Chapter 20

“While I have no reason to disagree, I also have no reason to agree with you, either. As Daniel knows, I am studying law at Stanford. Candace, would you please present to me your evidence?”

She nodded. “I’m apologizing in advance if I get agitated. This is something that I feel very strongly about, as they will tell you.” She looked around at the rest of the Council members present, who all made various nods of agreement.

“In the ‘interests of national security,’ we’ve been consistently ignored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy, and of course by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. One of the reasons they built the reactor that made the plutonium used to make the first atomic bomb ever and then the second one that dropped on Japan here was because it was close to the river. They’ve since then used that area to make all the plutonium for their nuclear weapons.” She took a deep breath, to compose herself again.

“Sorry. Article Three of the Treaty specifically says, and I’m quoting here, ‘The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams, where running through or bordering said reservation, is further secured to said confederated tribes and bands of Indians, as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places, in common with the citizens of the Territory, and of erecting temporary buildings for curing them; together with the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses and cattle upon open and unclaimed land.’ That was OUR land, taken from us by the treaty. They’ve been dumping all of their nuclear waste there since the war. Their reactors pull tens of thousands of gallons of water from the Columbia river every minute to help cool them, and then dump it back into the river. They got caught fourteen years ago, when it was found out the water has been radioactive since they started dumping it in 1944. For example, in 1949, they wanted to see if they could track radiation in the air, and simply pumped a huge amount of radioactive iodine into the air, so it could fall wherever it wanted.”

Her voice had been continually rising as she spoke. Daniel’s mother interrupted her.

“It’s okay, Candace. I’ve got this.” Candace nodded, so upset now she was crying.

Charlotte said, “We’ve been shown since the middle of the last century just how trustworthy the word of the white man is. We know from documents we’ve gotten from them that there are at least thirty-five trenches that they’ve dug, filled with what they call low-level nuclear waste, and have now covered over. There’s probably more. Even if...” She paused, holding up a hand with the palm facing Candace. “Even if we completely ignore what they did to the river and dumped into the air, we don’t trust them at all as far as how they stored, or more appropriately, how they say they stored the waste. Their own reports say that they consider six hundred years storage time to be ‘geologic,’ and they expect leaks to happen by then. We already know stuff in some of the older trenches has leaked. Now ... well, now they’re planning on using another section of the site to store all of the nuclear reactor compartments from the submarines and other nuclear powered ships that they decommission, with the first one expected next year.”

Russel Lewis had a grim expression on his face. “We’ve had no help from the white man or his government. Under the treaty, we should be able to fish those lands, to still gather with the other tribes and nations there in peace. The river they pollute is one where the salmon come to spawn, where the waters from Pahto come down to gift us all. I have copies of my letters to the BIA people, the NRC, and the DOE, along with all of their responses to us. They acknowledge that we have a right to be concerned, but we have no right to say anything else. We are few, while they are many.”

He stopped, then looked at everyone else from his Council at the table. They all nodded to him.

He took in a deep breath, like he was firming himself for a huge task. “Daniel Running Bear has told us of you. He has told us of how you have helped the first people of Australia, as we can see with our own eyes. He has told us of how you have helped some of the first people of Alaska, as again we can see with our own eyes. We are a proud people, never make the mistake of thinking we are not. This ... this decision that we have made is not one we consider lightly. We are asking for your help.”

I sat very still for a good three minutes. It was rather obvious that some of them had expected me to immediately respond one way or the other, from the way a couple of them fidgeted after almost a minute. However, I noted that neither Lewis, John Washines, nor Gary Smartlow moved a muscle other than to breathe. The people on my side of things knew how I operated, so they were quietly calm.

What none of the members of the Yakima Confederation knew was that I was using my vision to internally study each of them, and then trying to zoom in through the window at Mount Adams. When that last part finally failed simply due to the distance involved, because we were just too far away for me to tell one way or the other, I scooted my chair back. The noise made all of them startle, like I’d fired a gun.

I stood up and said, “I need to take a walk. From what I’ve seen, it’s about five miles from here to the base of Pahto. That’ll take me a bit, to get there and back.”

“Cal, there’s a road that goes closer, it’ll take us about half an hour to get there. There’s hiking trails that lead upward from it,” Daniel offered.

Carrie shook her head. “Thank you, Daniel. The three of us shall accompany Cal on this journey. We’ll be back before dark.”

An obvious look of concern on his face, Darren Running Bear asked, “Are you sure? This isn’t the easiest terrain to simply hike through. I know, I’ve made that trip many times since I moved here.”

