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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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CRIME AND CONSEQUENCES by Thomas Wm. HAMILTON
Set several hundred years after the events in Viewpoints
"The world of Earth having fallen totally under the influence of the Evil
One, the children of the All Father fled in a liberated spaceship. Unacquainted
with proper navigation of such craft, they flew in a random direction for a
hundred days. None knew this placed them in the galactic halo, where nearly all
stars are Population 2, and almost none have planets that can sustain life. Yet
the All Merciful took pity upon his children. When they left their second level
flight, they found themselves less than a lightyear from a star with a habitable
planet. This in a region of the halo where stars averaged close to twenty
lightyears apart, showing what the All-Powerful can do." Parvin looked up from her history lesson as she heard her older brother complaining loudly. He had just turned 18, and had been scheduled to pick up his adult identity papers. Jealously, she wondered what he could have to complain about on such an important day. She turned back to the history lesson everyone knew so well, fearful she might overlook some obscure point that would surely appear on tomorrow's test. Few girls got as far in education as she had, but she was not yet ready to quit.
Parvin nodded to herself. Dilbar was a popular food additive for her people,
but for the infidels, it was a medical necessity which prevented or cured a
number of diseases. And did it not prove the Wisdom of the All Merciful to give
such a valuable plant to his children and not to the infidel? Her mouth was
watering, just thinking about chelo flavored with dilbar. Her brother was still making a commotion. Parvin saw nothing she did not feel
confident handling on a test, so she went to see what all the noise was about.
"You will not go back in nine days, and you will not make any report or
complaint about this," their father was saying. "What's the problem?" Father said, "It doesn't concern you. Go back to your room." Her brother said indignantly, "They gave me an identity card made out to
Rasan Jamsheedi." "Rasan?" Parvin giggled. "If the government says your name is Rasan, then that is your name." "Then why," said the afflicted young man, "have you always called me Rasul?"
"That does not matter. What matters is that you not question what the
government gives you." "I complained as soon as I saw the card, and they told me to come back in
nine days. I intend to do just that." Father turned pale. "We are ruined." He turned to Parvin. "I know you had
hoped to continue your education, but that path is closed. The rest of the
family is destroyed, but I shall try to save you, my daughter and younger
child." "Daddy, what are you talking about?" "Your brother, by never having learned to watch his tongue, has destroyed
himself and the family. But I believe that if we can marry you off quickly, you
at least may be saved." "This is ridiculous." Parvin tossed her head. "I'm not marrying anyone for
several years, and Rasul is perfectly justified in telling them to correct his
name." Father bent his head and sobbed. Shocked by his histrionics, Parvin shook her
head at her brother, and went back to her room to resume studying. A week later Father called her in. "I have not been able to arrange an
advantageous permanent marriage for you, and time is getting very short, so I
have arranged for you to make a temporary marriage to a member of the city
council, Reza Ghormani." "Temporary marriage, and to Ghormani?!" Parvin screamed. Before she could complain further, Father continued. "You will wed him
tomorrow, and the marriage will last two weeks. He has been generous enough to
offer to make it permanent if you please him. Since he only has two permanent
wives right now, I strongly urge you to do what he wants. He does not know about
your brother's impending disaster." "Father, Mr. Ghormani is older than you, in fact he probably is well over
fifty, and he weighs at least 140 kilos. He usually needs a shave, and he smells
disgusting. I won't marry him, not permanently, not for two weeks, and not even
for two hours. I don't even want to have lunch with him." The conversation devolved from that point into the two screaming at one
another until Parvin's mother and brother both heard them and came into the
room. This left the entire family screaming at one another. The next day Rasul went back to have his identity card corrected. They never
saw him again. A small announcement in the government newspaper the day after
mentioned a Rasan Jamsheedi was arrested on charges of suspected subversion for
questioning the validity of official documents and for trying to use a false
identity. The day after that four men appeared at the door. "You are summoned
for questioning by the Righteous Fists of God." Mother said, "Why?" "It is written that the home of a great sinner is likely harboring additional
sinners. You are to be examined." Parvin was out of sight, but heard this conversation. She had seen the
newspaper announcement that was presumably about Rasul's arrest, and had
prepared herself. She slipped quietly back to her room, where she had packed
clothing, some valued jewelry, all the money she had, and a couple other items.
