The Contact Episode One

by Albert Sartison

technical development."

  "What conclusions can be drawn from these data?"

  It was MacQueen himself who asked this question.

  Professor Sullivan thought about this briefly and then replied:

  "That greatly depends on the context, on what knowledge the intruders possess. If this is not their first contact of this kind, they will have had the opportunity to analyse many civilisations at different levels of technological development. With such knowledge, far-reaching conclusions can be drawn. On the other hand, there may not be any universal rules for the development of technology. In that case, the conclusions will be much more modest."

  Shelby indicated to Professor Sullivan that he wished to speak. Sullivan nodded.

  "Let us return the discussion to the original theme. So far we have no answer to the question of how we intend to continue communication after we have established contact. Tomorrow morning, we shall answer the object with an echo. It is extremely important to determine what our next actions should be. A few minutes ago the supposition was expressed that the intruders might understand how we communicate. But what if they don't?"

  "Are there any arguments for or against the theory of the intruder understanding us?" asked someone.

  Shelby turned his glance to Steve. Steve shook his head.

  "When we first noticed the object, we tried to take a bearing on it. The object could have made use of this situation to send us some comprehensible information. It did not do this. On the other hand, the object precisely determined the location of some of our telescopes, even those which had not broken radio silence in its direction. That is to say, it knows that we are observing it and knows where from. Therefore it has at least a minimum of rudimentary knowledge about the location of our apparatus. Nevertheless, it is sending us a series of primitive signals. This could be interpreted in favour of the well-informed intruder theory, or against it. On the data we have available to us, we are not in a position either to confirm or reject this theory."

  Shelby paused briefly to go to the lectern to have a drink of water.

  "One of our esteemed colleagues here expressed the opinion that we should operate in universal concepts. Would you like to develop that theory, sir?" Shelby continued, after taking several small sips.

  "With the greatest of pleasure. I had the following in mind. Any developed civilisation, ahead of ours by at least several centuries, must know numerous fundamental physical constants of various kinds, mathematical sequences and so on. The first thing that comes to mind in this context is geometric progression. Various forms of geometric progression can be observed in the processes of animate and inanimate nature. For example, the division of bacteria, the number of which doubles at regular time intervals. Or the decay of a radioactive substance. It is possible, though hardly probable, that the first of these is not present on the intruder's world, but we can guarantee that it knows the second.

  "Thus we can send a series of pulses containing within itself the pattern of a certain progression. This pattern will be easy to guess, so there is a high degree of possibility that the object will understand what we have in mind.

  "But that is just the beginning. The most interesting question is how to go over from encoding such simple logical constructs as geometric progression to encoding complex concepts, for example of a political nature."

  "That is the very point on which I wanted to focus," said Shelby. "Do you have any ideas on that score?"

  "Yes, I do. But before I express them, permit me to consult my fellow cybernetics experts. I'll give you the results tomorrow morning."

  Shelby nodded, looked at his wristwatch and said:

  "I think we've all understood the basic problem, so I would like to end today's meeting at this point. We shall assemble at seven thirty am precisely tomorrow in a situation room, where we shall begin making contact with the object. I urgently request you to spend the rest of today in studying the 'Dawn' dossier in detail.

  "Colleagues, tomorrow we open a new era in the history of mankind. Our task is to make sure it is not the last one."

  Contact

  The next morning, Steve woke up several minutes before his alarm. He lay for some time with his eyes closed, half-asleep, but when he remembered recent events, his sleepiness quickly vanished.

  It was quiet in the room, only the ticking of the mechanical clock on the wall could be heard. Steve imagined all the bustle going on now in the situation room, where more than half the academic council was sure to be assembled by now. It promised to be quite a stressful day. And a long one.

  He stretched, took a deep breath and finally opened his eyes. The pale blue light of early morning was peeking through the heavy curtains here and there. Steve sat up in bed. He was still very tired from the events of the previous day, although in some ways the project hadn't even begun yet. Steve wiped his forehead, took another deep breath, and got out of bed. When would he get another normal night's sleep?

  Half an hour later, not a trace of early morning fatigue was left. A wash in cold water and a short series of press-ups had their effect - he was full of energy again.

  Steve strode across the base, stuffing a doughnut into his mouth on the way, and washing it down with plenty of coffee. Working at the observatory had taught him to hold a sandwich or doughnut and a mug of hot drink at the same time in one hand, while the other hand was free to work, controlling the computer with gestures. This time he was carrying a briefcase in his other hand.

  Approaching the building containing the situation room, he noticed Maggie from some way off. She was waiting her turn to enter the building. Steve also joined the queue.

  It was moving slowly. Everyone entering the building had to show an electronic pass, verify him or herself by pressing a hand on the DNA scanner, and undergo an iris scan. After that, several questions from the security officers had to be answered.

