I wave my wrist over the scanner, it’ll deduct three thousand credits from my account. Jethro better not move around much more, or I’ll have to trade while searching.
“Reason for visit?” the clerk asks.
“Maybe personal? I’m searching for someone.”
“We don’t have that. Business, Family, Vacation, and Immigration.”
“Family.”
She gives me a ticket. I nod thanks, and board the shuttle. Earth is weird. No other planet has as much of a space problem that they would build a spaceport in the middle of nowhere with a shuttle. Helps them keep track of migration, though.
Somehow this hourly shuttle from the middle of nowhere is half full with a family, someone who inexplicably brought no luggage, a group of anxious people, and some people who I would wager make this trip often. The shuttle takes off. I take out my laptop, and scroll through a phrasebook for common Earth languages. There should be enough people who speak Standard, but doesn’t hurt to know a bit.
The shuttle lands on a huge structure. We go into a building, with a huge line. Eventually I reach the front, and wave my wrist over the scanner.
“This here says you’re a trader, and your reason for visit is family, is that right?” the man at the desk says.
I nod.
“Could you explain that? I was under the impression that traders didn’t have families.”
“I’m searching for someone who I think is my descendent, ok? If he is, I want to meet him. I’ve tracked him to Earth so far.”
“How long do you plan to stay?” he asks.
“I don’t know. If he is still here and my descendent, maybe forever? Other planets I haven’t stayed long because he keeps moving.”
“I’ll put you down for a six month visa. If you end up wanting to stay longer, you’ll have to come back and apply. I don’t see anything in your file that should make cause the visa to be denied, so I’ll run it through.”
After a minute he says “You’re good to go.”
I turn to leave, then turn back. “Just a question. Would it be possible for you to tell me if the man I’m searching for is still on the planet?”
“I’m afraid not. Data privacy laws. Although you can try searching on the Internet, or even hiring a private investigator.”
I nod and leave. I find a hotel nearby, and there’s a stand that sells Internet phones. I know both are terribly overpriced, hundreds of credits for the phone and thousands for the hotel, but I feel so close to finding Jethro.
When I search his name, “Jethro Martinid-Omskgrathd”, millions of results pop up, a good sign. I narrow it to “where does Jethro Martinid-Omskgrrathd live?” and the results keep mentioning this city called “Duluth”. I find a flight, then a train under a thousand credits that’ll get me there tomorrow. I then put off figuring out anything more tomorrow. I’m too exhausted.
The next morning, I wake up and see my flights in less than an hour and I don’t have a plan to get to the airport. At the hotel desk, I ask the best way to get to the airport.
“Probably just call a taxi. There’s a bus that’s cheaper, but it doesn’t come very often. The next one should be in forty-five minutes. When’s your flight?”
“In an hour”
“Oh, you’ll need a taxi then. Try the {Orange Cab} service, they’re good. I can call one, if you’d like.”
“Please, that would be good.”
She picks up a phone that looks like it’s from a movie, and presses the buttons to dial. Once she gets off she says, “Cab should be out here in five.”
I nod thanks, and head outside. So many different cars go by on the road. An orange one pulls over, and the driver gets out.
She says something in a different language.
“Do you speak Standard?” I ask.
“Yes. Were you the one who ordered the cab?”
I nod, and she helps me put the bags in the trunk.
She starts the car, and music comes on.
I scan my wrist at the entrance, and I have to put my bag on a conveyer belt and walk through a scanner.
On the plane, I watch a random movie they had, something with a vampire. The plane ride wasn’t long, and there’s a bus from the airport to the train station. This planets’ transportation is chaotic.
The train is almost full, so I sit next to someone.
“I like that bag. Where’s it from?” she says.
“It’s a trader bag, there’s this one guy who makes them, but he’s hard to track down as he travels literally all over the galaxy. No-one will sell theirs either, because they’re too useful, and become personal.”
“So, your a trader then? What brings you to Earth?”
“I’m searching for someone. Say, are you from Duluth? You might be able to help.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to help. Just cause I’m from the same city doesn’t mean I know them, there’s over a million people in Duluth, you know.”
“I think he’s somewhat famous. Jethro Martinid-Omskgrathd, have you heard of him?”
“Of course I’ve heard of him. Why do you want to find him? Are you one of his descendents?”
“Yeah. Wait, his descendants? No, why?”
“Jethro’s Descendent Datatbank. You haven’t heard of it? He’s offering a huge reward for any of his descendants who enter themselves into this databank. It’s set up on multiple planets, a huge thing. Why are you looking for him, though?”
“Long story. Do you know anything that could help me find him?”
“Maybe try the library? He’s often associated with there. You could try emailing, but he probably gets millions of emails.”
“I’ll try those both, thanks. Honestly, I never really figured out a good plan to contact him, I’ve been more concerned with finding him on the same planet as me.”