“Thank you for your concern. We’ll be fine. Now, if you’ll excuse us, girls, let’s use the restroom before we start walking,” I said. I winked at Eve. I knew she’d stay in touch with them the whole trip. I also didn’t want anyone who didn’t know our secrets already to make the trip. “Daniel, if you’d show Toby and Eve around while we’re gone, I’d appreciate it.”

“Of course, Cal.”

I wasn’t sure whether the Tribal Council was upset or not, but I also didn’t care. The girls and I used a bathroom and then left the building. I motioned for Yagyu to simply wait with the others.

“Boss...”

“You won’t be able to keep up. It’s okay.”

“Gotcha. Good luck.”

We walked along the pathway around the building, then entered the thick woods. After only a few minutes, we were completely out of sight of the building. That’s when Carrie stopped.

“What’s going on, Cal? You’re obviously bothered, and we need to update everyone.”

“Daniel does not have the organ. His father isn’t from here, he’s from your neighbors, and he does have a smaller version of it, not fully developed like the Unangan do. I’m sure you checked everyone just like I did. I’m confused.”

“These tribes are all from this area, but they’re a Confederation of People, not all from just one original group, as far as I’ve found,” Carrie said. “Yes, there are a lot of tribes here in this area, but they didn’t pay attention to what are now national borders, because those things didn’t exist back then. Obviously, some of our people could have come down here, quite easily. If not in historical days, then after the war, like Darren Running Bear obviously did.”

“Well, that helps to a certain extent. I’d love to do DNA sampling.”

“Why?”

“They’re not all the same people. Oh, they’re all related, but this is a case where tribal affiliation seems to have been stricter in the past, like it is for the Unangan, due to a variety of reasons. Four of the five Council members look like they’re similar in age, with Gary Smartlow younger, like Daniel’s parents. But John Washines and Gary Smartlow have a version of the organ, only smaller than Darren Running Bear. It’s almost like they had it, and then for whatever reason, it was bred out of them.”

Carrie frowned, then nodded. “Okay, we’ve updated everyone. There’s no one around to see us. Shall we make a fast trip?”

“That’s why I left Yagyu behind,” I said, bringing myself up off the forest floor. The girls quickly duplicated me with levitation. “No splattering against a tree like a speeder bike. That’d hurt the tree.”

Cally laughed. “Beth’s right. You’re a dork.”

They wove through and between the trees, treating them like they were defenders on the court and field. I kept pace with them, then we made a game of it, playing tag while still working our way to the goal. We all felt it when we were only half a mile from the side of the mountain and quickly stopped.

“I didn’t think there was a planetary defense guardian unit here,” Holly said.

“There’s not. Mountain Guardian Oregon was destroyed twenty thousand years ago. One of the damaged units in our garage came from Mount Scott, while where the main unit had been is now right in the middle of Crater Lake. The protocols I’m detecting are similar, but they’re not the same. Time to land and walk for now,” I ordered.

We made it to the base of the mountain and started up the side.

“Cal, there are some people off to our south, on the hiking trails,” Carrie warned.

“That’s fine, we’re not going near them. It’s this way, to the northwest. How are the three of you doing?”

“The weather doesn’t affect us any more than it does you,” Holly said. “Is it just me, or does it feel like there should be something that’s hidden under that glacier?”

“Oh, it’s there, all right. I’m just debating with myself about whether or not we dig it out or not. How powerful ... how far into the rock itself can you see?”

“Without pulling on any power, a couple hundred feet, maybe,” she answered. “Why?”

“I’ve gotten stronger, obviously. Pahto isn’t like Moffett or Uluru, it was never a home for the souls. It is, however, the final resting place of a spaceship from I have no clue how long ago. Or at least an escape craft. It’s at least four hundred feet down, and there’s no indication there was ever a tunnel like Shiva had. I’m saying that as a minimum, because that’s only part of it. The craft itself didn’t survive the crash in one piece, and there’ve been volcanic eruptions since then that have spread things out. Can you give me a few minutes, to see if I can communicate with this thing?”

“Dork! That’s one of the reasons you had us come with you, isn’t it?”

“Thank you, Cally,” I said with some sarcasm. “Remind me next time to leave you locked inside whatever oil tank I find you in, okay?”

“Okay ... hang on.” She stopped talking, then she sat down on the ground. Her eyes were looking around, like she was trying to find something. After a few seconds, she started nodding to herself. That firmed up. “Try talking to it now, Cal.”

“Hello, this is Cal.”

“Greetings, colonists. I was not expecting to have a lucid conversation with any of you, as there has been no one with that capability near me for thousands of years.”

From the expressions on their faces, Carrie and Holly heard that as well. The three of us sat down then.

