Free Peggy Sue (The T'aafhal Inheritance) by Doug Hoffman Page A

that the room erupted into conversation and shouted questions.
    “Surely you must be joking with us, Captain,” said Elena Piscopia. “You ask us to believe alien refugees landed on Earth four million years ago, fleeing a war with the forces of darkness?”
    “Yes, Elena’s right,” added Olaf Gunderson. “This is science fiction, a Hollywood movie script!” Sandy McKennitt and Nigel Lewis had not heard this story either—both were sitting in dumbfounded silence.
    After waiting for the initial shock to subside, Jack called for silence. “Please, I know you all have a multitude of questions, but if you will let me finish the story things may become clearer. Then I will attempt to answer your questions.”
    As ordered was restored, Jack cleared his throat and picked up where he left off. “As I said, the refugee from the desert told the tale of an ancient war that raged across the Galaxy, a war that was as old as the collective memory of all the races in the Milky Way. Supposedly, the alliance cause had suffered a significant defeat in our little corner of space. The aliens were dying, their ship damaged and their enemies trying to run them to ground. Desperate times lead to desperate measures and the aliens hit upon a scheme that defies the imagination.”
    Jack looked around the room at the faces—some anxious, some stunned, some showing open disbelief. “Bottom line: the alien plan was to have their ship’s AI, its self aware computer, carry out a program of genetic manipulation on the local life forms. This manipulation was aimed at creating an intelligent, cooperative race that also possessed a sufficient amount of aggression—a martial spirit if you will—to eventually take up the struggle with the alien’s ancient enemy.”
    “Once the breeding program bore fruit, the ship’s computer was to reveal the truth to the new race. And in order to give their successors a leg up on preparing for war, the ship was to provide a repository of advanced knowledge and technology. In short, the aliens, knowing they were dying, arranged the forced evolution of their own relief. Ladies and gentlemen, we are the result of that breeding program—we are the ones who are supposed to carry on the struggle against the ‘dark ones’.”
    “And you expect us to just believe this?” asked an incredulous Prof. Gunderson.
    “No, Professor. I offer as proof what you see on the screen behind me,” Jack said, stepping to one side. On the screen floated an image of the Peggy Sue. “That is the starship Peggy Sue. In it, several of us in this room ventured into space and traveled to another star system. If you will withhold judgment for a while longer, we will show you the video records of the first flight of the Peggy Sue, or Parker’s Folly as she was known at the time. Once you have seen the chronicle of that voyage, we will offer as further proof a trip to the ship itself, where it will become clear that it was built with advanced alien technology.”
    “Why do you tell this to us?” asked Elena. “Why not tell the government, the United Nations? Surely this is something the whole world should know about.”
    “We intend to do just that, Dr. Piscopia. All of the video images you are about to see are going to be delivered to the Secretary General of the UN and to the heads of state of all the nations of the Security Council.”
    “But that still doesn’t explain why you lured us here,” Olaf said. “Why Elena and myself?”
    “Because your reputations are impeccable. Prof. Gunderson, we would like you to work with Dr. Tropsha to analyze the timeline and description of the human genetic manipulation program described in the artifact’s datastore. There are also alien tissue samples to be examined, though we have more biologists coming to help with that.” Jack smiled at the biologist and then turned to Elena. “And you, Dr. Piscopia, we would like you to help us plan a next mission. A reconnaissance to see if we