by John Foster
One of the most important aspects of Soshi culture that Quinn learned was that the Soshi had expanded their galactic holdings for almost 1000 years and then suddenly stopped. To Quinn this meant that territorial expansion was not a genetic imperative as it was for the human race and that meant peaceful coexistence was possible. The unanswered question was why they stopped after successful expansion. In response to that question, the Soshi looked puzzled and said they had enough of what they needed. They indicated that expansion was often sparked by the depletion of what they called birthing locations and the need to replace them. The Soshi preferred to give birth on particular planets that contained certain environmental parameters. When a Soshi decided to give birth, a process they initiated themselves, they would travel to a planet and at the proper location would implant the energy essence of their child into a nest like cocoon where the baby would crystalize and form. In a few short days, the child would be large enough to be removed and the residue of birth would melt into the place and add to the birthing location. The Soshi said that certain locations were better than others and that in favorable locations the child would be smarter and stronger.
West had not been allowed to interact or even be seen by the Soshi but as visits between the two races increased, he agitated to meet them. His father listened patiently after one particularly long and earnest discussion and agreed that West could be introduced but only after his father felt the conditions were right. What conditions and what was construed as ‘right’ were left unsaid. A meeting to discuss trade earlier in the day had ended in failure when the Soshi evidenced no interest in Terran goods or technology. Their maddening response was that they didn’t need anything. They weren’t quite apologetic but could see that the Terrans were distracted by the response. They agreed to meet again to revisit the issue but held out little hope that their opinion would change.
It was obvious to Quinn and the rest of his crew that these discussions were of immense importance to the future of earth. Soshi technology was far more advanced than that of Earth. Even a modest decrease in travel time for the Terran ships would provide the means for an accelerated exploration of the stars and increase the efficiency of colonization and delivery of depleted minerals and elements from distant planets.
Science Officer Dean Xan and Quinn had met with the two primary representatives of the Soshi, one Demal and the other Zemar, both of whom they had met with on numerous occasions. The two Soshi were polite but remained firm about the issue of sharing their space flight technology. Quinn had stepped out of the meeting and found West waiting for him in the hallway.
“How’s it going Dad?” asked West.
“Hmm..., not terribly well. They’re very polite but don’t wish to share their space vessel technology with us and that would be terribly helpful to our exploration, trade, and colonization of the galaxy,” said Quinn.
“Do you think I could meet them?” said West, his face beaming with excitement.
“No, I want to stay focused on this issue until it’s resolved,” said Quinn firmly, his hand resting on West’s shoulder.
“You know dad, it might be good for you all to take a break and a good way of doing that would be to introduce me to them. They’ve never seen a younger human before,” said West.
“You’re not that much younger,” said, Quinn, looking amused.
Xan who had joined them started to nod his head. “It might be worth a shot. We’re at an impasse as it is,” said Xan.
Quinn continued to shake his head negatively. “Possibly later. I have a few other ideas I want to try on them,” said Quinn.
West could see that further argument would not help, nodded his head and asked if he could meet the aliens when the meeting was over. Quinn reluctantly agreed and then started to return to the meeting prompting the auto door to open and stay that way as another crew member delivered a message to him. It was this crucial timing of the open door, and the delivery of the message that would change the history of Earth. West, not knowing how long the meeting would go on had taken out his HDA and started to play some music to pass the time with. As his father had taken the message and started into the conference room, both aliens had risen and walked to the door where the Terrans were standing. Zemar and Demal were both staring at West, their eyes bright with interest.
“What is this creature?” said Zemar pointing at West.
Quinn smiled and stood aside and putting his arm around West, brought him forward. “This is my son,” said Quinn.
Seeing them look perplexed or what he presumed was confusion, Quinn continued “A younger human,” he offered.
Demal continued to stare at West as did Zemal.
“What kind of sound is that?” said Demal pointing to the HDA.
“That’s what we call music,” said West, holding out his hand to Demal.
Demal stared blankly at the proffered hand and did not hold out his own.
“They don’t share our custom of hand shaking,” said Quinn to West whose face dropped a bit.
“Oh, okay, my pleasure to meet you,” said West, his hand dropping while looking at the two aliens.
The aliens continued to stare at West but were obviously interested in the sound emanating from the HDA.
West seeing an opportunity, raised the HDA up for them to see and asked if they would be interested in listening to other types of music.
“Other types?” asked Demal.
“Sure, we have all types of music,” said West, a smile forming, prompting the aliens to slightly recoil.
“Why does he show his teeth and flex his mouth?” asked Demal.
Quinn, taken aback, said, “We call that a smile and it is usually meant as a friendly gesture.”
“Ah, interesting, you use facial expressions as a means of nuancing your language while we use changes in our skin coloring around our heads.
The two aliens gathered around West and putting their arms around his shoulders brought him into the conference room leaving Quinn and Xan staring in delighted bewilderment at the strange turn of events.
