Sargon flared his headcrest in acknowledgement. He wondered what the Chinese might do in space. He wondered if the Russians might try to use the thermonuclear torpedoes stored at their Moon base to attack the courier ship. And he wondered how much time he had left in which to secure this Trade Contact. He looked over at his linguist son, sitting between Grethel and Persa.
“Corin, what is your analysis of the current Human condition?”
Corin’s headcrest flared. “Father, the reasons for our early departure from India still persist in Human society.” The younger version of himself sat looking serious, head bent over to focus on the Imager desktop, not aware that Persa sitting beside him reminded Sargon of an old, old holocube of him and Bethrin—when they were still pursuing each other. “Our Contact has changed the internal power equations among the more advanced Human nation-Clans, and they may defer major conflict until after our departure. How they will react to our future offer of joint deuterium mining expeditions to the Jovian and Saturnian systems using Compact spacecraft remains to be seen—but Kagen and I feel they will react positively. Kagen will explain.”
The Probe team’s Trader-In-Charge reminded Sargon of a younger Alis—a bit sardonic, incredibly intelligent, systematic and with a soaring curiosity that reached into a number of technical fields. Sargon had felt more than comfortable knowing Kagen was in charge of the Probe team. Kagen looked away from the status holos at Corin’s remark.
“Commander, if we offer eventual ownership of some of the transport ships and isotope separation balloons in payment for the deuterium and the use of Human crews, they will probably help us,” Kagen said as other Contact team members looked attentive. “As for cooperation on Earth, many nation-Clans will likely set up deuterium osmosis separation plants or accept our prefab plants in order to acquire Trade credits. Other Clans will work to provide us with lithium six by mining lithium silicates.” The blue toga-clad Kagen leaned forward, catching his breath and looking around “However, despite their United Nations agencies and the battlestations controlled by the UN Space Authority, the major nation-Clans still resist a world government. The Probe team believes the Human lack of a unified planetary political system means we must expect some Humans will seek to harm us.” He heard T’Say’s wings rustle at Kagen’s comment. The Horem tapped the Imager desktop. A new holo appeared that showed a graphic of the Earth-Moon system. “We should keep a few fighter craft on station at L4 and L5 in case a rescue of Compact members becomes necessary. And every Compact person who visits Earth must be watched by a personal hoverbot. However, most Humans are intelligent and most will cooperate to obtain as much as they can up to our departure from this system.” Kagen looked over at Farms specialist Hola and the fully-recovered Biomedical specialist Magen, who sat beside Clorek and Lord Tarq. “Lastly, all four of us recommend our first Trading contact should be with the Japanese nation-Clan—their shuttle launch is daring, they are known on their home world as efficient traders, and their ocean location is excellent for emplacement of prefabricated DOS plants.”
Before Sargon could respond, Clorek, in an action rare for his species, joined the discussion without a request. The Zik Thinker, he guessed, was more concerned about a matter close to the palps of the aged brood-ruler Looseen.
“Your pardon, Watch Commander,” chittered the blue-green crab, “but the beloved Looseen made known to me her anxiety over the need to secure Human assistance in the outfitting and launching of our colony ship Zikhope to the Barnard’s Star system. We are willing to Trade vigorously with the Humans in order to reduce the time before we can depart out-system. We Zik wish to pursue this issue as early as possible with the Humans,” Clorek clacked. “Do you or your colleagues have any recommendations for Human assistance?”
T’Set T’Say reacted first. “Thinker Clorek, you and Trader Arix Corin Arax both propose explicitly or implicitly to provide the Humans with access to Compact craft,” she said, flapping her black wings in agitation. “These craft could be used against Hekar. How do you propose to prevent hostile use of them?”
“Defense worker T’Say,” Clorek clacked his palps, angling his four perceptor stalks at the giant bat, “we Zik have evaluated this issue. It is a simple matter to install a tachyonic binary signal relay in the fusion drive housing of any craft we loan to the Humans. The tachyon relay can be used to throw the magnetic containment fields out of phase, thereby destroying the drive and the ship.” He saw Lorilen look up sharply, startled at such a casual mention of blowing up ships with sapients inside them. “This arrangement would apply to the transport craft used to assist both Hekar and Zikhope. Are you satisfied?”
