Darkworld: Earth

25.

“I understand that you want to help, but I actually think that this is one instance where the Yonohoans need to step back a little bit, Eolai,” Diego said, sitting across from the man as they played a game of chess. Eolai was fascinated by the game.

And he was also already better than Diego was at it.

“I am grateful that your captain has decided to make an opportunity for the people of your crew to introduce themselves to the people of my world, but I do not understand why we can’t simply put the recordings on the Rocktalas so that all might enjoy them,” Eolai objected.

“It has historical value for us Earthlings,” Diego explained. “You have to realize that most of our entertainment devices did not have the means to store large amounts of information until relatively recently in our history.”

Eolai looked up at him, frowning. “I see. I suppose I hadn’t considered that would be a problem. How did your people overcome it?”

“Well, eventually we established the internet and we used that to stream whatever information we wanted from the servers where it was stored,” Diego admitted. “But before that, we used good old fashioned radio waves. It’s really no more complicated than the two-way devices we’ve been using to communicate with you guys. It’s simpler in fact. A guy talks or sings into a microphone that converts the sound into data. There’s a broadcast tower which puts it into the airwaves. Then there’s a receiver that’s connected to a speaker. And that’s it.”

“And the performances were not recorded or stored in local media at all?” Eolai inquired.

“Sure they were, some of the time,” Diego admitted. “In fact most of radio transmissions were of previous recorded musical performances rather than live ones. Most often the ‘live’ part of the performance was the disk jockey who talked to the audience about the music, or made announcements. Sometimes they talked about local events or global politics. Radio was a very widespread way of spreading information and coming to understanding.”

Eolai nodded, then moved his bishop, placing Diego into check. Diego sighed and surrendered, knowing that he was only three moves from mate.

“I see. Unfortunately I don’t believe that my people will have enough time print out the devices they will require to hear the broadcast in the time frame that your captain has allotted,” Eolai lamented.

“Yeah, I get that. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t record the performance, Eolai. We recorded the radio all of the time back in the day. But I think that the first performance should be a live performance. Let it be limited by light speed. I think it’s okay to use a ‘booster’ to help translate it into a live performance that people can enjoy. But the people on my ship are putting together these performances in the hopes that they’re listened to the way that we’re broadcasting them, rather than being chopped up and divided by category and topic,” Diego explained.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Okay, so, let’s see. There’s like six astrophysicists aboard. But they’re not going to go back to back and talk about astrophysics like they’re lecturing your children, Eolai. Well, one of them might. But mostly I think they’re going to talk about their childhoods, their schooling, the way that it felt growing up on Earth. On a Darkworld where we had no idea that there were Humans anywhere in the universe but the planet beneath our feet. They’re going to talk about how they looked up into the sky at night and wondered what was out there. They’re going to explain how they studied science looking for meaning and answers, and how that path led them to the here and now.”

Eolai was silent a moment. The chessboard reset, and Diego had made his move and was waiting for two moments before Eolai spoke again.

“You are correct. That is a performance that is worth hearing in its original format, Diego.”

“I don’t think all of them will do that, however. Instead I think it will be mixed up. They’ll play their favorite music, and then between songs they’ll talk to your people about the song, or their pasts, or their present, or their hopes for the future,” Diego said.

Eolai made a move. It wasn’t a standard opening move for any of the common strategies, but he was just a beginner and had yet to master the advanced strategies.

That was fine. Diego hadn’t played chess for years and he was plenty rusty.

“I will do my utmost to ensure that my people are given the opportunity to hear the broadcast in the way that it was intended to be encountered,” Eolai said. “And I will also endeavor to ensure that they appreciate the significance of it’s uniqueness.”

“Thank you, Eolai,” Diego said, moving a pawn.

“The truth is, Diego, that my people have a historical tradition which has a similar purpose. The radio is very similar to one of the uses of the Rocktala. There is a way to put the device into write many, read once mode. With that mode, the device will record the transmissions which strike it indefinitely, but they will only ever display the message one time. It takes a forensic bypass to overwrite that mode,” Eolai said.

“Okay,” Diego said. “So we have some common basis to help your people understand what we’re doing.”

“Perhaps if we use the Rocktala to explain it to them, they really will understand,” Eolai said, and he stood up. “Let us go try.”

Diego blinked as the holographic chessboard vanished. “Right now?”

“I believe so, yes. The sooner we commit the transmission to the airwaves, the more time my people will have to come to understand the meaning and prepare for your Project Radio Tower. It will drive interest in the project and your people even further than the furor that is already bubbling just beneath the surface,” Eolai explained.

“Okay. So I don’t even really know what a Rocktala is. I’m worried that I will mess up your ancient tradition,” Diego said, following Eolai through the ship.

“I cannot give you the words that you must say,” Eolai admitted. “You must say what you think and feel in the moment and nothing else. Be honest and formal, but that is all the advice I will give. Our words will be recorded by the Rocktala and broadcast to the universe itself, so make certain that you are prepared to stand by your actions in the next few moments for eternity.”

“Okay. When do we start broadcasting?” Diego asked, speeding up to keep up with the excited Yonohoan.

“I already have, Clansman Diego,” Eolai said. “Come, let me show you one of the ancient traditions of my people.”

They reached the bridge, and Eolai pulled the device that he kept on his wrist off and tossed it onto the floor. Above it appeared the hologram of a crackling fire.

