The Genetic Imperative

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  The flight one copilot also made a quick system check and turned on the sound canceling system. The engine whine and roar of the blades were suddenly gone, replaced by the faintest metallic machine sounds and the rumbling of wind. The passenger compartment of the helicopter sounded like the interior of an average midsize sedan.

  Donna shot up in her seat. “What just happened?” she asked, head swiveling.

  “Sound canceling,” Rachel replied. “From here, we’ll go below radar for the rest of the trip.”

  “Interesting,” Donna said and leaned to look through the window. “Human machines are so clever.”

  As if on cue, the copilot turned off all running lights and all the instrument lights in the cockpit turned to a dim red glow. Both pilot and copilot dropped their helmet night vision visors. The transponder transfer count reached zero, and flight one dove steeply to fifty meters above the ground. They were very close to the tree line. It would be a challenging technical flight at low altitude through a densely suburban area at night. Their flight pattern turned from a straight line to a weaving trail as the pilot followed a tree-lined creek. The DC Metro area had many wooded regions that the pilot would use to avoid sighting. It was unavoidable that someone would spot them, but very few people would understand what they were looking with the Blackhawk traveling at top speed. They could hear the pilot and copilot working together.

  “Looks clear ahead,” said the copilot, “ETA twenty minutes.”

  At this point, all radio emissions from flight one ceased. This particular helicopter had ground scanning radar, but that too was turned off. The copilot would have to take its place. This was a very dangerous flight, which is why the Unit had closed down all local airports and cleared the local airspace. Rachel was eager to set her feet on the ground. Their station in the woods was like a second home. It was where she and Lev fell in love seventy years ago.

  Chapter 18: Homesphere, Mission

  Covered by a dome of light in the trackless forge cavern, the Seed Mission Crew followed Imran for an hour before arriving at their ship. After nearly two cycles of intensive, non-stop training, seeing the vessel was the capstone of their instruction. When they reached the Queen's Shuttle, the light dome expanded to accept it.

  The vessel was much larger than the name “Shuttle” implied though the Guard referred to it that way. It was near twice the size of an egress pod. Its rounded cylindrical shape was a bit more than thirty meters in length and twelve meters in diameter. It did not hover, but instead rested on the chamber floor kept steady by its gravity field. The hull was the color and brilliance of polished hematite. Nina had to be within arm’s reach to note that the hull was built in sections as evidenced by slightly darker lines that defined panels every three meters. One of these darker lines also bisected the craft along its length.

  “So there is a lava tube large enough for this thing to egress?” Nina asked incredulously. She stood with her hands on her hips looking up at her new command. She couldn’t help but smile. Nina had never been in command of a ship, only of platoons and drop pods. She was looking forward to commanding a vehicle that wasn’t designed to explode.

  “Yes. There are a few left,” Imran spoke behind her. “This chamber is connected to one.”

  “How high is this space,” Nina asked.

  “Let’s go inside. Let the ship show you that,” Imran replied.

  “Yes,” Nina said. She paused waiting for someone to open the craft. When that didn't happen, her eyebrows arched an impatient question.

  “After you,” Imran said.

  “Captain,” Nayar offered delicately. “You can open the ship. It will respond to you.”

  “Thought command? Without a comm crystal?”

  Nayar nodded, “Yes.”

  Nina thought the word “open” and four panels in the center extended from the hull. The two panels at the top came outward and separated to either side while the bottom panels extended, then turned down on some invisible axis at their edges that met the craft. The lower hull panels shimmered and phase shifted stairs up to the deck. To her surprise, the walls were a full meter thick. The craft would be very durable, but immensely heavy.

  Nina led the way eagerly. She climbed the five stairs to stand on the deck of her new command. She received another surprise on finding the interior completely smooth and empty. There were no consoles, seats or instruments of any kind. She was puzzled. She also noticed that the deck was flat. More than three meters separated the floor from the outer hull, providing significant compartment space below deck for machinery and storage. She wondered what was down there. The ceiling followed the same contour as the outer hull, and there was no compartment above.

  “The interior is reset after every mission,” Nayar said. “The entire compartment can be configured by phase shift to any design you choose.”

  Nina stood shaking her head. “I hardly know where to begin.” She thought for a moment, said, “Let's keep the bridge in the middle. You and Osae work out the details on that. The ship is large enough for standard single compartments, so everyone is free to configure living quarters however you wish after the essentials are complete.”

  Nayar started right away. It appeared she had a design in mind because the floors and wall shimmered like a mirage seconds after Nina's order. The walls rippled like water as a bulkhead formed three meters to the left of the entrance. Consoles and instruments grew from the bulkhead. Two rows of two pedestals sprouted from flight couches on top. The first two for the pilot and copilot, the second for Captain and First. Nina was still getting accustomed to thinking of Azin as her First.

  The only section that was not fully configurable was the aft section that contained a fabrication compartment. The rear quarter section was entirely dedicated to a phase-shift forge. They could manufacture weapons, power crystals and even spinstone garments. The section also housed a healing chamber. Nayar already instructed the ship to create human clothes from spinstone to allow them to blend in while providing light armor capability. Moreover, the section could be used as an energy collector to recharge the ship power crystals.