“Satisfied,” T’Say whistled, refolding her wings.
Grethel stirred, drawing his attention. He flared his headcrest in invitation. “Grethel, you have some preliminary bio-sample analysis results?”
“Yes, Watch Commander,” she said, inserting a data cube into the Imager table to display an analysis hologram from her own Biomedical specialty. “As you can see from this listing of DNA chains, peptides, proteins, carbohydrates and enzymes, we have identified twenty-three Human plants that have a medicinal, food or bioengineering use. Particularly valuable are the three samples from the upper Amazon Basin in Brazil—our team got them from a herbalist source in Hong Kong,” she said, as Magen and Persa both looked intrigued. “There are no candidates for life extension drugs here, but there are two new broad-spectrum anti-viral agents that seem to have promise for Horem and Arrik metabolisms, while the third is a powerful growth hormone regulator that matches with Horem neuro-receptors. Lorilen can amplify on the Human pharmacopeia industry, if you wish?”
Sargon wished it—these bio-samples had great promise as Trade products, especially if Hekar’s Bio-Labs could extract the DNA patterning and enzymatic action sites sufficiently well enough for them to synthesize them, and tachpulse the data back home to Horem. “Lorilen?”
His aged aunt adjusted a fold of her simple, utilitarian toga, adorned only with the seven-spoked neuron emblem of the Library. “Nephew, the Humans are quite adept in Biomedical analysis, gene-coding and genetic manipulation. They are nearly as good as we are in synthesizing the active ingredients of natural drugs. They have decoded the genomes of themselves, several animal species and dozens of medicinal plants. And they have evolved an entirely new series of anti-viral and anti-bacterial drugs that mimic the cell receptor chemical ‘signature’ so well that invading infective agents are either starved to death inside their own cellular prisons, or are attacked by immune cells that have been genetically-coded to seek out even those viruses hiding within the cell nucleus,” Lorilen said. As she spoke she inserted data cubes into the Imager table. In the center of the table a swirl of holographic DNA helix images rapidly appeared one by one.
Sargon felt impressed. These were not minor achievements. He looked back at Grethel, who had a Biomedical specialty in addition to her fighter pilot status. “Sister, what caused the Humans to advance so rapidly in this area?”
Grethel smiled, clearly happy to be working with him. “Brother, the Humans are the victims of their own pharmacopic success. Their early anti-bacterial drugs worked so well that they forced a rapid mutational response within the infective bacteria in order to survive in the general Human populace. That produced many drug-resistant bacteria and later viral strains. In addition, they have done wonders with personalized gene therapy that either cures genetic ailments like cancer, or stops them from starting. ” She looked aside at Lorilen, who was inserting another data cube into the table. “As you can see from this chart showing the rate of Human population growth, their increase in lifespan expectation, and the numerical increase in drugs of all kind, the logarithmic Human population growth over the last three hundred years is matched both by a lengthening of the Human lifespan, and by the occurrence of new, mutated disease organisms that attack the Human populace. AIDS, cystic fibrosis, autism and artificial biowar viruses were the proximate causes for the Human
advance in Biomedical drug research and genetic synthesis,” she said.
Sargon felt reluctant to leave this area of Contact—but other components demanded his attention as Trader-In-Charge. He appreciated the patience of the other team members as he led this review, including a quietly observant Eeess. Lord Tarq, one of his oldest Command Deck friends aboard Hekar, should have the sociological analysis of the recent Contact. He waved one hand to attract the attention of Tarq. His friend’s four, cone-mounted eyes must be half-blind in this ultraviolet poor environment.
“Lord Tarq—I know your specialty is Life Patterns, but would you share with us your sociological analysis?”
