by James Octavo
“We'll know for sure if he's dangerous, when the material is translated. What strange sounds he makes. I'm not even sure if our computers can handle it.”
“Don't worry. They included more than enough to translate,” he says as he examines the material.
Meanwhile, Dan is escorted to a room with bright gadgets and an examination table. For hours, they put him through diagnostic machinery similar in function to those in our own hospitals. While examining, they bring in pictures of thousands of natural phenomena from stars and planets to atoms. They encourage him to say each object into a small machine, including pictures of everyday objects similar in function to those on earth.
He realizes he was to be the link with the written material sent from Earth.
“Cup. Light. Star.” They even encourage him to use whole sentences while he speaks.
He wonders if his is how Native Americans and Europeans talked when they first met.
Finally, after twelve hours of working on his language, they escort him to another room. He notices all the material sent from his world on tables still being examined. Another of the aliens adjust a large machine even as others pull him to it.
One of them then talks into the machine in his own language and out of the machine came: “Experimenting. Experimenting. Can you understand us?”
“Yes! Yes! This is ssttt (incredible). Can you understand me?”
Most of his words came out the machine in their language, but there was static in places for which a word had not yet been translated. They could see from his face, he astonishment though.
“Yes. We can talk with you through the machine. What is the sstt(soul-active) purpose of your journey and how did you get here?”
“We of Earth ask, why do you attack our world?”
“We know nothing of your people. Your world is unfamiliar to us.” a confused official says.
“I know I've been sent to the source. It's your planet.”
“I'm sorry but I really don't know what you're talking about. We are a peaceful people,” he says and looks at the others, shaking his head.
Maybe they don't know, Dan thinks.
It could be some secret operation of renegades of theirs. Then, he tries to explain.
After describing the appearing crystals and how he walked through the doorway to the source of the objects, the aliens look startled.
Chapter 7 – Ground Zero
“No, this can't be! Ondoe! Sub-radio over to Sector 7. Tell them to check out the landfill planets, and report back immediately.”
“Now we know what has happened, visitor,” he says and sits down.
“As any advanced society, we have great sewage problems. We recently solved it with devices capable of removing solid waste out of unsorted raw sewage and convert it to crystalline shapes. This is sent to uninhabited planets.”
Dan remembers engineering attempts to vitrify nuclear wastes, sealing them in glass.
“But these shine like precious gems to our people. Why not keep them?”
“They mean nothing to us. Our women love the rare gems we call rainbow rocks.”
“But how did they end up on our world?”
“Apparently, there's a flaw in our `doorway machine' and it transmitted the sewage to your planet.” Dan starts to gag but holds himself.
“You've used our planet as a waste dump? How? If you switched the receiving point accidentally, wouldn't the stuff end up in interstellar space instead of on another planet?”
“You would think so. But nonetheless it happened.”
Before he could ask another question, the sub-space radio crackles and the alien responds angrily in his own language. Then he spends minutes more talking with those in the room and over the radio. Finally, he grins and approaches Dan.
“Yes, it has happened as described. No sewage crystals reappeared in twelve days. We didn't know since we have no people on those barren planets.
“But how did it end up on our planet? Think of the odds against it.”
“Our computer experts figured that out also. We’ve developed an astronomical database of star systems with planets that may support life. Our astronomers placed the third planet of your system into the database.”
“That would be my home,” Dan says.
“Sooner or later we would have explored your world, though we discovered 200,000 other prospects on the database.”
“So many? Your telescopes can clearly see solar systems?”
“Yes. In great detail.”
Dan remembers astronomers on Earth can now do the same.
“Anyway, a computer specialist working on the landfill project also worked on the interstellar life search team. He helped design systems for both projects. To keep things simple he used the same file structure for both systems. He made changes to the computer controlling the sewage doorways. When reinstalling the system, he accidentally installed the life search database for your quadrant instead of the landfill database.”
“You mean he accidentally put the wrong flash drive in?”
“I'm sorry. I don't understand your words.”
“Never mind. Continue. I think I understand what happened.”
