Another piece of literature, posted for Mara Jade and her bad day. (Mara Jade, there's more today!)


Veronika dug through a pile of papers in a small house in Colorado. The people who had hired her said that the owner wouldn't be returning and that the house needed to be cleaned to be put on the market. So she found herself sorting through a deep stack of papers. Another fifteen pages of names and addresses shoved off to the side and she saw a worn, blue journal.

Since she suspected that the owner had died and therefore, wouldn't mind, Veronika cracked open the plain, scuffed cover to reveal the first lined page, filled with a dizzying amount of small, complex squiggles and lines that must have been some language, but she couldn't identify it.

Checking to make sure she was alone, Veronika slipped the journal into her purse. Whatever it was, it might be interesting, and she'd bet good money that her friends at the Denver university of Would Culture could tell her.

*-*-*-*-*

"Dan!" Veronika called as she hurried down the university hall to her friend.

One of the men walking down the corridor turned around and smiled. "Roni, long time, no see. What's up?"

Walking beside him, she pulled the journal from her purse. "I was wondering if you could tell me what language this is."

"Sure." Dan Strauss gently took the small book in his hands and carefully opened it then stopped walking, staring at the strange marks. "Uh," he muttered, engrossed in the apparently foreign literature, "you want to let me in on any details? May I use a lifeline?"

She smiled. "I don't really know anything about her, but everything else in the house was written in English."

"Then maybe this is still English with some strange code substituted in," Dan suggested.

"So you can solve it?" Hope filled her voice as if the journal might hold the secrets of the universe.

He shrugged. "Might. Mind if I make a copy?"

*-*-*-*-*

A week. An entire seven days to determine that the journal's script didn't match any known script on Earth: ancient, modern, or otherwise. He stared down at his copy of the first page with his head in his hands. The longer he stared, the more he noticed that one particularly dark symbol recurred many times on that page. It kind of looked like a rounded x that didn't touch in the middle. Another appeared to be an upside down t and another an upside-down a.

After figuring out all those symbols, he noted that some looked to be backwards. Another seven deciphered symbols...

*-*-*-*-*

It took Dan another week to decipher the remaining symbols for a total of twenty-four different marks, but after a quick run to the campus library, he met Veronika at a local Burger King.

"It's intriguing; each symbol corresponds to a letter in the alphabet and displays the same distinct characteristics as that letter," he explained, an absurdly large grin growing on his face.

"And?" Veronika prompted. "What does it say?"

He looked down at portion of his decryption. " 'Natoru jeta Sarah Anderson.' "

She stared. "So it is another language."

"Egyptian. Ancient Egyptian, but it doesn't match very well with An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary; all the vowels are off."

"Can you still read it?" She leaned forward in her seat, munching a fry.

"Yes, but it's going to take some time," he answered. "And can I have a copy of the next two pages?"

She nodded. "Of course."

*-*-*-*-*

Almost a month later, the two once again met at Burger King, in an isolated back corner that, despite having as many windows as the rest of the building, managed to remain fairly dark.

"Now, this is odd," Dan said. "The first sentence is in English, but the rest is in ancient Egyptian with English and some unidentifiable words every here and there."

"That's strange. So what's it say?"

He looked down at his notes. " 'The personal journal of Sarah Anderson, written in 2013.' "

"As opposed to what? A public journal?" Veronika interrupted.

"Maybe. It continues, 'I have encrypted this account in my code and... go-oold... for a couple of reasons.' "

"At least she tells you why you had to work so hard," Veronika pointed out.

Dan nodded. " 'For one, much of the information mentioned here is classified--' "

"Classified!" his friend repeated. "You mean this is top secret stuff?"

"Yeah. Just listen: 'though I learned much of it about a month after I turned fourteen.' "

Her eyes widened. "Fourteen? So she basically grew up on this classified information. I wonder how..."

"It gets better. 'Besides, this information could be enough to lead to the destruction of my home planets. I use the--' "

Veronika's eyes widened again. "But if she's from Earth and that could lead to the destruction of her home planet, then... But... Wait a minute, is she even from Earth?"

Dan sighed. "Will you just listen?" His friend nodded earnestly. "It says, 'I use the plural for the simple reason that I can mean more than one.' " Veronika's face scrunched up in confusion, but she remained quiet. " 'Both of the antecedents included in this use of I are from different--' listen to this: 'species, organizations, planets, centuries, and backgrounds. However, no matter how different we may seem, we have things in common. We both live within a boundary, which I call my skin.' "

The two remained silent for a bit before Veronika exclaimed, "Ew! So she's got a time-travelling alien inside her?"

"Apparently."

"No wonder she's dead."

"She might not be."

"How do you know?"

"I don't," he answered. "It's just a guess. Should I continue?" She nodded enthusiastically, suddenly even more interested in her find than she had been at first. " 'Admittedly, it was strange at first, but now, ten years after we met, I'm quite used to it.' "

"Aliens have been on Earth for the past ten years and hardly no one suspects it anymore?"

He shrugged. " 'Vinnet, on the other hand, is still adjusting to the circumstances under which we live. For hundreds of our years--' "

"Hundreds?" Veronika repeated.

"Yes, hundreds," Dan replied. "That's what it says. 'For hundreds of our years, she could speak whenever she wished, but now her free speech has been curtailed for the benefit of others. She may say whatever she wants, but she often refrains. I find it strange that we live in a land where everyone supposedly has a right to free speech, yet everyone does not encompass every sentient being but every human being, which Vinnet is not.' "

"Hmm. That's interesting."

"It gets better. 'Already, I have mentioned secrets that have been kept for good reasons. If anyone decodes this before the Stargate program becomes public knowledge, I've made the biggest mistake of my life.' "

"Stargate program? Have you ever heard of it?"

"Nope. So this is apparently the biggest mistake of her life." He looked to his notes again. " 'If this isn't my biggest mistake, you might as well read it; I won't be around to fret.' "

"Maybe we shouldn't read any more," Veronika suggested. "If this is all classified and this Sarah Anderson or the government finds out, what are we going to do?"

"We read on, see if we can be of any assistance to them. I mean, she obviously didn't thing anyone would decode that. We may have some redeeming qualities."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"I'm bigger and more intimidating, as well as smarter and more handsome, than a cat."

"Yeah, Tybalt, brains and brawn gonna keep you from the law?"

"Sure. So may I continue, oh, Great Worry Wort?" he joked. She rolled her eyes and nodded reluctantly. " 'Now, where to begin?' "

"Right where you left off, smartie."

"No, that's what it says."

"Oh."

" 'I, meaning Sarah Anderson only, have the pleasure of knowing that some would say I'm of the... Tow-rii... The word, of which the adjective is Terran, comes from the Latin word terra, meaning earth. Therefore, Towrii are the people from the firstworld, Earth.' "

"Bit of an English buff, huh?"

He nodded. " 'All that really matters only if someone is trying to make a distinction among humans based on where they are from, which would also communicate the level or kind of technology involved, what they believe, and, most importantly, whether it is safe to go to their planet. No, I take it back. All that really matters only in reference to Earth, which, as others have said, is not the center of the political universe, as we tend to think.' "

"We know that."

"I think she's speaking metaphorically. 'No, all that matters mostly in reference to the Go-oold definition of Towrii: pesky humans from a protected planet with primative but effective weaponry, and who won't buy into Go-oold enslavement tactics anymore, the worthless pieces of scum. But understand that that is their interpretation, not mine.' "

"That's interesting. What's it say next?"

"That's all I've got translated."

"You had a month!"

"But it's like having an English to Russian dictionary to translate Russian words in the Greek alphabet. It takes time. I was lucky to get so much done."