Terry Bisson - First Fire

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Published in SCIENCE FICTION AGE, September 1998.

FIRST FIRE

Terry Bisson

"An unusual request indeed. Why should I fly you to Iran?"

"Because you have money and I don't," Emil wanted to say, but didn't. "Because

can help you authenticate your discovery at Ebtacan," he said.

"What discovery?"

"The Flame of Zoroaster."

The Tycoon nodded his head. His knee had been nodding all along. He was the

richest man in the world, and clearly one of the most impatient.

He wore Levis and a Gap T shirt under a linen sport coat. His legs were

crossed

and his right foot was bobbing up and down as if he couldn't wait to get out

the office.

Emil had gotten this appointment only by pulling every string and calling in

every marker. He knew he had less than thirty seconds to make his case.

"There is a legend that the fire at Ebtacan is the same one Darius

worshipped,"

he said.

"I know the legend," said the Tycoon. The Ebtacan dig was one of the few of

his

many projects that he followed closely. Most of them he ran through one

foundation or another, but his interest in archeology was genuine, and deep.

Emil knew that he had visited and even worked at the the dig several times.

"Archeology is not about legends," said the Tycoon. "It's about objects.

Small,

hard objects you find in the dirt."

"What if I told you fire was a hard object," said Emil.

The Tycoon narrowed his world-famous eyes. They were boyish only in photos.

"I'm

listening."

"I have developed a way to date fire. Not ashes, not charcoal, not the

remnants

or evidences of fire, but the flame itself."

"I'm all ears."

"Using my device, which I call the spectrachronograph, I can date a flame to

its

precise moment of ignition," said Emil. "With most fires that's only an hour

two. In the case of, say, the Olympic flame, it may be decades. I won't

bother

you with the technical details, but ..."

"Bother me with the technical details," said the Tycoon.

Emil explained how every flame has a unique spectragraphic signature, which

altered over time at a steady rate, and lost altogether when the flame is

extinguished. "Every new flame has a new signature," he said. "With a

spectrachronographic analysis I can date a flame's age to within fractions of

second per century."

"You've dated flames that old?"

"Not yet," said Emil. "Which is why I want to go to Ebtacan. Legends aside,

the

Flame of Zoroaster is likely to be hundreds of years old. Dating it will put

spectrachronograph on the map."

"And my dig as well," said the Tycoon.

Emil was startled to realize that he had scored. He went for the extra point.

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Terry Bisson - First Fire

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