“Since they had the same file structure nobody noticed the mistake. Twenty other worlds may have been recipients of our mistake.”
“Will you be able to stop the process?”
“Yes, we're working on it now. We’ll turn off the machines until we reinstall the correct data base. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about the ones already sent to your world.”
“Why did the objects appear in different locations?”
“We didn’t want to accidentally create singularity events. There could be black holes made if we teleported crystals inside of crystals, inside of crystals. Thus, we spread them out over the planets.”
“Ah. You cleared that mystery.”
“I apologize for the ones we already sent.” The alien bows his head and closes his eyes.
“I can’t speak for our leaders. But, as long as no further harm happens to our people, I don't think they’ll be angry.”
“How are the crystals viewed?”
“Some will throw them away. But most will probably see them as gifts. By the way, with these doorways and astronomical tools how many civilizations have you discovered? How far are you from our solar system? I hope you're within our galaxy.”
The alien starts laughing.
“Oh, yes. The material you sent shows you're right in our neighborhood. You’re only 400 light years away. And we've discovered seven other civilizations in our searches.”
“That many?”
“Yes. Oh wait. This can’t be right.”
“What?”
“I’m not sure if I’m supposed to tell your people…”
“Tell us what?”
“Did a branch of your species go extinct around 30,000 of your years ago?”
“30,000? Hmm? Yes. I think that would be the people we call the Neanderthal. It was one big mystery. Why?”
“We have a story to tell you. But my supervisor says not to say anything further.” (author’s note: See the ebook ‘The Legend of Lor’s Lost Tribe’).
“You can’t say anything more about it?”
“Sorry. We can’t.”
“Hmm? But life is very common in the galaxy.”
“We believe life is very common in the universe.”
“Wonderful. I guess you use those doorways to travel across star systems instead of spaceships.”
“Yes. We have ships. But there’s no need to travel the depths of the oceans in order to cross them.”
“Will you keep the doorway to our world open?”
“Only if your people want it. We would like to learn of your civilization and to maintain contact. But we can send you back home and close the doorways, if that’s what they wish.”
“You’ve shown yourselves to be good people. I think we would want to continue contact with your people also.�
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“I think we'll be able to do better then that for gifts to your people. Once we get you home, after we've shown you some of the sights of our world, how do you think they'll respond to becoming interstellar trading partners?”
“As long as it’s no longer sewage crystals.”
“Ha! You have a sense of humor too.”
“I think we'll respond fine to that gift,” Dan says as he smiles and offers his hand in friendship.
Afterword and Other Titles
This story came out of articles I read on nuclear scientists efforts to surround nuclear waste in glass. I wondered if people in the future would accidentally stumble on it and want to touch it. I wondered if efforts to recycle materials such as iron, copper or plastics could lead to contamination and expose the public to it. So I used the saying “All that glitter is not gold” to drive the story.
The author notes referred to two stories I wrote with links to this one. The first took place 30,000 years ago. So how could it link to today? It’s a science fiction mystery.
The following is part of the first page.
“The Legend of Lor’s Lost Tribe”
We lived in peace for so long. Can our tribe be in danger now? Lor wondered this as he climbed to the top of a cliff. Looking at the horizon while the setting sun lit the valley in reds and purples, he saw bright lights looking like slow moving shooting stars near that horizon. Those illuminations and the recent attack his father witnessed brought him up on the cliff. Would he see the attackers as his father did? The lights which seemed to follow his people and the attack felt like bad omens of things to come.
He prayed the bad omens wouldn’t happen, and for the healing of his father, still in pain. He waited on the cliff until the night sky replaced the twilight. But the attackers didn’t return, so he left feeling confused. Where are they?
However, as he walked down the hill, he heard the rustling of leaves. He stopped. Was it the attackers? No. But it was something deadly as he looked at the bright eyes of a large cat piercing the darkness.
“Oh no. Not today.” He lifted his spear, but it was too late. The tiger leaped up and used its front paws to bring Lor down, scratching his arm. Lor felt the cat’s breath as the giant teeth were about to clamp down.
