Here Comes Earth: Emergence Read Online Free

team quarterback or the
popular new transfer student or whomever… but second dates were rare. She just
couldn’t find chemistry with boys that spent their days playing social games,
their afternoons playing athletic games, and their evenings and weekends
playing drinking games. She didn’t think she was stuck-up, it’s just that
alcohol-addled brains that never gave a thought to the future… bored her.
     
    Throughout
most of college she changed her approach. She was enough of a realist to know
that people (especially men) were attracted to her. She could look in the
mirror and see that even though she didn’t have the classic sharp angled
features of a fashion model all of her pieces were in the right place and her
face and skin carried no obvious defects. What she couldn’t see was the
totality of the package; the way she walked and carried herself made her the
most dreamed about girl on campus – even if most boys were too intimidated and
insecure to talk to her, let alone ask her out.
     
    Maybe
it’s because her mom had never been around or maybe it’s because most other
girls were either intimidated or jealous of her, but Julie had had no one she
could trust to get boy advice from. So in college she made a conscious decision
to only hang out around the super-smart guys. Although much more intellectually
stimulating there was still a lot missing. These guys were either oblivious to
her or so intimidated that they could never relax around her.
     
    She
had even allowed herself a forbidden relationship with one of her undergraduate
professors thinking he might be the perfect balance in what she was looking for
in a partner – only to be severely disappointed.
     
    Watching
seemingly everyone around her enjoy happy relationships allowed those whispers
of doubt that she’d always kept at bay to finally take root; what was wrong with
her?
     
    Perhaps
it was no surprise then that once she was committed to a Medical Degree she
gravitated towards Psychiatry. 
     
    Julie’s
combination of intelligence and a dazzling smile helped her land a residency at
the #5 ranked psychiatric hospital in the nation, Menninger Hospital in
Houston, TX. She then spent a couple of years at John Hopkins before being
offered a position at what is considered to be the top program in the world;
McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA.
     
    By
the time she was offered a position on the Broken Star mission Julie had come
to peace with her uniqueness – not valuing it as good or bad; simply accepting
that relationships weren’t her strongpoint and finding satisfaction from a
promising career.
     
    She
still allowed herself a few personality quirks left over from her defensive
days; being a little acerbic or sarcastic with men – it kept them off guard
and, well… it was fun.
     
    ∆∆∆
     
    Once
she’d agreed to join the mission, signed all the forms, received a leave of
absence from the hospital, and passed the physical and psych evaluations (Come
on, please…) the true nature of Broken Star was explained to her.
     
    There
was no question that not only was this so much bigger than just her; not only
was it a tremendous responsibility; it was also a chance for her to contribute,
to really ‘fit in’ perhaps for the first time in her life. The professional
challenge of a lifetime, to figure out the psyche of an alien being. Especially
an alien being whose brain physiology was very similar to ours but whose
environmental stimulus had been totally different (exciting!).
     
    Once
she arrived at the underground Nevada base she was innerly thrilled to discover
that she was assigned as a member of a close-knit team of seven (Blue Squad)
which included six scientists and a security Captain. She determined on the
spot that her first order of business would be to build a personality profile
of her squad mates. She knew that recorded interviews with the Noridians were
scheduled to start in two weeks so she needed to complete this quickly… and