Starburst

18

A SINGLE KAON, WHICH CARRIES ONE UNIT OF "STRANGENESS" and not much else, is not very significant, but trillions of trillions of them were spearing through space between Alpha Centauri and Sol. They moved in an orderly train twenty billion miles long to their calculated rendezvous, and for the first few years of their journey they had little to do. It was not until they reached the Solar System that they found suitable targets. It was heavy elements they sought: a few pockets of mineral on a satellite or two, a handful of exceptionally dense and far-ranging asteroids, the surviving nuclear power systems of some forgotten exploratory spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter and floating between Earth and Mars. Each was bathed in the gentle kaon stream. Each kaon found a neutron of the proper resonance deep inside a radioactive nucleus, turned it into a lambda particle, threw out a pion, and settled down to separating the nucleus into less troublesome fractions. The radionuclides began to melt, and the bulk of the stream continued inward, toward the Earth, where Dieter von Knefhausen, among others, was puzzling over the announcement of their coming.

The message was clear enough in its way, which is to say it wasn't in code. But the language was Chinese.

It had been translated, of course, but to Dieter von Knefhausen, shaking his head over the twentieth rereading, it was still Chinese:

Ref.: CONSIX T51/11055/*7 CLASSIFIED MOST SECRET Subject: Transmission from U.S. Starship Constitution.

The following message was received and processed by the decrypt section according to standard directives. Because of its special nature, an investigation was carried out to determine its provenance. Radio-direction data received from Farside Base indicate its origin along a line of sight consistent with the present predicted location of the Constitution. Strength of signal was high but within appropriate limits, and degradation of frequency separation was consistent with relativistic shifts and scattering due to impact with particle and gas clouds.

Although available data do not prove beyond doubt that this transmission originated with the starship, no contraindications were found.

On examination, the text proved to be a phonetic transcription of what appears to be a dialect of Middle Kingdom Mandarin. Only a partial translation has been completed. (See note appended to text.) The translation presented unusual difficulties for two reasons: One, the difficulty of finding a translator of sufficient skill who could be granted appropriate security status; two, because (conjecturally) the language used may not correspond exactly to any dialect but may be an artifact of the Constitution's personnel. (See PARA EIGHT, Lines 46-54 below, in this connection.)

This text is PROVISIONAL AND NOT AUTHENTICATED and is furnished only as a first attempt to translate the contents of the message into English. Efforts are being continued to translate the full message, and to produce a less corrupt text for the section herewith. Later versions and emendations will be forwarded when available.

TEXT FOLLOWS:

1 PARA ONE. The one who speaks for all (Lt-Col 2 Sheffield H Jackman?) rests. With righteous 3 action comes surcease from care. I (identity 4 not certain, but probably Mrs Annette Marin 5 Becklund, less probably one of the other three 6 female personnel aboard, or one of their de- 7 scendants) come in his place, moved by charity 8 and regret. 9 PARA TWO. It is not enough to study or to do 10 deeds which make the people frown and bow 11 their heads. It is not enough to comprehend 12 the nature of the sky or the sea. Only through 13 the understanding of all can one approach wis14 dom, and only through wisdom can one act 15 rightly. 16 PARA THREE. These are the precepts as it is 17 given us to see them. 18 PARA FOUR. The one who imposes his will by 19 force lacks justice. Let him be thrust from a 20 cliff. 21 PARA FIVE. The one who causes another to 22 lust for a trifle of carved wood or a sweetmeat 23 lacks courtesy. Let him be restrained from the 24 carrying out of wrong practices. 25 PARA SIX. The one who ties a knot and says, "I 26 do not care who must untie it," lacks foresight. 27 Let him wash the ulcers of the poor and carry 28 night soil for all until he learns to see the day 29 to come as brother to the day that is. 30 PARA SEVEN. We who are in this here should 31 not impose our wills on you who are in that 32 here by force. Understanding comes late. We 33 regret the incident of next week, for it was 34 done in haste and in error. The one who 35 speaks for all acted without thinking. We who 36 are in this here were sorry for it afterward. 37 PARA EIGHT. You may wonder (literally: ask 38 thoughtless questions of the hexagrams) why 39 we are communicating in this language. The 40 reason is in part recreational, in part heuristic 41 (literally: because on the staff hand one 42 becomes able to strike a blow more ably when 43 blows are struck repeatedly), but the nature 44 of the process is such that you must go through 45 it before you can be told what it is. Our steps 46 have trodden this path. In order to reconstruct 47 the Chinese of the I Ching it was first neces48 sary to reconstruct the German of the trans49 lation from which the English was made. Error 50 lurks at every turn. (Literally: false apparitions 51 shout at one each time the path winds.) Many 52 flaws mark our carving. Observe it in silence 53 for hours and days until the flaws become part 54 of the work. 55 PARA NINE. It is said that you have eight days 56 before the heavier particles arrive. The dead 57 and broken will be few. It will be better if all 58 airborne nuclear reactors are grounded until 59 the incident is over. 60 PARA TEN. When you have completed rebuild61 ing send us a message, directed to the planet 62 Alpha-Aleph. Our home should be prepared 63 by then. We will send a ferry to help colonists 64 cross the stream when we are ready.