She looked out her window. It did not appear that anyone was guarding the back
yard. She had outgrown such childishness as climbing out her window and down to
the yard when she was twelve, but she still remembered just where her feet went
and where the handholds were. In moments she was in the yard and headed away
from the house. Everyone had heard rumors about how prisoners were questioned,
and as a fifteen year old virgin, she had no intention of permitting such things
to happen to her. Parvin could not use her phone to call anyone for help. She would have been
tracked and arrested instantly, as would the unfortunate she had phoned. Nor
could she walk far as a single young woman. She had thoughtfully prepared for
flight by wearing one of her brother's robes over her clothing, with the hood
pulled low. She headed for the home of some relatives, about five kilometers
distant. Nothing untoward happened as she walked, and when she arrived at the home of
an uncle, he answered the door. She showed her face, and, startled, he invited
her in. She quickly explained what had happened. The uncle had noticed the
newspaper announcement, but, of course, the name Rasan had meant nothing to him,
although he had wondered at seeing the family name of his brother-in-law. "This is terrible news. What do you expect me to do?"
"I will summon Ali immediately. What purchase?" "I need ten packets of dilbar seed. I can pay you the cost." Uncle shook his head, and summoned Ali. Then he went out to get the dilbar
seed packets. Ali was quickly told of the problem. He wept, saying "What can I
do for you, my little cousin?" "You still have a job loading cargo at the spaceport?" "Yes, but that doesn't give me the power to make you a passenger." "No matter. We will place me in a cargo crate going to the infidel worlds." "All cargo is weighed repeatedly. Your extra weight would show up
immediately." "Then we will have to take out enough cargo to make up for my weight. We
would have to remove cargo anyway to make room for me in the crate." "This idea is mad. How will you live among the infidel?" "At least they will not turn me over to the Righteous Fists of God because my
brother's name was recorded incorrectly." Gradually Parvin beat down all his objections, in large part because Ali
recognized that not fleeing the planet was a certain death sentence. By the time
his father had returned with the dilbar seed packets, Ali and Parvin were
preparing food packages for Parvin to live on while concealed. Uncle said, "What
do you want with the dilbar?" Parvin replied, "My father had some property northwest of the Demavand
Mountains. I will go there and raise dilbar until it is safe for me to return." Ali stared at her, but made no comment. Instead he said, "Father, I will take
her someplace they are less likely to look for her than a relative's home, if
that is agreeable to you." "Yes, yes, go now, with my blessing." He clearly would be delighted to see
the last of Parvin. Ali took her straight to the warehouse where he worked, and from which
spaceships were loaded. "You must understand, we do not have ships leaving every
day. You may have to hide here for as long as a week." "This is dangerous. How do I avoid being caught by your co-workers?" "There really is not a great chance of that. We will prepare a crate for you
now. The warehouse is generally empty of people except when cargo is being
brought in, or when it is being removed just before launch. I'll check the
schedule when we get there to see when the next launch is due." It turned out that Parvin would have to wait four days before a ship left for
the infidel worlds in the galactic plane. Ali picked out a crate labeled for
delivery to one of the wealthiest of the infidel worlds, Elodea. This allowed
plenty of time to hollow out one of the largest cargo crates with enough space
for her and some food, water, and her belongings. Ali left her working on this,
while he hurried back to his home. He got there just before the Righteous Fists
of God arrived, looking for Parvin. Parvin managed to avoid discovery for four days. On the last day she was
hidden in her crate, surrounded by the succulent odor of dilbar when she felt
her crate being lifted and moved. She assumed it was being placed in the hold of
a spaceship, but she could not avoid a small fear that perhaps she had been
discovered or betrayed, and she and the crate were being moved into a prison.
