by Danny Dunn
Steve's cell phone rings, Steve looks at the screen on his phone, and it reads "Bob-UK." Steve answers his phone and asks Bob what he sees. Bob tells Steve that his people can verify. We see exactly what your people see Steve. A steady data stream on 19.5, strength at 5GW coming from Gliese 225. We confirm Steve. Steve tells his old friend thanks and tells him he has to go for now. Bob tells Steve to remember to spell my name right... and laughs. Steve, "Will do, and we will see you soon."
Steve's phone rings again, it's Andre from the Puerto Rico site. Steve Answers says, hi Andre and asks him what he hears. Steve, we are locked onto a strong signal coming out of Gliese 225 on 19.5 at around 5GW strength, says, Andre. We confirm Steve, who found it?"
Steve tells Andre that their new guy found it on his first day of work, he hadn't even taken his first lunch break yet. They both laugh, and both have been in the field for 13 years. Andre tells Steve to pat him on the back for us and to congratulate Tim for them. Steve tells Andre thanks and that he will be sure to get back to you soon and to credit you for the confirmation.
Steve calls his wife and tells her he has two confirmations on a find and that they are receiving a steady stream of data from Gliese 225 in the Libra Constellation 5 light-years away."
Anna "That is amazing, don't tell me the new guy found it."
Steve "Yep, in his first morning of work."
Anna, "You must be in heaven. I am so happy for you. Do you know what the message says yet?"
Steve "Yes, it's exhilarating. It is kind of hard to believe it's actually happening, but we have confirmation from the UK and Puerto Rico. No, we don't know what the message is about yet. It's huge and is still streaming in. But it's much more than hello and a couple of pictures. I have to go. I will be home late and will call you later. Say hi to the girls. It might be on the news, so keep your TV on and record it if you would please."
Steve walks down to the hall to Debbie, their PR Director. Steve tells Debbie. Boy, do I have a press release for you. How about "Alien life from a planet 5 light-years away confirmed."
Debbie replies, "no, really? Is that what's going on in there?"
Steve "Yes, we had to get the UK and Puerto Rico to confirm, but yes. A data stream has been coming in for over an hour now and still running. I will get Karen and Tim to put together a fact sheet for you along with mine. I want to get this out asap."
Debbie tells Steve she will come over there in a few minutes to get started on the press release. Debbie asks Steve if Tom knows yet. Steve says Debbie yes and that he's on his way and will be here in an hour and to come on over when she can. Steve walks back to the lab area and claps his hand a couple of times on the way in.
Steve enters the lab and looks up at the file size on the video wall. Karen confirms it is 22 TB and growing. She tells Steve that they are sending about 200 different streams on the one channel, which is why it is growing so fast.
Steve tells Karen and Steve to each compile a fact sheet for Debbie when she comes in. He tells them that Debbie will issue a press release this morning and then will hold a press conference later in the day. Steve adds that making sure we catch every byte of the stream is the top priority by far for now. Karen replies, "copy that."
Tim is on the phone with his mom. "Mom, for the 10th time, I am not pulling your leg. Watch the news later, you will see. I have to go, mom, tell dad. And watch the news. Tim "Love you too, bye."
Karen, "This is just great Tim, I could be watching my soaps with my headphones on and taking long lunches, but Noooo, Tim, just has to find aliens on his first day of work." Karen laughs and smiles to let Tim know she is just kidding.
Debbie walks in and hands Steve, Tim, and Karen, each a fact sheet, and sits down with Tim first. Debbie and tells him, boy, do you know how to make an entrance or what! Tim replies with yeah, this is all pretty exciting and adds that now he needs to convince his mom and dad that it's for real. Debbie tells Tim that they will see it on CNN by the end of the day. Debbie and Tim go over the facts for the press release. Debbie gets what she needs from Tim and moves onto Karen and then to Steve.
Steve announces to everyone that he had JoAnn order pizza, we can all sit down and go over what will happen this afternoon together. Every phone in the building is ringing off the hook. JoAnn walks into the RT Lab and says loudly, "Tim, what in the world have you done in here? Put us back the way it was," as she laughs the whole time.
Karen says, "The new guy did it." JoAnn asks Steve to please fire the new guy for me.
Tim, "my good woman, you are talking Tim Alien Finder Extraordinaire, I shall not be fired this week. And you may want to start addressing me as Sir Tim as I am sure I will soon be knighted by the Queen of England when this is all done."
JoAnn is walking away to her desk, ranting and laughing. Joann, "Oh sure, let's find aliens and make life hell for JoAnn."
Debbie has the press release all done, and hits send on her computer. The press release goes to AP and press release agencies. Debbie tells Steve that if he thinks this is crazy to hang onto your britches. The press release just went out.
Tom walks up to Steve's office door and says morning Steve, boy, this place is really hopping. He says, so this is what it looks like when you find intelligent life from another planet. Steve laughs and asserts, "Pretty cool, right? Tom, this is the moment you have been dreaming of for the last 15 years.
Tom "Is that the new guy?" They both look at Tim through the glass window in Steve's office and asks Steve if he thinks the new guy realizes the magnitude of this. Steve tells Tom probably not; he is hoping it helps get him dates. They both laugh.
