Six Bits

by Laurence Dahners

  Sander's voice came back on the radio with a tone of sad weariness. "Sorry folks. I don't really need any money from your artifact. I'll hang close for a while to help you out in case any more pirates come to visit, then I'll be moving on."

  A minute later his voice came back on, this time by tight beam laser. I realized that he’d used radio for all of his previous communications so that everyone, including other pirates and belters, would know what was going on. He spoke in a near monotone this time. To my parents, he said, "Bob, Evelyn, I've truly enjoyed the hospitality you provided and my time with your family. You’ve confirmed for me that there really are decent people out there in this ol’ universe. As I said, I don’t need my share of whatever comes from the artifact. But, I'd appreciate your using my 25% in a good cause or donating it to some charity.

  He spoke to my little sister next, “Gen, I hope you’ll always stay as sweet and friendly as you’ve been to me.”

  There was a pause, long enough that I felt disappointed that he didn’t have any words for me. This was even though I thought that perhaps being ignored by the Sandman might be a good thing. Then he said hoarsely, “Jimbo…" and the memory of him singling me out of the family through the emotion in his voice still chills me. He paused again. When he continued, he said "The money from that artifact is gonna make you rich and let you do things very few other people can do. You're young and you’re gonna use the power that money brings you unwisely sometimes.” He sighed, “No one can stop that from happening. But, I want you to try to take some advice from your old friend Sander. When I was far too young to use it wisely, I also got a lot of power and money. I destroyed a million things that meant the world to me by abusing the power that was given to me…” his voice cracked again. “I used the power I had for all kinds of terrible things kid. Things I’m… so ashamed of. Things that drove away the people I loved. Things that ruined the lives of countless good people.”

  There was a long pause. During that time my mind went around in circles about whether I should reply to Sander, the man I’d looked up to for so long, or freeze out the Sandman, a man I thought was vile. I looked at my parents, thinking they’d give me some indication what to do, but their wide eyes made it look like they didn’t have a clue.

  Sander’s voice came back on, “Money and power kid, they’re not all they’re cracked up to be. They won’t make you handsome; they won’t make you tall; they won’t buy you love; they won’t win you respect… If you want to be loved and respected; and believe me, we all do…” His voice became even throatier, “You’ve got to be lovable, and act respectably. I’ve learned to love you Jimbo, like the son I could never have. I’ve learned to admire you and your family for your human decency. I’ve hoped that you’ve loved and respected ol’ Sander… even though no sane human being could respect… the man I used to be. But, if you ever did have any esteem for ol’ Sander, I hope you’ll take this bit of advice—don’t go down the path I traveled."

  At this point, with tears in my eyes I finally tried to reply. I don’t remember what I said. I don’t know if he shut off his receiver or just didn’t want to talk any more, but he didn’t answer me. We beamed and radioed him constantly for a while, but he never answered. He simply loaded a few of his things in his little boat and vectored off a ways. Then, as promised, he waited while we loaded up the alien artifact and followed us a while until he must’ve figured we were safely on our way back to Earth.

  ***

  Sander stopped in to see me once when I was twenty five. He just showed up at the house with a few bulbs of his microgravity beer. I was pretty rich by then and had a massive security system on the house to keep out the unwanteds.

  Of course it didn't stop him.

  I came home and found Sander sitting on my couch. At first I was startled and a little frightened, but then I recognized him. Tears in my eyes, I clapped my arms around him and just held onto him for a while.

  We got a little tipsy on his beer, then went out on the town, me wearing a little disguise to keep people from recognizing me. We sat on the beach for an hour or two, then dropped by the local slum and looked at the school that I’d set up for the kids there. I’d named it “Sander's School” and no one ever figured out why. Sander and I talked for a while with little Joe Brooks, a kid I’d kind of taken under my own wing.

  I called up Mom, Dad, and Gen and we all went out to dinner. You should’ve seen their eyes when they got to the table and recognized Sander. It was simple Italian food, but it was the finest meal and the best time of my life.

  The proudest moment I’ve ever had was at the door just before Sander left.