  The entrance was protected on the outside by at least eight infantrymen with heavy weapons. A little farther off, on either side of the entrance, stood two eight-foot-tall combat robots.

  While waiting his turn, Steve studied the robots with interest. It was the first time he had seen a 'live' combat machine, and so close up too. Like most students on the physics and mathematics side, he was interested in combat technology not so much because of its purpose, but because it was so advanced. For almost the whole span of human history, military engineering had been far ahead of its civilian equivalent by several decades.

  In silhouette, the robots bore a strong resemblance to people, if you ignored their rough titanium-coloured surface, which didn't look much like skin. They also had limbs, and held plasma guns in their hands - two at the same time, one in each hand, muzzle pointing downward. Their heads were smaller proportionally than humans, and were attached to a powerful neck. There was no face in the human sense of the word; instead, there was something which created the impression that the robot was wearing some sort of helmet. On each shoulder was a short-barrelled machine gun for close combat. The whole appearance was quite frightening even with the robots at rest. It must have been terrifying to meet such a machine face to face in a real battle.

  From the technical point of view, the humanoid shape of the body was not ideal for a self-propelled combat machine. The human anatomy is such that the muscles which bend the forearm are attached quite close to the axis of rotation in the elbow joint. The arm forms a lever, which gives it more speed at the expense of strength. But mechanical muscles, unlike biological ones, are capable of contracting at a much higher rate, so there is no need for a rapid but weak lever. And in order to compensate for loss of force, the mechanism needed to be much bigger.

  The lower limbs were not the best design decision either. The human method of moving on two legs is much more costly in energy and considerably slower than that of many other animals. In creating a combat robot of humanoid appearance, the designers had to resign themselves to the use of energy in a less than optimum way.

  However, the hum
anoid appearance had one great advantage in combat - a psychological one. The sight of a hostile machine eight feet tall, designed to look like a human, aroused fear to the point of panic, particularly among inexperienced troops. Raw recruits who had never been under fire fell into a stupor at the sight of these iron monsters on the field of battle.

  Still gazing at the robots, Steve took a step forward without looking, not noticing the person in front of him, who was bending over to pick something up. Stumbling over him, Steve almost knocked him off his feet, and he himself, waving his arms and spilling coffee everywhere, barely managed not to fall over.

  One of the robots, in a barely noticeable movement, turned its head slightly towards the disturbance.

  Steve apologised, shook his wet sleeve and continued to wait. Embarrassed by his carelessness, he stopped staring at the robots.

  Then he noticed Maggie smiling at him from the back of the hall. She had just answered all the security officer's questions and been given permission to enter, when she heard the noise of the commotion caused by Steve.

  Steve nodded to her in greeting. She nodded in reply, smiling broadly. Moving a little away from the entrance, Maggie waited for Steve to pass through the checkpoint.

  "Hi, Maggie, what are you doing here?" asked Steve in surprise, once he was through.

  "The same as you," Maggie replied. "I was in the hall yesterday too, you went past me twice without noticing me."

  "Really?" How could he have failed to notice Maggie?

  "So it was you who discovered the object?" she asked.

  "It seems it was," answered Steve, not without pride. He was still somewhat embarrassed that Maggie should have noticed him just as he was clumsily waving his arms about, trying to stay on his feet. He must have looked a real idiot.

  Trying to find something to do with his hands, Steve fiddled with the amulet on his right wrist. Maggie looked down at the amulet and remarked:

  "I see you like my amulet."

  So it was Maggie who had given him the amulet, Steve realised.

  Steve had drunk rather too much beer at that party, and when he found the amulet on his wrist the next day, he couldn't remember where it came from. Now he clearly remembered the scene when Maggie had tied the amulet on his wrist. She had also been in the tavern that evening, with some other girls, and at that moment they were chatting to Steve, discussing the forthcoming final exams and diploma theses. Steve had said at the time that he would need a lot of luck to find a theme for defending his diploma. In response, Maggie had taken the amulet off her own arm and tied it onto Steve's.

  "Then let this amulet help you find a good theme. It's always brought me luck," she had said flirtatiously. It was less than 24 hours after this that Steve had found the object. How could even a scientist fail to be superstitious after that?

  "Er, yes, I certainly do," muttered Steve. "Listen, how do you happen to be here? I saw Shelby's list, and there were no other students on it."

  "That's right, it was just by chance really. Shelby asked for a certain doctor from the faculty where I'm writing my diploma thesis, but he's in hospital just now, he was in a serious accident. And I know more than anyone else about the research he was in charge of. That's how it happened. Pure chance."

  One of the security officers came up to them.

  "Good morning to you. Please go in and take your seats," he said, politely but insistently.

  Steve nodded to the officer, and touching Maggie's elbow lightly, he guided her towards the situation room.

  The situation room was a hall with no windows, but it was flooded with bright light, divided into a number of colour-coded sectors. Each sector in turn was divided into oases consisting of several tables set in a