Here Comes Earth: Emergence by William Lee Gordon Read Free Book Online Page A

it’s quite another to
think your entire species might not survive. Feeling helpless in the face of an
enemy is something none of us had ever experienced before – but these were good
soldiers and would never come right out and admit something like that
(especially to themselves).
     
    “Yes
and no,” I answered truthfully.
     
    Captain
Hiromi was Blue Squad Leader and her twin sister, Captain Kamiko, was Red Squad
Leader. Ito was actually their last name (I think) because I’d been told that
certain Asian naming conventions used the last name first, and that’s the way
my roster read, and since it was trouble enough keeping them straight I was
calling her Captain Hiromi. Captains Hiromi and Kamiko were identical twins and
unlike others I’d met they didn’t try to distinguish themselves. Actually, I
suspect they went to great lengths to dress alike, look alike, and even carry
many of the same mannerisms. Their personalities were reserved by nature and if
it wasn’t for the differences in the Blue Squad and Red Squad patches I doubt I
could’ve told them apart. I wasn’t regretting my decision to put them in charge
of the squads (they were extremely efficient) but I was concerned enough that I
sat them both down for a serious discussion after our first week of working
together. I let them know that I demanded the trust of my command staff and
that I wouldn’t, I couldn’t, accept any identity games on a mission this
critical. After sharing one of those silent communicating looks that only twins
can accomplish they both looked me in the eye and vowed that as their
commanding officer they would never deceive me. I accepted that at the time and
only later realized that this still left virtually everyone else on the mission
wide-open. Oh well…
     
    “We’re
certainly going to do everything we can to be prepared,” I continued. “All of
the major Earth governments appear to be cooperating – which I’ve never seen
before – and our military, just like yours Hiromi, is at full alert but at the
end of the day there’s not a lot more we can do. The technology differential is
incredibly steep and our best defense at this point seems to be the goodwill of
the Noridians.”
     
    ∆∆∆
     
    “The
diplomats are fit to be tied,” said the Marine in charge of 1 st Platoon, Major Mike ‘Iron Jaw’ Reynolds. I have no idea why they’d put a Marine
in charge of our only diplomatic platoon but on the other hand Mike was as
about an intimidating of an individual as you could get – so maybe it didn’t
hurt for the Noridians to know that there was some muscle behind our Dips… uh,
diplomats.
     
    We
had struck up a casual friendship four or five staff meetings ago when it
became clear to me that he couldn’t figure out why they’d put him in charge of
the diplomatic platoon either. Mike wasn’t really a touchy-feely type of guy
and didn’t respond well to all the complaining from his group of diplomats
which included a number of State Department careerist, a dozen international Poli-Sci
university professors, a personal appointee from POTUS (the President of the
United States), and even two nationally known career politicians (that were
rumored to hate each other).
     
    “The
aliens won’t give them the time of day,” he continued. “Apparently every time
our guys try to talk about formal relations between our peoples they’re told
nothing can happen until after the science guys know enough about each other to
appreciate our differences. It’s driving my guys crazy.”
     
    Mike,
like all the other platoon leaders had brought his own command group with him
to this assignment. Mike’s group however are… well, Marines. I had no doubt
about their fighting ability. The other two platoon leaders were Navy and Air
Force; services not especially known for their service-wide hand-to-hand
skills. Being prepared is not the same thing as being paranoid and I’d found a
kindred spirit in Mike.
     
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