Jahv had quickly turned into an experienced hacker. If he'd been using an actual modem, half the business corporations on the planet probably would have tracked him down by now. He'd downloaded «beta» versions for video games the others hadn't even heard of, and had recently picked up designs for some of the planned aliens for "Star Wars Episode 2". This, of course, got him more than a few weird looks from the rest of the boys when he pointed at one particularly bizarre specimen of LucasFilm life and remarked, "Hey, I know this guy!"
On this particular day, Davy and Keith had headed out to Jahv's cloaked dome-tent. Martin had told Keith he'd join them later in the afternoon. Davy had found a discarded VCR and wondered if Jahv would be able to somehow hook it into the entire mess. Keith speculated that if they had found a microwave oven, Jahv would probably be able to hook THAT into the computer and program his meals in advance.
Not that Jahv needed such a device. One of his more wondrous machines was a food replicator that seemed to make meals out of thin air.
Jahv had been delighted to receive the VCR, but didn't plan to hook it up immediately. He was in the midst of testing a new program, but invited Davy and Keith in to spend some time and see what happened, anyway.
As usual, Jahv was stark naked when Davy and Keith arrived. Children on Jahv's homeworld didn't wear clothing except in special circumstances like space travel. Since it was yet another hot summer day, neither Davy nor Keith were wearing much, either. Keith was wearing denim shorts and sandals, and Davy had shown up wearing his usual coveralls, which he'd discarded once he'd entered the tent, so he was just wearing his boxer shorts.
Davy had come to regard Jahv as one of his best friends, and since he lived closest to the pond near where Jahv had pitched his tent, visited as often as possible. Keith, on the other hand, saw in Jahv something of a kindred spirit. Jahv had run away from home, literally light years, something Keith had considered doing more than once, and had nearly accomplished one time, if not on the light-years scale.
"So, what are you up to?" asked Davy, as the three boys gathered around the computer.
"I just recently found out that this planet has a huge radio telescope, aimed at the stars, picking up radio signals." said Jahv. "It's in a place called Arecibo, Puerto Rico." Jahv's mastery of language had come a long way. Even though he'd picked up on the language early on by a brief telepathic contact with Niklas, his pronunciation of names had taken longer.
"So what are you planning to do, bug it?" asked Keith.
"Something like that." replied Jahv.
Keith's eyes went wide. Sometimes, as interesting as he found Jahv, the alien made him a little nervous. For all his sophistication and technological know-how, Jahv was still a kid just like them, and even less learned in the ways of this particular world. Even electronically breaking into a huge facility like Arecibo seemed like asking for trouble.
"That's not gonna get you caught, is it?" asked Keith. None of them liked thinking about what might happen if Jahv's existence were ever discovered by grown-ups. Even the most understanding of their parents would have trouble with something like this.
"No." replied Jahv. "I'm just putting myself on the same reception frequency."
Moments later, streams of static burst forth from the computer's speaker.
"So much for that idea." remarked Keith.
"Actually, I think those are broadcasts from my homeworld!" said Jahv, amazed.
"What?" said Keith. "That was nothing but noise."
Davy was grinning. "You've never heard Jahv speak in his native language, have you?"
"What's that got to do with it?" asked Keith.
"Jahv, say something to him." suggested Davy. "In your own language."
Jahv grinned, looked at Keith, and let loose a string of noise that sounded a whole lot like what was coming through the speaker.
Keith's eyebrows shot up. "Okay, can I get a translation on that?"
"Actually, it was a very complicated joke." explained Jahv. "There's only five races in the galaxy that even get it when it's told, and if you don't know the difference between a three-humped groslark and a five-toed shreekel, it makes no sense at all."
Keith rolled his eyes. "Forget I said anything. You ever get found out, I think we'll just try to get you turned over to George Lucas. So you understand that static that's coming out of the speakers?"
"More or less. Reception's pretty bad. It's standard broadcasts. It seems to be crossing a weather report from my home province with a comedy program that's currently the top show on my planet." said Jahv. "One minute I'm getting wind advisories for hovercars above City Level 5, the next I'm hearing the punchline to the one about the niffle-herder and the krax-farmer."
Keith groaned.
Davy interjected, "These broadcasts must be pretty old to have come this far across space."
Admittedly, even Jahv wasn't entirely sure how far he'd traveled, but his homeworld was certainly not in this solar system, which automatically put it light years away. Jahv shook his head. "A lot of stuff gets broadcast through hyperspace, for our colony worlds. Same-day broadcast. Unless I lost some time coming to this world, which I don't think I did, this is for today's date." He listened some more to the static. "Yes, there it is. 25th day of Orbital Rotation Period 27552. That's today."
There was a sudden squeal of static, louder than the others.
"Jeez! What was that?!" exclaimed Keith. "If they picked that up at Arecibo —!"
"I doubt they did." said Jahv. "I've been fine-tuning more precisely than they can. But that was a personal message blip. Who in the world — " Jahv replayed the squeal at a slower speed. It still sounded like static to Davy and Keith, but Jahv actually turned a paler shade of green when he heard it.
"You okay?" asked Davy.
"I don't believe it. That was directed at me!" said Jahv in little more than a whisper.
"Oh, great." said Keith. "Probably an invasion force thinking you got kidnapped or something. Game over, fans. I'll be under the bed until the end of the world."
Davy gave Keith an odd look, but Jahv seemed oblivious to it. "No, nothing like that. It's — it's my little brother!"
"Your what?!" Davy and exclaimed simultaneously. Davy added, "You never mentioned him."
"He wouldn't come with me when I ran away." said Jahv. "Now he wants to come here. Not that he knows where I am. He's asking me to send coordinates. Says he's ready to leave home. He says mom and dad were really angry when I left, and they've been taking it out on him."
"Can you get him here?" asked Keith, suddenly sympathetic.
"I think so." said Jahv, fingers flying over the keyboard. First he called up a map of Earth, centering on the region where they were now. He mapped it out in grids so tight that Davy estimated they couldn't've been more than a quarter-mile wide. Long series of numbers ran past on the screen. The image of the Earth pulled back, and then so did the entire solar system.
"I'm tracing the broadcast. This may take a while." explained Jahv.
"Jahv, as advanced as you people are — this sort of thing — what your parents are doing to your little brother — still happens?" asked Davy.
Jahv sighed. "We're a peaceful people, but we're also very disciplined. You just don't go breaking up families. That's why I can never return home, even if I wanted to. Technically, what I did was a pretty serious crime. But I just — couldn't — stay. I was afraid that — " Jahv let loose a short burst of static that was obviously his brother's name " — might suffer as a result. That's why I tried to get him to come with me, but he wouldn't — then."
"You want to turn that name into something the rest of us can pronounce?" asked Keith.
Jahv pondered the question. Technically, the «name» he used with his friends was just the first syllable of his full name, which in reality traced over five generations of ancestry. What could his brother be called using the same principle? "Keyro."
"Are your parents ever likely to come looking for you?" asked Davy.
Jahv shook his head. "The penalty for what I did, and what Keyro intends, is permanent banishment from the family. If my parents tried to find us, they'd be banished. They won't risk that. Their work is too important to them."
The computer beeped. Actually, it sounded more like it farted, but the point was that the results Jahv had been waiting for were ready. "Coordinates received." said Jahv, quickly working the computer. "Altering satellite dish to send, compensating for hyperspace transmission, and.
"Hold it." said Davy. "Are you sending him the exact same coordinates you used?"
"I was planning to. Why?" asked Jahv.