{"id":110,"date":"2009-01-18T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2009-01-18T05:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/?p=110"},"modified":"2022-12-14T14:28:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T19:28:31","slug":"semantica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/semantica\/","title":{"rendered":"Semantica"},"content":{"rendered":"

C<\/strong><\/span>aptain Ellen Valtoni tensed in her seat as her ship approached Semantica Eight. From orbit, the planet looked like a seething mass of neurons intertwined with each other.<\/p>\n

She stared in awe at the planet, wondering if this was it. Was it really her payday? Could she finally put her daughter Susanne in a good home and retire? Or it was a trap? Did the Obscurity want Valtoni to lead them to the planet? Either way, she had to take the risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny ships coming through the wormhole?\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNegative, Captain,\u201d First Officer Quentin Chevaine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. What\u2019s our window before the wormhole closes?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFive, maybe ten hours at most before they detect out course deviation and move to intercept.\u201d Chevaine leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. \u201cI guess Cadrall\u2019s information was accurate. It looks like a real Semantica.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad to hear it.\u201d All the way through the wormhole network, Valtoni feared that it was another ruse. But then Alan Cadrall had been one of her most trusted informants. He wouldn\u2019t sell her bad tips, even if it put him in trouble with the Obscurity. Also, he was getting a percentage of their find.<\/p>\n

Valtoni folded her legs and looked away from the holoscreen. Like the other Semanticas, Semantica Eight was a planet made entirely out of organic meaning, built by unknowns beings in the distant past. Its origins had been lost over the millennia.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, though, it was one of the few places in the galaxy that still had the true meanings of words, unaltered by the so-called benevolent government known as the Obscurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny Obscurity ships in the area, Quentin?\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Captain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. Then let\u2019s move it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni released her belt and floated off the bridge with the rest of her three man crew.<\/p>\n

A<\/strong><\/span>n analysis of the planet revealed that true meaning deposits were on the fourth continent, north of the equator. Valtoni and her crew boarded their meaning harvester, detached it from the ship and flew down to the planet.<\/p>\n

As they raced to the surface, Valtoni wondered if she could make enough on this trip. Susanne would need multiple surgeries to correct her spinal deformities and help increase her comprehension of words. Unfortunately, Valtoni worried that she wouldn\u2019t have enough time to fill the harvester up before the wormhole closed. Maybe after a few more trips, she could sell the ship to Quentin and get a respectable job, far outside the purview of the Obscurity.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, Valtoni saw the planet\u2019s moist, pinkish-gray plains and groaned. The planet\u2019s surface looked horribly alive, with tendrils and tubes of organic meaning slithering through each other like snakes. It had the same gravity as Earth and an atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.<\/p>\n

As they closed in on their chosen landing site, the crew scanned the surface until they found the thickest deposit of meaning.<\/p>\n

Once they arrived there, Chevaine put the harvester in hover mode, then approached Valtoni and said, \u201cCaptain, I\u2019ve been thinking\u201d\u00a6\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think we could give out the location of the planet to everybody? I mean, after we\u2019re done here. You could give me the password to the comnet and I could\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni frowned and said, \u201cWhat for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo help give people true meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chevaine\u2019s brow furrowed. \u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I don\u2019t want to give up our only real source of income. If we can tap this planet a couple of times, we\u2019ll all have enough money to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what about everybody else?\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni shrugged. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Quentin, but I\u2019ve got a daughter to take care of and bills to pay. I don\u2019t have the time or the luxury to worry about anybody else. And besides, I don\u2019t want to spend the rest of my life smuggling contraband.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chevaine looked disappointed. Three years earlier, his sister had been killed because of a misunderstanding. And ever since then, he had an axe to grind with the Obscurity and their suppression of true meanings. They controlled almost every print and computer-based language tool on fifty worlds, and they had found and blockaded the seven other Semanticas.<\/p>\n

If it wasn\u2019t for Chevaine\u2019s piloting skills, then she never would have hired him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s it then,\u201d Chevaine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, once I get what I need, you can tell everybody about the planet,\u201d Valtoni said. \u201cBut until then I don\u2019t want the Obscurity breathing down our necks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll encrypt the message and use a coded channel. They won\u2019t intercept it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you be certain of that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Chevaine grew silent. Of course he couldn\u2019t. The Obscurity monitored all incoming and outgoing transmissions on all their worlds. Even if a message were encrypted, they could still capture it, decrypt it and track it back to its point of origin quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo forget about it and get to work,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t do that, Captain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni bit her lip. She never thought Chevaine would act like this, despite his grudge with the Obscurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have a choice,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

