Page 59 - Extraterrestrials, Foreign and Domestic

SIFTING’s End
(Fantastic Transactions 3, 2006)

“Norton: what is so damned important that you had to get me out
of bed at midnight on Sunday?”
Dorrance Vyelle, professor emeritus of astrophysics, ran his
gnarled fingers through uncombed white hair and glowered at Doctor
South. The half-illuminated departmental office echoed with his
irritation.
“SIFTING got a hit, Professor. My pager went off about nine
o’clock. I rushed to campus and went through all our verification and
security procedures before I called you and Sal. It is—well, look at
it!”
Norton South slid copies of a two-page printout to the older man
and to a graduate student who apparently hadn’t needed to awaken
and grope in the dark for clothing and matching socks.
“Wait a minute,” said Sal Zorrillo, fastest to scan the pages. “How
did you get this into plain text—and in fifteen languages—in such a
short time?”
South blinked and shook his head. “That’s not plain text. It’s
verbatim.”
Vyelle glanced at his watch.
“Today is August eighth, not April Fools’ Day, Norton. Why have
you bothered us with this hoax?”
The assistant professor pounded the table.
“I tell you it’s not. The dish in Arecibo triangulated with
Aldermaston. It came in on the ‘water hole’ frequency—1420
gigahertz—as predicted. It’s not a signal bounced off the ionosphere;
no network hackers spoofed it. This message unquestionably came
from Epsilon Eridani—but not from any of its known planets—ten
and a half light years from Earth.”
No one spoke as three men stared intently at the top page. The
English read: You are not alone. We will send information tomorrow how to
solve your problems.
Professor Vyelle narrowed his eyes and looked at South. “I want to
see the raw data.”

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