  “Lightcasters?” Nina asked. The question formed aloud by her abrupt notice there were no light strips on the hull. The cabin was brightly lit, but there were no shadows. Only lightcasters could do that.

  “Yes,” Nayar replied with what seemed to be increasing enthusiasm. Nina understood why. “The entire surface of the inner hull is embedded with lightcasters.”

  The ship was extremely sophisticated, Nina thought. It had the technology of a cruiser in a much smaller package.

  “What other capabilities does this ship have?” Nina asked.

  “Display capabilities,” Imran answered. In a flash, the hull seemingly turned transparent.

  Nayar explained that the entire surface of the exterior contained a network of sensors. Whatever the sensors picked up on the outside of the ship was recreated on demand via lightcasters on the interior surface. In this case, they could see the light dome and the blackness of the cavern. It was as if they were standing on a platform with no roof.

  “Infrared. Sonar. Bearing. Project,” Imran spoke, and the display changed to render the cavern extents graphically in artificial light and a sonar schematic. “Outline chamber,” Imran said.

  A wireframe outline described the cavern as fifteen kilometers in diameter. Its ceiling was more than seven kilometers above. The space could fit two of the largest Queen’s Heavy Cruisers with room to spare. They were amazed.

  “Well,” Nina said, turning to each of her crew, “this is our ship,” and even Azin's countenance hinted at a smile. Nina considered that tantamount to a squeal of glee from Azin. The soldiers were aware of the immense privilege they had in their stewardship of this craft. Their pride rivaled the gravity of their task.

  They trained for the rest of the day. Nina found the ship surprising. It was capable of blinkpoint travel and under conventional propulsion, it could reach three-quarter light speed
. Of course, that velocity would require days of calculation to avoid obstacles. At near light speed, the hull could withstand gas clouds protected by its energy sheath, but would be vulnerable to fine dust. Its power crystals had enough capacity to travel at top speed for decades. On lighter missions such theirs, the craft would likely last centuries, assuming the ship was free from combat. Fighting drained power quickly.

  The ship information systems were matchless. Its logic system contained a complete copy of service records for the entire team in addition to a comprehensive database of Earth history, cultures, and languages. Most importantly, it contained an extensive historical genome map many living organisms on Earth. They would need that information to locate the Seed Human.

  Most impressive of all were the ship's offensive capabilities. This was unusual. Most vessels in the Advocate fleet were not designed for ship-to-ship combat. There were few hostile space-faring Sentients. Those few bellicose races had more of a capacity to annoy than threaten. Silicoid spore were usually dealt with via direct landing on infected bodies, followed by sterilization with energy weapons. Devices like the sonic cannon and coherent energy sweepers were used for final eradication. But to build such weapons into ships of this size was not common.

  When Nayar described the craft's most potent capability, Nina could hardly believe it. Both fore and aft sections could project a column of compressed hydrogen gas bounded by coherent energy. Sound waves could be propagated inside the column in a way very similar to the sonic cannon. Depending on how the bounding waves were constructed, the hydrogen column could also be compressed to a metallic state to conduct electricity, or to create a solid column of atomic fusion. The possibilities of a weapon like this staggered the mind. Nina could not imagine using it, but considering its deployment would mean stakes beyond desperate.

  While training, Nina discovered that both Azin and Nayar themselves were formidable weapons. Nina was not accustomed to fighting on naturally survivable planets. She was also not too familiar with ship or intelligence operations. Nina relied on her strength as a master tactician and a combat expert. She would need help with the overall strategy, so Nina planned to leverage the skills of her crew to succeed.

  Azin was a veteran of several hundred infantry engagements on highly developed and heavily populated sentient planets. She had seen urban warfare across a wide range of environments and cultures. Her mind was honed sharp by political and intelligence work. Azin was as skilled in combat as she was with politics and intelligence missions. Nina's only issue with that was that Azin did not distinguish between the two.

  Nayar was among the most intelligent Advocates Nina had ever met. In addition to being a systems and communications engineer, she was also an experienced medic. From what Nina had seen of her in combat, Nayar also demonstrated great competence as a fighter. She survived the Third Arm after all.

  But it was Osae who worried Nina. The young corporal was a private when Nina met her on the Third Arm. She had been promoted in the three months since then. Nina made a mental note to discover how that happened. She wondered who put her up for the promotion and why. While surviving the Third Arm was commendable, her performance there did not rate advancement in Nina's estimation. The most Nina could say was that at least Osae was not a red stain. And she was strangely quiet. She hung back and listened passively most of the time. She was quick to carry out an order, but she didn’t give reveal much through her behavior beyond that.

  Nayar and Osae were hardly paying attention to the first part of the training as they had been practicing with the ship for a full four days before Nina and Azin arrived. But Nina and Azin were focused on every word of Imran’s instruction.

