The Pathfinder Project (49 page)

“
Good
morning everyone
,” said Kaufield cheerfully. “
I’m sorry to wake you this
early but we’ve had an opportunity presented to us that I couldn’t pass up.
Everyone whose shift just ended can go back to sleep, but the rest of you might
want to get started a little earlier than usual this morning. I think you’re
going to find it an interesting day
.”

The
Pathfinder
continued to rumble forward to whatever destination the Captain had planned for
it. Julie and Kari simply exchanged looks of disbelief at his sudden mysterious
behavior before returning to their work. They were still busy twenty minutes
later when more turbulence – a sudden burst this time – shook the ship again.
Almost immediately they could hear the sound of the engines shutting down. Kari
slowly walked over to one of the open observatory windows and took a good look
outside before glancing curiously over her shoulder at Dr. Markham. Julie
herself had an odd expression on her face.

“I’m pretty
certain we just
landed
,” Kari said, astonished.

*     * * *     *

Kaufield
was in Observation Dome One, still posing question after question to his new
friend Noah. He was standing next to one of the large window ports in the room
watching the ship’s passengers – slowly at first but then more confidently –
begin to migrate out of the
Pathfinder
via the lifts in the front
landing skid and out onto the dew-covered green grass of the meadow that they
had landed in. Off to the west a brand new day was dawning, with a golden
orange sun beginning to peek over the horizon at a partially-cloudy morning.

During
their abrupt departure from the Sol-system, the auxiliary lifts on all three
landing skids had been available. Since that time, the rear two that were
attached to the tips of the Lab and Observation wings had been off-limits. This
time only the forward skid was accessible to the disembarking passengers, but
it still didn’t take very long before there was a large crowd of people
standing near the front of the ship taking in the fresh air and sights of a
beautiful morning on this new, previously uncharted planet. It made the Captain
happy to see his passengers and crew getting a chance to really get out and
‘stretch their legs’… he had every intention of joining them, once business was
done.

“Your
artwork is exquisite,” Noah commented, pointing to a series of paintings that
hung on one wall next to the conference room’s table. Each of them was a very
accurate representation of a period in Earth’s history. Some depicted famous
battles and had lots of advancing warriors, while others showed scenic farms
and ancient cities. The rest of the collection consisted of fourteen precise
renderings of famous historical figures.

“They were
all done by a famous artist from Earth related to my family line,” pointed out
Kaufield. “She is – was – one of the most prolific artists of my generation,
gifted with vision and able to produce painting after painting with the same
quality as her first. The government asked her to create this series for a
historical project that they had in mind, but I took a tour of their museum
with my son just after I received the assignment to command this project and
asked that they be moved to the
Pathfinder
. We had no idea at the time
just how long our journey would take, so I wanted there to be some anchors to
our culture that we could use to teach our children while we were away from
home.”  

“And now
after just 152 days, here you are,” Noah grinned.

“I still
don’t know that much about your people,” Dennis decided, glancing at the
cheerful older man standing next to him. “I mean, if your society is
truly
millions of years old…”

“… then how
come we haven’t evolved past humanoids in some manner… ascended to a higher
plane of existence or something?” He smiled, pondering the question carefully
as he walked slowly over to the window on the opposite side of the room as the
one the Captain stood next to. They both watched the passengers spread out on
both sides of the ship, all of them joyfully soaking up the warmth from the
planet’s morning sun.

“Well, now
that you’ve raised the question…”

“Look at
your people,” Noah said proudly, waving at the images in the room’s window. “At
this moment the members of your Observatory staff might disagree, but there is
truly
nothing
greater than the human adventure. Our capacity to feel, to
express emotion, to enjoy a lovely morning like this one, to labor hard and
long in the fields to produce food – it is unparalleled in the boundaries of
our exploration. And my culture has done a
lot
of exploring, Captain!”

“So you
are
human beings just like us?” wondered Dennis.