Chevaine\u2019s face tightened with anger. He spun on his heel, strode to the back of the harvester and slammed the door shut. The other two members of her crew flashed her concerned looks as they prepared to tap the meanings from the tendrils.<\/p>\n

Valtoni grimaced.<\/p>\n

All her crewmembers had come from impoverished backgrounds. In the Obscurity\u2019s meaning-based economy, social status and wealth were determined by how many true meanings of words one owned. The rich controlled what words really meant, and thus they controlled the poor, who were given false and inaccurate meanings to many words.<\/p>\n

She felt sorry for people like Chevaine, but there was nothing she could do about it. She was barely meaning-rich enough to understand most words herself.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes after the conversation with Chevaine, the crew activated the harvester. It tapped into one of the semantic deposits and began tapping the true meaning of hundred of thousands of words. While the harvester worked, Valtoni had her people keep a lookout for the Obscurity ships. Although she hadn\u2019t seen any follow them through the wormhole network, they couldn\u2019t be too careful. Possession of any true meaning materials without government authorization meant long jail time and the loss of all of one\u2019s meaning.<\/p>\n

Valtoni bit her lip and checked her watch. Less than two hours before their window closed.<\/p>\n

Halfway through the meaning tap, Chevaine returned from the back of the harvester. She didn\u2019t like the look on his face.<\/p>\n

It spelled mutiny in any language.<\/p>\n

Chevaine led Rollins and Lukovich, the other two crewmembers, to the back of the harvester and she heard them whispering. While they spoke, Valtoni walked over to one of the communication\u2019s console, typed in her code and locked out every communications system on the ship.<\/p>\n

When they finished talking, they confronted Valtoni.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain, we\u2019re going to contact home and tell them about this place,\u201d Chevaine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, you\u2019re not,\u201d Valtoni said. \u201cI gave you an order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Captain. But I can\u2019t obey it. The people have a right to know true meanings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni frowned and stepped back. Before she could act or say anything, Rollins and Lukovich grabbed her arms. Valtoni tried to pull free of them, but they held her fast.<\/p>\n

Chevaine walked over to one of the consoles and tried to activate the comline, but he received an error and a request for a password. Much to Valtoni\u2019s surprise, though, he chuckled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the password?\u201d Chevaine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of your business,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

Chevaine turned to Lukovich. \u201cBreak one of her fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lukovich smiled, took a pair of pliers from his overalls and said, \u201cWhich one?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStart with the pinky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni\u2019s heart slammed against her ribs, but she tried to appear calm.<\/p>\n

He grabbed her pinky with the pliers and snapped it back like a chopstick. Valtoni tried not to scream, but the pain was staggering. Tears spilled down her cheeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe password,\u201d Chevaine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo fuck yourself!\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSnap the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lukovich\u2019s face glowed with savage glee as he did so. The pain was so bad that Valtoni nearly threw up.<\/p>\n

Does Lukovich secretly hate me for the all meanings I own? Valtoni thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow be sensible,\u201d Chevaine said. \u201cGive up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll run out of patience before I run out of fingers,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreak the rest of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni screamed as Lukovich did so. By the time they got to her thumb, she passed out from the pain.<\/p>\n

S<\/strong><\/span>he awoke in her cabin. Her bad hand was chained to a post next to her bunk. Rollins and Lukovich were standing near her.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, just give him what he wants,\u201d Rollins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re all guilty of mutiny,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what are you going to do? Turn us in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll blackball all of you. No respectable captain will take you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re just being selfish,\u201d Lukovich said. \u201cWhat about all the people who want true meaning?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care about them,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking out for number one. That\u2019s what you do best, huh, Captain? Don\u2019t you know anything? Do you even know what obscurity means in the old language?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means to conceal the truth. Which is what they\u2019re really doing. They lie about everything right to our faces, and we accept it because we don\u2019t know what they\u2019re really saying. So just give us the password.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have a few hours before the wormhole closes. And if he can\u2019t use this ship\u2019s communicator, he\u2019ll go back home and look for a secured comnet. It might take him a while, but he\u2019ll find it eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why doesn\u2019t he just do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it would save us all a lot of time and trouble if you helped us now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cForget it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t cooperate, he\u2019ll kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni sighed and shook her head, marveling at their misplaced faith in Chevaine. Were men always so gullible? \u201cWhat makes you think he won\u2019t kill me anyway? He\u2019s already overridden my authority and broke my fingers. It\u2019s not much of a stretch for him to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rollins and Lukovich looked at each other. She could see them thinking about it. If she could turn them back to her side, there was a chance they could help her escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp me, and I\u2019ll give you a share of the meaning deposits,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cIf he comes in here again, he won\u2019t stop hurting you until you give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen do it already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFine,\u201d Lukovich said. \u201cBe foolish.\u201d<\/p>\n

