Lost in Translating

Los Angeles, California
United Nations of America
Excavation Site 0292, Pit C
Year: 2571

Alejandro Ruiz slid his finger across the digital output monitor diagnostic bar. It flashed a logarithimic graph whose shape pleased the archaeologist. He moved on to the next digger. The eight auto-sifters arranged in a circle on the southeastern corner of Pit C hummed almost noiselessly breaking down layer after layer of rock, sediment, and concrete. Its rotating anti-electron funnels broke apart molecular bonds with the gentleness of a fine brush but the speed of hot water dissolving ice. The pure elemental byproducts were sucked up into the sifter's gaping mouth and stored in vacuum packets according to atomic weight.

Ruiz was about to microadjust Gamma Digger's coolant levels when a co-worker, Mikhail Vrenz, an archaeological engineer working another set of eight sifters twenty meters away flagged him down. Vrenz jogged over, excitement gleaming from his normally sleepy eyes.

"Alejo! Alejo! Come, you have to see this!" (Note: They speak "Spanese", an evolved mixture of Spanish and Chinese, tracing back to these two dominant languages emerging from the 22nd century).

Ruiz grinned, dropping the datapad in his hand down to his side. "What is it this time, Mikkey? Another dat phone with contact lists of girls long since dead?"

Vrenz's face screwed up like he'd bitten into a lemon. "No, no, none of that this time." He thrust his datapad toward Alejo's face, a three-dimensional image slowly rotating on its screen. "You recognize that, heh?" the engineer challenged.

Alejo took the pad and cocked his head to the side. He tapped the imager and zoomed in on it from all sides. His own eyes widened. "Oh, my stars, you found a book, Mikkey!"

"Yes!!" Mikkey cried out, shooting his fist into the air. "Three years and finally something!"

"Now, now, let us not be hasty. Don't forget Deitrow's blunder."

Mikkey blew out a snort. "This is a book, not a 'zine, Alejo! Crime, those are light years apart! I would think you of all people would know the diff!"

"I know, I know. Just want us to keep a temperate head, that is all. So, where is it?"

Mikkey walked Alejo over to his sifters all of which he'd shut down. Proudly, the digger pointed to his Delta sifter. "Two point four meters down. Fully intact."

"Flashscan?"

Mikkey wagged his pad. "Uploading as we speak. I think there must have been a layer of metals so that slowed down the signal speed a bit, because it should not be taking so long. But nothing has been lost in the transfer. Smooth sliding all the way!"

"I hope so," Alejo grimaced. "Books do not hold up long after such a time. It will take a month to sift and restore it, at least! Can I see the transfer data?"

The engineer worked on his pad. "Here, I just synced it for you. I thought you would want to know. You wrote your thesis on print data, right?"

Alejo nodded. "Late twentieth century print, to be exact."

Mikkey tcched. "Not much to work with there, not after the War and all."

"That is how dissertations, work, Mikkey. You have to choose a subject with a limited data range otherwise it becomes far too lengthy. Besides the Restorative Project funded my work. I got access to eight books."

"Eight twentieth century books? Wow, I did not know there were so many."

"Most were fragments only, all in dead ling: French, German, Arabic, Dutch."

"Never heard of them."

"That is why they are called 'dead ling.' No one speaks them anymore though even Spanese is a derivative of some of them."

"You can read all of them?"

"Sort of. Our translators are still working on them, but the War wiped out everything from that era. We have bits and pieces but mostly back translated from our current languages."

"Wild."

"Yes." Alejo contined rifling through the external schematics and electrospectral analyses. His brow creased. "Its cover is over ninety percent intact.... Artificial animal skin variant. Probably to protect it."

"Primitive," Mikkey chortled.

"There is a coating on the edges, gilding."

"That is good, I hope, yes?"

"Yes, not only does it help preserve the pages but it also indicates the book was of known quality. Usually the classics were gold-gilded to give it a richer look. Two of the eight books I saw had gilding on them. The process survived even through the twenty-third century."

"Gold, heh? I smell Contract!" Mikkey ejaculated, his mouth salivating at the prospect.

Both datapads beeped in unison.

"Is it done?"

Aljeo frowned, running through the data. "Yes. And now I see why it took so long—there are over four hundred pages here!"

"What? The book did not look that thick?"

"Ah, the gilding should have told me this. You see, Mikkey, high quality print with gilding often used thin but very durable paging. The surface resisted water and endured longer. A five centimeter thick book of that kind would be three times as thin as a standard 'paperback' half the length!"

"Wow, I did not think they were so advanced then."