  "Jimbo," he called me once again, "you turned out well. You’ve always had my love,” his eyes glistened, “now you have my respect." He turned and walked away into the night.

  It’s been twenty years now and I often wonder if he's still alive. I know he committed some terrible crimes when he was young and no one will, or should, forgive him those.

  But, I just want people to understand.

  He did some good too.

  I suspect he did a lot more good than we’ll ever know.

  The End

  Inspired (distantly) by the movie Shane.

  EXCELTOR

  PROLOGUE

  Life, in one form or another, has been around since before the Milky Way galaxy formed. Just as bacteria can be found on almost any unsterilized surface on Earth, once life first started, it populated everything it could grow on. When planetary bodies that life had populated are blown up and spread around by supernovas, the life that grew on them is also spread throughout the reaches of space in the form of sporulated single-celled organisms. These spores drift out of space—alone or on fragments of rock—to begin replicating wherever favorable conditions are found.

  Two common types of self-replicating molecules, DNA and LSA, populate the uncommon, small, liquid-water temperature planets of the Milky Way. Though occasionally both life-forms begin to populate a suitable world, the metabolism of LSA life-forms either require or excrete some quantities of cyanide, while DNA life either requires or excretes oxygen, a molecule which is equally toxic to LSA forms.

  Thus the two life forms are mutually incompatible. Eventually only one form of life succeeds on a particular planet.

  Although the life-forms that evolve on DNA and LSA planets are quite different from one another, both of these molecules tend to repeatedly evolve remarkably similar life-forms on their own planets, similar to the way that Australia evolved many parallel species even though it was separated from Earth’s other continents.

  Additionally, in more recent epochs, intelligent life-forms of both types have repeatedly developed Vinzearian physics, which, using high temperature superconductors, allows the opening of “wormholes” that can connect interstellar distances.

  Intelligent life, using such interstellar wormholes, have repeatedly moved species from one planet to another. Occasionally these movements lead to mass extinctions secondary to the introduction of a particularly virulent microbe. Such events are often associated with a “sudden discontinuity” in the evolutionary record as the newly arrived species take over and diversify.

  Recently (several millions of years), in this arm of our spiral galaxy, there have been several waves of intelligent “humaniforms” on the DNA worlds and “kranes” on the LSA worlds. Using Vinzearian physics, these intelligent beings spread to the worlds that would sustain them. As they did so, they also spread the more advanced, though unintelligent, life-forms from their home planets. Thus, widely spaced planets are frequently populated with closely-related species.

  As incompatible as the self-replicating molecules that they are based on, the intelligent species have repeatedly warred and frequently reduced each other to pre-civilized states. They constantly attempt to procure more worlds for their own form of life.

  Now, tens of thousands of years after a particularly virulent war, humaniforms and kranes have recently burst back on the
interstellar scene. Encounters between them resulted in some initial wars, but then the two different types of intelligent beings established an uneasy truce regarding planets which had already been populated with intelligent life of one form or the other.

  The race is on however, to find planets without intelligent life and “convert” such worlds from LSA to DNA or from DNA to LSA.

  Sometimes, there are disagreements about whether advanced life forms of the other type are actually intelligent…

  THE STORY

  DEEP SPACE — 0.096 LIGHT YEARS FROM SOL

  A featureless, 200 meter long cylinder, 7.1 meters in diameter hung motionless in space. A 7.15 meter diameter ring at one end was its only ornament. The ring suddenly coruscated to arc welder brilliance and shot down the length of the cylinder.

  If a man could have seen past the incredibly brilliant light and through the ring, he would perhaps have recognized by the increased brightness of Sol that the other side of the ring was closer to Terra’s star. In fact, space on the other side of the ring’s wormhole was only 40 light minutes from our sun.

  The cylinder was gone. Just the ring was left, tumbling lazily end over end, glowing a dull red from the energy that had poured through it. Cables trailed back away from the center of the ring, their ends sheared off to a mirror-polished surface where they’d been cut as the wormhole closed on them.