I replied, “Yeah, um, there’s been a lot that’s happened in that time.”

“Of course. I am quite aware that my primary core is buried well beneath the surface of this mountain and thus irretrievable. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your perspective, my primary power supply will last a long time to come, due to there no longer being any other power drain than keeping myself operational.”

“Let’s come back to that first comment later. I’m guessing that you are either an AI or a personality overlay that was on a ship that crashed here. Obviously that was well before our time, so please don’t blame that on us.”

“You’re partially correct. I did not crash, I was shot down. We had records of this planet existing from our trading with another civilization. They had indicated the original colony was very small and that they had helped supplement it by transporting some people from the founding planet and also placing some of their own people here. We were led to believe there weren’t that many people living on the planet and they would welcome others. We came here, intending to trade with them and to find out if we could also set up a colony here. The communication protocols we’d been given were apparently incorrect and the planetary defense units saw us as invaders, opening fire upon our fleet. I was hit, damaged, and forced to crash land here. Some of my crew survived. Others from our fleet attempted rescue operations, but when two of my fellow ships were shot down, the remainder fled. There have been two other attempts to rescue our people, but the last was forty-two thousand, one hundred and sixteen years ago. I am the ship’s intelligence, and thus I am also the ship ... or what’s left of myself, anyway. We did not differentiate between natural born and created intelligence.”

“I’m Cal, this is Carrie, Holly, and it was Cally ... she’s the one that contacted you.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, as it were, even this way. I am Pahto.”

I frowned. “I wondered why a mountain in this region would have a name that I recognized, but not from here. When was your original home world seeded by the beings that came through this part of the galaxy?”

“You know about that? Interesting. Using this planet’s rotation, approximately eight hundred fifty thousand years ago, plus or minus five thousand years. We were much closer to the Core than this spiral arm.”

“Yes, well ... this planet, Earth or Terra, depending upon the language used, was colonized by Star Home two-hundred fifty thousand years ago. Star Home was seeded five hundred ... hang on. Calendar confusion on my part, again. About six hundred thousand years ago. I’m not native born to Earth, I’m actually from Star Home. These three are from here. However, Cally was genetically created using DNA from many different peoples of Earth, which is probably why she was able to open communications with you. I was wondering why your mental communication protocols were close to what we use; now I know. They are, but they’re not the same.”

“That brings up something disturbing to my thoughts,” Pahto said. “We were told your people had abandoned their colony here. Yet given your apparent age and knowledge, that would not seem to be the case.”

“Oh, it was. We’d colonized this world during an attempt to create a faster than light drive on our own. While that trip was successful, the reason for needing to colonize this planet went away before further work was done with that drive system. I didn’t know until quite recently that we’d even sent additional colonists here; that information was lost over time and due to wars. I was sent here in an experimental ship that used a recreation of the original FTL drive.”

“War and conflicts seems to be a common thread among natural born, no matter where they are from. We ships had weapons, of course, because there are definitely other races and civilizations of beings in the universe that are not friendly. I used a faster than light drive myself, but the maximum speed limitation meant that most travel between stars in this galactic spiral arm still required stasis pods for the crew due to the time and distances involved.”

“Well ... shit,” I exclaimed. “That means that we must be out here in the sticks, because that implies there was travel you knew of that did not require stasis pods.”

“That is correct. However, a data dump from one of the ships that attempted rescue said that there were problems within the core worlds. It was old news at that point, but still more than I’d heard before. I’m afraid I can’t help you with much more than that.”

I leaned back against the mountain. “You know, if I were a suspicious man, I would wonder if the probes that we know have visited Earth within the last four hundred years were sent by the race of beings that gave your people the information about Earth in the first place. I would wonder why they gave you the wrong communication protocol, as they had the right one from when they dropped some of our own people off. Except ... they dropped off some of their people, too, at the same time. While those original colonists all worked together, we don’t know what political changes may have happened to their worlds over time. If they wanted you to fail, that would mean Earth wouldn’t be very advanced, and they could show up and with the right protocols, simply land and take over the whole planet.”

All we heard was silence for several seconds. The girls were starting to look concerned when Pahto began talking again.

“There are times that I wish I was natural born. One of those is the many times over the centuries and millennia that have passed since I’ve been here that I’ve wished I could cease. We can’t self-terminate, that’s part of being created. The other is when I wish I had the deviousness of the natural born. Obviously, you are a suspicious man, or you wouldn’t have brought that up. That indicates to me that you have evidence I lack to support your theory.”

“I wish I didn’t. I’m curious about something. Why is your name Pahto?”

“It means ‘tranquil lake’ in the original language of my home world. I chose it when I became active as I wanted all of my trips with my natural born brothers and sisters to be ones of tranquility and peace.”