“Oh yes,
your Dr. Simmons has verified most assuredly that I am indeed human… right down
to my blood type,” Noah said with a grin. “She has scanned me, poked me, tested
my blood and verified that much for you.” He flashed the Captain a puzzled
look. “Why, did you expect me to have three arms, an oddly-shaped forehead, or
an extra bone above my nose… something like that?”

“No,”
Dennis decided. “However, after traveling billions of light years over the past
few months I just hadn’t expected to come all this way only to find additional
humans… that’s all.”

“We like to
organize our people into law abiding civilizations and enjoy life in the same
manner that your people do,” Noah said. “My father was a farmer and his father could
do wonders with electronics. We have horses and dogs and cats and other animals
just like your people do. Me, I have a garden… half of it is dedicated to
growing fresh produce like tomatoes and cucumbers and the other half is
reserved for beautiful flowers and bushes.”

Dennis
noticed that his new friend looked a bit fatigued. “I’m sorry if we’ve had so
many questions,” he said sincerely, offering Noah a chair. “It’s just that we
have a
lot
of scientific specialists on board…” They both sat down at
the table across from one another.

“You don’t
have to apologize,” Noah insisted. “Our people had the same unbridled curiosity
when we first began our exploration of the universe. I can understand how Dr.
Simmons wants to know if I’m human like you and why Dr. Markham wants to know
how we generate the energy field that creates the void around the Proteus
galaxy. If I had just begun a journey out of my galaxy and found another
artificially constructed in the manner that ours is, I think I would be able to
come up with a few questions of my own.”

“They were
so eager to talk to you about all of their technical stuff that I decided to
wait with my own questions,” admitted Dennis. “You don’t mind if I record our
conversation I hope?” he asked, watching the other man wave favorably at his
audio recorder. He switched it on. “Our Council will want to review our
discussion in detail.”

“No doubt
they will. You have handled your responsibilities quite well Captain,” decided
Noah. “Particularly concerning the recent challenges your people have faced… I
find you to be a very strong man and a good leader for your people.”

“How much
do you know?” Kaufield asked. “I mean, we could tell by that first diagram you
sent to us that you knew exactly where we came from. It was obvious that you
knew the location of our home galaxy…”

“Correct.
Once the Point-to-Point technique is used to travel more than a few hundred
thousand light years, it becomes extremely easy to detect over long distances,
if you know what to watch for. We are experts at tracking the unknown anomalies
that appear randomly in our universe. Once we knew you were there, we sent
probes of our own to study you and were able to extract information on your
recent history directly from your computer systems.”

“Some might
consider that spying, or even a hostile act.”

“Yes they
would,” Noah admitted. “But we’ve discovered over the years that anyone who
truly values peace over violence usually has nothing to hide. The technique
allows us to rapidly learn what we need to know about your culture – language,
customs, etc. – so that we can more efficiently speed up the initial contact
process and open relations with you more quickly. Or would you have preferred
we continue to tempt you with clues for another few years?”

“No, this
is
better and we don’t have to spend a year or more developing a common language,”
Dennis found himself having to admit.

“You see,”
Noah grinned, holding out his hands. “You have no idea how many civilizations
scattered out there would have tried to shoot us rather than recognize the
advantages of the situation.”

“Like those
idiots in the wasteland galaxy,” Kaufield said, remembering the
Pathfinder
’s
clash with the alien warriors very vividly.

“Precisely.
You were headed in their general direction, about to encounter them. That was
one of the primary reasons I transmitted the first picture to you when I did.
You were about to discover that you were not alone in the universe and – given
their long-term hostile nature – I wanted to make certain you had at least some
warning.”

“Then your
people have the power to stop that war, and the Brotherhood back
home
…”

Noah held
up his forefinger and waved it in warning. “My people have to be
very
careful about interfering with cultures that are not a direct threat to us,” he
said cautiously. “They – and you – have the right to develop and mature over
time just like we did. Those intelligent races that cannot learn to live
peacefully with each other are almost always selected for extinction by nature.
They inevitably bring it upon themselves.”

