The 13th Science Fiction MEGAPACK®: 26 Great SF Stories!

by Lake, Jay

  The Russian ambassador, Anatoly Shuskov, took the floor. “I ask the indulgence of the committee to have a distinguished member of my staff comment in my place.” Once permission was granted, Shuskov ceded the floor to General Antinov.

  “Ambassadors, thank you for hearing an old soldier. I am proud to have defended the Soviet Union for many years. I am proud to have taken part in Russia’s transition to democracy. As a past member of the rocket forces and the cosmonaut corps, I believe I have credibility in defense and space matters.

  “Ambassador Shuskov asked me to assure the committee that our forces have searched for evidence of coming aliens. We found no such evidence. As a cosmonaut, however, I tell you frankly: if ET did visit us, it would mean that his technology exceeds ours as an aircraft carrier exceeds a sailboat.”

  The simile came painfully close to accusing ET of gunboat diplomacy, a comparison not lost on the Chinese ambassador. Matthews wondered whether the association was intentional.

  “I am known for being direct. If ET can come, and opts to, he will. Nothing we say or do will stop him. If ET wishes only to talk, we may choose to listen. I urge COPUOS to listen.

  “It is better to know what ET can do than to not know.” His eyes swept the committee. “I will state clearly what most only hint at: some nations have had cause to fear the superior technology of others. Where nations differ has been in their response to that challenge. Those who learned eventually prospered. Those who clung to their old ways soon suffered.”

  Pausing for a sip of water, Antinov studied his audience. Some of the former certainty was gone from their faces. “Nothing this committee can do will reduce the risks of new knowledge. You may decide not to listen to ET, but you cannot stop other countries, universities, corporations from listening. From learning. You may hope to keep ET’s message from your society. You will be no more successful than you were at keeping out blue jeans or rock and roll.

  “I give you a final thought. The cost of restricting knowledge is onerous. It takes a police state to even try.” He smiled sadly. “We Russians learned that lesson well.

  “And to bear the burden of such restrictions, only to see other countries master new technologies from ET … that would be truly a tragedy.”

  * * * *

  “… So since we were made in God’s image, some bug-eyed thing across the galaxy can’t be one of God’s creatures.”

  “Interesting point, Rick,” said the deejay. His enthusiasm sounded forced.

  “The way I was taught, God sent his only begotten Son to redeem us. Jesus died for our sins, right here on Earth. That tells me that ET must be damned.”

  “As a good Christian, is it your duty to bring Jesus’ message to ET?”

  “You’re not listening. They’re not in God’s image. They’re damned. In my book, that makes them devils.”

  * * * *

  When COPUOS reconvened for a second day of hearings, the opponents of the task force had fine-tuned their approach. No one sought to rebut Antinov’s defense of listening. Perhaps it had registered that ET was no longer talking.

  The skeptics today turned to exaggerated praise. The task force has done the hard work and ET’s message was in the can. Anyone who was interested was welcome to finish deciphering the message.

  Oh, yes … and please leave your budget at the door.

  There was a whispered consultation among the steering committee, sitting behind the long table set across the open end of the horseshoe. Bridget grabbed a mike. “We need still to talk about the Reply committee.”

  By prearrangement among the developing countries, today Ambassador Smythe of Belize led the attack. “ET learned we are here. He told us he is there. What’s the added benefit of exchanging postcards?”

  “I feel that acknowledgement is the least we can do, Madam Ambassador. ET has shown us the extraordinary fact that we are not the only intelligent beings in the universe. I also believe it is in our self interest to maintain and enhance the dialogue. We have so much to learn.”

  “Surely the least we can do is nothing.” Several ambassadors smiled. “We can discuss proper interstellar manners on another occasion. I’d rather you expand on your second point. I’m struck not by how much we can learn but by how little. The task force has diverted some of the world’s best scientists to a rediscovery of arithmetic.”

  Bridget squirmed in her chair. Perhaps she felt sandbagged by the lack of Commonwealth solidarity from an official of a former British colony. “Madam Ambassador, I think that summation gives insufficient credit for our work. We have made great progress in building a common vocabulary.”

  “What indication has ET given of having anything to say?”

  “We haven’t finished reading his message.”

  “Which is to say, none.” Smythe smiled humorlessly. “And what conclusions has the Reply committee reached on an answer from Earth? I believe the answer there to be the same.”

  Bridget squared her shoulders. “Again, I could refer to interim progress. Surely it is not unreasonable to take some time in deciding how to respond to a whole new civilization.”

  “What can you tell me about this civilization? What do they look like? Do they breathe oxygen? Are they ruled by parliaments or potentates?”

  “The part of the message we’ve decoded does not address cultural and biological matters.”

  The ambassador checked her notes. “Can you say what planet of their sun they live on?”

  “No.”

  The steerers looked down at the table or around the room, everywhere but at two debaters. Matthews, seated behind Bridget in the visitors gallery, seethed.

  “In fact, ET’s signal intentionally hides all evidence of the planet he’s from.”

  “I believe that to be a mischaracterization of why the signal is at a constant frequency,” replied Bridget. She was also starting to get angry.