Fortunately that fear was wrong. She felt the thrust of the spacecraft
launching, and its motion through space, building up to its shift to second
level flight, where it would be moving about one lightyear every hundred
seconds. This kept her in the cramped space for eight days, after which she
again felt rockets thrusting as the ship descended to a planet's surface,
presumably Elodea. Following a wait of several hours she felt her crate being moved. Parvin
allowed hours to pass, hoping that she would be in a warehouse at night when she
finally left her crate. She pushed against the weakened paneling Ali had left
for her. It dropped open. She crawled out, and turned around to bring out her
few possessions. The room--warehouse?--was quite dark. She could see a faint
glow around the edge of a door off in the distance. She started to walk towards
it. Lights came on everywhere, and a voice boomed out something in a language
she did not know. Parvin froze, then looked for somewhere to hide. She was
surrounded by stacks of crates, neatly arranged into rows, so neatly, in fact,
that there seemed to be no nooks or crannies to hide in. She was on a foreign
planet. At some point she would have to make herself known, and hope they would
not return her. She stood and awaited her fate. Two men came into view, walking cautiously. As soon as they saw her, they
stopped. One said something. Parvin replied, "My name is Parvin Jamsheedi. I do
not understand your language." The men looked startled. They held a brief conversation, and one gestured for
her to follow them. Since they were not yet acting particularly hostile, she
followed them, keeping about four meters between herself and the men. They came
to a door. Opening it, they entered. Parvin paused at the door, and saw a fairly
harmless and ordinary looking office. She entered also. One man smiled to her
and motioned towards a chair. She carefully sat. As she relaxed slightly, she
examined the men. If women's garb on Elodea varied as much from that at home as
men's did, the moment she left the warehouse she would have been spotted as from
off-planet. The men both wore shamelessly close fitting pants, one gray, the
other brown. Their shirts were different in detail, but both were flamboyantly
colored. One man had a small close fitting round cap on his head. This one held
up a microphone connected to a computer, and spoke. "David." He pointed to himself, and said something ending with "David." The other man then pointed to himself and said, "Harold". Taking a guess at their meaning, Parvin pointed to herself and said, "Parvin.
My name is Parvin Jamsheedi." The computer said something that sounded like "Indo-Aryan", followed by more
remarks she could not understand. For the next few minutes she and David
exchanged words for chair, computer, door, wall, and the like. Suddenly the
computer said, "Can comprehisible this for thee be?" Parvin was delighted. "Your accent is terrible, your grammar pathetic, your
vocabulary weird, and your word order wrong, but I think I can understand." The computer spoke in the other language. David said something which the
computer translated as, "Our language processor communes Farsi dialect dating
centuries four separated. Agreeth you?" Parvin hesitantly said, "I think so." "Please to name planet home." "God's Victorious Warriors". David raised his eyes, and after a moment's pause Harold laughed. Parvin didn't know if she should feel insulted or bewildered. However, the
computer was still learning her language, so she said, "What's so funny?" David said, "Most planet names come Earth mythology from, or history and
geography, or literature and science fiction of before space flight." Harold added, "Odd names like yours be sign bad. Government type of what is
yours?" "I don't understand. Type of government? The laws are made by the Council of
God's Agents, and they are enforced by God's Righteous Fists." Both men looked totally appalled. Harold said, "A theocracy! Yuck." David asked, "How are the members of the Council chosen?" "The Defenders of the Faith approve candidates, and the faithful vote." David looked at Harold and shook his head. Harold said, "Where is your planet
located?" "We are taught it is in the galactic halo, but beyond that, I don't really
know." "Let's try the data base. Computer, coordinates and data, inhabited planet,
God's Victorious Warriors." The computer said, "Precise location unknown. Believed located in galactic
halo roughly two to six thousand lightyears from Earth. Settled during great
expansion following general release of knowledge of second level flight when
Mulvey's secrecy was cracked. Estimated current population one hundred to five
hundred million. In trade relations with three planets of the Federacy, Elodea,
Alamo, and Tien Hua. 99% of all exports dilbar. Other exports are religious
materials. Imports primarily high technology, specialized medical, and security
equipment." "Why am I not surprised at that last one," David muttered. Harold said, "Why did you leave your home planet?" Parvin explained about her brother's legal problems. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but that's his problem, not yours, so why did you
leave?" Parvin told how her father wanted to protect her, despite the family's
ruination, by having her make a temporary marriage. She added that she was
certain her father's efforts would have been futile. All they would have
accomplished was to get Ghormani's family arrested. By this time the computer
was having little problem translating, and its accent was near-perfect. Thus it
clearly carried the views of both men to the suggestion of temporary marriage.