Tarq’s black hide plates rippled as he changed positions, exposing his fringe of belly tentacles so they could manipulate the Imager table. “Watch Commander, my transform equations on the multivariate problem of Compact interaction with the various Human nation-Clans are complete.” A complex holo of multi-colored waveforms appeared above the table. “They indicate the Humans will be successful in repressing their ‘fight-or-flight’ instinctual reaction to us in nearly all cases. The primary factor supporting this hypothesis is the basic Human emotion of self-interest. Or personal greed.” The jet-black, heavily plated behemoth stirred again, the eyes on his back each now looking at a different group member. “Simply put, they stand to gain so much from Contact, and to lose so little, that even the most xenophobic Humans will consent to Trade with us for the time period needed to fuel Hekar and Zikhope. Also, some Human nation-Clans are in such a primitive state that most of their people will either be unaware of us or will not care about us since their primary daily concern will be to secure food and shelter.” The Gosay stood up and shuffled about the crowded room, unable to fully quell his species’ impulse to move, to hunt and to thereby survive. Sargon knew Tarq was especially stressed by enforced enclosure in the courier ship. “In summary,” Tarq continued, “we should keep most Compact sapients involved in space-based activities, and limit the number of sapients who spend any time on Earth. Such a course of action will serve to minimize the chances of xenophobia and of hostile aggression against our people.”
Seasoned in the ways of conflict, T’Set T’Say raised a clawhand. “A good point, Lord Tarq, but Conflict Commander T’Klose thinks—”
His shoulder comdisk vibrated. Stepping back from the crowd, he tapped on the disk’s Privacy Field and spoke. “Sargon. Who is this?”
“Lorilen,” spoke his aunt. “The Strelka at Detector station reports two radio messages have arrived. One from the Russian Vice Premier Seramov, who invites us to meet him at their Tsiolkovsky space station. The second is from the American Vice President Kinsey, calling from their Goddard station. He also invites us to visit with him at their orbital station. What do we reply?”
The Japanese had daringly come to them. The Russian and the American expected the Compact to come to their station. Which made easy his response. “Broadcast our thanks to the American and the Russian. Say we appreciate the invitation, but we will first visit the Japanese islands. Send a notice of our planned arrival to the Japanese authorities.”
“Understood,” Lorilen said. “Should our replies be encrypted?”
Sargon chuffed. “No. Send our replies in English, Russian and Japanese, on a public radio channel. Let all of Earth know how we Traders show respect to those who dare bravely.”
His aunt closed the comdisk link. Sargon looked at the crowd. They would continue their discussions, now that the preliminary reports were out of the way. He couldn’t help but marvel at the imminent arrival of the Japanese spaceship Shikazu. It would be here within 31 Human hours, after a gravity swing around their Moon to throw the Japanese pilot out to the Lagrange Four position of the courier ship. What, he wondered, will the Human Asiatic subspecies be like?
♦ ♦ ♦
Thirty hours later, Pilot Shinzo Yamaguchi desperately watched his control panel lights and navigation vector status display. His main engine was dead due to a lack of fuel, and his maneuvering jets had only a few kilos of nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine fuel left in them. The Sophia University graduate had saved some fuel by using the Moon’s gravity field to accelerate him outward on a curving trajectory toward the alien ship, in its L4 position ahead of the Moon and leading in its orbit about Earth. At least the aliens hadn’t been at the retrograde L5 position! But he now played catch-up as Shikazu slowly moved toward a tangential intercept. Unfortunately, he would not be able to stop. Instead, he would fly on past in a hyperbolic orbit about Earth—unless the aliens helped him.
Remembering his early Zen training at the Toshio Monastery south of Tokyo, Shinzo relaxed his muscles, slowed his breathing, modulated his alpha brainwaves and entered a meditative trance. With luck, it would last until his internal clock woke him ten minutes before rendezvous. Upon arrival, he would orient his airlock door toward the alien ship, extrude the IAO docking collar and radio the aliens his request for assistance in docking. While he might lose some face in such a request, he felt sure the aliens could match vectors with him. Once on board their ship, he would act as a proper son of Nihon and present his respects.
After that, only the Amitaba Buddha knew what would follow. And whether his mother, father, grandfather and home village would approve of his efforts.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Strelka at the Detector station inclined her braincase toward Life-Who-Is-Song at the Pilot’s duty station. In a burst of emotions and speech, she advised Life the Shikazu craft was out of fuel and unable to come to a halt relative to the courier. An interrogatory followed. Life felt the image-emotion pulse from his fellow Strelka, relishing the taste of familiar emotions after too many hours spent among the Silent Ones. He could cope, but the standing wave-field of the Race was always welcome, always desired. Life swayed his sensorium strip toward his friend Sargon, sitting in the Command seat near his basin, seeking guidance.