  “But ET has not shown what planet he’s from, even though he’s shown he knows what planet we are from.”

  “Not in what has been decoded so far.”

  Smythe looked to her colleagues. “We staffed the Reply committee with veteran diplomats. It is no surprise to me that they have no draft response. How could they reply to an alien race that has offered absolutely no information about itself?”

  * * * *

  If Bridget had seemed angry by the end of the exchange with the ambassador from Belize, Matthews was furious. The questions had all been variations of, “Do you still beat your spouse?” Any direct answer was either an admission or an apparent evasion.

  Bridget had, quite properly, pointed out that ET’s message was only partially analyzed. That worked fine once or twice; after that, it came across as an excuse.

  He gave her credit for maintaining her composure. Perhaps there was no politic way to tell an ambassador that she was full of crap. Antinov’s performance yesterday had been one of a kind, and only his unique career allowed him to pull it off.

  Roderigo called a recess. The ambassadors converged to one end of the room; the steerers huddled at their table. Matthews felt alone in a crowded room, watching COPUOS move towards declaring victory and disbanding the task force.

  No COPUOS action could stop analysis of the message; ET’s full text was on the Web for all who cared to see. There were also plenty of antennas beyond task force jurisdiction listening for the resumption of ET’s signal. A UN withdrawal of funding, if it happened, would only slow the analysis.

  No, the real problem would came later, after the analysis. It was not merely appropriate for Earth’s answer to come from the UN level. Two days after Xu’s press release, the General Assembly had passed an emergency resolution. With its hasty ratification by three fourths of UN member countries, an international treaty now required that any response come only under UN auspices. Mbeke
, Smythe, and their ilk showed little interest in okaying any such transmission.

  Protocol be damned. He started pushing through the crowd to the American ambassador.

  * * * *

  Alexander Klein had an imposing resume. He had earned PhDs in history and international studies from Yale at 22. He was tenured at Stanford at 27. At thirty, he was a senior staffer on the National Security Council. The UN ambassadorship was his second cabinet-level position.

  Klein overruled the aide attempting to shoo Matthews away. They stepped into a small chamber off the COPUOS hearing room. The ambassador heard Matthews out, asking occasional questions and jotting notes. Glancing often at his watch, Klein kept the conversation ruthlessly focused: absent a compelling new argument, the hearing was moving towards shut-down of the task force. Matthews hoped he was making that case.

  Roderigo’s gavel fell. Ambassadors, witnesses, staff and observers all took their seats. The chairman recognized Klein.

  After a flowery introduction, Klein took some notes from his jacket. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Dr. Satterswaithe, might I impose on you for a bit longer?”

  Bridget nodded.

  “I’d like us to step back from the text of ET’s message, or rather from the part of that message so far decoded. I’ve been led to believe that it might be instructive to consider the broader context.”

  Klein glanced again at the notes of his consultation with Matthews. “Would I be correct in understanding the following? In just the last few weeks we’ve been given proof that humans are not alone in the universe. In fact, we have neighbors who can see our little world here.”

  “That’s right, Mr. Ambassador.”

  “And these neighbors not only have better telescopes than we do, they have better radios as well.”

  “Again, that’s correct.”

  “That’s a lot of knowledge from a supposedly secretive source.” Klein studied his notes again. “And the signal that conveyed all of that knowledge to us, was sent by a transmitter far more powerful than anything we’ve ever built?”

  As Bridget agreed once more, Matthews worried that Klein was overdoing it. The Third World delegations had already shown more discomfort with possible culture clashes and perceived inferiority than the physicist had thought possible.

  “Thanks for keeping me clear on these points, Doctor.” Klein took off and polished his glasses, the image of a harmless college don. “Some of my esteemed colleagues have raised a concern, and I am not unsympathetic, about the cost of the task force.

  “I have reason to believe that these are not the only costs. If I could refer you for a moment to your ‘day job,’ would I be correct in my understanding that radio spectrum is a valuable resource? An economically precious resource?”

  Bridget leaned forward with a renewed confidence. She (and the ambassador) had gotten it. “Very much so. For example, we had to disrupt the plans of a global satcom company to avoid interference on ET’s channel.” She had in mind NetSat.

  “I see. Presumably our Lalande friends have to sacrifice the same frequency to communicate with us?”

  “Yes.”

  Klein turned his attention to his fellow ambassadors. “I find that my perception of ET differs from some of my colleagues. For example, I feel that I know a lot about him. He’s curious: he wants to know more about us. He’s smart: he knows a few tricks we might like to learn. He’s serious: whatever effort we’ve made to hear and understand his signal, it must be far smaller than the investment ET made to formulate such an elegant message, to reserve valuable radio spectrum just in case we answer, and to devote a transmitter the likes of which we have yet to build. We would know none of that if our neighbor had simply chosen not to tell us.”

  He tucked his notes—perfectly delivered, so far, thought Dean—back into his jacket. “It’s said that money talks. ET has dedicated quite a lot of whatever he uses for money to this endeavor. I think he’s entitled to have us hear him out.

  “I predict,” and here Klein paused dramatically, “that by the time we’ve finished the processing of ET’s message, we’ll have discovered a request for information from us.” Matthews silently mouthed his prediction along with the ambassador.

