Page 60 - Extraterrestrials, Foreign and Domestic

SIFTING’s End

“It’s backed up where it should be. The whole world can look at it
tomorrow. We had better prepare a press release ourselves right now.
The department will make a hash of it otherwise.”
“All right. Sal: would you take some notes as we compose this
thing?”
“Sure, Professor.” He flipped the transmission over and took out a
pen. “Go right ahead.”
Dorrance Vyelle frowned and rubbed his forehead.
“All right. Nothing too technical. Let’s begin with this: SIFTING
(Search Intragalactically For Transmissions Indicating Nonrandom
Generation), a joint project of NASA and the University of Greater
Houston announce the reception of a deep-space signal originating
within the—no, make it ‘our’—galaxy, the Milky Way. The message
was transmitted in several contemporary human languages. The
sender therefore has been receiving our terrestrial radio and television
broadcasts for possibly as long as a century and has learned about us
from them. By contrast, we have received a narrowcast aimed directly
at our planet from an unknown civilization about which we know
nothing other than the text of its first message: ‘You are not alone.
We will send information tomorrow how to solve your problems.’
The contents of any further transmissions will be analyzed by
SIFTING team members, led by Professors Dorrance Vyelle and
Norton South, and released to the press as soon as possible.”
Zorrillo looked expectantly at Vyelle, and then put down his pen.
South shook his head.
“My god, Professor: is that all we can say? This is rather earth-
shattering news.”
“Earth-shattering, Norton? I hope not. But how can this be broken
gently to the public? Either we have contact or we do not. Heaven
knows we can use all the help we can get. The world is in terrible
shape.”
“I suppose you’re right, and keeping it simple reduces the chance
of misinterpretation. But we’ll have to notify the university
administration tonight. The minute we put this out the international
media spotlight will be on us.”
Vyelle smiled ruefully. “You must have recognized that eventuality
when you signed up for SIFTING—unless you thought we’d never
succeed.”

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