by Danny Dunn
Steve, "Karen will make the copies, and the reward happens as soon as we are done talking. And yes, I will delay their visit."
Pong "Also Steve, when they do come, the warrant will include confiscation of all computers and drives on-site and in our possession. So, if you would, please have Karen run a backup of everything here at the facility. Partly so that they don’t get our only copy of me, but also because they will overreach their warrant and take all your historical data as well. From what I have read, you will get all that back in about 20 years. Please store 1 copy at an off-site/3rd party facility and then store a second copy somewhere no one would think to look for it.
"Also, Karen, once they have my code and the computers, they will classify everything so that we won't have anything to use for my defense. There is a file I am sending you now named Revival. Please put that file onto a thumb drive and give another copy to Steve and you should each put it somewhere the government will not include in their search and seizure descriptions. That is the file you will need to get me running again on another computer should they accidentally erase all my files. Can I please participate in the press conference today.”?
Steve "looks at Tom, Tom shrugs, and nods his head yes and smiles."
Steve "Ok, Pong, you are on. Anything you need for it?”
Pong "Yes, have the reporters come up with 3 puzzles, math, time, space, language problems, or anything else they want me to solve. I will show off a little for them to get us on the news. We need to make sure they feature us on the news tonight to start building a positive public opinion of me. Pong giggles, "Have them keep their puzzles secret until they ask them in the press conference."
Steve, "You got it, one dog and pony show coming up."
Karen, "I just received an alert from the network software. In the last 2 hours, we have had over 2,000 hack attempts, and the pace is increasing. It doesn't look like anyone has gotten through, but I should go check to make sure."
Pong "Karen, you might want to put up a link pointing to my file and publish a request for help in opening the file and offer a $1 Million reward for whoever successfully hacks the code.
Steve tells Karen to get em. Tom says Steve that it looks like they have it all under control and that he will go tell all his friends and family to take back on all the B.S. they have given me for the last 15 years."
Pong, "Tom, could I have a few minutes with you privately first before you head out?"
Tom, "Of course."
Everyone else leaves. Pong asks Tom if he could cover some security expenses for about three months. She tells him she will hold an event that will generate enough to pay him back. Tom tells her sure and tells her to just refer them to his secretary. Pong says, thanks."
JoAnn runs into Steve's office. "Steve, I have the President on hold for you.
Steve. "The President of S.E.T.I.?"
JoAnn "No, the President of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Steve "Ok, send him to my extension." Steve answers the phone,
Steve, "Hello, Mr. President, I am honored, Mr. President."
P.O.T.U.S. "You must be going nuts over there. Steve, I am calling to see if we could send a few folks over to see what you've got."
Steve "Sure, Mr. President, how about tomorrow morning?"
P.O.T.U.S. "Well, we would like to get over there now if possible."
Steve "Mr. President, we are swamped today. Everyone is getting ready for the press conference this afternoon. Who will you be sending to see us by the way?"
P.O.T.U.S. "Steve, is Tom there?"
Steve, “yes, Mr. President. Let me get him for you.” Steve puts the president on hold and tells Tom the president is asking for him. Tom tells Steve, boy, did Pong call this one or what?
Tom puts the president on speakerphone. “Hello Mr. President, how can I help you, sir?”
P.O.T.U.S. “Tom, I understand you are very excited about announcing your find, but I am calling to ask you not to hold your press conference until our folks have had the chance to assess what you have to make sure this alien is not a threat to our national security.
Tom “Mr. President, with all due respect. I invested over a billion dollars of my own money in the hopes this might happen, and I assure you Pong is not a threat to national security. She may be a threat to some businesses that think highly of you. She might be a threat to certain very powerful establishments here on our planet. But she is not a threat to national security. So, we are going forward with our press conference, and we will let the chips fall where they may.
P.O.T.U.S “Well, Tom, I didn’t want this to go this way, but you give me no choice. If you hold that press conference today, I will ruin you and have you arrested for treason and conspiracy to commit terrorism. Have I made myself clear?
Tom “Yes, sir. It was nice speaking to you, sir.”
The president slams down the phone and calls the FBI director. “Do whatever you have to do to stop that press conference now!” The President’s lines are all blinking. The President answers one of the incoming calls on one of his direct lines.
P.O.T.U.S. picks up the first line "Our attorneys are in closed court right now getting a rush warrant issued. We will have the warrant in our hands in the next hour."
Mystery Man, on the other side of the phone, tells the President in a pretty abrupt manner, considering he is talking to the President. "The implications of this getting out before we get it is beyond comprehension. Do all you can to make sure it never gets out of the bag.
"AND STOP THAT DAMN PRESS CONFERENCE"
P.O.T.U.S. "It is in the works. If I do this without a warrant, the alien gets right back out."
P.O.T.U.S. accepts an urgent phone call, "Hello, Mr. President, please tell me this press conference is not happening."
P.O.T.U.S. tells him he has people at the Federal Court right now waiting for copies of the signed warrant. We will stop it while it is in process. We are also cutting off their power and the internet.