In the library, I decide to first send an email, just to see if that does anything. The library is huge, though four towers a hundred floors high. I don’t know how I’d find find Jethro even if he is here. I go to the biography section and read through some books, and watch some news clips and a documentary that seems like it was made as a school project on a different planet, and somehow came here. By the time the day’s up, I have learned a lot about Jethro. I knew he was a senator, but not the whole writer thing. I stay in a hotel right next to the library.
After a quick, inexplicably sweet breakfast in the hotel lobby, I go back to the library and this time go to the section on ancestry. Might find something, I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be a story of someone else finding a descendent, so I have an idea of how a meeting could go.
The ancestry section is empty, except for a girl at a computer. I look through the books, most of them are about researching family history. Eventually, I find a shelf of books about finding living relatives, mostly focusing on finding relatives through genetics books. These are marginally useful, but they all only have the same few pieces of advice, and none seem to handle how to get in contact with your relative if he’s famous.
I sigh, and head over to the computers.
“Have you found what your looking for? I’ve spent some time in this section, so I might be able to help,” the girl says.
“Not really. I’m trying to find a descendent of mine, and most of these are about ancestors.”
“Yeah, there’s not that much about finding descendents. You’d think with time dilation, it would be a common problem, but there’s not many resources. I could introduce you to my grandpa though, he’s an expert in that.”
“That would be nice, thank you. Do you know when he’s available?”
“He’s open now, if you’re fine with that.”
“My plans for the last, what seven years has been tracking down this one person I think is my descendent. I’m open”
I follow her out of the library and then onto a bus, and then down a long driveway. Somehow in this city, there’s this huge swath of forest. Once we get far enough down the driveway, there’s some children playing with wooden swords.
“Eli, do you know where grandpa is?” the girl asks.
“In his study,” he says without stopping his swordfight.
We go into a house, a mansion, and the girl leads me upstairs to a room with a bizarre collection of artifacts from other worlds, some of which feel similar.
“Grandpa, I found this guy in the library. He’s trying to find his descendents, and I thought you could help, since you do that.”
“I’ll help him. But, Ruth if you decide to introduce a stranger to me in the future, don’t walk with them home alone, ok?”
“Okay.” she runs out of the room.
“So, you want to find your descendents. I’m not really an expert, I just put a bunch of money into it, which made it famous. You don’t have enough money to just offer a huge reward, do you?”
“I have enough I could offer a good reward, but right now I’m just trying to track down this one person I think is my descendent.”
“That’s a different problem,” he starts talking. He looks familiar. And he mentioned offering a huge reward for descendants. I think he’s Jethro. He continues, “By the way, your accent. It’s trader, mostly, but there’s something else that I feel I recognize. Do you know what it could be?”
“I’m from Ulorks, so that’s probably the rest of the accent.”
“You’re from Ulorks?! That’s where my mom’s from. Would you, by chance, happen to know about the last name Omskgrathd, O-M-S-K-G-R-A-T-H-D, it would be from Ulorks around the year 21300, which I know probably is ancient history for you. Really any information at all would be history.”
“It’s a combination of the last names Omskan and Grathdo. That years actually around when I left, and when I left, there were only two people with the last name.”
“Really? If you know that information, do you know the people with the last name? I can’t believe I might actually get to meet someone who knew my grandma.”
“The people with the last name were my wife and me.”
“Wait. Really? Now you have to tell me everything.”
“Well, I met Illyan, fell in love, we married, combined our last names, and then she got pregnant, she was laid off from her job, and I was unemployed. Neither of us could find a job, we were running out of money, and our rent was due in a month. So, I took the only job available, and became a pilot shipping computer parts or something to a differnet planet. It paid well enough that they would be taken care of, but with time dilation, it wouldn’t have been worth it to get back. What is your mom’s name?”
“Wanli. She left Ulorks as she couldn’t find any good jobs but being the translator for a colony start up, and thought it could be a fun adventure.”
“Wanli? That was going to be my daughters name. She had a son. I have a grandson. You’re my grandson.”
“Can I call you grandpa? That feels weird. You’re younger than me, I never would have expected to meet a grandparent, let alone have them younger than me. I imagined the situation the other way around, with me meeting a grandchild older then me, ”
“I’m a trader. We’re used to it either way. I’ve met people, and then what feels like ten years to me, there they are again unchanged. Can you tell me everything about your mom?”
Jethro tells me stories of his mom, both things he remembers, and stories he told her, and then he tells me of the plague that struck is world, how he got sick and his parents died. The study gets dark, and Jethro turns on a lamp.
“Sorry, it get’s so dark in here, but I like to have the sunlight coming in, but because I’ve got a forest outside, there’s no streetlights.” Jethro says. “It’s getting late, do you have a place you have to be? Or if you want you can stay here.”
“That would be nice, thank you.”
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