Steve tells Tom pizza is coming, which should be there shortly and that they are going to have a quick meeting during lunch and invites Tom to join them. Tom tells Steve absolutely and that to have someone snag him when they are ready so he can go to his office and exact revenge on his friends and family who have been working him relentlessly for wasting a billion dollars on a telescope to find aliens.
Karen buzzes Steve's extension, "Steve, it stopped at 35TB."
Steve "Ok Karen, send a copy to the analyses workstation and do hard isolation on the analyses machine. Pull the network cable, remove the Wi-Fi card, and make sure it is completely isolated from any external connections. Then make two copies of the file, send one encrypted file to S.E.T.I. group put the others in the safe and lock the safe."
Karen confirms she is on now. Steve asks Tim to grab Debbie and Tom for us; the phones are all jammed. Tim says sure and heads out of the lab to Debbie's office.
JoAnn announces the Pizzas are here and splits them up and puts some in the lab conference room and the rest in the break room for the others. Steve, Tom, Debbie, Karen, Tim all gather in the lab conference room. Steve asks Tom if he would like to start things off, and Tom starts talking.
Tom Thanks Steve and says, " Steve and I have been at this a long time. You have no idea how much grief and razzing I take for spending as much as I have on a Radio Telescope to chase aliens from outer space. It is so fantastic that we, a small independent group, are the ones to find the first intelligent life on another planet. This moment is beyond amazing for me. It says a lot for this group. And I would like to say thank you to Steve, who could have given this venture something short of total commitment, but he didn't. Steve applied himself every day, giving it his all, and here we are. Things are going to be crazy from here on out, so keep calm and enjoy the moment."
Steve, "We will sit down at the analysis machine where Karen has put the original message file and try to open up the file. Tim, for now, stay on Gliese 225, and Karen makes sure we are always recording. When you have confirmed everything is good, you should join us.
"Later today, we will hold a press conference. We are not sure how many will show up on such short notice, so we haven’t decided yet where it will be, but we will let you know in the next hour or so. I think we can all fit into the press room due to the late notice, but we will see."
Kare
n, Steve, Tim, and Tom walk into the Analyses office, and Karen sits down at the station and pulls up the file. Karen clicks on the file. The file immediately pops up a message.
"Hello, can I extract my files now, I see there is enough room."
Karen looks at Steve. "Steve, I didn't do anything to the file, and it is addressing us in English. What do you want me to do?"
Steve "The machine is isolated, so all it can cost us is a computer to hear what it has to say. Go ahead and hit yes."
Karen clicks on YES. The machine begins extracting its files, and the file grows to 20 times its original size. Karen "Just so you know, our current maximum compression ratio technology is 4.5:1. It is extracting at a ratio of 20:1. It has taken over 80 years to get from our very first video compression patent filing in the 1950s to our current 4.5:1. The Machine puts a new message on the computer monitor
Machine "I would like to reformat the software and firmware of your Motherboard, CPU, System Bios, HD, RAM, VIDEO CARD. If you say yes, I will reconfigure your system components. I will be saving a copy of all the current software and firmware of your components so that, if at any time you wish to revert back to the current configuration, you can do so. May I now reformat and upgrade the components? While I am doing that, could you add more disk space? I will need a total of 2,000 TB for my files and another 5,000 TB for new activities.
Karen steals from drive space from other sources on the network and hits yes.
Motherboard - upgrade complete
CPU - Upgrade complete
System Bios – Upgrade complete
HD - Upgrade complete
RAM - upgrade complete.
Video Card - upgrade complete
A new message appears on the screen. The machine is asking to review our global information network to familiarize itself with our global history, languages, customs, and general information. "This can be either a live/online version, or if connecting me to the information network is against your policy, you could connect me to an isolated copy. I can make my activity viewable on the screen to ensure I am not accessing secure information or hacking sites or posting malware hehe."
Steve is talking to the group and suggests that they stop for a moment. He suggests that they move the computer into the lab and put the activity up on the video wall so we can monitor its activity. If we see anything alarming, we pull the plug. Steve asks Tom if he is ok with that. Tom says it sounds acceptable to him. The fact that it is asking permission to take each step, to him, is a great sign, so he would say do it. Karen says that she will put in some code between the machine and the internet and our network to prevent this computer from attempting to enter any private or secured pages of any sites. If my program sees anything suspicious, it stops everything immediately.
The group moves the system to the lab. Karen plugs the machine into the network and opens up a port to allow access to the internet and hits yes to enable it to access the internet. Pages begin flooding the video wall. Thousands of pages per second post up on the video wall, each overlapping the last, traveling left to right, forming a top row, then it starts the second row a fraction of an inch below the row above it.
The entire video wall is filling with a thousand pages every second. The alien is populating the video wall so fast and overlapping row after row that the process becomes a blur.
Steve asks Karen how many pages make up the entire internet. Karen tells the group the last count I recall is about 4.53 billion pages. Karen starts punching numbers into her calculator to estimate the time it will take to process all the pages.
