InterstellarNet: Origins (5 page)

The Russian ambassador, Anatoly Shuskov, took the floor. “I ask the indulgence of the committee to have a distinguished member of my staff comment in my place.” Once permission was granted, Shuskov ceded the floor to General Antinov.

“Ambassadors, thank you for hearing an old soldier. I am proud to have defended the Soviet Union for many years. I am proud to have taken part in Russia’s transition to democracy. As a past member of the rocket forces and the cosmonaut corps, I believe I have credibility in defense and space matters.

“Ambassador Shuskov asked me to assure this committee that our forces have searched for evidence of approaching aliens. We found no such evidence. As a cosmonaut, however, I tell you frankly: If ET does visit us, it will mean that his technology exceeds ours as an aircraft carrier exceeds a canoe.”

That came painfully close to accusing ET of gunboat diplomacy, a comparison not lost on Li Zhou Huang, the Chinese ambassador. Charise suspected the association was intentional—and a straw man set up only to be knocked down.

“I am known for being direct. If ET can come, and chooses to, he will. In that case, nothing we say will stop him. Nothing we can do will stop him. If ET wishes only to talk, we may choose to listen. I urge COPUOS to listen.

“It is better to know what ET can do than not to know. I will state clearly what most only hint at: Some nations have had cause to fear the superior technology of others. Where nations differ has been in their response to such challenges. Those who learned eventually prospered. Those who clung to their old ways soon suffered.”

Pausing for a sip of water Antinov studied his audience.

Following the general’s gaze, Charise felt a chill. These men and women were her colleagues and she knew them well.

New doubts simmered behind carefully expressionless faces.

Antinov saw it, too. “Nothing this committee decides can reduce the risks of new knowledge.
You
may choose not to listen to ET. You cannot stop other countries, universities, corporations from listening. From learning. You may hope to keep ET’s message from your society. You will be no more successful than you were at keeping out blue jeans or rock-and-roll.

“I give you a final thought. The cost of restricting knowledge is onerous. It takes a police state to even try.” Antinov smiled sadly. “We Russians learned that lesson well.

“And to bear the burden of such restrictions, only to see other countries master new technologies from ET…that would be
truly
a tragedy.”

■□■

“…So since
we
were made in God’s image, some bug-eyed thing across the galaxy can’t be one of God’s creatures.”

“Interesting point, Rick,” said the deejay. His enthusiasm sounded forced.

“The way I was taught, God sent His only begotten Son to redeem us. Jesus died for our sins, right here on Earth. That tells me that ET does not have a soul.”

“As a good Christian, is it your duty to bring the message of Jesus to ET?”

“You’re not listening! These aliens are not made in God’s image. They’re damned. In my book, that makes them devils.”

■□■

Before COPUOS reconvened for its second day of hearings, Charise and her allies had changed tactics. Rebut Antinov’s defense of listening? There was no need. In one late-night phone call after another, she had reminded her colleagues that ET had stopped talking.

That made Charise’s plan for the day simplicity itself: Declare victory. The task force—and who better than she, as one of its few ambassadorial members, to advocate this position?—had done the hard work. The message from ET was safely recorded. Anyone with the interest was free to finish deciphering the message.

Oh, yes. And please leave your budget at the door.

There was a whispered consultation among the Steering Committee members, seated behind the long table beneath the ambassadorial dais. Bridget Satterswaithe grabbed a microphone. “We still need to talk about the work of the Reply committee.”

“I beg to differ, Dr. Satterswaithe.” Charise said. “ET learned we are here. He told us he is there. What is the added benefit of exchanging postcards?”

Satterswaithe stiffened in her chair. “I feel that acknowledgment is the least we can do, Madam Ambassador. ET has given us an enormous gift. Thanks to his message, we finally know that humans are not the only intelligent beings in the universe. I also believe it is in our self interest to maintain and enhance the dialogue. We have so much to learn from each other.”

“Surely the least we can do is nothing,” Charise said. Behind discreetly positioned hands, several ambassadors may have smiled. “Doctor, we can discuss interstellar etiquette on another occasion. I would rather you expand on your second point. I am struck not by how much we can learn but by how little. And at the cost. The task force has diverted many of the world’s preeminent scientists to the rediscovery of arithmetic.”

Satterswaithe frowned, but thought better of saying—something.

Ticked off by a lack of Commonwealth solidarity? Too bad, Charise thought. Belize is
independent
, Doctor.

“Madam Ambassador,” Satterswaithe finally said, “I believe that characterization gives insufficient credit to our accomplishments. The task force has made great progress in building a common vocabulary.”

“What indication has ET given of having anything to say?”

“We haven’t finished reading his message.”

“That is to say, none.” Charise smiled humorlessly. “And what conclusions has the Reply committee reached on an answer from Earth? I believe the answer there to be the same.”

Satterswaithe squared her shoulders. “Again, I could refer to interim progress. Surely it is not unreasonable to take some time in deciding how to respond to a whole new civilization.”

“Tell me about that civilization,” Charise demanded. “What do they look like? Do they breathe oxygen? Are they ruled by a parliament or a potentate?”

“The part of the message we have decoded to this point does not address cultural and biological matters.”

Charise checked her notes. “Can you say what planet of their sun they live on?”

“No, Ambassador.”

The steerers looked down at their table or around the room or at one another, everywhere but at the ambassadors. Dean Matthews, in the visitors’ gallery, was seething. Say one word, Charise thought, and I’ll have you expelled. “In fact, Dr. Satterswaithe, ET’s signal intentionally disguises all evidence of the planet he is from.”

