An Ancient Movie

[Hans von Goeben]

Five days. For five mortal days, it had been raining non-stop on the Goebens' farmstead. If Hans von Goeben didn't rediscover his old hobby, the endless television shows and sitting around in the house would have turned him mad. A distraction from this horrible monotony was urgently needed. And so, he was sifting through all the cardboards filled with collections from past days in order to sort them out and get an overview again. Countless ancient writings, old comics, pamphlets and recordings were scattered on the table, the floor and dusty shelves in his former nursery in the attic.

Despite this distraction, the nagging thoughts of recent events started to unfold in his mind once more:

Five months ago, Hans would have laughed about the idea of living with his parents again. The journies, the work as the head of research in biotechnology and implantation in IRG, one of the most renowned technology enterprise in Sirius, and the bachelor's life in general were WAY too exciting to swap it for the dull perspectives on his home planet Stuttgart.
After the accident had happened, his laughter stopped. One severed arm and a deep shock was the result of a risky experiment which dropped him in the ICU section.
Although the physical damage was ironically repaired with the knowledge of his own area of expertise and a fancy cybernetic prothesis, his superiors suspended Goeben for an unlimited period until he would be fully functional again.
Since prescribed rest and care doesn't equal a groovy vacation of Curacao, the cheapest and also best way was to return to his calm roots on the family farm.

Well, it's not like it was a bad decision after all. With maternal care and recreation, the injured one had completly recovered to this point. But it was a boring decision, for sure. Until his boss thought his wounded employee was ready for work again, time was extremly hard to kill, which brings us back to the start.
For an attempt to kill the time, mentioned collections from his younger days had recently been providing so much joy to Hans that he considered expanding it once more. The old and ancient things had always been his favourite hobby which suffered greatly during the last couple of years. So why not pick it up once more? It's not like there was anything else to do. What would stop him?

The prices, for example. The items of interest had experienced such a tremendous gain in interest that their value had skyrocketed. A dilemma, since there was no income at that time. Additionally, the sickness benefit was needed for something else than collections.
Though he remembered from the days as a Freelancer that the Junkers were a major and rather cheap source for pretty much everything. Surely this hadn't changed ever since! Besides, flying to a Junker base for shopping was a welcomed timeout from cabin fever, rain and the same faces. No sooner said than done, a civil space shuttle was landing in the hangar of Kreuzberg Depot only four hours later. It was the largest base operated by Junkers in Rheinland. If you could not buy it here, it didn't exist.

Like common on such stations, a couple of gloomy corridors led from the docks in the outer section directly to the center, the heart of every base. There, the markets with their hundreds of travelling merchants, bars and shops were waiting for costumers and guests to spend their money on various desires.

While Hans was roaming the market place, an old one-eyed vagabond cought his eye. The man sat behind a wooden stand on and around which, tons of boxes, crates and hatrackes were stored. The man and the place matched each other: Run-down and shabby. But, aren't the most beautiful diamonds hidden in the deepest dirt?
Moreover, the content of those boxes were exactly what Goeben was looking for: Real, illustrated paper. This meant old books, magazines and comics. A rare sight these days.

With an expectant smile, he approached the stand and nods. "Good day, Sir!"
Scrutiny was the merchant's only reaction at first. "...wanna buy somethin', or just gawkin' like everyone else?", he mumbled after a few awkward seconds of silence.
Hans now recalled the average friendliness of Junker merchants. Some things never change.
"Uh...honestly, I would really like to have a look before making a decision. You offer a large selection of printed media, and-"
The old guy frowned. "You talkin' about the comics, eh? Got some more stuff for nerds behind me, like action figures made of ancient plastic, haptic toys and other nerd crap like that. You look like someone who'd be interested in it."
Charming. Without further words, the merchant put more crates on the counter. Indeed, he had a lot of "nerd stuff" to offer!
After only about an hour of searching, his patience ran out. "Ya know, buddy, if I was paid by the hour, I'd be a rich man by now thanks to loafers like you. Take something right now, or leave it!"

A collection of old movies caught the attention of his appreciated costumer thirty minutes ago. "My apologies.", said Hans while still rummaging around in the box, "I'd like to take all of those, please. What's your price?"
One would notice a wolfish smile appearing on the dealer's face.
"That? Those are ancient movies, on M-Discs. Shelf warmers at best. Got 'em from a strange fellow in the Omegas..."

Ancient movies, on ancient discs?! Bingo, better than any comic.

"I give them to ya for...3000 Credits? I want them gone...and I don't watch this botch." Hans bit his lips: "3000? You can't be serious. What..." Again, he was interrupted.
"Calm down, junior. Those are no regular movies. The guy who sold them swore by his mother and honour that those are from Earth! What you're holding in your hands was produced and even watched back there! 3000 is a real bargain for those artifacts."
Hans raised an eyebrow. "From...Earth. Sure thing, pal. And your comics were written an drawn by Nomads, right?"

With one jump, the old man got up and grabbed Hans by the scruff of his neck. With a grim gaze, he hissed: "You don't believe me, greenhorn?! Me, an honorable merchant who already has travelled all over Sirius, traded with thousands of pleased costumers over decades? Never have I ever lied to my costumers! Never was I insulted that deeply before! By my eyepatch, those movies had travelled together with the colonists on the sleeper ships CENTURIES ago, among numberless other cultural testimonials made by our ancestors, so that we will never forget where we come from, and how brilliant our forerunners were! And today, I offer you those wonderful artifacts for such a knocked-down price, and you are making fun of me and my business instead?!"
Everyone around had stopped and was staring at the trader and his client. Irritated by the sudden rage and the awkward situation, Hans was only able to stutter: "I...I only got 2000 on me. And p-please let me breathe again, Sir."

"Hm...2000 Credits. Better than nothing. Deal.", the vagabond grumbled and put Goeben back on the ground. In lightning-speed, Hans paid and left Kreuzberg as fast as possible. What an unpleasent meeting.

Even if the whole "Original movies from ancient Earth" nonsense was pure bull...in every cover were a M-Disc, and most were in original condition. Those which had already been opened could be copies, but the content was what Hans was after: Ancient movies. For him, it was about enjoying the act, not the collector value.
What the crazy man hadn't mentioned was the unpleasent circumstance that our modern media players weren't able to read the M-Discs. A circumstance which Hans first had noticed after his hasty return to Stuttgart and a screwed holo-recorder. Other formats, meter-reading and the sensitivity of those old discs made an old-fashioned DVD-player essential. Compared to the price for such a device, the money spent on the movies was pocket change.

But Hans didn't resign. An ingenious idea arose to post an offer on one of the largest antique-forums of Sirius. Since DVD players were way too expensive, he'd like to give away two or three of those "Earth movies" in exchange for renting the desired player for a couple of weeks...