Lor noticed a wound on the cat’s shoulder, so he bit down on it. The tiger roared out and jumped off.
“I don’t like to eat cat. But I’ll make an exception if you don’t stop.”
Lor stood up, recovered his spear and began to poke the cat.
“Go away kitty.”
It roared again and refused to back off. So Lor lifted his spear to make a fatal blow. But hearing squeals from the brush, he paused.
“Mama cat? No wonder.” Lor smiled, looked at the tiny faces shivering at him, stepped away from them, and the cat returned to her cubs. He felt his bloodied arm and placed leaves on it to ease the bleeding.
He walked from the cave cliff to the valley where his tribe’s dwellings stood, made of huge mammoth bones and skins. Approaching his family’s, he added tree branches to a campfire near it. Inside, he saw his lady Beth applying herbs and water to the bruised leg of his father.
“How is he?” Lor asked her.
“How are you?” She looked at his bloodied arm. “What happened out there?”
“I just played with a cat.”
“Really? Lion or tiger?”
“Tabby.”
“Liar.” She smiled, removed the leaves and placed herbs on it.
“Ow. Don’t press so hard. So how is he?”
“I think he’ll be alright. But he does sound feverish, the way he’s talking.”
The next linked story is
“When Is A Video Game No Game”
A young game developer invents a new form of Virtual Reality which empowers him, but also causes chaos. Here is a scene from the book, illustrated by Sherry Leak.
Now stressed by the actions of his co-worker, he drives to a park instead of going home. Sitting in his car, he again puts on his high-tech helmet, lowers the visor and turns on the black box. He feels himself bounding through the city like an acrobat.
He hops over parked and moving cars, jumps on the girders of a bridge and walks easily across. He climbs the roofs of tall buildings, enjoys the views and jumps the gap to other roofs as real Parkour runners would. “This is insane. It feels so real. My heart is pounding. It’s like a roller-coaster.”
After ten minutes of it running, he shuts it off.
“Wow. Exhilarating. I feel the energy in my arms and legs. Will what happened before still work? I’ve got to try.”
He puts the devices under his passenger seat, walks to a picnic table and sits down.
“This looks like a good place to test it. Will this work again? Or was it a fluke?” He looks at rows of empty picnic tables and parked cars and stands on the picnic table he’s sitting at.
“Now for some real fun,” he yells out, looking at the park vista.
Still standing, he puts his arms in the air and cartwheels on the picnic table and jumps up, leaping to another table. And another and another, and begins jumping like a gymnast from one picnic table to another.
After a few minutes, he changes direction and leaps to the roof of a parked car and another, until he accidentally sets off a car alarm.
“Whoops.” He jumps to the ground and stops.
“Maybe I should’ve tested its effects on me somewhere else.”
Some people playing baseball notice the commotion and point at him.
“Hey, look at the punk,” one of them yells out. “What’s he doing to our cars?”
They stop playing and chase him when he runs away. He sprints faster, but trips over himself as his panic increases. When they almost catch up with him, one takes a swing with his bat, but misses when he hops up.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Jimmy yells while still jumping. However, a second swing of the bat smashes his leg.
“If you even put a handprint on my car...”
“Ow. I would clean it,” Jimmy says while wincing in pain.
“So stop. Come over here.”
“Forget that. Never mind,” Jimmy says and leaps back.
He almost falls, but flips over and manages to escape, bounding off into the woods. However, they continue to chase him. He runs in a zig-zag fashion and heads further into the forested darkness. He makes one last leap near a large tree and lands six feet off the ground on a large branch.
“Where’d he go? I don’t see him,” one of the pursuers say. “It’s too dark. Let’s forget this and play ball.” They all leave and head toward the baseball diamond.
“How is this possible?” Jimmy wonders. “How did I end up here? My virtual reality machine is a lot more than VR. What did I really invent? I need to figure out what’s happening and come up with a different name for it.”
Jimmy waits several hours until the park empties before leaving and driving home.