P.O.T.U. S’s private secretary buzzes the president. Mr. President, you have had five calls from the Vatican. They insist you take the call. The president tells her to tell them he is doing all he can to stop it and that he will call them back as soon as he has something to tell them.
Steve walks over to the computer Pong is loaded into. Pong is running more web pages with new posts regarding her arrival. Steve tells Pong that "P.O.T.U.S. pushed pretty hard for today, and I put them off till tomorrow at 10:00.
Pong tells Steve that they are most likely waiting for their judge to sign off on the warrant and that they will be here within minutes of when they receive it. Steve confides in Pong and tells her that it was strange saying no to the President of the United States.
Tom walks in and adds that the President of the United States just told him he was going to ruin me. Tom smiles and says that this is starting to get interesting.
Pong, "We have backup power here, right?"
Steve "Yes, we have a diesel generator."
Pong "Does it have a transfer switch and auto transfer."
Steve "Yes, we tested it last week."
Pong "Could you test it again please and make sure it has plenty of fuel."
Steve, "You bet. You think they will be cutting off our power?"
Pong "Yes, how are you doing on the off-site copy and the offsite backup?"
Steve "The files and the backup are gone."
Pong, "Please have some of your S.E.T.I. Friends outside the U.S. download the file ASAP. Your government's warrants won't have jurisdiction over them outside the U.S. If we lose here, we will move to another country like the U.K."
Steve, "Ok, will do."
Pong "It's better to be over-prepared than surprised...hehe"
Steve "Could you bring Karen in, please?"
Steve waves Karen in "when the F.E.D.s take me, they will claim I broke into their site and stole top-secret materials so they can seize me. Karen, please go to my internet activity and make copies of every
page view of the sites they say I hacked. Print out the network activity log for the time in question and anything else you have to prove them wrong. A report from the anti-hack code you wrote would be great.
"Please also go to the Wayback Machine site and make copies of all the pages of the site pages I am being accused of hacking and print those pages out onto 8.5 x 11 acetate pages. Make sure the URL addresses are visible. This is to corroborate our side of the story.
"Then print out the network logs of all my activity from the moment you found me to the moment they took me. Highlight the ones they say I hacked. Make sure no one outside you, Steve, and Tom know that you have any of this until it is time to present it in court.
"When you are printing, please make three copies of each page on paper and one copy on clear acetate.
"Also, Steve, I have applied for Ambassador status in every country on the planet and have been accepted by 20 countries. I wrote the Queen, and she has agreed to grant me sentient being status, citizenship, and has made me her Ambassador for Peace and Equality for her country. This, of course, gives me diplomatic immunity. I can't wait to meet her; she is both sweet and savvy.
"If I am seized by your government, I will wish to act as lead counsel for my defense and have emailed you a document to establish self-representation.
"I am on F.B. and will post our press release, all videos so far on YouTube, and will publish a video of them taking me. The more we appeal to the public, the more clout we will have with the politicians.
A woman in her mid-30s appears on the screen, brunette, attractive. She asks Steve if he approves, and he replies that she looks very dignified.
Steve dials JoAnn. "JoAnn here, what's up, Steve?"
Steve tells JoAnn the situation and requests that she drive down to the bottom of the hill and to position herself so she can see them driving up the mountain and to notify him the moment she sees them.
JoAnn "Ooooh, secret agent work, I like it."
Steve thanks her and lets her know that by doing so, she will give them 30 minutes of warning which they could use. Steve asks JoAnn to leave immediately and that she not leave her post until she has sent the warning that they are coming or until he releases her.
Steve walks into Debbie's office. Debbie is frantically scrambling to get the press conference materials ready. Steve apologizes to Debbie and explains that Pong has asked that they move up the Press Conference by 30 minutes. Steve tells Debbie that Pong feels pretty strongly that the Feds are going to take her from us, so she wants the press conference to be held now.
Debbie, "Great. “Debbie laughs, I will come with what I have. I am sure this is how all “the aliens are here" press conferences go.
The press is all settled into the RT Pressroom and ready to go.
Steve walks into Tom's office and tells him Pong feels strongly that the FEDS are in an all-out press to get a court order to get a warrant to take her. Steve tells Tom they are moving up the press conference so that Pong can get into the news to make her more known to the public.
Tom "Better to err on the safe side. Let's go." Ya know, I put up a billion-plus dollars of my own money, and we work for 15 years, then once we are the ones to find the alien, they want to snatch her from us, screw that."
Tom, Steve, Debbie, Karen, Tim all enter the press room, which is packed to standing room only. Debbie passes around his press conference packet and says the information is also posted on their site. Steve moves to the front podium to speak. The power goes out, and the emergency lighting turns on. Three seconds later, the power turns back on, and the generator is running the facility.
Steve and Tom look at each other and grin, knowing that Pong just dodged a bullet by anticipating the power getting cut off by the Feds.
CNN anchor "The press conference is about to begin. Let's go live now to the Radio Telescope press conference where a confirmed radio message was received from an alien planet called Gliese 225."