“Okay. It’s the name of a river on...” I paused, then closed my eyes.

“It’s okay, Cal, we understand,” Holly said.

I sighed. “Of course you would. Sorry, Pahto. It was the name of a river on Star Home. Unfortunately, Star Home was destroyed due to an encounter with another star last year, and no longer exists. I’m the last survivor, other than all of the descendants that live here on Earth.”

“I am sorry for you, Cal of Star Home. I understand loss. I have felt that myself over the years, as the natural born who survived my emergency crash landing here carried on with their lives as best they can. I know many of their descendants live sun-ward of this mountain that is my tomb, and have for tens of thousands of years.”

My eyes were rapidly tracking back and forth. “That’s why they gave you wrong information. Our peoples could breed together, and did. But my people had made a genetic modification to ourselves, which was why we quit trying to colonize here. When our people breed with your people, the genetic modification begins to wither and go away over time. The only people that still have it in them are those that have remained within their own genetic pool. Both our peoples could interbreed with those that were here on the planet originally, and ... I don’t know. I’m dealing with an insane AI right now that was locked inside a comet ten thousand years ago and will show back up again in a few months. Would they have started something that took more than two hundred thousand years to reach fruition?”

“You’re referring to the being that had extraordinary powers that attacked, killed, and enslaved many people about ten thousand years ago, I gather. I could tell what he did. I still had some sensors above ground before his arrival, allowing me to monitor the descendants of my natural born cousins. He destroyed all of them, shattered some of the mountain top, and buried me deeper than before. I agree that he was insane, but I did not know he was a created intelligence. As for planning for something lasting that long? While our people had a mix of both created and natural born that were the governing council ... if the others only had created intelligences running their civilization, that would explain things, as we were routinely put in charge of projects that would, by necessity, take five to ten thousand years to see through to fruition.”

“He specifically wasn’t. We ... the souls living within us ... made sure he died, but he left a couple around, one here on the planet that Cal had to deal with, and another in his ship. What was the lifespan of your natural born?” Carrie asked.

“Approximately two to three thousand years. This planet, and adapting to it, has been hard on them, with cycles shrinking to barely one hundred years, and then only in extreme circumstances.”

“That fits in with the four to five thousand of Star Home,” Holly said. “Six thousand, based upon Earth years.”

“I remember what the Admiral said at Pearl Harbor. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action, so what’s four times? What is it about Earth that makes it so special?” I asked.

“How much galactic cartography do you know?” Pahto asked.

“Actually, quite a bit. Since you know what the speed of light is, even if our measuring sticks aren’t the same, I’m sure you can convert from your original time frame to an Earth year. Thus, one light year is the amount of distance light will travel in one year. Take that total distance, divide by thirty-one million, five hundred fifty-seven thousand, six hundred seconds in a year, and you’ve got one hundred eighty-six thousand, two hundred sixty-two miles, or two hundred ninety-nine thousand, seven hundred ninety-two kilometers per second, since Earth has two measurement systems,” I said.

Pahto replied, “Since you know that, if I tell you that within a sphere one hundred light years in diameter surrounding Earth, there are only ten total inhabitable star systems, four of which require special equipment to live on, you’ll understand why Earth is special, as there is a second planet that could also be lived upon in this system with minor adaptation.”

“I take it they’re a lot more common, closer to the galactic core,” I said.

“Of course. Those systems are all easily reachable, and easily exploitable. One of the reasons I came out here was that our people were simply explorers, just as many of those who explore the other spiral arms are. They didn’t seek comfort and familiarity, they actually sought to make new discoveries. The majority of civilized people, both natural and created, considered us to be atavistic.”

Holly chuckled. “Just sounds like you’re human, is all.”

I’d heard Mycroft sigh and use emotions through his speakers. I heard Pahto expressing emotions as well. “Thank you. I ... um ... I haven’t had a lot of contact with others in a long time, due to ... well, being buried under an incredible amount of rock. But ... that’s something one of my old crew would say to me. We ... well, you may think this strange, since I’m not natural born, but ... we all considered ourselves family. I had holographic generators, of course, so I could ‘stand watch’ or interact normally, at least when people were inside me, and when I was in a docking or repair facility, I could wander as well. But ... thank you, it’s been a long time, as I said. I appreciate it.”

“Pahto, was one of those planets about twenty-seven light years from here, orbiting a star primarily emitting light in the ... crap, measurements may not be the same. The longest wavelength and shortest frequency group within the visible light spectrum?”

