Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [122]
My grandfather looked at me with surprise, then laughed. “Mind? My dear boy, I’ve spent nearly the last half century preserving your heritage for you and for your father. I would have been disappointed if this day had never come.”
I smiled. “Would you have sent me a flower to let me know how disappointed you were?”
“I would have sent you many, many flowers.” He opened his arms to take in the greenhouse and the gardens. “These flowers, Corran, are the Halcyon heritage. Where better to store knowledge of the Jedi and the Force, than in things that live?”
TWENTY-NINE
I watched my grandfather closely because I didn’t quite understand what he’d said. He was old and could be losing it, though I’d seen no evidence of that so far. “Your comments are sailing right past me.”
He laughed delightedly, a deep, rich sound I remembered very well. “Don’t feel disappointed, Corran. I had to come up with a storage system that would befuddle even the most diligent of investigators. Come with me.”
I followed him toward the rear of the greenhouse to the computers and genetic manipulation processors. “You probably do not recall this from your schooling, but the genetic code in many lifeforms consists of four nucleotides arranged in pairs. They provide a genetic blueprint that produces what we are.”
I nodded. “I know. Imps messed around with genetics to produce the Krytos Virus.”
“Yes, a nasty piece of work, that.” My grandfather keyed something into the computer and the attached holopad showed me a double-helix slowly revolving in the air. It looked like two twisting ladders spiraling around each other. “What most people fail to realize is that while genes are very small, they consist of a vast number of these base pairs of nucleotides. What they also don’t know is that much of the coding for any gene is redundant and genes are often filled with pieces of nonsense coding, or bits of coding left over by evolution. These inconsequential bits of code are essentially inert and useless. What I’ve done is to manufacture replacement strings of base pairs to put in their place. These replacement strings use one pair to represent zero and another to represent one.”
I stared at him gap-mouthed. “You digitized data and inserted it into the genetic material of a plant, allowing the plants to duplicate the code with every cell division.”
“Correct. While random mutations might destroy little bits of the data, there are so many samples out there that comparing them will fill in any gaps.” He smiled broadly. “I recall at least one Jedi-hunter coming here and asking for some basic plant stock for his garden back on Imperial Center. I gave him as much as he wanted of my Jedi line.”
My eyes narrowed. “The flowers you send to politicians … they contain the decryption keys to the files that concern them, don’t they?”
“I must amuse myself, mustn’t I?” He rolled up his sleeves. “I spent enough time with Nejaa to know that the Jedi considered nothing coincidental. I knew if I put the Jedi information into these plants and ensured their distribution, the information would be discovered again. At the time I started I thought the discovery would not happen in my lifetime, but I wanted it available.”
I smiled. “I want you to tell me about him, about Nejaa.”
“I will.” He looked at me and shook his head again. “Your appearance, I didn’t know you at first. Your father had a saying, one he picked up from his father. Do you recall it? ‘If you cannot recognize the man in the mirror, it is time to step back and see when you stopped being yourself.’ ”
I nodded. “I remember.”
“Well, seeing you now, I must have you tell me who you have become.” He pointed back at the house. “First, however, we will have something to eat. Then you’ll join me turning the compost pile.”
“More data hidden in there?”
He winked at me. “I think you will find the work rewarding.”
We talked mostly of his flowers and the way the neighborhood had been in the old days. Because his household staff bustled in and out, Corran Horn was referred to in third person, as if Keiran Halcyon