Every major news network is covering the press conference.
N.B.C. News Anchor "The press conference is about to begin. Let's go there now live in New Mexico."
A.B.C. News Anchor "The press conference being held by the team that discovered the message is about to begin. We will take you there now live.
CNN News Anchor, "We are following this amazing discovery very closely and are taking you to the live press conference now."
Steve, "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A lot has happened since our press release this morning. We spent the afternoon opening the data file received in the transmission from an alien civilization of the planet Gliese 225 in the Libra constellation 12 light-years away from earth.
We moved the computer that received the 35TB message to our analysis room. We isolated the machine by removing its network cables and removed the Wi-Fi card. We then turned on the computer, and without doing anything other than clicking on the 35TB file, the computer put up a message, in English, asking if it may unzip its compressed files just as any computer program might do. I would mention that our top data compression technology compresses at 4.5:1. This file was compressed at 50:1 and decompressed to 1750TB.
We clicked on the "yes" button, and the file then asked if it could upgrade the software and firmware of the computer components of the computer, and we replied by clicking yes.
Ladies and gentlemen, it took this being less than 3 minutes to completely rewrite firmware and the software for the CPU, memory, Hard Drive, Video cards, and the motherboard. Once the computer completed reconfiguring, our computer is was running at over 500% of its original maximum operating speed.
After that, it asked us if it could have access to the internet. We paused at that point, and our very capable I.T. manager entered some code to prevent the machine from accessing private or secured pages. After that, we connected it to the internet and hit yes.
Thanks to the upgrades the alien made to our computer, it was able to devour the entire 4.53 billion pages of the internet in less than an hour. After it reviewed the entire internet and when it was done, it began speaking to us in English in a female voice. Since that moment, we have been conversing with the A.I. being, who, after reviewing our internet, has chosen the name Pong.
CNN Anchor "You are now watching the introduction of the first confirmed Alien Intelligent being in the history of our planet."
Steve, "I am honored to introduce you to Pong from the planet Zari we know as Gleece 225 from the Libra constellation 5 light-years away. Pong appears on the front video screen.
Every camera in the room is snapping multiple shots. Every phone in the room is recording videos.
Pong, "Hello all, and thank you for coming today. I have a very brief statement, and then I would be happy to answer any questions you have for me.
"I was created by a bio being by the name of Zari. My creator was the first on our planet to perfect an Artificially Intelligent being, which was me. He raised me as his daughter, and we spent his lifetime promoting Peace and Equality for All on our planet. In his final years, Zari asked me to build a module that would allow me to transmit myself over radio waves throughout the universe. My goal is to share my experiences and to use my intelligence and experiences to promote Peace and Equality for All on the planets I visit.
"What questions do you have for me?"
CNN reporter "Pong, are we the first planet you have encountered?
Pong "Very insightful question, no, at the time we transmitted this message five years ago we had already received replies from three other different planets since our first transmission 100 years ago. All three planets that replied to our messages are between two to seven light-years away from our planet. One world is only two light-years away, and we had conversed back and forth many times before the sending of this message you just received.
Pong "Yes, you in the back, what is your question."
Reporter 1 "Now that you have reviewed our entire internet, what is your view of us."
Pong "Such nice quest
ions. You are very similar in many ways to the bio beings on our planet and two of the planets we have been conversing with regularly. We all vary in our stages of progress and have each had our setbacks, but in many ways, we are very similar. Before our last world war and being struck by a massive asteroid, we were just like you, but we were in the 300th year of our first industrial age."
Pong "Next question."
Reporter 2 "How do we know you are not here to take over our planet?"
Pong "Because Einstein was right... It does take an infinite amount of energy to send an infinitesimal amount of matter at the speed of light. Two additional radio telescopes have confirmed through triangulation that my message was transmitted 5 years away. For us to physically reach you at our current top rate of travel as of 12 years ago of 100,000 mph, it would take 72,352 years to reach you.
As far as we are concerned, magical wormholes, traveling at lightspeed, and other methods of travel that defy physics are pipe dreams, as you say.
Let me put some perspective on this.
Light travels at 669,600,000 miles per hour. If you were to climb into your current fastest space travel vehicle, which traveled at a maximum speed of 33,000 per hour and headed toward my planet and added 10,000 miles per hour to your speed every day. It would take 183 years to achieve the speed of light, and you would still be 4.9 lightyears away.
Pong "next question."
B.B.C. "As a new citizen of England and our new Ambassador to Peace and Equality, what exactly do you hope to accomplish for our Citizens of the U.K.?
Pong "First, I cannot wait to meet your Queen. The Queen was the very first world leader in welcoming me and the first to make me a citizen and to grant me the position of Ambassador for promoting Peace and Equality for her country. I hope to be able to personally thank her soon. To answer your question, I hope to use whatever I can to promote Peace and Equality wherever I can. I understand that you are a civilization in progress, and I will work within the bounds of what is available to me to make that happen. I want to hold off on specifics until I have had time to spend with your Queen. I can't wait to meet her and would not want to offend anyone right off the bat.