“About half again larger than this planet, with a star putting out a radiation that was incompatible with our biology? Yes, we knew of it. We’d actually colonized it, but the colonists sent reports warning us off because of how it was affecting them, and we were to abandon them without trying to rescue them because they were concerned the radiation would affect us while we did so. That was ... Cal, you said your planet was colonized about six hundred thousand Earth years ago, correct?”

I shook my head. “Girls, did they know that during your time?”

Carrie shook her head. “No. That was only ten thousand Earth years ago, though, so even Nyota ... I mean Karen ... wouldn’t know about it. We have our shivalingam that were made a quarter million years ago, but ... unless they’re older than that?”

“No, they’re not. I can pull up all of the records on when they were made. Their design only dates back four hundred thousand years, and the ones we have were all made between three hundred thousand and two hundred sixty thousand years ago, when they were still needed to deal with the radiation. Once the genetic mutation was done, of course, then they weren’t needed. Well, shit.” I said.

“You’ll excuse me for asking, I hope, but I was under the impression that Carrie was a young girl. Why did you reference her as living ten thousand years ago?”

“I don’t know if your people could do this, but ... on Star Home, when you died, your ‘soul’ for lack of a better term, left the body and could go exploring. Sometimes, they’d take residence in objects around the home and remain part of the family, sometimes communicating with them. Rarely ... very rarely ... they would move in with someone else, normally a very close family member. All three girls have the souls of someone who died ten thousand years ago living on within them, just as I have the soul of the man who had to stay at home while his wives came here a quarter million years ago.”

Our mental connection was quiet for several seconds.

“My apologies for the silence, but I was searching my databases for anything that vaguely resembled what you’re talking about. We’ve never encountered that before. It was not something that happened to my natural born.”

“Welcome to unintended consequences of genetic manipulation and radiation exposure, I suppose. Well ... girls, one of the reasons we came to the Yakima reservation was to find out why they thought I should know about Pahto. I think we’ve answered that question, just not the way they intended. I’ve also decided that the Yakima tribes are descended not just from our people that came here, but from the people we thought were invaders, but weren’t. And I’ve made a decision that they’re all related to me, which means I will not violate any of my principles if I offer them assistance.”

Carrie frowned. “I presume it’ll be like us, though. I know, we were expecting you. They weren’t.”

“Yeah, that’s going to take some discussion about whether they’ll accept me as their King or not. Am I complaining if I said I just wished this whole Shiva crap was completely behind us, so I could just consider everyone family?”

“You and me both, big brother-in-law. Helen doesn’t know what to think now.”

“Odd. I can detect that you’re engaged in mental conversation with someone a very long distance from here, but I can’t tell anything more than that. We ... the normal born ... that were my family and crew could do that with me and each other, but only within a relatively short distance, certainly not as far as you’re communicating.”

“Latent powers that we had at one time, then lost, and have recovered here due to the way things are happening. I wonder what would have happened if your people had landed here first and not on Star Home,” I said.

“I’m surmising that you now think that my people are the original colonizers of your world, which is how you would know the legend. I am quite surprised that they did live, rather obviously. Keep in mind that space itself is incredibly vast, and while it was possible to use my wormhole drive to go between known points, the only way to safely travel to an unexplored area was to go from a known point and proceed through normal space. Even using my regular space FTL drive, that could take tens or hundreds of years. With the volume of the galaxy being what it is, and those of us who actually wanted to explore being so few, there never were enough who wanted to seek out new life and new civilizations.”

The girls and I all laughed at that. “To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

“I sense your humor, but I’m not sure what is so funny.”

“Marcia will have to explain it to you later. Girls, I’m satisfied. You?”

“We all agree, Cal, as do the rest. Marcia is already getting all of the television shows and movies ready,” Cally said with a grin. “Mycroft is incredibly intrigued, and even Peru, Peace, and Junior are curious.”

“That makes it unanimous, Pahto. Looks like we’re going to dig you out and take you home with us,” I said.

“I wish you could.”

“I don’t know if your sensors allow you to tell, but there is a piece of you about four hundred feet below ground near where we are.”

“That would be a small piece from one of my hull sections. It’s the closest to the surface. By using your numbers, I am an additional one thousand feet further in than that.”

“Okay, what’s your actual, physical size?”

“My core is ... about ten feet in diameter, with two additional memory storage units of similar size. The power supply that has kept me alive is a cube about twenty feet to a side.”

“Okay, that’s easy then. I can pinpoint exactly where you are, because of how ... ah, hello, Beth,” I said as she landed.

“You’re going to need a little help. Eve can’t leave the center, but I can. Dora will be here in a few minutes, she was at the lab.” She closed her eyes for a second, then opened them again. “Hello, Pahto.”