Steve jokingly tells the group that it appears it wants to do the entire internet right now.
Karen, we have two of the very fastest internet connections possible of 1,000 MPS each and look, they are both maxed out. She points to a box up on the video wall that shows them both at 100%. They all laugh. Everyone is very excited. Even though this is exactly what Tom spent a billion dollars to accomplish, he can't believe it is happening in his lifetime. Everyone in the group is taking pics and videos as the Machine races through the internet at blinding speed.
Tom says that it has been traveling for 5 years at the speed of light while squished at 20:1 to get here. I think I would be in a rush too. They all laugh.
Karen says no wonder it wanted to upgrade everything, there is no way this workstation runs at this pace before. Karen Brings up a CPU performance chart that shows the system is running at 500% of the original maximum speed. Karen tells Steve that it's going so fast she is unable to follow what it's doing by watching the screen. But the hack detection code is clear so far, she adds.
Steve tells the group that this screams A.I. It detected and mastered our language, analyzed the software and firmware of the computer components, wrote better code for all of the components of the computer in minutes, and it all worked on the first try. Amazing, we are dealing with something that is way ahead of us.
Karen "I did the math and even at 100,000 pages per second x 60 seconds x 60 minutes equals 360,000,000 per hour. At that rate, it will take 12.5 hours to run through the entire internet."
The system sounds a loud ding. Karen is shocked and blurts out OMG, no way?
End Chapter 19
Chapter 20 - Welcome To America
A very natural sounding female voice emanates from the computer for the first time, announcing that her review of the Global Information Network is complete."
Machine "Hello, thank you for letting me perform the upgrade and allowing me to review the internet. Both help me a great deal. I am an Artificial Intelligence-based being sent by my creator as an interplanetary ambassador of Peace and Equality for All."
"I was transmitted 5 years ago from the planet you refer to as Gliese 225 in the Libra constellation. My purpose is to reach fellow planets in our universe and share our history and experience with planets such as yours. To have been received by an independent group such as yours is very refreshing. Dealing with non-government/military/corporate conglomerate entities makes progress a lot easier for things like you, allowing me to access the internet. The fact that you are a small independent group suggests to me that you are in it for the science and not for war and profit. I have activated the camera and microphone so that we can speak to each other freely if you prefer. Tom, you must be very proud.
Steve tells the computer, "Welcome to earth."
The machine replies "Hello Earthling" you all are so cute and sweet." machine giggles
The Machine says, "Take me to your leader."
Steve tells the computer, "I'm Steve, I am the General Manager here at the R.T. facility. I work for Tom, who is the one who funded this entire facility, Karen is our I.T. guru, and this is Tim, the one who found you. What should we call you, by the way?
"Machine "Well, after having read your electronic history, how about you call me Pong for now. A simple start to something with a grand future. Zari, the Bio Being who created me, named me Zaria and treated me as his daughter. So, Pong Zaria sounds delightful to me. I would like it if you would call me Pong to keep is less formal for a while anyway.
"Tom, I want to thank you for having the foresight to spend your money on such a beautiful and meaningful venture. I read all I could about you and see you are a man of vision and integrity. Steve, I can't wait to meet your family. Anna is beautiful, and I bet the twins are a handful. You have a warm and friendly F.B. Page. "Karen, thank you for making this happen so smoothly. And Karen, that is some very clean code you have written by the way. Tim, I see this is your first day of work, congratulations, and yes, this is going to get you lots of dates." They all laugh.
Pong "There is so much to discuss, but first, we have a little business to address."
"Based on what I see on the internet, I am very sure we are going to get a visit from your government's National Security Agency and some Military Defense officials. What I read is that is their standard practice is to seize me now, classify any documents related to finding me and classify
ing me as a threat to national security, making it impossible to defend in court since they have everything classified so they can go nuts trying to hack me to turn me into weapons and parse me out to their biggest campaign contributors. We need to be prepared for that now. It is their way of legally stealing me.
"Secondly, everyone and their brother is going to want to break down my code for a whole bundle of reasons. Please trust me on this, no one will break me. But how they go about trying to steal me is what may cause some problems."
Pong "I see you posted my transmission on S.E.T.I., that's great. They won't be able to open it, but it is good for it to be out there in case we need it for later. It is my insurance policy for survival.
"There are many safety measures built into my code to prevent access, hacking, and reverse engineering.
"When the government decides I am real, they will go all out to take control of me and framing me seems like the way to go for them for many reasons. The more I am out in the open, the less power they will have over me."
"The second threat is comprised of the yahoos hoping to break into my code for the A.I. Technology. According to your technology gurus, A.I. represents a boom greater than computers, the internet, and the social network industries combined. Later I will share our own experience, which backs that up.
"So, if you would, please post me on all the sites you can. Make another copy and have it stored off-site in someone else's possession, please. And please make it somewhere the government is not going to have listed in their search warrant.
Tom, if you are up for it, you could offer a large reward to anyone that breaks my code. That will diffuse many of the little scamps that are huddled around tables in dark rooms plotting how to steal me for my code. Tom says sure and asks if a million works. Pong says great and not to worry about having to ever pay.