“We would sit around a fire at night. It would be just a man, or a family, or a clan. And we would tell each other stories. About the world as we knew it, and as we thought that we knew it. Those were some of the happiest memories of my life. Today the Rocktala serves that same purpose.”

“Our people have a very similar tradition, Clansman Eolai,” Diego admitted. “In fact, we continue to practice it to this day. Often when I was growing up I would go camping in the wilderness with my father and my brothers. When dark fell, we would start a fire to keep the cold away, and we would sit around and look at the flames. Sometimes we would talk, but often we would simply roast marshmallows or hot dogs and enjoy the company of each other.”

“In many ways those were simpler days, before we understood the ways that the universe truly worked,” Eolai said.

“Childhood is a simple time, Clansman Eolai,” Diego said. He hoped that he was doing right by inserting the title after Eolai had used it before his name. Eolai hadn’t told him to stop after the first time he had used it, but he had specifically said that he couldn’t give Diego the words for whatever this ceremony was.

“Your words are wiser than you know. Your Captain Ji-eun, who was born into one family and raised in another, once spoke of the difference of ignorance and innocence. What are your thoughts on that distinction, Clansman Diego, Rank Sergeant, of the family Cruz?”

“Innocence is the default state of a person. In my society, when a crime has been committed, there is a presumption of innocence. In order to punish the person whom is believed responsible, there must be a criminal trial to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are guilty of the crime,” Diego said. “I am not certain if that is the direction you meant for me to take, but, well, you told me to speak my mind. I believe that innocence is the default state of everyone. We are ignorant, but it is a clean ignorance. We do not choose to be innocent, we simply are. And until we are shown that there is another way of being, then we can be nothing else.”

“You were born in a dark world, Clansman Diego,” Eolai said. “Will you tell me of the days of your innocence?”

“Of course, Clansman Eolai,” Diego said, and he began racking his head for tales from his childhood to tell.

So he started at home, with his mother, father, and abeula. And, of course, his seven siblings. He named them each and shared small details about them, from the way that his abeula always smelled of cinnamon to the fact that his younger brother had a large red birthmark on his bottom which he was often teased about until he took the joke and made it a point of pride.

He spoke about how, before his father passed, they would go out into the yard and his father would help him look through the telescope that he’d gotten for his eighth birthday. He remembered his first glance of Jupiter, the largest gas giant in their solar system, as vividly as if it was yesterday. How he dreamed of becoming an astronaut and breaking the lightspeed barrier.

He told about his crushing defeat when he was told that the Tunnel Drive had been invented twenty years before he was born, but kept as a classified technology that the public wasn’t allowed to know about. So he’d changed his mind, and he’d decided that he was going to be the astronaut who set the record for going the absolute furthest from Earth that anyone has ever been before.

He talked a bit about girls, about his first kiss, his first serious girlfriend, and his first real heartbreak. He talked about his first job. About joining the airforce. Volunteering for classified missions which he was not allowed to talk about. Volunteering for the mission which brought him aboard the Seeker of New Discovery.

And finally, he talked about how he had gambled his life when the alien ship that they had met had made a request for him to dock. He spoke a long time about the fear and uncertainty that he had felt when he had disembarked to see row after row of aliens which looked ferocious and able of ripping him apart. How he’d been afraid that he would die a terrible death, only for the Topokans to suddenly run away in fear, to be replaced by Eolai.

“And, well, I guess you know the rest,” Diego said. “I am pleased that you allowed me to talk this, Clansman Eolai. I do not know how many people will hear this, but it is good to tell people about the life I have lived so far.”

“That is what the Rocktala is for,” Eolai said. “It began as a tool of war, but it is that no longer. Not to the Yonohoah. To the Yonohoah, the Rocktala has always symbolized peace and understanding.”

“I am glad to have met you and have you name me a clansman of the Yonohoah, Eolai. Thank you,” Diego said.

“Would you be more than my clansman, Diego?” Eolai asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Would you be my brother?”

Diego blinked in surprise. “I already have brothers and sisters back on Earth.”

“I accept your family as my family. The bonds of the family we choose are as binding to me as the ones which are chosen for me. No, they are more binding,” Eolai said.

Diego paused as he considered this turn of the conversation. “I do not truly understand what you are asking of me, Clansman Eolai.”

“That is okay. I am asking you for no more than you are willing to give me,” Eolai assured him. “All I would ever ask of you is that if a time of strife threatens my children, that you would do anything in your power to shelter them. That is all.”

“In that case, yes, Brother Eolai. I will become your brother.”

“Thank you, Brother Diego,” Eolai said. “My children all live on Planet Totola. It relieves me that you will protect them, for I have sworn to never again set foot on that world.”

“I have no children on Earth,” Diego said. “At least, none that I know of,” he chuckled. “But I do love my brothers and my sisters and my mother and abeula, who are still alive.”

“I vow that if is ever in my power to shelter them from the cruelty of this universe, that my body will break before I allow them to come to harm,” Eolai said.

“Thank you, Brother Eolai.”

“I think that we have said enough to the Rocktala for tonight, Brother Diego,” Eolai said. He waved his hand, and the holographic fire vanished from between them.

“Is that it?” Diego asked.

Eolai began to laugh until his face turned purple.

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