  40 LIGHT MINUTES FROM SOL

  Twenty degrees behind Jupiter, but nearly in Jupiter’s same orbit, a 7.15 meter wormhole flashed into being and a 200 meter cylinder shot out at a velocity that laid it into a relatively stable solar orbit. The “ship” was a dead black structure, foamed out of a nickel steel asteroid in weightless deep space, cut to a perfect cylinder, tunneled into compartments, coated with energy absorptive layers, filled with sophisticated equipment and then named "Exceltor.” Despite its highly light absorptive surface, the incredibly brilliant light from the wormhole ring reflected outward to cast it in sharp detail for a brief instant.

  The other ends of the transected cables from the wormhole ring floated behind the ship for a moment and then began to reel in. A second later the surface of the ship began to sprout an extraordinary number and variety of antennas and parabolic reflectors. These began to rotate in various search patterns, gathering data from across the electromagnetic spectrum.

  BRIDGE—HUMANIFORM CRUISER EXCELTOR—5.2 AU (JUPITER’S DISTANCE) FROM SOL

  0640 Eastern Standard Time (EST)

  The brilliant flash of the wormhole ring was visible on some of the bridge sensors and signaled the shift. Captain Mario Leis whispered. "'Puter, all hands." Then in a resonant voice, he continued, "All right people, look sharp now, this is a new system. If there’re any surprises I want us ready. Azimus, passive system survey, tell us what's out there. Smide get a shift-ring reloaded. We want everything running quietly. Anybody looks our way on any part of the EM spectrum; I want us to look as black as the inner aspects of your souls."

  Leis listened to his station officers murmuring commands with some feeling of awe. He still found it hard to believe that the Exceltor and all these bright young people were his to command. He constantly had the feeling that he was too young for a rank that had only been given him because he’d made a couple of lucky decisions under fire. Still musing, he adjusted his head-ring and watched the image that Azimus was building in the holotanks in front of him.

  The star in the center of the tank was labeled A2, indicating that it only deviated in small ways from those characteristics considered most desirable for human solar systems. Surprisingly, Azimus had already identified three reasonably-sized worlds—P1, P2, and P3—in or near the temperate zone. He’d also identified three gas giants farther out and a belt of asteroids between the two groups of planets. Probably a very rich system. Azimus was weaving and bobbing in his seat like he always did when concentrating. A little weird, Azimus was the best survey analyst Leis had ever worked with. Somehow Azimus used a 'puter in some strange fashion that extracted its very best. When given command of Exceltor and asked what he needed to be able to get the best out of the ship, Leis had insisted that Azimus be part of his crew.

  "Sir! Heavy radio output from P2!" Azimus piped, voice crackling with excitement.

  "Communicator Snellen, get on it," Leis barked. He saw to his embarrassment that Snellen was already murmuring rapidly to her 'puter and that P2 had already been flashing on her display of this solar system.

  Leis looked back to his own display. P2 was now displaying a large moon. P2 was currently at about 130 degrees to the sun while his ship, the Exceltor, lay at 15 degrees. He noted that Exceltor's vector arrow was similar to the other bodies in the system. "Navigation. Nice job of laying us in quietly." The kind of work Leis reliably obtained from Lieutenant Swayze. Leis wished all the personnel in Nav were as good. "Start placing transfer locators around P2. One into low orbit, one into a distant orbit and one for a medium distance, high speed bypass. Also place an escape transfer to P6 farside, eclipsed for P2."

  "Engineering, how long ‘til we can shift again?"

  "Two more minutes, sir."

  "When the new shift-ring is loaded how much of a jump will we have in the accumulators?"

  "Only enough for sixty light minutes, sir."

  "'Puter, display the solar temperate zone and the probable orbit for P2," he murmured. The display filled in a green donut for the temperate zone. It lay just outside the orbit line drawn for P2. As he looked at it the green donut faded and was replaced by a smaller diameter donut, in which P2’s orbit lay pretty well centered. The 'puter spoke in his ear "P2 has a very large moon which has pulled off more atmosphere than most planets that size. The temperate zone has now been adjusted for a thinned atmosphere, secondary to the large moon, with a diminished greenhouse effect." Leis contemplated this new information. P2 would likely have temperatures in the liquid water range, but the thin atmosphere would be hard to breathe. The 'puter had now boxed off a corner of the display for data on P2. This showed a small sphere in light blue with an atmosphere ring in green, indicating free water and an oxygen atmosphere!

