“We suspect that this was the original attraction for the ‘Chextigans’; perhaps because of the original evolutionary divergence Earth’s primates were developing differently. So 200,000 years ago the Chextigans did something that is proscribed and all but forbidden by The Accord; they genetically altered Homo erectus into Homo sapiens.”
“Why did they do that?” I couldn’t help but asking.
Captain Silva expelled a large breath and said, “We don’t really know. Maybe because they thought they were helping Earth back to the right track; maybe just to see if they could. No one really knows, even the Noridian’s aren’t clear on why and they did it.”
“Ah, Captain Silva,” interjected Anzio. “I’m afraid you just contradicted yourself.”
“No, Dr. Spelini. This is the part that Jaki mislead you on; Chextigan is the home world that the Noridian Dynasty evolved from over half a million years ago. She tried to confuse the issue but it was the Noridian Dynasty that placed a colony on Earth.”
“So this is where the part about not being able to afford to blemish their reputation comes in,” said Anzio.
Smiling, Captain Silva said, “You’re way ahead of me Dr. Spelini.”
“Still,” Anzio said. “7,000 years is a long time. Would there really still be these repercussions?”
At the same time Anzio was speaking I blurted out, “Their civilization is that old!”
Looking around at a number of puzzled faces Captain Silva responded, “Why don’t I finish the narrative so everybody understands and address those points as they come up…”
“Approximately 27,000 of your years ago the Noridian Dynast started becoming more powerful. As your planet has experienced they have always held a fascination for genetics and they were able to present to The Accord some breakthrough work in this area. Not long afterwards and as I mentioned to Dr. Decker their work in Temporal Physics was recognized.
“Around 5,000 BC by the Earth Calendar, the Noridians revisited earth we think for the sole purpose of covering their tracks. As we said, what they had done crossed some of the strongest conventions of The Accord. Maybe they were becoming more politically ambitious and started cleaning all the skeletons out of their closet or maybe they knew Earth could be a huge tripwire but for whatever reason they were determined to wipe out Homo sapiens.”
“The Flood,” I said.
“Yes Dr. Spencer. The great somewhat mythical flood that all ancient Earth cultures seem to have recorded as legend.”
“So Noah really did need an Ark,” Julie commented.
“The original Noridian colony had been centered in the Black Sea region and by manipulating the overflowing of the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea basin they wiped out a tremendously large percentage of their work. It is also believed that they used weapons of mass destruction in many other areas to eliminate the living evidence. We believe that these events are the basis for many of the ancient legends of gods and the wars of gods; particularly around the city states of Sumer.
“And just to make sure that any Homo sapien survivors wouldn’t flourish they released a retrovirus that spread worldwide and infected everything.
“Shortly after, their work done, they left; confident that Homo sapiens were a dead or dying species,” Captain Silva concluded.
Major Reagan then interjected with a great question, “What I don’t understand is how the Coridian Dynasty would know any of this?”
Anzio was nodding his head; apparently seeing the same gap in logic.
Captain Silva looked down, then after a moment looked up and said, “It’s tougher than I anticipated; not being trusted after being one of you for so long. I know you have to regard me with skepticism and in your position I would do the same. You’re watching closely for every potential inconsistency and all I can do is agree to be an open book. Some things however won’t make any sense without context but let me address this question directly.
“There are really two reasons,” continued Captain Silva. “You were told about the Stasis Bubble that shut down; you were lied to about when it shut down. It was almost 280 of your years ago and we were intrigued by the star map we found. We decided to investigate your Solar System and were fascinated by what we discovered. I promise I will come back and explain this but for now I must insist that you let me continue the narrative.
“Anyway, we were so fascinated that we established a secret outpost on Earth in the year 1749.”
“Where?” Major Reagan said immediately.
After only a moment’s hesitation Captain Silva said, “France.”
“Why France?” Here I was interrupting again. “And are you still there?”
“Yes, our Head of Mission as you would call her is still based there. As to why… well, France either fights its wars on the soil of other nations or surrenders very quickly when invaded, it’s politics are always in turmoil, it is an industrial nation with easy access to the Western World, the French Sûreté Nationale is a very competent police force but so infused with politics that it is easily controlled or manipulated, and quite frankly the French can get away with doing crazy things because nobody takes them seriously and the world expects them to.”
I couldn’t argue with any of that so I just nodded.
“Over the years as we spread out into your civilization we were stunned to find Noridian based lettering, numbers, and mathematical symbols on a number of your ancient artifacts. What you call Cuneiform was obviously originally founded on it and we saw evidence of Noridian influence as far away as the American Southwest and Peru.”
What he was saying was very consistent with everything I knew about the history of man. Privately many in archeology, anthropology, and related fields spoke of the seemingly inexplicable similarities of ancient civilizations; many times separated by thousands of miles and even thousands of years. Of course most serious researchers would never discuss these issues in the open; no one wanted to be labeled as one of the ‘Ancient Astronaut’ kooks.
“Based on that we launched a covert operation into the heart of Noridian civilization itself. Over time we were able to fill in the blanks and confirm the events I just described to you.
“We had no warning when a few years ago the Noridian’s showed up and towed the Laze Fair One space platform to Neptune. We were concerned, quite frankly, that if our covert operations have been compromised, we could have led them here.”
There was a lot of silence around the room; I don’t think anyone knew what to say to that.
Of course I’ve always had a lightning sharp intellect that many times lets me process information faster so I took the opportunity to interject more of my own questions but—Julie beat me to it.
“Why would the Noridians release a retrovirus instead of a virus and what did it do?” she asked.
If you’ve ever had to give bad news to someone you know how uncomfortable it can make you. Some people struggle to find the words or the right approach and tend to beat around the bush, while other people prefer to just say it straight out and get it over with, thinking this to be less cruel.
And if it’s really bad news most people have to gear themselves up for the attempt.
This is what I was watching Captain Silva go through. He was sitting on the edge of his plush seat in the hub, elbows on his knees, hands steepled with forefingers massaging the middle of his forehead.