"We also underestimate how technologically savvy people can get. Just because it is old, does not mean they used sticks and stones."

"Point taken.... So which classic is it?"

Alejo began bringing up flashscans of each page, carefully scanned using precise EM wave shots that read each contrastive shape and symbol like MRIs of centuries past scanned the human body or ancient cameras photographed still images. A smile crept across Alejo's face. "Whatever it is, it is 'English,'" he concluded.

"What is that? Another dead ling?"

"Yes. In fact, it was becoming the dominant ling for that era, that is, until the Eco-crash of the mid-twenty-first century."

Mikkey's face looked confused. "That sounds familiar; can you refresh it for me?"

"The Eco-crash refers to two seismic events occuring in the world at the time: one economical, the other ecological. Both came to a head almost in the same decade, causing numerous powerful nations that were dominant for centuries to come crashing down. The UNA, the soils were standing on now, was among them. Their main ling was 'English,' which died out after their power did."

"You can read it, right?"

Alejo rocked his head left to right. "Well, the good news is that I know English better than French and German. Two of the eight fragments were in English. We have a total of, oh, eight pages of English text surviving. But this! This find is phenomenal! Eight pages to over four hundred! With this, we might fully restore the English ling!"

"Why would we want that? Who would speak it?"

"It would be for posterity, okay? Or even just to know that we could do it."

"Er, are there any Contract credits in it?"

"Is that all you care about?"

"No!" the engineer defended, "not all. But I have families to feed, you know?"

"So I hear."

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing. Nothing. Let us refocus, okay? I think I can translate the first page; there are only a few words on it."

That shifted Vrenz's mood. "Truly? Wow, do it!"

Alejo cleared his throat and began muttering the sounds in a low tone. After a minute, Vrenz could not contain his anticipation. "So, so, what is it?"

"Hmm, I mean I can read the words, but I am having dificulty rendering it into Spanese. You will like it; it says, 'The New Contract'."

"Ha-ha! I knew it. Credits will flow! So, does that mean it is about economics?"

"I do not think so. I am having difficulty with 'contract' here. The word is—" At this point, Alejo said a word that registered nothing in Vrenz's mind.

"That is a funny sounding word."

"To us, perhaps. To them, it would have made perfect sense. Let me think.... No, 'contract' is not right." Alejo flipped the image pages of the text. "Hmm, this next page looks like it is listing proper names. Look, see this one? It says, John, which is our equivalent of Juan or Yonahan today."

"Interesting. But what does it mean, this list?"

"I am not sure. Wait a minute." Alejo began running his finger down the list. Halfway done, Vrenz realized Alejo was counting the names.

When Alejo finished, he smiled. Quickly, he flipped forward a dozen pages, his smile growing wider. At least, he said, "Yes, that proves it! Oh, it makes perfect sense now."

"What, what did you find?"

"Twenty-seven, Mikkey. Twenty-seven chapters."

"So? So what? I am no expert but I am certain many books had twenty seven chapters."

"But how many have high quality paper? Gilded edges? With chapters with names of people? And whose early chapters are coded in a diffferent colored font about a fourth of the text?"

"I do not follow."

"This is a part of the 'Bible,' Mikkey. The most printed and distributed book of its time! Up until now we only have third-hand references to such a text; nothing of it survived since the Mass Exodus of the twenty-second century and the subsequent destruction of all religious materials."

"That was a tragedy. Even if those Abrahamites were loonies."

"No arguments there. But you handle it? This is not the 'New Contract,' but 'New Testament.'"

"So it was originally written in this 'English'?"

"I think so. Most of the surviving quotations from it bear an English derivation. Some theorize that it is because the majority of its adherents spoke English at the time. Others believe it is a belief system constructed from that era. A few have hypothesized that the quotes themselves are translations from another language, its true original."

"Another language? What do you think of that?"

Alejo grinned. "Personally, I think it is silly. The quotes are masterfully constructed—elegant, pithy in so many forms. And their meaning is profound, even for one not believing in them. How could such a thing be a 'translation'?"

Vrenz pointed to the pad. "And now we have proof. Here is the oldest, only surviving copy of this 'Bible.' And it is in English as you say."

"Exactly," Alejo affirmed, beeping through pages and pages of biblical text. "Even as I am looking at it, I can tell that this is linguistic beauty and perfection! Look at the lettering, the syntax, the poetry! I would not be suprised if this were one of the true original copies!"

"Which would fetch a hefty price, yes?"

Alejo nodded. "Beyond your wildest dreams, my friend. This is a rich find for both scholarship and your credit account. Come, let us contact our Claims manager. There are many administrative rivers to navigate now."