“Watch Commander, what is your analysis and recommendation?” Life asked.
Sargon flared his headcrest in that most distinctive of Horem body language. “Life—the Human may be in distress, and it has achieved nearly everything it attempted.” The Horem looked at the blue-glowing Imager screen in front of Life. The Human craft was a tiny point of silvery light. “I suggest we slow its craft with our pressors and bring its docking collar into contact with the outboard globe airlock using that globe’s tractor beam. What is your decision as Pilot?”
Life-Who-Is-Song was just as interested in seeing the Human as was Sargon. And readouts from the Tactical station confirmed the Shikazu would miss them by 14.8 kilometers, unless they acted. Feeling the emotional taste of the Hunt from his Strelka crewmates, he spoke. “Let us slow the craft with our pressors, then use the tractor to bring it into contact with us. T’Set T’Say, will you activate the beams?”
“Acting,” T’Say whistled, her clawfingers tapping on the Defense block. “Human ship is slowing. Its vector is aligning with ours.”
Just as T’Say acted, the Horem at Communications received a radio request for docking assistance from the Human, who called himself Shinzo Yamaguchi. Life-Who-Is-Song reposed in his basin, reveling in the strange alien emotions of the Human that he could already feel. They were similar to the emotions of Harrigan and McIntyre, yet different too. Truly, these Humans have unusual minds.
♦ ♦ ♦
Shinzo Yamaguchi, feeling groggy from lack of food, exited his meditation and became fully awake as he felt Shikazu slow its forward motion. Somehow these aliens were able to reduce his craft’s velocity. Just as he looked out the front window, the Shikazu jerked again, then curved toward the alien craft at a speed that pressed him slightly into his acceleration couch. As he drew closer, the ship’s spinal telescope locked onto the craft. The imaging screen on his control panel brightened with a magnified view. He saw the red-colored craft was composed of three large globes arranged in a triangle, with a fourth globe sitting atop the three. He guessed the craft was five times larger th
an his shuttle.
Shinzo felt indescribable elation—very soon he would be the first Human to respond in person to the aliens’ invitation. And the first nihongin to ever engage in trade with an alien. He unlocked his seat straps, then pulled himself toward the middle of the shuttle, where the airlock pierced the hull. He needed to put on his vacsuit and prepare a radio status report for Tsukuba Control before he left the shuttle.
♦ ♦ ♦
Sargon watched the approach of the Human spacecraft on the forward Imager screen from his Command seat. The Command deck was less crowded than it had been when he’d contacted the Human leaders—only Persa, Lord Tarq, Lorilen, T’Set T’Say, and Life’s courier crew occupied their stations, each of them watchful, competent and professional. Others either rested below or prepared for the imminent docking and Trade Contact. Corin stood ready by the lower globe airlock. He looked away momentarily to a smaller Imager mounted on one side of his left armrest, which contained his Communications and Translator circuits—it showed a duplicate image of that on the main screen. The Human vidcast networks, YouTube, ChatTube, Yik Yak, Facebook and a dozen blog sites had eagerly accepted his offer of a real-time feed of the Shikazu’s approach, docking and entry. While the actual Trade discussions would not be broadcast, everything else including his initial greeting to the Japanese would go out on an unscrambled maser beam to the Human geosync comsats. Maybe his new friend Jack Harrigan was watching. A low whistle from T’Say drew his eyes up to the main screen.
The open end of the Human docking device, Sargon saw, now settled over the circular airlock entry portal of the outboard globe. The local magnetic field of the globe in the area of the collar strengthened considerably to 20,000 gauss, and the metallic collar snapped tightly up against the reddish metal of the courier ship. The field, Life had assured him, would hold the collar over the portal up to a pressurization of ten Horem atmospheres—far more than the one-half Earth normal pressure aboard Shikazu.
Retread Shop 1: First Contact Page 23