Their comments got even nastier when she mentioned her proposed temporary
husband was over three times her age. David said, "You clearly should qualify as an eligible refugee. I might even
be able to get the congregation of my synagogue to sponsor you. But you'll have
to learn, at a minimum, the galstandard language before we can enroll you in
school. Did you bring many possessions with you?" "Just the clothing and some jewelry that was easy to carry, and ten packets of dilbar seeds."
David added, "She may not need a sponsor. Just arrange an auction of the ten
packets. However, Parvin, you are a minor, so there may be some legal nonsense
you will have to go through, but it's said that money cures most problems." Temporary housing was arranged for Parvin, while an auction house was found
which could handle the dilbar. This attracted a fair amount of attention, given
dilbar's history as an import from an unaffiliated planet of unknown location.
However, the auction house ran interference, and the rare reporter who got past
them only found David or Harold, neither of whom revealed Parvin's existence,
fearing her home world might have secret agents on Elodea. The auction brought
enough money for Parvin to live on comfortably for several years, including
private schooling until she knew enough galstandard to enroll in a regular
school. Parvin had always been a quick study, and within a year was placed in a
regular school, her galstandard good enough to permit her to start catching up
in a number of academic areas she had little or no background for, such as
galactic history, a remarkably altered version of pre-spaceflight Earth history,
and the sciences. But word came back that the purchasers of dilbar were
complaining because their seeds would sprout, and then die. To avert some nasty
lawsuits, Parvin had to meet with representatives of the purchasers. David
accompanied her. David began the meeting, "I want it clearly understood that this meeting is
being held subject to complete secrecy. Under no circumstances are you to reveal
the name of the person who was the source of these seeds, or how she came to be
in possession of them." One of the group stood up. "In that case, I'm leaving now. You're asking us
to give up our rights to sue for recovery and damages before we hear a word.
We'll see you, Mr. Katz, in court, and we'll get all the information we need
from deposing you in open court." "No you won't, Ms Fracher, because I'll accept contempt of court before I'll
answer any personal questions about the supplier." "Please," a man on the far end of the table said, "let's hold off on the
nasty stuff until we at least hear why all the secrecy." This drew a number of mumbled assents. Fracher sat back down reluctantly.
David Katz drew a deep breath, and then said, "Alright, I guess you are entitled
to hear this, just remember, if this gets out, this young lady" he indicated
Parvin, seated next to him, "will be the target of an order of execution." He
then explained how he and Harold had discovered her in the warehouse when she
set off motion detectors, her inability to speak galstandard, and her
explanation of why she had fled her homeworld. Its name drew several muttered
comments. He ended by explaining that dilbar was native to and cultivated on her
homeworld, and she had brought the ten seed packets with her when she had fled.