“Respectfully, Madam Ambassador, I believe that to be a mischaracterization of ET’s signal maintaining a constant frequency.” Satterswaithe’s posture bordered on
dis
respect.

“That is your interpretation, Doctor. I’ll ask that you stick to facts. ET has not indicated what planet he is from, although he has shown he knows we are on Earth. Is that correct?”

“Not in what has been decoded so far,” Satterswaithe said stubbornly.

Charise looked one by one to her colleagues. “We staffed the Reply committee with veteran diplomats. It is no surprise to me that they have been unable to draft a response. How
could
they reply to an alien race that has offered absolutely no information about itself?”

■□■

If Bridget had seemed angry by the end of her exchange with Ambassador Ganes, Dean was furious. The questions had all been variations of, “do you still beat your spouse?” Any direct answer was either an admission or an apparent evasion.

Bridget had, quite properly, pointed out that ET’s message was only partially analyzed. That worked fine once or twice. After that, it came across as an excuse and a stall.

Dean had to give her credit for maintaining her composure. Perhaps there was no politic way to tell an ambassador that she was full of crap. Antinov’s performance yesterday had been one of a kind, and only his unique career allowed him to pull it off.

While Dean fumed, Roderigo called a recess. The ambassadors congregated at one end of the room; the steerers huddled at their table. Dean felt all alone in the crowded gallery, watching COPUOS move toward disbanding the task force.

No COPUOS action could stop analysis of the message, for ET’s full text was on the ’net for all who cared to see it. There were also plenty of antennas beyond the task force’s jurisdiction that would keep listening for the resumption of ET’s signal. The loss of United Nations funding, if it came to that, would only slow the analysis.

The real problem would come later,
after
the message had been fully decoded.

It was not merely appropriate for Earth’s answer to come from the UN level—it was necessary. Two weeks after Sherman Xu’s press conference, the General Assembly had passed an emergency resolution. With its hasty ratification by three-fourths of UN member countries, the new international treaty now required that any response come only under UN auspices. Mbeke, Ganes, and their ilk showed little interest in approving any such transmission.

Protocol be damned. Dean started pushing through the crowd to the American ambassador.

■□■

Alexander Klein impressed the hell out of Dean. The man had earned Ph.D.s in history and international studies from Yale at twenty-two. He was tenured at Stanford at twenty-seven. At thirty, he was a senior staffer on the National Security Council. The UN ambassadorship was his second cabinet-level position.

And none of that, Dean thought, is worth squat today.

He all but bowled over an aide to get to Klein. They stepped into a small chamber off the COPUOS hearing room. Klein heard Dean out, asking occasional questions and jotting notes on index cards. Glancing repeatedly at his watch, Klein kept the conversation ruthlessly focused.

Absent a compelling new argument, the hearing was moving toward shutdown of the task force. Dean hoped he was making that case. And that Klein understood it.

Klein didn’t look convinced. Then again, he didn’t react at all.

Roderigo’s gavel fell. Ambassadors, witnesses, staff, and observers all took their seats. Eventually, the chairman recognized Klein.

After a flowery introduction Klein removed a sheaf of index cards from a jacket pocket. “Dr. Satterswaithe, might I impose upon you for a bit longer?”

Bridget nodded. “Of course, Ambassador.”

“Thank you, Doctor. I would like you to step back from the text of ET’s message, or rather from the part of that message so far decoded. I have been led to believe that it might be instructive to consider the broader context.”

Klein glanced again at his notes. “Would I be correct in understanding the following? In the last few weeks we have been given proof that humans are not alone in the universe. In fact, we have neighbors who can see our little world here.”

“That’s right, Mr. Ambassador.”

“And these neighbors not only have better telescopes than we do, they have better radios as well.”

“Again, that’s correct.”

“That’s a lot of disclosure from a supposedly secretive source.” Klein studied his notes again. “And the signal that conveyed all this knowledge came from a transmitter far more powerful than anything humans have ever built?”

“Far more powerful,” Bridget agreed.

Was Klein overdoing it? The Third World delegations consistently fussed about possible culture clashes and perceived inferiority more than Dean would have thought possible.

“Thanks for keeping me clear on these points, Doctor.” Klein took off and polished his glasses, the image of a harmless college don. “Some of my esteemed colleagues have raised a concern, and I am not unsympathetic, about the cost to the UN of the task force.

“I have reason to believe that these are not the only costs. If I could refer you for a moment to your ‘day job,’ would I be correct in my understanding that radio spectrum is a valuable asset? An economically precious resource?”

“Very much so, Mr. Ambassador.” Bridget leaned forward with a new air of confidence. She (and Klein) had gotten it! “And not unrelated, we had to disrupt the plans of a global satcom company to prevent interference on ET’s channel.”

“I see,” Klein said. “Presumably our Lalande friends have to sacrifice at-home use of the same frequency to communicate with us?”

“I would have to agree.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Klein turned to his fellow diplomats. “My sense of ET seems to differ from some of you. I feel that I know a lot about ET. For one, he’s curious. He wants to know more about us. And he’s smart. He knows a few tricks we might like to learn. And he’s serious. Whatever effort we’ve made to hear and understand ET’s signal, it must be far smaller than the investment
he
made to formulate such an elegant message, to reserve valuable radio spectrum just in case we answer, and to devote a transmitter the likes of which people have yet to build. We would know none of that if our neighbor had simply chosen not to share with us.”

Klein tucked his notes—perfectly delivered so far, Dean thought—back into his suit jacket. “It’s said that money talks. ET has dedicated quite a lot of whatever he uses for money to this endeavor. I think he is entitled to have us hear him out.