Dai held his hands up. “We are no threat to you. There is no way we would try to take over. You’d win, because we would surrender rather than threaten women and children. Besides, we don’t know what is here, what’s dangerous.”
Sarah grinned, “Us,” she said. “The Keulfyd found that out.”
“We are one risk to you, though.”
Sarah stiffened. What had she missed?
“Aswin and Kaswa got us all the Intel we need. Good Niseyen agents those two.”
“What Intel?”
“The most important to us personally. We have our orders but we have personal agendas too: name, description, marital status…” Dai’s grin was so comically predatory that Sarah started to laugh. She looked around the room seeing all the hopeful crew members sitting next or close to every Terran adult female who was single. To her vast amusement, she saw two older men sit down opposite Ludmilla. Ludmilla’s expression went from puzzlement to bewilderment to embarrassment to speculation and back to embarrassment as she realized Sarah was laughing at her predicament. At her age, Ludmilla had not expected to be courted. She looked like she might be up for the challenge, though.
“What do you need done first?” Dai asked as she turned back to him.
“The five hundred People in one city.” Sarah stood up and whistled loudly. “Mahmoud and Akira please, with your map of the city with the five hundred.”
Mahmoud had a navigation computer that Kaz had shown him how to use. He quickly loaded for Dai the city and the whereabouts of the people. “Can I come with you?” he asked eagerly but with the wistfulness of someone who expects refusal.
“That should be possible. This is a civilian matter. It would be advantageous if you came too Sarah. You are the ruling authority here. It would legalize what I intend to do.”
“Which is what?”
“Charge them exit fees, damages and transportation costs, fix a ship for them and send them to the nearest Niseyen world, which is Petislay, with a locked Navigator. There is probably a crew among them, at least one.”
“Does a locked Navigator mean they can’t go anywhere else?” asked Mahmoud.
“Yes.” This kid was quick, Dai thought.
“Can’t they just fix it?”
“Not once I’ve done with it! I’ll partially disable it by locking out the alternate destinations. And locking it in under these circumstances is a legal transport order. It means trying to override it is a criminal matter. Sending them like this is the equivalent of a criminal sentence, wiped out once they reach the intended destination. Every adult is under sentence including the crew. Loss of licenses and criminal charges for the crew if they don’t get to Petislay, criminal charges for the others. They will be reluctant to risk that, and getting off this planet is what they want anyway.”
“Are you a Navigator? I thought you were the Captain?”
“I know all the jobs on my ship, some better than others, and I’m qualified in most. There isn’t much else to do on these long journeys so most of us train. I get to pick my crew. I pick ones who want to learn it all. That’s good for safety as well as a cure for boredom. Keeps people out of trouble. Keeps them sharp. And it means most of my crew can be out of action and I can still fly and fight.” Dai looked at the gleam in Mahmoud’s eyes. He had hit a chord here. Pity he couldn’t recruit him.
As the evening progressed and people kept socializing, Ludmilla just happened to be passing Sarah and heard Dai ask, “What was your job on Terra?”
Ludmilla yelled for silence. “Hey, everyone! Dai just asked Sarah what her job on Terra used to be. Tell him, Sarah. I want to see the look on his face.”
Sarah blushed. She tried to compose herself and ended up laughing. Dai looked at her and around the room. Every Terran was highly amused or laughing. Now what had he done?
Sarah said, “I used to run an organization called SETI which means Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. We wondered if we were alone in the universe. Personally, I thought although our galaxy seemed to contain only us, in the whole universe it was illogical to assume we were the only sentient beings. In countless billions of stars there had to be intelligent life apart from us. But we had never been contacted before in recorded history although there were legends of people such as yourselves leaving the planet or being kidnapped. I guess I did my job pretty well since I found them, or rather they found us. My team did pretty good too. There are six of us left out of twenty-two. Many survived the actual attack but died trying to escape or rescuing others.”
“Were you the leader of the expedition here?”
“Not at first. I took over. The original leader became the military strategist. He’s gone back to Terra.”
Dai was amused but he also wondered about the leadership. “Was it agreed you changed jobs?”
“No, I decided. He was making a lot of mistakes. He was inflexible. We initially had a little problem with fraud and debt peonage.”
“You were picked up by a slaver?”
“Afraid so. We were a little naive. I caught on to what was happening but he wouldn’t face reality. So I took over.”
Dai thought, what do I have here? This woman gets more and more of a challenge. He chuckled.
Misreading his reaction, Sarah laughed. “Yes, it is a bit amusing. This time a few months ago I never dreamed first contact would be like this.”
Aswin and Kazwa were right, thought Dai. These people are so emotional while we are so reserved. So aggressive while we walk softly. But they are forgiving and don’t seem to hold grudges.
Dai finally called it a night and ordered his reluctant crew back to the ship. Some were hoping to get an invitation to stay, but no such luck. When he heard them grumble, Dai told them they were nuts. “The harder they are to get, the harder it should be for them to decide to dump you. Easy come, easy go. You should know that!” He was highly satisfied with the day’s work. He had got the planet back for the Niseyen.