“You guys smile too?” asked West.
“Smile? No, not as you do, although I will try,” and he gave a somewhat macabre semblance of a smile.
“Oh, we smile all the time when we are happy,” said West looking doubtfully at Zemar’s lingering smile.
“Happy? What makes one happy?” said Demal.
“Well, music for one thing,” said West holding up his HDA and turning up the music for them to hear.
West sat back in his captain’s chair musing on how far earth had come since those fateful days. The Soshi had not known music nor anything like it. The music that West had shared with them had been like a hypnotic drug for the Soshi and while they ultimately did not part with the hyper drive technology, they did agree to share other technology and knowledge of other systems and planets that were outside of their territory. It was during these discussions that the Soshi had revealed another important piece of information. There were alien ruins on the planet that the ship they were in circled. This news thrilled West since this was a place where his skills as an archaeologist would shine. No longer was his profession “a waste of time and useless” as some of his contemporaries had sarcastically put it.
The aliens, pleased at the reception this information provided their new-found friend, insisted that he accompany them to Contact to view the ruins they had found in their survey.
West was the first human to travel in a Soshi ship and he was quite taken with the honor that had been afforded him. Xan and two other human crew also accompanied them. As the tour of the ruins of Contact proceeded West was surprised that the Soshi had not ever attempted to study or understand this previous race of beings or any other past culture they had encountered. Their response was the same as always, that they had no need to do so. West pointed out to them, things like music might be lying at their feet if only they would pick it up and try to understand it. They nodded patiently and somewhat patronizingl
y which made West understand that he had a lot to learn about aliens and their thought processes.
West and Demal spent a lot of time together on Contact discussing their respective cultures and customs and a bond of trust was developed. Quinn erected a small encampment on the outskirts of the ruins that the Soshi had first showed West. There, West and one other crew member, Volkum, who was a science student from Turkey, were allowed the time and luxury of doing the first human interplanetary archaeology.
Volkum had volunteered for the work, having known West from previous trips, and he had some interest in history and past cultures on earth. West, Volkum, and Demal spent many days on Contact exploring and studying the ruins. On their departure, Demal said to West, “I hope that our stars will cross again and that one day I may show you my home planet, and my modest home.” West, grateful, handed Demal his HDA, and said, “I would like to give this to you, so that you can enjoy our music, and remember our time here.” At that, they parted.
“We’re arriving in System B, Captain,” said Theo.
“Thank you,” said West looking at the view screen as it came into focus.
“Sensors?” asked West.
“Nothing Captain,” said Madison from behind him at her console.
West pressed a button on his chair arm and spoke into a small microphone that popped up. “Leda?”
“Yes, West?” said the voice of Leda from the speaker in West’s chair.
While Leda was a member of the ship’s crew, he had never been able to get her to call him Captain. He had mentioned it once and she laughed at him saying that her husband was her only Captain and she didn’t call him Captain either. While not quite understanding this, he didn’t object or argue with her.
“Please send a message to Converse HQ and tell them our location and that we are in transit to an unknown point,” said West.
“Unknown point? What does that mean?” asked Leda.
“Tell them we’re investigating a new lead for some ancient alien technology,” said West.
West nodded his head to himself. That should satisfy them for now and they would leave him alone. The Converse Interplanetary Systems Corporation had long ago, and with commendable foresight, decided to provide West with the Paradig to both scout new worlds and mining opportunities. More importantly they wanted him to find ancient alien technology which was proving to be more valuable than the mineral wealth they uncovered. The devices that West and his crew had found were exciting and had led to some revolutionary breakthroughs in both medicine and robotics. Once Converse saw the practical utility of the artifacts, they sought out the best scientists with knowledge of engineering and metallurgy and gave West freedom to hire his laboratory support staff, which is how Madison had been hired. West had initially opposed the extra scientists but quickly realized that he would need help understanding the function of many of the items they encountered and that Converse was a superior source of knowledge and personnel. “Smoke signal sent,” said Leda.
“Acknowledged,” said West smiling.
Madison had been one of the first three scientists that Converse had agreed to hire, although West had found her himself. Having met at a science fair she had been a quiet person but was animated and excited about alien technology and how she could reverse engineer the artifacts they recovered. She had, without any permission or discussion, developed protocols for handling the items safely and the processes for de-constructing them, without damage to the artifact and, even more importantly, to the crew. She was so confident and had so much common sense that it didn’t take West long to decide that she would be his Chief Science Officer.
“Theo? What’s our next stop?” said West.
“We should be hitting Delta B in about 30 minutes and then we should have about 12 more hops before we hit our destination,” said Theo.
“Very good, let’s take advantage of this down time and take a look at the skeleton,” said West. He then looked to Leda and said, “Would you care to join us and offer your cultural guidance and insights for the burial.”