  “I think we all should keep an open mind about how, what, and when to answer ET. For surely, if we do not reply, it will be his committees deciding not to throw good money after bad.”

  He smiled once more at Bridget. “And then who can say what amazing knowledge we will have forfeited?”

  CHAPTER 7

  The steerers were disinvited from day three of the hearing, where COPUOS would decide the task force’s fate. Bridget and Dean sought distraction at the Statue of Liberty. She had never seen it; he’d visited it at the age of eight.

  “That is one handy connection you have with Alex Klein,” she offered on the return ferry. It was the first violation of a tacit no-business policy.

  “Oh?”

  “I’ve been holding back, too. It appears you were right about ET requesting information.” She paused as the ferry’s horn blasted. “Although it’s generally impractical to decode out of sequence, the analysts have scanned ahead in the message. They figured that a sneak preview might suggest in advance technical specialties we should add to staff.”

  “So what lies ahead?”

  “The message gets more and more complex. Most of what’s left looks like physics and electronics. Amid that technical detail, oddly, is a return to arithmetic. That’s followed by a brief return to chemistry. The arithmetic and the chemical reactions both use a symbol we don’t understand. Everyone assumes we’ll know what it means once we read things in order. The puzzling thing is, that symbol doesn’t appear earlier.”

  “Give me an example?”

  “Sure. Call the undecoded symbol ‘X.’ The math is stuff like 2+3=X and 7-1=X. The chemistry starts as similarly basic chemical reactions, with a reactant missing, replaced by X. Then X shows up in a lot of hairy chemistry material.”

  A cloud blew over the sun, turning the harbor air instantly chilly. He was too deep in thought to notice. “You didn’t pick ‘X’ at random. You’re thinking of everyone’s favorite algebra variable: X the unknown.”

  “My mind’s been heading that way since the speech you put your ambassador up to.”

  “Okay, let’s assume ‘X’ is something to be solved for. ET used trivial arithmetic problems to introduce the symbol. He used simple chemistry problems to generalize the concept beyond math. And then … .” He stopped, staring into space.

  “And the remaining occurrences of X might just turn out to be ET’s shopping list.”

  * * * *

  Matthews’ cell phone chimed as the ferry docked. Chattering, jostling tourists almost drowned out Alex’s news. COPUOS had narrowly approved task-force continuation: a 43-40 vote. Dean gave a thumb’s up to Bridget, now on her own phone.

  The gesture was arguably too soon. Alex’s next words were less upbeat. “Winning this round meant cashing in several favors owed the US. I expect Mbeke and his allies will try packing the committee with new Third World members before the next review. If that happens, I don’t see where the votes would come from to authorize a reply.”

  * * * *

  Bridget’s call was a summons for them both from Kim; they took a cab from the dock to the UN. One short hour after the vote, hundreds of Earth Firsters were already demonstrating in front of the UN building.

  To Dean’s surprise, Bridget excused herself when they got to the Undersecretary-General’s office. “Today’s vote was unpleasantly close,” said Kim, as the door closed behind Bridget. “We must do better next time.”

  Dean shrugged inwardly. Where was this going?

  “Perhaps we need fresh thinking. The kind of insight that your Ambassador showed yesterday �
�� with your input. Bridget also speaks highly of you.” Kim smiled, “Joining the steering committee would be much more efficient than maneuvering us.”

  Matthews didn’t protest the insinuation: there was adequate truth to it. Coming from a career politician and diplomat, the remark was probably meant as a compliment.

  “Now assuming that you will join us, I suggest that you join a post-vote strategy session.”

  CHAPTER 8

  It turned out that Matthews’ prediction on the ferry had been only half right.

  At his suggestion, the next steering committee meeting included a synopsis of the whole message. The head of the Analysis committee, Koji Matsumoto, gave the summary. Koji was an intense astrophysicist on loan from NASDA, the Japanese space agency. He looked surprisingly awake for someone teleconferencing from Tokyo, where it was 3:00 a.m.

  Matsumoto uploaded a graphic. “This chart overviews the entire message and our progress in reading it. Message blocks flow from left to right and top to bottom. The ‘look at me’ pulses and earliest images are at the top left. As you know, ET marks each image with the dimensionality and size of the next image. This lets us separate the message into its parts, although many of the later blocks don’t make sense yet.”

  Dean studied the graphic. In rough terms, he visualized the image in three segments. The first quarter was red, fading to orange. The middle half was yellow. The last fourth spanned the rest of the rainbow, in thin slices.

  “The blocks we think are fully decoded appear in red. We have covered that material at earlier meetings. Orange shows blocks that are partially interpreted. We believe the yellow area that follows is, like the orange, progressively more advanced mathematics, physics, and chemistry.”

  Matsumoto sent a new image. “Here we see more detail about the end of the message. The thin green slice is only a few frames long: it is where ET introduces what we think is a question-mark symbol. The blue that follows is what Dean called the shopping list; we’ll return to that. The indigo area seems to be electronic schematics. Violet, the final section, appears to derive units of measure, such as time intervals, from fundamental physical constants.”