Here Comes Earth: Emergence Read Online Free Page A

of
course, discreetly.
     
    Dr. Anzio Spelini was the
first member of the team she met in person. The government had provided her
with a smartpad that contained basic backgrounds on everyone in the squad and
like everyone else, Anzio was brilliant. Unlike many of the rest, however, he
held a certain popular notoriety in much of Europe. As hard as that might be to
attain for a mathematician and quantum physicist, he’d come by it honestly.
With numerous international accolades awarded to him publically his ready smile
and almost child-like naiveté and sense of humor won him a following. Like many
brilliant people he could easily lecture math or physics to hundreds of his
peers but put him in a room full of people at a party and he wouldn’t be able
to remember his grandmother’s favorite pasta.
     
    It
didn’t take Julie very many days of hanging out with Anzio to realize that he
was basically a good guy – someone with straightforward priorities, an honest
willingness to help others, a healthy desire to be socially accepted and follow
social mores, a high empathy quotient and an ego that was in check. Julie
almost laughed when she realized that Anzio was basically the big brother that
she never had.
     
    Dr.
David Cook (Computational and Science Engineering (CSE), Electrical
Engineering, and Information Technology) and Dr. Tony Decker (Chemical
Engineering and Materials Science) came next. Dr. Cook better fit the stereotypical
mold of what a genius was. Introverted and somewhat detached, he had the social
skills of a clam – a nice clam but not one that was going to be doing karaoke
at the Christmas Party.
     
    Unfortunately,
that was more than she could say about Dr. Tony Decker. Dr. Decker was not
quiet and carried a very low empathy quotient. He wasn’t mean per se, just
condescending to everyone. He was smart enough to realize that his attitude put
many others off but was arrogant enough not to care. Maybe it was because Dr.
Cook was oblivious to other people’s personalities but they tended to hang out
together.
     
    The
woman that headed up Blue Squad, Captain Ito Hiromi, was a little more of a
mystery. Her file contained less information than the others (perhaps because
she was sourced from the Japanese SDF?) and she was definitely the most
reserved of the group, but it had nothing to do with a lack of self-confidence.
Although her file didn’t address it Julie suspicioned that she also carried a
high IQ. Much more of the personality puzzle made sense once Julie realized
that she was a monozygotic (identical) twin .
     
    Julie
wasn’t surprised that the twins held the same profession or even that they had
both excelled more or less equally in their rank and citations. Some
monozygotic twins claim that physical closeness allows each to perform at a
higher level. She was somewhat surprised however that the military would allow
them to serve together. Maybe the SDF worked differently but she seemed to
remember reading that US forces by policy didn’t allow monozygotic twins to
serve in combat positions together for fear that an injury to one could disable
the other. For whatever reason however Ito Hiromi was the Captain of the Blue
Squad and Ito Kamiko was the Captain of the Red – and Julie was sure that the
twins wouldn’t have it any other way.
     
    Dr.
Toni (Dr. Mom) Andretti (Genetics and Biochemistry) was at the same time more
and less than what she seemed. She was outgoing and friendly with a high
empathy quotient that many times put the needs of others ahead of her own – a
trait that endeared her to many but signaled potential problems to Julie.
Extremely bright, she’d never had that breakthrough or discovery to put her at
the absolute top of her field and Julie couldn’t help but wonder if Toni wasn’t
overcompensating a little. Nevertheless you couldn’t spend five minutes with
her without smiling and feeling welcomed.
     
    Dr.
Mark Spencer (Anthropology, Sociology and World History) was the