  Everyone listened carefully when Imran came to their mission instructions. They were to enter Earth's atmosphere at the southern pole where human activities were least and where temperatures were coldest. There, they would have access to minerals for fabricating necessary equipment and facilities. They would have to camouflage their activities from human sensors, which, Nina realized, were disturbingly accurate.

  A predictive data survey indicated that the seed human would most likely reside on one of the largest land masses in one of two most densely populated regions. This rough analysis showed that their most likely locations to search would be the South and East Asian landmasses. This very wide area contained more than half the world’s population. They had their work cut out for them.

  “Compared to the rest of the planet, that seems to be a very high concentration of Sentients in a small area,” Nayar remarked.

  Nina was surprised when Osae took the rare initiative in conversation and said, “Yes it is. This is one of the anomalies we have observed on Earth in the past two centuries. Population of this size is not strictly necessary to produce the Seed Human. In fact, populations all around the planet far exceed environmental capacity.”

  “And what does that mean?” Azin asked.

  Osae replied with a confidence Nina had not observed before, even though she voiced uncertain knowledge. “We do not understand why the genome is expressing itself in massive population growth nor why the humans are developing the ability to influence their own evolution.”

  “I have to confess some ignorance here. This is outside the realm of a Range Division Soldier. Explain that a bit more,” Nina ordered.

  “Yes, Captain,” Osae began. “The meta-genome of Earth is the overall system that produces the Seed Human for the next generation. This genetic expression comes from disequilibrium. Essentially it is an imbalanced genomic equation that results in our race.

  Somehow the variables in this equation have changed. The meta-genome seems to be rapidly destroying itself. The population growth over five centuries has more than tripled. Entire Seed lines were lost to internal warfare in the past two hundred years alone.”

  “Then how can we be sure we will find the Seed?” Azin asked. Nina noted her talent for incisive questions.

  “We can’t. There is a good chance the Seed may be dead. If that is true, there will be a delay of another human generation, which is about twenty years. It has happened before. This is why the seed mission usually lasts ten to twenty-five years. At least, we will have the chance to identify the genetic line, and as long as we retrieve a reasonably intact body, we will succeed.”

  “What is the certainty that the seed will be on the Asian land mass?” Azin fired another question.

  “Better than seventy-five percent. The population is also very mobile. The genetic line may have migrated. If that is the case, the search will be much harder and will require closer contact.”

  “We will have to infiltrate in any case, isn’t that true?” Azin again.

  “Yes, but we have methods of monitoring that may avoid this. We can use the ship directly in the atmosphere or the ocean. The planet has many places to hide. I have an initial survey that may help you decide where to start, Captain, and a clearer picture should emerge soon after incursion.”

  And so Nina stumbled upon Osae's strength. She was an intellectual; a “big picture” Warrior. Interesting.

  Nina had a lot to consider. She was accustomed to evaluating the disposition of Silicoids and beings who evolved in balance with planetary conditions. It seemed the genome of Earth was unpredictable. The calculations she normally used would not apply. The mission would be very dependent on Osae for guidance. Nina didn’t fully trust Osae yet. Osae knew it.

  Once Nina was satisfied they were competent with the operation of the ship, they started embarkation procedures. They had about five hours until their deadline of cycle’s end. Nayar would be the pilot and Osae would monitor systems and navigate. Nina and Azin were Captain and First Officer. They were an exceedingly lean crew. The already expansive ship interior seemed even larger.

  The plan was for a ten-day trip to Earth. Although the ship had massive power reserves, rapid travel involved massive expenditures that could make the ship noticeable to humans. A ten-day itinerary meant that they c
ould travel without inertia fields using kinetic fluid or their energy sheaths to deal with inertia. Even at a ten-day rate, the inertial forces would be substantial. Their trip through the lava tube alone would take three hours and then they would idle on the surface for at least another hour while Nayar double checked the trajectory calculations. Then the ship had to calculate their path and calibrate for obstacles and gravity effects.

  Nina was surprised that there was no final word from the Queen. The Guard Imran was the queen’s only representative present. Nina wished she could take Imran with her. She found the ancient Warrior’s presence comforting. The team became comfortable enough with Imran to ask her questions about herself, but she was politely evasive.

  “And now, you go,” Imran said by way of farewell. The guard’s giant form descended the hatch stairs and kept going. Imran did not look back, and as the hatch panels soundlessly folded back into the ship, the light dome winked out.

  The lava tube was surprisingly direct. It made a slight angle and several very gradual turns on its way through the crust. The tube must have been engineered that way with the natural course of lava as a guide. The shape of the tube didn’t matter because it was a bit more a kilometer diameter. It was like traveling through a vertical river.

  The mouth of the lava tube was a crater just above the equator on a low plateau. Because the great ships would never use the tube again, the tube exit was a phase shifted aperture through a handful of meters. They moved through it and idled just above the surface.

  Nayar and Osae would have a complete sensor picture from the ship interlink through their comm crystals. It appeared Azin also used the link. Nina declined this as she didn’t want that much information in her head. She had enough to think about. She relied on reports. Nina hadn’t bothered to install the comm crystal in her robe either. She held its cold, heavy, fist-sized bulk in her hand and curled and uncurled her fingers around it.