Several people asked questions about her reasons for fleeing, and that
explanation drew louder comments. Finally, Fracher spoke. "Since I was the first to object to this procedure, I
guess I should also be the first to accept the conditions, based on what you've
claimed. But if I later hear any of this was untrue, we'll be in court." "Fair enough", David said, "now let's try to figure out why your dilbar isn't
thriving." A man seated nearby said to Parvin, "Young lady, does dilbar require a
special soil?" "No, it grows wild all over, except near the poles of our planet." "How long is your planetary day?" She was ready for that one. "About 23 and a quarter galactic hours. And our
years run about 310 of our days." "Do you have moons creating odd tidal effects?" "We have two small moons, but their effects on tides are just about
unnoticeable." "What's your planetary obliquity?" "Excuse me, my knowledge of your language still is not perfect." Fracher looked contempt at the man who had asked the last question. "Never
mind, dear, few people would recognize that kind of jargon. How much is your
planet's axis tipped over?" Parvin thought for a moment. "I'm not certain I remember exactly, but I think
it's just one third of a radian." That drew some whispered discussion. Finally someone asked, "Don't your
people use degrees to measure angles?" "Yes, but somewhere along the line I remember some of the religious training
made a point of a third of a radian being part of the proof of the All-Merciful's
grace upon us." "Do you remember the exact mix of gases in your planetary atmosphere?" "No, but I still have a container of water I had brought to drink from while
hiding that I've never opened. You can have it to check." This drew excited comment, and a bit of argument over who was best qualified
to get the container to check. Once that was settled the questioning continued. "What is your star's spectral type?" "I have no idea. We learned that the halo is mostly Population 2 stars, and
such stars rarely have habitable planets, but the whole O, B, A, F, G, K, M, and
et cetera classes, those we never heard about." "Do you know your planet's distance from its star, or the star's size or
temperature?" "No."
"No. I've been reading some astronomy since I've learned your language, and I
suspect that we were deliberately kept ignorant, just to make it harder to find
our planet if we ever did manage to escape." A woman who had not been actively participating looked up from her laptop.
"Based on your comments on the length of day and year on your planet, it goes
around your star a lot faster than most inhabited planets do. There are
basically two possibilities. Either the star is extremely massive, or your
planet is relatively close to the star. A massive star would have a relatively
short life span, which seems totally out of character for a halo star. But to be
close without being too hot, the star would have to be small and cool, which in
any case is true for most halo stars. I've been playing with some numbers here,
and it looks to me like your star could be a K8 or thereabouts on the Main
Sequence. Any cooler, and the light received would begin to be noticeably
inadequate for terrestrial-derived crops, and most such stars have frequent
flares. Just which such crops were common on your world?" Parvin thought for a moment. "I don't know where any of our foods came from,
but foods that were common that I've seen on Elodea include rice, maize, wheat,
several kinds of beans, bananas, apples, oranges, peas, spinach, onions -" "Enough! Clearly terrestrial plants have no problem." David Katz said, "We aren't really trying to find her planet, just determine
what about it is unique to encouraging dilbar. Does knowing the star is
approximately K8 help?" "Well, insolation should be a lot lower. Maybe dilbar is too sensitive to a
high insolation to survive. Also, K8s have a somewhat different spectrum. I'd
think that unlikely as affecting dilbar, but who knows?" "So," concluded Katz, "you have at least two possibilities, not counting
synergisms between them, to check." "Not so fast," said a man who until then had been silent. "If nothing is
found, then what?" Katz shrugged. "I guess you still have the right to sue." "Damn right we do. I just wanted to be certain that was clear." Within weeks word came from several of the firms that had bought the dilbar packets, indicating that it was in fact the insolation factor which was killing the dilbar. Arrangements were quickly made for initially growing it in shelters, and later it was expected that some planets orbiting late K type stars would be major sources. All talk of lawsuits was dropped, and Parvin's identity remained known to very few. That night she set up a small altar in her bedroom. Next to it Parvin placed
a clear cup of water, a candle, and some photographs. She recited the prayer for
the dead, inserting at the appropriate place the names of her father, mother,
brother, her cousin Ali and his family, and after a moment's hesitation, Reza
Ghormani and his family. When she was done, she stared for several minutes into
the candle. Finally she let herself go.
To be continued in Beyond Space...
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