by Bane Bond
First Contact - Intergalactic Stories
By Bane Bond
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either products of author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © by Branislav Tontorovits
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
PREFACE
Dear Reader
I believe the world needs more humor, optimism and relaxation through creative thinking. The book you hold in your hands is my small contribution.
Hope you’ll like it! If you do, please forward this info to anyone you know. I would appreciate it! Also look for more books from my ‘Intergalactic Stories’ series.
If you prefer a novel, check the book ‘Cloud Whale’ – might change your view of the world. The Web link can be found at http://CloudWhaleAlpha.eu
Follow new developments at the above site, as well as on Twitter @BaneBond.
2015; Athens, Greece
CONTENTS
PREFACE
First Contact
Message
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
First Contact
Ivan, a director of a department of average significance, in a moderate size company, doing business of standard importance in the ordinary wealthy country in the World. A man of middle age, average height and moderately good looking…
Ivan was sitting in his office at mid-day when the air in front of his desk started to vibrate and a creature appeared, about the height of an average person. For a short while it was looking around with its three eyes, distributed at 90 degrees angles around the lump on the top of its body, remotely resembling a head. Waving tentacles; the five of them, since it stood on three; the creature focused on Ivan and started speaking with a clearly understandable voice in Ivan’s mother tongue, “Greetings. Intergalactic Bureau of Statistics has selected you as the representative being for the first contact with your civilization…”
Until that moment Ivan had recovered from the initial shock and took action, as many times before when his wife or daughters called him to kill some spider or insect that scared them. He grabbed a spray can lying by his desk, lifted from the chair and started spraying the creature. A delightful flower scent spread around the office. Ivan looked at the can, swearing in a low voice. The printout wrote ‘spring flower meadow’. Ivan rolled his eyes in despair; his secretary was a passionate environmentalist, so she continuously removed the insecticide he kept at his feet and replaced with cans containing various room deodorants.
Ivan knew that there was a spare insecticide can in the cabinet on the left wall of the office. Strange creature stood in silence, still waving tentacles, surrounded by the cloud of ‘… the finest scent selection of spring mountain flowers from a meadow…’; which would either of them understood had they read the printout on the label. Slowly panicking, Ivan started looking around in search for something that would allow him to safely pave the way towards the cabinet. The creature continued talking, “I am a humble mediator of the first contact, scheduled to enable a technology transfer and assistance that developed civilisations of this part of the galaxy are willing to provide…”
A cloud of hear spray, ‘… keeps stiff in certain style, while allowing natural movement of every single hair…’, surrounded the creature, interrupting its speech for the second time. Ivan had thrown aside with gratitude almost empty container, forgotten by his secretary by the window, which he used to destruct the creature and jumped to the cabinet. With a swift move he opened the cabinet door, took out the desired can ‘… against all flying, jumping, crawling, creeping and other types of insects and vermin…’ and sprayed heavily the creature. After a few seconds, when the cloud in his office dispersed, Ivan was again alone in the room.
Ivan straightened the medium length necktie, brushed the average price suit and set back to the standard size desk. His hands were still slightly shaking. While waiting to calm down, he tried to remember; the creature that appeared some moments ago tried to say something… Then he shook his head. He was always told that his memory was quite moderate, so that must have been the reason he could not remember anything in particular. With relief Ivan took a peace of paper from the desk in front of him and started comparing it with the spreadsheet on the computer screen, checking the mean values in the calculation he was supposed to complete.
*****
The creature, whose name could approximately be translated as D'ngfVak on some of the languages from Earth, appeared levitating in one corner of the large room bursting with activity. Directly in front of him a Controller was also levitating; resembling the cross between a meteorological balloon, a centipede and a washing machine. The Controller rose two of his 11 mobile eyes on tentacles, using the remaining ones to monitor the sphere which permeated in various colours, and sent a telepathic information, “D'ngfVak, I didn’t expect you so soon?”
The creature, rubbing its tentacles against each other, replied, “I am very sorry Controller, but the Earth has refused the admission to the Intergalactic Alliance!” The Controller rose another three eyes in surprise, “What!? You were sent to a carefully selected being with statistically average characteristics in order to start the process as smooth as possible and avoid any panic and misunderstandings.” D'ngfVak made a gesture corresponding to a head shake on Earth, “He refused me.” The Controller started showing signs of impatience, “You have experience with such cases, should proceed to the next instance and so on until the contract is signed. Go back and finish the job!” D'ngfVak’s head seemed like slightly sank into the body, “I can’t, the answer is final. The being served me a floral code for negation at the very start of the contact, it was slightly vague and with a local accent, but fully in accord with the Intergalactic Communication Code. Then it sealed the answer with the local brand of lacquer and undoubtedly expressed its dissatisfaction with my visit through some disgusting fragrant, from which I still have allergic reactions on tentacles.” The Controller had a gloomy expression, “Based on our initial information those species use vocal and not floral based communication.” D'ngfVak sighted, “For that reason I started with audible message, but… It is all in my report.”
