“I see. Nevertheless, I am still impressed.”
The woman smiled politely as she left to check on the next table of diners.
Vladimir leaned forward in order to be discreet and smiled. “I think I’m in love.”
“What, again?”
“Captain. Chief.” Josh addressed as he and Loki stepped up to the table, their dinner trays in hand. “Mind if we join you?”
“Not at all, gentlemen. Have a seat.”
“Thought you might like to know, we’ve got one shuttle all checked out and ready to go,” Josh told him as they sat down and prepared to eat. “And between the harvester and the other shuttle, we should have enough used parts to keep the remaining shuttle flying for some time as long as we don’t get shot at too much.”
“We’ll try to keep you out of the line of fire,” Nathan promised. He noticed a confused look on Vladimir’s face. “Didn’t I tell you?” he said to Vladimir. “I hired these guys to be the flight crew for the shuttle. This way, we won’t have to depend on strangers for rides.”
“And they are not strange?” Vladimir said.
“Well, he is,” Loki admitted, pointing at Josh.
Vladimir let out a chortle. “Listen, I’ve flown with you two. Trust me, you’re both insane.”
Both Josh and Loki watched the big Russian’s facial expression cautiously until they were sure he was kidding.
“Did you say that you can use parts from the harvester for the shuttle?” Nathan asked.
“Sure,” Josh answered, as if it were common knowledge.
“They’re both made by the same manufacturer,” Loki explained. “Many of the systems are identical.”
“Makes sense,” Nathan said as he scooped up the last of his stew.
“Captain,” Josh started. “I was wondering something.”
Nathan noticed that Josh looked a little apprehensive, as did Loki. “What is it?” he asked.
“No offense intended, but if this ship is from Earth, and we all originally came from Earth, why is that most of our technology is more advanced than yours?”
Nathan thought for a moment. “Well, you’ve all heard about the Legend of Origin, right?”
“Sure,” Josh said, looking at Loki who nodded as well.
“What does it tell you about what happened on Earth?”
“Just that there was some terrible evil that drove humanity deeper out into the galaxy.”
“Well, that’s a pretty vague description, but fairly accurate.”
“So, what really happened?”
“Well, it happened about a thousand years ago. At that time, there were five more worlds that had been colonized and fully developed. There were also about a dozen or so fringe worlds that had recently been settled. I guess you could say it was similar to the Pentaurus cluster, except a little more spread out, over about 100 light years, actually. But then there was a plague-the Great Bio-Digital Plague. That’s what we call it. This plague started as a computer virus that rapidly spread throughout the various networks on Earth and then eventually out to other worlds.”
“The terrible evil was a computer virus?” Josh asked. “How is a computer virus such a threat?”
“Back then, most people regularly used cybernetic implants to link their brains with computer systems. Through these implants, the digital virus would cause chemical reactions in the brain that would create a biological virus-a sort of super-cancer-that would rapidly reconfigure cells in the body and cause them to grow out of control. The result was rapid disfigurement, both internally and externally. It had a mortality rate of over ninety percent. And once it became biological, it was also contagious. To make matters worse, it constantly transformed itself, making it impossible to combat.”
“Damn,” Loki muttered. “Who would create such a thing?”
“No one ever found out,” Nathan told them. “Once the plague started spreading, everything rapidly fell apart. Economies crumbled. Infrastructure fell apart. Governments collapsed. People went crazy with fear, rioting, looting, killing each other in order to survive. In less than a decade, eighty percent of the population of the Earth and the Core Worlds had either died or left. If it weren’t for a small percentage of the population that seemed to have a natural immunity, the Earth and the Core Worlds would probably still be abandoned.”
“But I still don’t get why our tech is more advanced,” Josh said.
“With so few people left on Earth, there were not enough people to keep things going. Industry quickly ground to a halt, and within a century, the population of Earth became more tribal and agrarian. They were just trying to survive. Within a few generations, technology became nothing more than useless garbage. And since books had all been converted to digital format centuries earlier, there were no records of what once was. Everything was basically forgotten. What little was remembered was passed down through the generations through stories more than anything else.”
“How did you guys rebuild? I mean, obviously you did, or else we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
“Slowly, over many centuries. Most of our technology had to be rediscovered, relearned. We still had some memory of what we had been, but we’d forgotten a lot of the basics. Quite frankly, it was difficult. We lacked the population needed to support rapid industrial and technological advancement. And our health care was also sorely lacking. At the rate we were progressing, it would’ve taken us at least another five hundred years to get back out into deep space.”
“So how did you make the leap?”
“The Data Ark,” Nathan said.
Josh and Loki looked at each other. “The what?”
“A hundred years ago, archaeologists uncovered a massive underground complex in northern Europe. It contained all human history, culture, religion, and science, for as far back as human history had been recorded. With the knowledge contained in the Data Ark we were able to advance our civilization as much as three hundred years in only a century.”
“What about all of us?” Josh asked. “How did we get out here?”
“Well, we’re not really clear on that. It seems that only the very beginning of the plague was recorded in the Data Ark. Once it started getting out of control, the facility was sealed for fear of contamination. But what we have been able to piece together is that there were a lot of last minute expeditions carrying refugees trying to escape the plague. At first, they were trying to seek refuge on fringe worlds that had already been settled. But when the plague started showing up on those worlds as well, they started closing their doors to refugees. So the refugees must’ve gone farther out into the galaxy. There were quite a number of habitable worlds that had been cataloged and scheduled for exploration at the time. But to my knowledge, none of them were this far out. How your people ended up all the way out here is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.”
Josh was deep in thought as he considered what Nathan had just told them. It was an uncharacteristic expression for the young man, whose face was usually quite animated. “But our tech is not that much more advanced than yours,” Josh observed. “I mean, if we’ve had a thousand years to build on while you all were back to pooping in the woods-we should be a lot more advanced.”
“Most of those expeditions left in a hurry,” Nathan told him. “Like I said, the exact details are sketchy, since everything was falling apart as they left. But I would imagine that many expeditions left somewhat woefully equipped. Who knows how much tech, supplies, and equipment your forefathers brought with them? Or how many people were on your expedition as well? Or what happened to your settlements over all those centuries? There’s a lot of reasons that your development could have stalled to some degree. The fact that you have all done as well as you have, and this far away from Earth-that alone is amazing.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Josh agreed. “So who are these Jung I keep hearing your crew talk about?”
Nathan was a bit surprised by the sudden change in topic. “What are they saying?”