He left the cabin while Rollins remained. If she could overpower him, then she could escape. But he was at the other end of the room. Also she didn\u2019t have anything to throw at him or use against him. A heavy granite statue with a magnetic base was sitting on the table next to her bunk. However, it was just out of reach. If she could stretch out a little, she could grab it. But she couldn\u2019t do it while he was looking at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cRollins, help me, while there\u2019s still time,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, if we get out of this, I\u2019ll give you all the meaning I\u2019ve saved from my accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rollins shook his head. \u201cNo, you won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will. I promise. What will Chevaine give you? Nothing. Except a one way ticket to your death.\u201d<\/p>\n

She saw Rollins thinking about it. Maybe without Lukovich, he\u2019d be more willing to listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about all that meaning. You could buy your own ship, a mansion\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni sighed. It was hopeless. After a moment\u2019s thought, she decided to try another tactic.<\/p>\n

\u201cFine, Rollins. You\u2019re right. I\u2019ll give you the password.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you unlock me, I\u2019ll type it into the computer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Devlin-one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rollins walked over to the com system, turned his back on her and typed the password. As the com system reactivated, Valtoni grabbed the statue. He turned back to her and said, \u201cHey!\u201d<\/p>\n

He lunged at her, but she bashed him on the head with the statue. Once he was down, she took the cuff keys from his pocket, unlocked herself and chained him to the post.<\/p>\n

Then she slipped out of her cabin. She heard footsteps coming towards her. Trembling, she looked around. A fire extinguisher was attached to a nearby wall. She grabbed it, pulled the pin and waited until Chevaine and Lukovich reappeared. When they came around the corner, she closed her eyes and clicked off the light switch.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuck!\u201d Chevaine said.<\/p>\n

Valtoni opened her eyes and turned the lights back on. The sudden return of the light blinded them for a split second. She ran up and sprayed both men in the face with the chemical foam, and they screamed as they were blinded further. As they stumbled around, she smacked both of them in the head with the extinguisher and knocked them out.<\/p>\n

Once they were down, she found some rope in a supply closet and tied them up. She went back to the bridge and checked the meaning harvester. While she was unconscious, it had gathered enough meaning to make her wealthy, provided she didn\u2019t share it with the others.<\/p>\n

She disconnected it from the deposit, activated the harvester and took off from Semantica.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, she reached the ship, docked with it and set a course for the wormhole. She made it through with a half hour to spare.<\/p>\n

Later, she took stock of her situation. Part of her wanted to space the men for breaking her fingers, but she couldn\u2019t do that. As much as she hated them for their betrayal, she wasn\u2019t that cold-blooded. And besides, in a way she empathized with Chevaine.<\/p>\n

An hour after she passed through the wormhole, she returned to them. Chevaine\u2019s nose was broken. A few pinkish flecks of bloody foam dotted his face, though he had wiped most of it away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should kill you,\u201d Valtoni said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen why don\u2019t you?\u201d Chevaine said.<\/p>\n

Valtoni sighed. \u201cWhen we get back, I\u2019m getting rid of you. You can go and tell anybody you like about the planet, but you won\u2019t ever get another berth on a ship again. I can promise you that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does it feel to be so right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never said I was right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valtoni left them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tradition says that the Native Americans sold their land to Europeans because they didn’t believe that anyone could actually own<\/em> it. Supposedly, it was beyond the Native American’s comprehension that any one person could define boundaries, describe borders, and exclude others from using the landscape. — ed, N.E. Lilly<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5],"tags":[146],"media":[299],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/1122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"media","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}