The Controller remained silent for a few moments, rolling its eyes thoughtfully, “What can we do, a new attempt will be done next Intergalactic year. You, of course, know that you loose bonus from the collection of membership fees and advanced tax payment from Earth?” D'ngfVak sprawled its tentacles in disappointment, “I am aware, Controller.” “Then go the medical section to have that allergy examined, take a day off to recover, unpaid of course, and come the day after tomorrow for the next assignment.” The Controller focused all its eyes on the sphere, showing that the conversation is over. D'ngfVak’s tentacles appeared even more sprawled, if that would be possible. “Understood, Controller.” and it disappeared on the way to medical section.
*****
Ivan leaned back in the chair and looked at his wristwatch. He just completed all scheduled tasks on time for a lunch break. Neither him, nor other 7 and something billion of people on Earth had a slightest idea about the postponement of 3724.15 earth years until the next visit for obligatory tax collection by the Intergalactic Alliance…
###
Message
People gaze to the sky and stars for thousands of years. During last few hundreds of years
they also listen. It is just a matter of time to hear something.
*****
When the message arrived, the radio-telescope in Puerto Rico was looking at the right direction. The technician could not believe his eyes. He performed all specified procedures of verification, eliminating satellites, radio broadcasts… even the possible hoax. Everything seemed authentic. He called a standing by researcher, who repeated the whole procedure. There was no doubt; it was a deep space message. We were not alone. Verifications from other locations started to arrive soon after the news release. During the 24 hours after the event, as Earth rotated, everyone received the same message. The main question that had arisen was who would be the first to decipher it and to learn what other intelligent species from the Universe wanted to tell us.
*****
Sam entered the room and went straight to the desk covered with paperwork, with several computer monitors shining in the background. He slightly frowned, “John, all information exists in the computer. Is that chaos on your desk really necessary?” John replied with a smile, “Helps me think.” Sam sighed, “Very well. We are we now? NASA and NSA are pressing me. It seems that Russians are progressing and Chinese have introduced few thousands of scientists of different profiles to the research.” John just waved his hand, “Easy for them with such population… So, we work day and night, everyone is exhausted. However, we have recognized specific sequences from the introductory part of the message. We believe those are numbers followed by some kind of letters. More specific; figures and symbols representing elements from the periodic table. That should provide a key for the remaining message.”
Sam nodded, “Well done. Write the preliminary report. Washington is preparing the official stand for the UN meeting the day after tomorrow.” John raised eyebrows, “Does that mean some joint international action is under preparation? Since the humanity never managed to agree upon anything, perhaps aliens will make us cooperate between ourselves.” The question remained unanswered since Sam had already left to coordinate other teams.
*****
Fyodor Terentyev was staring at the square below full of motion, typical for Moscow’s morning. His thoughts were wondering away. Quick cough of his assistant brought Fyodor back and he turned, “You say the message contains descriptions of interstellar flight technology?” Assistant was nervously shifting from one foot to the other, “Yes, that is the general opinion in the international team. And it looks like the message ends with coordinates of some location on the edge of the galaxy, on the distance of almost two thirds of its diameter from us.”
Fyodor frowned, “What is our team saying?” Assistant shook his head, “Seems extremely complicated. That makes research difficult, as well as the fact that everyone has its own team secretly working in parallel with the international one. I am afraid our guys know nothing more than others!” Fyodor protruded his chin, “Almost six months have passed from the reception of the message and the whole operation becomes too expensive. Intensify diplomatic activities in strengthening international cooperation. The stakes are too high to gamble with competing each other, if we want to success.” As the assistant turned to leave, Fyodor added, “Of course, maintain the spy network to make sure that others play fair as well!”
*****
Lee Yen Fu was furious. He glanced quickly around, to make sure the attention of representatives of all important countries from Earth was on him, before continuing with his speech, “Beijing demands that the distribution of participants in the first international stellar mission is proportional to population numbers per country!” The representative of Belgium, followed with several other EU countries, protested immediately, “You want to say that my country could send one astronaut on every 100 of yours? Preposterous!”