He turned on the communicator and sent through a message to Military Command with a copy to Medala Parliament and an edited copy to his father, head of the family since his mother died. Then he sent off some other messages which, depending on one’s perspective, could be considered anything from vital to inappropriate to treasonous,. He chuckled as he thought of his family’s reaction and went to bed very satisfied with his day’s work.
Dai’s happiness lasted just over seven hours until a blistering reply came back from the Upper House, the Secretary herself, furious that he had had the effrontery to sign the Treaty himself. The Treaty and signers should have been brought back for them to all sign it here, she told him. Incensed, and not about to be spoken to like that, Dai replied, “It seemed wise to finalize it. The Terrans expected that. A little embarrassing if they changed their minds later. Had you given any thought as to how my ship could have transported large fish back to Medala? Little problem here of insufficient facilities in the cabins.” The Secretary signed off abruptly.
Dai sat there, livid. His crew wisely kept silent. They too were shocked. They had been told to prioritize the Treaty and they had. They felt that Dai’s achievement was made by the whole crew for the Niseyen people. They were nearly as upset as he was.
Everyone’s attitude was somewhat improved when the next response was from Military Command congratulating Dai on a momentous acquisition for the Niseyen of another planet. Dai modestly pointed out, “Aswin and Kaswa Celon were the real heroes and I just signed the codicil the President had had prepared. The Terrans told me they had never intended to cheat the Niseyen and they had organized to rectify the matter themselves. I believe them. I just signed it.”
“What are they like?”
“Not like us. All different colors and different sizes. Aggressive but forgiving. Quick to anger, quick to forgive. Suspicious one minute and over-trusting the next. The way the women smile at you make you think all your dreams have come true, but that’s just how they are. Aswin warned me not to assume they’re like ou
r women. They’re not. They’re bewildering but so exciting. But you must keep alert when dealing with them. One minute they act like us and the next minute you’ve unintentionally really put your foot in it!”
“So you think they are genuine? They are Originators?”
“They could be. They scan Niseyen but are unlike any Niseyen I’ve seen. They are so varied, look like another Race, act differently, think differently, feel differently. But I guess our saving grace is that they are so forgiving. Kaswa told me if you make a mistake, apologize fast. If it comes to a shootout, instantly surrender and they will stop it.”
“Surrender and they’ll stop it?”
“Yes! Kazwa said they over-respond to a perceived challenge. Surrender is the safest course. They stop fighting. Verbally as well as physically, I understand. Not that I’ve tried it yet. Just apologizing seems to do it. I apologized a lot, though. I kept misreading them and expecting them to act like us, but they often don’t. It’s very confusing.”
Dai was much later amused at the two extremes of attitude by his people, both inaccurate, both perhaps looking to their own agenda. But why were the Upper House upset? Because they had been cheated of the recognition they hadn’t earned? He wondered.
Chapter Ten
Kumenoprix sat down and opened Helkmid’s file. A few minutes of reading told him it was about Niseyen, not Keulfyd. It was huge. It was a big enough file for a complete gene map for two people. This had taken a vast amount of work. Weeks of computer time. It must be important. The security here were expecting him now to be frantically working on Cukudeopul’s immune-system problems. Helkmid had marked it urgent and sent it fast. Why did he do that? That had been very costly. Kumenoprix sighed and loaded the file into the comparison program he had developed over many decades of writing following more decades of research.
This would contrast this gene map with one of the ones he had. It would highlight the differences. He had a quick check of the first one marked Donny. The sex chromosome was male, so he loaded it to compare and contrast with Male: Standard. The other was marked Stella. Was this one female? Yes. He loaded it to compare and contrast with the female one he had. The program would automatically spit out any message hidden in the data. This was the most dangerous part so he programmed the message to load straight into another file so he could look at it when it was safe.
The open message accompanying the file was, “I hope this is helpful and let me know urgently then I will reply as soon as I can. Tiejifikee (Helkmid).” Kumenoprix went off to have some food and when he returned the file was marked “Finished.” He looked at the comparison. The particular fertility genes damaged in almost all Niseyen males were undamaged. This male was not only fertile, his genes could provide a Master Copy. His Y chromosome was considerably less damaged than normal, and damaged on different genes. Kumenoprix looked closer and saw that the SRY gene had shifted. And he was male and looked to be fertile! Even better, the total numbers of genes required to turn him into a complete male were obviously still available. That meant the switch to male was no longer on the Y chromosome. He rocked back, shocked.
As his program searched further, he saw that of the other genes needed to complete the change to male, most had shifted onto other, safe chromosomes. This individual, if that change was stable, if it could be passed on to his sons, could ensure the change to male stayed stable and accessible. But even more significant, the specific genes targeted throughout the Niseyen males were intact! How was this possible? Has this man been fixed? If so, how? Who had these genes? Was this a living male? If so, he had his master copy! This was stupendous! There were other differences but he ignored them for now. They were insignificant.
