Page 62 - Extraterrestrials, Foreign and Domestic

SIFTING’s End

fields, and you are naïve to think you retain any vestige of academic
independence when you participate in cutting-edge developments in
those areas.”
“But this is too important to be hijacked by the military of one
country,” protested South, waving his arms.
“Calm down, Norton,” warned Vyelle. “Listen and learn.”
“Professor Vyelle is right, Dr. South,” said Rader. “Your job is—or
was—to search for evidence of intelligent alien life. Mine is to deal
with the implications of such evidence, which requires strategic
information and theory of which you know little or nothing. You
may conclude that their century of studying us before communicating
gives them insight into dealing with a host of difficulties on our
planet. You do not perceive the possibility that the interval was spent
in developing a plan to exploit our weaknesses, that the message is a
deception and that what will follow is designed either to disable us as
rivals or soften us up in preparation for invasion and takeover. Nor,
as a ‘pure,’ objective scientist, do you begin to appreciate the scale of
the chaos that would ensue in any event from public dissemination of
these messages unfiltered and unedited. Effective immediately, your
security clearances have been lifted. The content of alien
communications requires suppression and classification at the highest
level of top secrecy. As I said, the shut-down of SIFTING has
happened; it’s over, so get over it. We may jam the frequency of these
messages to keep them out of the wrong hands. And you are not to
speak or write one word about what you might have discovered
tonight: is that understood?”
Doctor South simmered silently. Professor Vyelle put his hand on
Norton’s arm.
“He’ll be alright once he thinks it over, General. He’s still too
emotionally involved in the project to deal with these changed
circumstances. Let me talk to him. Just give him a chance to sleep on
it and I’m sure he’ll see your side of things. We are, after all, loyal
citizens and would not do anything to jeopardize the national
interest.”
General Rader raised his eyebrows. “Very well. We’ll see that you
are not disturbed overnight.”
“Thank you,” said Dorrance Vyelle, standing up and urging his
colleague to his feet. “I’ll walk him out to the parking lot. Oh, by the

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