The above text comprises the first 852 groups of the transmission. The remainder of the text, comprising approximately 7500 groups, has not been satisfactorily translated. In the opinion of a consultant from the Oriental Languages Department at Johns Hopkins, it may be a poem.

/s/ Durward S Richter Durward S Richter Maj Gen USMC Chief Cryptographer Commanding

Distribution: X X X BY HAND ONLY

Knefhausen had almost read the spots off the blue-bound flimsy when his jailors came for him and escorted him, no, rushed him to the room where Murray Amos was waiting for him. "Explain that garbage!" Amos commanded. In spite of everything, one had one's pride. Although he was shaking with fatigue, and perhaps with more than fatigue, Knefhausen moved precisely to the center of the room, peering down at the President's assistant as he sat behind a steel Army desk. "My duty is to the President," he said steadfastly. "I wish to see him at once." Murray Amos had fatigue of his own, and perhaps it had made him more reasonable. He sighed. "Oh, Knefhausen," he said, "do you think I don't know that? The President is—not very well. I am carrying out his instructions." He glanced up curiously and frowned, for the lights were flickering. "I do not have much time," he said to Knefhausen, "so come on, boyl Give us a break."

Knefhausen hesitated, but what choice did one after all have? "Very well. I can of course tell you little that is not apparent. Have you complied with the instructions and grounded all nuclear aircraft?"

Amos's eyes narrowed. "Not questions, Knefhausen. Answers!"

"Very well. But what is there to say? 'Heavier particles' no doubt refers to some sort of nucleides, for what purpose I cannot conjecture, although from the reference to 'dead and broken' one may suspect—"

"And I don't want to hear what you suspect, either! I want you to tell me—oh, damn the lights!" They had gone out completely, and only a faint sunset glow through the shuttered windows let them see each other.

In the old heart of Dieter von Knefhausen a thrill of both fear and excitement struck. He watched Amos stab at buttons on his desk, and swear when there was no response; and then, howling with surprise and pain, wrench his wrist-watch off his arm and hurl it to the floor, rubbing the scorched skin.

Knefhausen could not know just what had happened; he had no instruments; he had been through too much for his wits to be entirely about him; he was too tired and perhaps too old. But he could observe the results as the kaons struck, and could guess that it was the end of radioactivity on the surface of the Earth.

Fortunately the kaons did not penetrate very deep. If the nucleides at the core had broken apart the planet could not have survived it. But he could see that much had broken apart already, of what little in the world he had known had managed to survive.

There was a noise at the door, and an Army doctor burst in. "The President!" she cried. "The life-support system isn't working! His signs are flat!"

Knefhausen nodded thoughtfully and walked over to a chair. "I think," he said, "there is now no longer a need to speculate at what it is that is coming to us, for it has arrived."