Chapter 11

We slept for about four hours and then we heard someone call for us. I called out that I would be right there and nudged Barbara and sent her into the bathroom to dress and act like she was using the facilities and I threw some clothes on. I walked into the living room and saw Phil and another woman. Then looking again, I recognized Cynthia as the woman. I said, “Hello Phil and I believe this is Chy, nks ... or Cynthia as I call you. I hope you don’t mind if I call you that as I know I cannot do justice to your proper name.”

“Please call me what you can. Cynthia ... I like that name, I may use that name from now on. It has a very nice sound to it. Thank you for that name. I wanted to apologize to you in person for my uncalled-for outburst earlier. I have found out it that it was not my fault, nor yours that I acted that way. I’m afraid I have embarrassed myself with several of the crew, but they have been very accommodating with my apologies. Would you please accept my apology as well?”

“Cynthia, I humbly accept your apology and I want to say that I am very sorry that I caused you to under-go the humiliation and the ... other events that my problem caused for you. Barbara has explained to me what has happened, and please don’t blame yourself for the actions of before. I must say that I am now glad to make your acquaintance you are a very beautiful woman, and I would be honored to call you a friend. That is if you would accept my apology for causing all this mess.”

“Bob, is it? I would consider it an honor to be your friend. Phil has told me much of what happened to you and how you have made the counsel do what you want. I am privileged to be called your friend and I wholeheartedly accept your unneeded apology.”

Phil spoke up and said, “Does everyone here act like you Bob. If so I think we have under estimated your species.”

“No Phil, not all of us. We have our assholes and idiots, although most of them are politicians, but most of your good old boy rednecks are pretty much like me. We are hardworking, honest, and honorable people who love our country and treat people by the golden rule ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. If you live by that simple rule everything else takes care of itself.”

Barbara had come in from the bathroom a couple minutes after I started talking with Phil and Cynthia. She said, “I believe that despite Bob’s modest demeanor I think that he is unique.”

Phil then spoke of his findings from the two scans he did on me. “I found that Bob’s DNA is very, very close to ours, and his intelligence is much higher than a normal human. Part of the scans mapped your brain as a preliminary test to see what we had to work with for the reconstruction. I also found out that your IQ was tested by your school when you were very young. What was the number you were given then Bob, do you remember?”

“Yes Phil, I believe that they said it was 121. Why?”

“Well, I studied your country’s IQ Test and compared it to our type of intelligence testing. Most of our people have a rate of 212 as compared to your test. However, your rate according to our test is 237. You use much more of your brain than all other humans, in fact much more than a normal person of our species. This plus your DNA and other factors I found from your scans, lead me to think that you are an ancestor of our species. Although I could not find any data that showed that our race had ever interacted with your world. There have been several space-faring species that have visited and interacted with your world over the millennia but none of ours. This makes me wonder how you came to be so close to our species unless you are the next evolutionary jump of your species. Whatever, we are very glad that you have accepted our offer for this mission. We consider this bargain as the biggest find since the discovery of faster than light (FTL) technology. That was discovered some 12,078 years ago, as you consider counting years.”