Leda hesitated a moment, then said, “I would.”
“Madison and Thomas, come with me and we’ll start a preliminary analysis and see if our friend has any secrets.” The others nodded and followed West to the Laboratory which was just off the cargo bay. The corridor echoed with their footsteps and since there was no active excavation ongoing, the place was deserted. The lights automatically turned on and the computer systems became active.
“Thomas if you would do the honors?” asked West.
He nodded and slid open a large metal drawer. Inside was a large metal box with sensor scan security. Thomas placed his hand over the sensor and there was an audible click and the lid jarred slightly. An undercarriage popped out and the sides of the box dropped forming a table while a hanging snake light dropped from the ceiling and dangled within a few feet of the top of the box. There was a faint but noticeable scent of age in sharp contrast to the almost hospital like antiseptic smell of the laboratory. The lid retracted into the wall and the skeleton was exposed on a foam bed that prevented the elements from moving. The entire skeleton had been laid out as it had been found. Remarkably, they had found it to be very clean and not much effort had been needed to prepare it for analysis.
West looked to Leda, and said, “Would you like to offer your thoughts before we begin?”
Noticing a questioning look from Thomas, West said, “What we do as archaeologists is about science but that doesn’t mean we don’t have other obligations to the living,” and looking down at the burial, “and the dead. That means we seek to show our respect in the best way possible. Although Leda is our communications specialist, she is also our cultural advisor. Her ancestors were dug up in the early years of archaeology and treated as artifacts and not with the respect that they warranted as people. That’s why archaeological teams always have cultural advisors on board to ensure cultural sensitivity and proper respect.”
Thomas bit his lip, and then said, “With all due respect she isn’t one of these aliens.”
West nodded his head, and said, “It’s a manner of intent and we’re well aware of the lack of linkage but having a cultural survivor balance our goals with respect and honor signals our commitment to the science and the culture. You see, each skeleton has a story to tell and that information is sometimes the only means of telling that story. In the past those stories were obliterated and the history of a culture was lost forever. One of our goals is to not let this happen again.”
“So, if one of the three-eyed people were around, we’d consult with them?” asked Thomas.
“Yes,” said West and with that he turned to Leda.
Leda bit her lip and her eyes turned downward as she looked over the burial. She turned towards the burial and bowed her head. She took a deep breath and bowed her head farther and started speaking in her language in a slow fashion. After speaking for a minute, she raised her head and nodded to West.
After a moment, Leda turned from West and took a seat nearby her hands folded in her lap.
West watching her, turned to Thomas and told him to start the scans.
Thomas took a small hand scanner from a nearby drawer and started to follow the outlines of each of the elements of the skeleton, with particular attention to the metal tipped fingers.
While West stood, and watched, Madison had turned to one of the computer monitors and watched the flow of data from the scanner.
“Hmmm...,” said Madison.
“What’s up?” asked West.
“The bones are remarkably similar to humans and in fact they’re almost a perfect match to ours.”
“Well, with some obvious differences.”
“Yes, there’s that one additional eye and the metal finger tips.”
West turned on his HDA and tuned it to the scanner feed and watched it intently.
Madison looked up from the monitor and turned to West, and said, “What or who do you think it was?”
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p; West looked up from his HDA and turned to her, and said, “Hmmm... I’ve been pondering that.” He rubbed his chin and then folded his arms across his chest and rested his chin on his right hand, and said, “I think the skeleton was meant to do three things, one, catch our attention that something important happened there, two, it was critical that we find the disc and that we pay attention to it, and three that we find the pictograph panels.”
Madison cocked her head to one side, and looking up at West said, “But who was the skeleton?”
“I don’t know, but it was clearly an alien from another planet. It also raises the question of who buried the creature; and where are they? It’s my guess that the burial itself is a pointer or sign post that leads us to the disc and, by the nature of its inherent strangeness, tells us the disc is important.”
“So, you’re saying that the skeleton is just to get our attention?” said Thomas who had paused and was looking up from the scanning, his eyes arched with a slight frown as he pondered what was said.
“Well, in one way, but there is much more to it than that. Likewise, the placement of the burial in the narrowed part of the tunnel was meant to encourage us to find the pictographs and interpret their meaning. To even find the pictographs would suggest that they envisioned a level of technology that wasn’t present to the population of people that inhabited Terra at the time the burial took place, and in essence, they were expecting to wait for us to find it.”
Madison, looking down suddenly brightened, looked up, and said, “The skeleton, if it had been found by earlier people, would probably have scared off anyone that came across it accidentally.”
“I agree,” said West, “it would have been its own security system.”
After a couple of hours, the scanning and data collection was completed and West told them to start the computer analysis of the data. Thomas put away the scanner and as he was about to close up the skeleton, Leda stepped forward and asked West, “would you mind if I spent a little more time alone with the being?”
