The Strange Taste of Metal: John Spark, #1 by K A Burgess

Author:K A Burgess
Format: epub

20: Nerves And Blood

John sat back on the couch with his cold oatmeal and his tab, to diarize events. Kaia checked in on Boyd. John could hear her talking to him quietly. He sounded restless and disoriented and complained about pain. She reassured him that the sensation in his finger was a good sign, that the nerves were knitting, and gave him another painkiller. Either she had impeccable bedside manner, or her attitude toward him had mellowed a little. Then he heard her slide up the bench to take the genetic sample culture from the hull, out of its cabinet.

He wondered again why some alien race had left a bag of DNA at a Lagrange point. Even allowing for the different worldviews, technology and whatever else of their respective species, it seemed a bizarre method. On the one hand, the Lagrange point was a logical place to keep something in stable orbit for a long time. That was why the University had chosen to put its satellite there. On the other hand, the mine was a pretty clunky way to share information. The aliens must have been technically advanced to create the message and put it there, so why such a hit and miss delivery system? And why put it in orbit around an uninhabited planet like Aemilia?

Perhaps it wasn’t inefficient, so much as covert. But who was the information for?

Phelps reheated his breakfast and sat down opposite. “Hey Phelps, if you were an alien and you wanted to send someone a secret message, why would you use a ball and some elaborate DNA code, and not an encrypted beacon?”

Phelps shoveled in a mouthful of scrambled tofu and moved it around thoughtfully in his mouth. “Maybe so I don’t leave any electronic signature. Or a solid ping on radar.”

“Makes sense.”

“Why DNA, though?” Phelps asked. “Why not write the code on some kind of data storage and put that in the sphere? Plenty of ways to make a virtually unbreakable code that only the intended audience can read.”

“The volume of information? Concern about the tech getting corrupted?” Kaia called. “Could be a whole library in that sample and we’ve only glimpsed page one of the first book. And DNA describes life. I think the messenger could be describing something to do with life, even though it’s not the blueprint of a specific life form. Or doesn’t appear to be.”

“So,” John said, “we have an information source that’s deliberately hard to detect, but in a location that’s kind of obvious, using complex code, possibly relating to life, in a low tech delivery vehicle. The info is more like a dummy test, rather than something impossible to decrypt. That makes me think the info is for a type of audience, rather than a specific one.”

“Or to exclude a particular type,” Kaia said. “Big Brother.”

“Do you think they’re still around?” Phelps asked. “That we stumbled onto an illegal alien deal of some kind?”

“I think you watch too many B-grade movies,” Kaia said, moving to the table and sitting in front of her gluggy oats and curdled coffee.

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