“Like we
did when we warred with each other over the years?”

“No one can
judge you but you, Captain. Yours is one of the most unique situations that I
have ever encountered. Not many races become advanced enough to experiment with
artificial intelligence, cloning, genetic enhancements or other things of that
nature. But there have been other worlds, like yours, that have tried to create
a superior form of human. It almost always backfires, because the universe so
easily counterbalances itself. Make a man stronger physically and he might find
himself hindered more greatly than a normal man if he contracts a muscle
disease… that sort of thing. Increase his intelligence tenfold and his ego will
almost always increase as well until he gains too much self-confidence and
loses the capacity for common sense and humility.”

“My
people’s history has always been quite violent,” Kaufield admitted. “Based on
what I saw during the nuclear annihilation of my planet, I’m not certain we
even have the capacity to move beyond… it takes
real
effort to make
peace and not war. Often times we look to our God for guidance.”

“God,” Noah
echoed pleasantly. “He varies with many civilizations – many of them believe in
more than one. But most, especially after time, most invariably end up choosing
one
God and believe all others to be false idols. Earth’s many belief
systems tend to mirror that of many other cultures… more so than even I might expect
them to. Why do you think that everyone throughout the universe, even those as
long-lived as my people, end up believing in a Creator?”

“I don’t
know,” said Kaufield honestly. “A year ago I was a humble Project leader living
on Earth’s moon.”

The alien
laughed delightedly. “Your point is well made, Captain. Think though… this
Brotherhood that destroyed your world has its own belief system too… with the
single exception that they distort or ignore what they do not agree with in
order to justify the terrible violence that they inflicted against your
people.”

“Father
Dixon and I are pretty much on the same page as far as conflicting belief
systems are concerned. We both have always felt that how we treat each other is
far
more important than what kind of God we worship or how many times we
go to Church in our lives. That’s why I requested him for this assignment,
because we have a common history and faith.”

“Many of my
people would agree with you, Captain. We’re not perfect either, but we try the
best we can to do good deeds on our worlds each and every day.”

“Do you
know if there are people on Earth still alive?”

“Yes. There
are many refugees on Earth, many of them regrouping and resisting the control
imposed on them by the Triumvirate that leads the Brotherhood of the Dragon.
They are vastly outnumbered and lack weapons and supplies, but continue to
fight back nonetheless. The Brotherhood grows more restive with each passing
day, and I can tell you they are not treating the survivors very honorably. They
continue to waste humanity’s precious gift of life at a rate that is truly
appalling.”

“I
knew
it,” Dennis said spitefully. “I
knew
there were survivors… we simply
couldn’t fight our way through the entire Brotherhood fleet in order to help
them.” His look of concern touched Noah deeply. “Can
your
society help
us stop our enemy?”

“No, I’m
very sorry Dennis but we cannot participate in your war,” Noah said firmly. “We
could have intervened at the very outset in the battle for your Earth, but then
we
would bear the consequences for everything that happens after.” He
waved a hand at all that surrounded them. “The Proteus galaxy has many alien
people living amongst our own. Most of these are refugees from wars on their
own worlds, people who climbed aboard ships just as you did and found their way
into our influence. What they left behind remains as it is… we did not
interfere with the wars on their home worlds, either.”

“What about
my
people?”

“All of the
crew and passengers from the
Pathfinder
are welcome to stay here with
us,” Noah promised. “We have plenty of planets for you to choose from and begin
rebuilding your culture. This planet in particular is well-suited for your
needs – that’s one of the reasons I brought you here. And if some day you
become strong enough and choose to go home and renew your conflict with the
Brotherhood, well…” he paused, shaking his head in disgust at the mere thought
of the nuclear holocaust that was now part of Earth’s history. “…well, I
wouldn’t blame you one bit,” he said with a matter-of-factness that made Dennis
feel better.