said, “At least it would be extremely rare and I suspect that it’s the Noridian’s plotting to become a Lower House that Earth’s gotten tangled up in.”
I hadn’t noticed Dr. Decker walk up but now he interrupted several people that were trying to follow-up on Silva’s last statement, “Ok, let’s keep this on a logical progression or we’ll never learn anything. Captain Silva, please finish explaining about Dynasties and Houses and then maybe we’ll be able to understand your explanation of what exactly we’re caught up in.”
“Well, Lower Houses are revered by everyone including dynasties. They’re powerful because their knowledge and technology is off the charts—they are so advanced that they rarely interact with anyone else in the galaxy. Lower Houses freely share and trade ideas with each other that most Dynasties might not even grasp—Noridia attaining that status would immediately elevate their technology and power to an unimaginable level.
“The Lower Houses and Upper Houses together make up The Accord. The Dynasties pretty much fall in line with the principals and edicts The Accord puts out.”
“And the Upper Houses?” Dr. Decker prodded.
“Yes, finally there are the Upper Houses. We only know the names of a few Upper Houses but there is reason to suspect there are many; no one knows for sure how many.
“The Upper Houses are mysterious even to us. Meeting a member of an Upper House would be the stuff of legend and sometimes the physical descriptions stretch belief. Presumably the Lower Houses interact with them on some level but no one really knows for sure.”
“And what’s above the Upper Houses? Godhood?” Dr. Decker asked somewhat sarcastically.
“I have no way of knowing,” responded Silva. “Do you?”
When Dr. Decker didn’t immediately respond I asked why Noridia thought it had a chance at making Lower House status.
“The Noridian Dynasty has made several important contributions to galactic society in the areas of genetics and temporal physics,” Silva said. “If they can make another large contribution they might just be elevated. Of course, they can’t afford to have anything blemish their reputation in the meantime.”
“Did you say Temporal Physics?” Dr. Decker said.
When Silva nodded Dr. Decker continued. “You’re talking about controlling time. My goodness, if the Noridians can travel back in time there’s no hope for any of us. Can they do that yet?”
Shaking his head Silva said, “No, just theory and some hypotheses that they would need the help of a Lower House to test.”
“Wait a minute. How would you know?” Decker continued. “I mean, if they could go back in time they could change things to the way they want and you’d never know it.”
Silva suddenly reminded me of a favorite professor of mine that would display incredible patience when I asked some really stupid questions. He said, “We know they haven’t altered the past to change the present because they don’t have what they want—they’re not already a Lower House.”
As Decker was feeling incredibly stupid—I know that feeling—Major Reynolds broke in with a voice that was meticulously polite but edged in cold hard steel. “I want to know why the Coridian Dynasty murdered 300 of our people.”
Chapter 25
Major Mathew Reagan, US Army
I couldn’t bring myself to think of Silva as a captain anymore. He was obviously an imposter who had somehow infiltrated my Army—and I wanted to lock him up and throw away the key.
My team, however, and on a bigger scale Earth itself could not afford to turn away any friends right now and it did appear that Silva had ridden to our rescue, but how could we know that for sure?
I would let him keep the uniform and the rank but I was removing him from the chain of command; all personnel would understand that he carried no authority and deserved no trust.
There were so many important questions to be answered that I was having trouble prioritizing them all. When we moved from the conference room to the much larger hub I took the opportunity to put my head together with Iron Jaw. We both agreed that a free flow form of conversation would be much more efficient than a straight interrogation and that the scientists probably should be allowed direction and input. We would make sure the conversation stayed on track and that our important questions were answered.