By the time she was offered a position on the Broken Star mission Julie had come to peace with her uniqueness—not valuing it as good or bad; simply accepting that relationships weren’t her strongpoint and finding satisfaction from a promising career.
She still allowed herself a few personality quirks left over from her defensive days; being a little acerbic or sarcastic with men—it kept them off guard and, well… it was fun.
Once she’d agreed to join the mission, signed all the forms, received a leave of absence from the hospital, and passed the physical and psych evaluations (Come on, please…) the true nature of Broken Star was explained to her.
There was no question that not only was this so much bigger than just her; not only was it a tremendous responsibility; it was also a chance for her to contribute, to really ‘fit in’ perhaps for the first time in her life. The professional challenge of a lifetime, to figure out the psyche of an alien being. Especially an alien being whose brain physiology was very similar to ours but whose environmental stimulus had been totally different (exciting!).
Once she arrived at the underground Nevada base she was innerly thrilled to discover that she was assigned as a member of a close-knit team of seven (Blue Squad) which included six scientists and a security Captain. She determined on the spot that her first order of business would be to build a personality profile of her squad mates. She knew that recorded interviews with the Noridians were scheduled to start in two weeks so she needed to complete this quickly… and of course, discreetly.
Dr. Anzio Spelini was the first member of the team she met in person. The government had provided her with a smartpad that contained basic backgrounds on everyone in the squad and like everyone else, Anzio was brilliant. Unlike many of the rest, however, he held a certain popular notoriety in much of Europe. As hard as that might be to attain for a mathematician and quantum physicist, he’d come by it honestly. With numerous international accolades awarded to him publically his ready smile and almost child-like naiveté and sense of humor won him a following. Like many brilliant people he could easily lecture math or physics to hundreds of his peers but put him in a room full of people at a party and he wouldn’t be able to remember his grandmother’s favorite pasta.
It didn’t take Julie very many days of hanging out with Anzio to realize that he was basically a good guy—someone with straightforward priorities, an honest willingness to help others, a healthy desire to be socially accepted and follow social mores, a high empathy quotient and an ego that was in check. Julie almost laughed when she realized that Anzio was basically the big brother that she never had.
Dr. David Cook (Computational and Science Engineering (CSE), Electrical Engineering, and Information Technology) and Dr. Tony Decker (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science) came next. Dr. Cook better fit the stereotypical mold of what a genius was. Introverted and somewhat detached, he had the social skills of a clam—a nice clam but not one that was going to be doing karaoke at the Christmas Party.
Unfortunately, that was more than she could say about Dr. Tony Decker. Dr. Decker was not quiet and carried a very low empathy quotient. He wasn’t mean per se, just condescending to everyone. He was smart enough to realize that his attitude put many others off but was arrogant enough not to care. Maybe it was because Dr. Cook was oblivious to other people’s personalities but they tended to hang out together.
The woman that headed up Blue Squad, Captain Ito Hiromi, was a little more of a mystery. Her file contained less information than the others (perhaps because she was sourced from the Japanese SDF?) and she was definitely the most reserved of the group, but it had nothing to do with a lack of self-confidence. Although her file didn’t address it Julie suspicioned that she also carried a high IQ. Much more of the personality puzzle made sense once Julie realized that she was a monozygotic (identical) twin.
Julie wasn’t surprised that the twins held the same profession or even that they had both excelled more or less equally in their rank and citations. Some monozygotic twins claim that physical closeness allows each to perform at a higher level. She was somewhat surprised however that the military would allow them to serve together. Maybe the SDF worked differently but she seemed to remember reading that US forces by policy didn’t allow monozygotic twins to serve in combat positions together for fear that an injury to one could disable the other. For whatever reason however Ito Hiromi was the Captain of the Blue Squad and Ito Kamiko was the Captain of the Red—and Julie was sure that the twins wouldn’t have it any other way.
Dr. Toni (Dr. Mom) Andretti (Genetics and Biochemistry) was at the same time more and less than what she seemed. She was outgoing and friendly with a high empathy quotient that many times put the needs of others ahead of her own—a trait that endeared her to many but signaled potential problems to Julie. Extremely bright, she’d never had that breakthrough or discovery to put her at the absolute top of her field and Julie couldn’t help but wonder if Toni wasn’t overcompensating a little. Nevertheless you couldn’t spend five minutes with her without smiling and feeling welcomed.
Dr. Mark Spencer (Anthropology, Sociology and World History) was the one team member that frustrated Julie. One of the highest IQs on the squad (maybe the entire team except for Anzio), but you’d never know it from being around him. Mark made an art of never taking anything too seriously.
He was so easy-going, unpretentious and funny but his lack of seriousness could presumably threaten the mission at some point she told herself. He was the exact opposite from her and that was what made this so frustrating; Julie hadn’t had a crush like this in… well, she couldn’t remember when.
Not that anything would ever come of it. She had long ago learned to put her career first and she definitely knew how to keep men at bay—he would never know how she felt and with time she knew these silly adolescent feelings would go away. It wasn’t really convenient that the three of them spent so much time together, but Anzio and Mark were becoming close friends and because she had a good friendship with Anzio…
Chapter 5
Dr. Mark Spencer
Our mission team totaled 144 people. The organizational chart included with my mission brief was indecipherable (and where did they come up with the name ‘Broken Star’ anyway?) but it was subsequently explained to me that once we reached wherever we were going there would be a core team that operated out of a central location and the rest of us would be divided up into operational squads and sent out on whatever missions they assigned us. The idea was we would all come together at regular intervals to share what we learned. It all sounded very structured and military and TV-like and I knew it would be a disaster. I’d noticed a name listed in my Mission Brief as Head of the Scientific Mission, Dr. Derrick Helmer. The only way Helmer was going to encourage information to pass from one team to another was through him; and he’d only dole it out if there was some political advantage in it. From the outside looking in it might look like a decent plan but the people being given leadership roles made it feel to me like a formula for grandstanding and political ambition; but then I think I must have been absent the day they asked for opinions.
The good news is that my field team is made up of myself and my three breakfast companions (Dr. Anzio Spelini, Dr. Toni Andretti, and Dr. Julie Schein) and two other specialists (Dr. Tony Decker and Dr. David Cook) plus our squad leader Captain Ito Hiromi. It turns out Julie was a Psychiatrist (it figures) and Anzio was not only a well-known mathematician/physicist but also quite possibly the brightest individual I’d ever met. It was actually Toni, our third breakfast companion, that had made me feel so welcome that first morning. While being a few years older than the rest of us she was vibrant and still on the cute side of plump. She was also quite accomplished in gene mapping and DNA sequencing. She had that quick smile and open friendliness that made her everyone’s friend and it’s no surprise that we started calling her ‘Dr. Mom.’