The Chairman of the meeting, Brazilian Julio Gustavo, had difficulties to maintain order and to reconcile different points of view. After more than two years of exploration by scientists from all over the globe, the joint research team had announced that everything is ready for building the interstellar spaceship, based on the instructions from the deep-space message. Such task should have brought nations together; instead it fired quarrels over leadership, financing, number of representatives, etc. Julio Gustavo clenched teeth. His task was to assist the creation of the joint memorandum and, with the help of God, he intended to do just that. Humanity had finally got the opportunity to reach the stars and stand shoulder to shoulder with other civilizations from the Universe. Such chance could not be missed.
*****
Jean-Baptiste was proudly standing in the large group of astronauts and selected scientists, posing in front of cameras. He had a stylized Earth symbol and small Swiss flag below it on his chest. He was the only one, but important representative of that small country in the most significant project in human history. It took eleven years, almost half of his age, to build a spaceship according to alien instructions. There were also additional investigations and experimenting regarding the technology application, but finally the proud of Earth constructors, spaceship ‘Humanity’, was in the orbit around Earth and ready to sail to the stars.
Jean-Baptiste looked through the window of the space station in which the crew was giving the last interview before take-off. Only a segment of the globe and the darkness of deep space were visible. Space that had always drawn us. He slowly smiled. In less than 24 hours the crew of ‘Humanity’ would cross the Moon’s orbit, beating the current record in space travels and adding thousands of light years to it afterwards.
*****
Fred Watkins, captain of spaceship ‘Humanity’, was intently staring at the large screen covering the whole front wall of the command center. The room was silent, except the low hum of air-conditioning. ‘Everything looks so much more exciting in old movies about space exploration’, thought Fred. After several months they finally arrived near the spot whose coordinates were received years ago on Earth in the deep space message, the only one until today. Screen showed a medium size planet rotating in front of the spaceship, brown, unsightly, lit by the distant sun from the left side. Captain was aware that all crew was in observing decks, looking at the same scene and listening to his voice, “Well, here we are. However unlikely, we have entered the history as first people that have reached another solar system in our galaxy!”
He looked sideways to the right at his first officer, Irini, and then to the opposite side where Yu was sitting, his second officer, “In the name of USA, Russia, China and other countries of the Earth, I congratulate all members of the crew on successful cooperation during this mission so far. Have we located the ultimate target?” Irini made a gesture with her right hand and a red square appeared in the upper right screen area. Another gesture activated zoom and the selected detail spread over the whole screen, “Looks like satellite, artificial, size about one eight of our Moon.” Picture was showing a number of objects, some resembling spaceships of various types and sizes, moving in different directions around the satellite, landing and taking off.
Captain slightly frowned. Everything was going fine until now; it was time to put the communication instructions from the message to the test. He turned to the second officer, “Mister Yu, please coordinate the transmission of access code in obtained frequencies. Inform me immediately about any response.” Then he addressed the first officer, “Miss Irini, please initiate the planned docking course and keep an eye on the autopilot. Execute emergency stop if any problem or deviation occurs.” Captain set back in his chair and looked intensely at the growing picture of the satellite on the screen as they slowly approached and orders echoed around the command center.
*****
Several scientists, chief engineer, ship’s psychiatrist and second officer, all in light spacesuits, had been quarrelling for almost five minutes when Captain finally intervened. Near by was patiently standing a being with humanoid characteristics in its appearance, if one neglects the absence of visible eyes; a combination of arms, tentacles and claws; three pillar-le
gs resembling elephant and similar details. Captain emitted a loud whistle through communication systems in all spacesuits and everyone turned to him after a few seconds of confusion. Captain grinned, “Is someone going to inform me what the hell is going on?” After a brief staring at one another, one of the scientists responded, “We had many difficulties in achieving communication. There is no possibility to establish here any diplomatic relations with other intelligent species. We were told to go to ‘Intergalactic Administrative Centre’, or something with the similar name, to the department for ‘unresolved issues’… There is only a small problem…”
Captain rolled his eyes, “Yes?” Scientist was shifting from one foot to the other, “They gave us new coordinates that are… a quarter of the galaxy further on!” Captain was just blinking for a few seconds, “Are you sure you understood them well?” Second scientists intervened, “Absolutely!” Captain turned to the chief engineer, “Is that technically feasible?” Chief engineer readily nodded, “Quite. This being is obviously one of the main engineers on this station and, besides other help, it will install propulsion booster on our spaceship that would allow for 3.17 times higher travelling speed.” Captain indifferently looked at the direction of engineer’s stretched arm that was pointing to the fairly large box the being held under one tentacle, “Fine. Thank them and let’s go back to the ship to work out the details.”