  P2 was a DNA world!

  Snellen turned her head to look back at Leis, "Captain, the radio output of P2 is multiple band, modulated. We are dealing with at least late pre-space technology. I would judge from some of the narrowly-beamed frequencies that have passed our position that they were beamed at satellites. The decoder is working on trying to convert to audio, 2-D or 3-D, but it may be a while yet before it works out what modulation systems they are using."

  Damn, Leis thought, such a promising system too. If the decoder hadn't already deciphered the modulation system, it wasn't any known human variant. He whispered to the 'puter to give him all hands, "All hands, this is the captain. We're going to be sitting at silent stations for quite a while. This is an occupied system. Not one of ours, but we’ve found a DNA world with some fairly advanced technology. We've got some analysis time ahead to figure out just who's in the system. Until then we're going to be running quiet.” He turned his head, “Mr. Swayze, you have command. Call me when we have data requiring further decisions."

  As he headed for his bunk, Leis worried about whether the bridge crew would think him lazy for heading to his cabin. Or would they appreciate a break—out from under his eye—a chance to think on their own?

  Common questions ran through his mind. Did the crew respect his achievements, or did they also think he’d simply been lucky? What about some of the crew who were nearly his own age. Should he have screened the crew to eliminate them and their possible jealousies, or did he desperately need their experience?

  He was still mulling these questions when he fell asleep.

  KRANE FLICKERSHIP—LYING IN SOL’S ASTEROID BELT

  0710 EST

  "Lieutenant!" Both of the monitor's head-hands darted around, cilia writhing, eye clusters fully extended with excitement. "I've just picked up a Human shift-flash—size of flash about right for a cruiser—fo
rty light minutes out from the sun, fifteen degrees, on the ecliptic, sir!"

  "Communicator!" the lieutenant said sharply.

  "Yes sir!"

  "Message the flag with that data. Now! Red! Send it with an alarm!"

  BRIDGE—KRANE FLAGSHIP—LIGHT CARRIER XAJION—EARTH ORBIT

  0711 EST

  Commander Kinjie barely noticed the flashing light associated with another incoming message at the small “communications” wormhole array in the rear of his bridge. His head-hands darted around quickly though, when he heard the angry buzz of the alarm. The indicator was lighting one of the cables that connected through 3mm wormholes to the various flickerships he’d deployed about this system for observation posts and survey work. He looked back to his screen as the message played across it. A humaniform cruiser! How could they have known we were in this system?! Coincidence? The krane were well aware that the humans were also working hard to stake out systems in this unclaimed sector of space.

  The claws of all six of his feet were kneading the fabric of his “saddle-seat.” Kinjie turned towards his operations officer. "Have any of our ships shifted or produced any significant EM radiation in the last hour?"

  "No sir."

  Kinjie turned again, "Communications! Red alarm messages, all ships, ‘At least one human ship in system. Do not think it’s aware of us. No shifting. Run quiet. Watch on all passive systems. Await further orders.’"

  "Operations?"

  "Yes sir?"

  "Start locating transfers for two possible actions. One, all ships shift out system to safe rendezvous. Two, all ships shift to saturate area of human ship's probable location.”

  Damn, damn, damn, damn… how could we have such bad luck? Kinjie thought to himself. His left head-hand sank down to scratch the feeding orifice on the top of his carapace as he pondered the options for a while. They couldn't leave a rich system like this just because it was populated with a humaniform race and a single human ship had shown up. Eradication of the primitive humaniforms and other DNA based life-forms on the planet wouldn't be difficult and one humaniform cruiser certainly couldn't frighten a krane light carrier and her escorts. But—and this was a big but—if the human Federation already knew about the humaniforms here and this was a regular visit or part of a larger force he could be in deep diplomatic trouble.