He thought of those researchers who had done this artificially, who had taken all the necessary genes, put them together and done this. Put the package together and inserted it into another chromosome. The change would be stable and heritable if done correctly, if the changes worked, if the baby came correctly to term, grew up and reproduced. This had been done about two hundred years ago but there had been two problems. It had to be done one at a time and the male population had been maybe six billion then. So the experiment had been flagged as too costly and impractical and was discarded. The main problem had been that a lot of the genes were damaged so it wouldn’t have worked well anyway. These genes were substantially intact.
Kumenoprix checked the female. The same! A master copy! The female genes concerned with reproduction, damaged in most Niseyen women, were undamaged! Both these two were not only independently fertile but genetically sound. He reeled in shock. Where had Helkmid found these two Niseyen? Were they still alive? If so, he could eventually do a repair map and load it into the Healing Machines.
He read the message: “Kumenoprix. Pirates attacked Torroxell. Defeated by an Alliance of Races. One Race, unknown, scanned as 99.9% genetically identical to Niseyen, but call themselves Terran. They may be the fabled Originators. Check. I have two Niseyen males here I have treated for infertility with gene blueprints from another of these Terrans. They are both well with no untoward effects but the results won’t be obvious for a few days or weeks. During the fight to regain Torroxell, several of these Terrans were critically injured. I have treated them on Niseyen setting, Military Application, for trauma. They all lived but two especially need more treatment. Can I risk more treatment? Urgent.”
Kumenoprix had spent hundreds of years building up his Niseyen gene map and the comparison program. It was unique. Helkmid was asking him if it had been wise to try to heal these two men’s reproductive genes using a comparison sample to supply the blueprint from this unknown Terran male. Helkmid’s tests all said yes and he had decided to risk it. But were they genetically exactly the same species? No further damage should result for the two infertile males. The worst that could happen was a minor infection or inflammatory response at the site caused by rejection and continued reduced fertility. If two species were more than one percent different, reproduction would be problematic or impossible for some pairs: transplants were possible though rejection was a continual problem. But treating a whole person was entirely a different matter. Were they compatible or would the Healing Machine, on Niseyen setting, be incompatible and damage or even kill his other patients? He ran the program which could answer this question using the comparison.
Within two hours, the answer was in and positive. Same Race. The differences were so slight it didn’t matter and were well within normal variance parameters. Niseyen were extremely close genetically, being 99.9% the same, and these unknown people followed that rule. That meant these people had split off recently. He saw Helkmid had risked Niseyen setting Military Application for the injured males. They must have been dying for him to have risked this. Military Application began the healing, just for the injury, and left everything else alone. It told the body how to fix the injured bits only. By the time the person came out, the blood vessels were sealed, an artificial skin kept body fluids in until healing occurred through it, and fractured bones were bridged with a temporary organic substance called scaffolding cells through which the bone eventually grew. The person was “walking wounded” category. Even unknown Races and animals could be put in on this setting — but there was a limit on what it could heal.
For Helkmid to have added Niseyen setting meant it had been necessary to heal organ damage: the men must have been critically injured. Military Application on its own, without a Racial setting added, couldn’t treat chromosome or genetic damage because it needed instructions. It usually couldn’t fix organs unless the damage was minimal and it could scan an identical organ, for instance scan one undamaged kidney to know how to fix a second damaged one. Where it could see what should be there, it could fix gross injury, but there were risks if it wasn’t programmed for the Race it was trying to heal.
In all these cases, Niseyen setting was fine. Given time he probably didn’t have, he could write the program to put in the Healing Machine to heal the Niseyen Race.
But it would take him too much time. He thought. Maybe not. He just needed to repair the reproduction genes first and could leave the Y chromosome for now. He would work on the female first. The female problem was more crucial.
Oh, how wonderfully ironic, he thought as he sent a horrendously expensive ultra high-speed squawk to Helkmid. “Will work, thank you.” Security would consider that remark appropriate and safe. He chuckled as he thought what Security would think if they knew what the message really meant. To continue the charade he spent time working on his report for Cukudeopul, listing what medical assistance could be provided. He already had one or two ideas and now attributed these to his old friend Helkmid to justify the information he’d received and the considerable sum of money he had just sent Helkmid to pay for it. What he was really doing was getting rid of money that soon would be of no use to him. He was happy Helkmid would use it to start healing the Niseyen. Cukudeopul would probably not live long enough to find out that part of his Master Plan was now in jeopardy. His third intended victim might not go extinct after all.
Kumenoprix had made it his life’s work to find a solution to the Niseyen problem and here it was, given to him — but he now had no time! Something he had worked on for hundreds of years without success. He had trouble concentrating and felt overwhelmed. He was bursting with this news and could tell no one! He had all the programs he would ever need to implement it fast. And they were here, on the planet of the Race that was trying to exterminate them. Was there any way he could send them to Helkmid? How could he get away with it? He sat and thought. What was he risking? His life would soon be forfeit anyway. He was allowed to receive anything. Sending was the problem. How could he do this? And it must not get into Keulfyd hands. If they found it they could use it to try something else against the Niseyen and this offshoot, the Terrans. He wondered how many Terrans there were.
Alien Backlash Page 10
