First Contact - Intergalactic Stories

First Contact
-
Intergalactic
Stories

By Bane Bond

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

First
Contact

Message

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR

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…

###

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!”