Contact!

  "Damn! That's the fourth dead end here. Four stars about the age of our sun, each with several planets, but not a sign of intelligent life yet. Colombina, do you have any suggestions?"
  "Christina, I have located another possible system in our vicinity, about a half light-year from here. We should be able to get there in about two hours."
  "Details?"
  "It's a medium white star with what appears to be four or maybe five planets. The one farthest out looks huge, bigger than Jupiter and Saturn combined. We're still too far away to get clearer details."
  "Set a course for it, and mark it on our grid."
  "Yes, Christina!"
  Addressing Martin, Christina said, "Commander, when we get within range, let's have some full visuals. I'd like to stop just far enough away to capture an image of this system; we flubbed it the last time."
  "Yes, Commodore!"
  "Lieutenant," she said to April, "are the sensors repaired yet? We want to make sure that we'll be able to send a party down there, if one of those planets looks viable."
  "This time everything's in order, Commodore. The heat sensors, the atmosphere sensors are functioning. We've finally been able to get the life sensors up–for the first time since we got through that worm-hole."
  Christina and her crew were ready for anything. Or were they? They were still not really recovered from the worm-hole experience, what with the damage to Constellation II, the unexpected powerful x-ray radiation and the photon storm as they approached their first target star, then the rain of comets. And then the frustration of the four solar systems. Two of them lifeless. At their second stop, there was some sign of very primitive life, something resembling algae, on the third planet; and on the second planet at their next try, there was a dead world that seemed to have had a civilization at one time. It looked like the planet had died of a kind of greenhouse effect. It'll take millennia at least for life to begin again there. Didn't those people realize that the planet was dying? Did they try to get off it? Maybe they weren't advanced enough, although there were signs, under the dust of who can tell how many centuries, of a technological life. Earth could have gone that route, but fortunately our leaders finally showed some common sense.
  Common sense: what we're doing seems so logical, and yet it's not working. Here on the other spiral arm of the galaxy, things should be like they are where Earth is, but it's somehow different. It's a bit denser than we had expected. Heck, not a bit, twice as dense, twice as many stars here on almost the same spot as Earth is, near the end of its arm. Among these thousands of stars, we have so far located only five, including the one Colombina just found, that resemble the Sun, stars about 4,500,000,000 to 5,000,000,000 years old, and with planets. You'd think at least one of these systems would be crawling with life.
  We haven't encountered intelligent life in the galaxy, yet, anywhere. Habitable planets, like Mesnos and a few others, but no sign of a current technological civilization with a human-like intelligence. There's got to be a race of highly-evolved beings alive and flourishing right now, somewhere! Colombina keeps telling us what the odds are of intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy. It all sounds so possible, but we've come up empty-handed so many times.
  Christina reflected on how she had gotten to rely on Colombina. That computer had a real personality, she was, she was... she was almost human, that what she was. No other way to put it. And the crew, what a great bunch! A space walk to repair the extensive damage in the middle of nowhere. Interior damage caused by fires after the comets hit us. No one panicked, they all did their jobs. Just as they did when we were in the wormhole and when we finally got out. The training continues as though we were on Earth. We're preparing for... what? What's out there? Suppose we do find intelligent beings? Will they be hostile to aliens? It's hard to think of yourself as an alien, but you have to put yourself in the other person's skin. Wonder what their skin will be like? It seems we can't get these ideas out of our minds, it's all we talk about at mealtime. That and the shape of Constellation.
  Kwali broke into her thoughts with the announcement that he had at last figured out what had happened in the wormhole. He had then checked his ideas out with Colombina, who corroborated his calculations.
  "What happened, Commodore, was this: we were trying to see the sixth dimension as if we were in our own four dimensions, or through the perspective of the fifth dimension. Those meteors that seemed to go right through Constellation or that dissipated into fog were actually in the sixth dimension, and were not "real" to us in our world. A few coincidences of four-dimensional boulders hitting us at the same approximate time that we encountered the sixth-dimensional stones made it seem as if they were the same things. Colombina has a better handle on this now, and should be able to help steer us back without problems."
  "What about the photon shower?"
  "That was in fact a single beam of light caught in a loop near the end of the tunnel. We don't know why it happened there instead of just outside, which would make more sense (at least that's what happens outside of black holes). And by the way, we also don't know what caused the other photon shower we ran into later."
  "I'm glad to learn it was all outside and not in our collective psyche. That would have been terrible to contemplate."
  Christina, perhaps buoyed by the almost-finished major repairs, and by this assurance of her basic sanity, decided to drop the formalities for a moment. "Martin, while the rest of us slip off for lunch at the local commissary, you and Kwali keep an eye on things, ok? We should be back in an hour. We'll have some of the best take-out stuff sent up to you."
  "Indian?"
  "A surprise."
  Actually, she wasn't sure what there would be, it would be a surprise for her, too. But she was sure of one thing: the cooks were really terrific. And Christina made sure that everyone got the same treatment, that there was no special stuff only for the senior staff.
  "And Martin, let me know instantly if there's any news. I'll have a small viewer with me. Let everyone know where we're heading. See you soon!"
  "Aye, aye, Cap'n!" said Martin, who had somehow managed to slip a black patch over one eye and get a kind of hook up his sleeve.
  "Squawk!" chimed in Kwali, trying to imitate a parrot.
  "Very funny, guys. Keep it up and who knows, our security officer might have you walk the plank. No, wait, Martin IS the security officer." What pirates! Oh, well, at least they haven't lost their sense of humor. They kind of remind me of Sven.
    

  In the middle of a surprisingly small Control Central, where a dozen or so scientists and technicians were jubilantly celebrating their great breakthrough, about 20 computer screens displayed spectacular views of a planet on the other side of the sun. Long suspected by astrophysicists and mathematicians, and assertively predicted by Ecnelav Enohr, the existence of this planet, about the size of Damos, was nevertheless treated as mere science fiction fantasy by much of the public, and as a danger to religion by the devotees of Schad, the mystical religious group that preached a veneration for the literal interpretation of the sacred scriptures, especially the Book of Oarnn. In Oarnn's cosmology, Damos was the center of the world, of all of creation, and all of creation was designed for the benefit of the Kolok, the undisputed rulers of Damos, the species at the top of the food chain.
  In the midst of much confusion, a distinguished woman was talking into a camera.
  "This is Otnas Omer, with a fast-breaking news story from the Catta Space Center. The Unias probe has just discovered the planet, apparently about the size of Damos, just where Dr. Ecnelav Enohr had predicted such a planet would be. The scene here is organized pandemonium. Everyone is celebrating. High Commissioner Ylro is in contact by satellite distance vision.  The first images are now being shown around the globe, and in every part of the world sets are tuned in, as people want to get their first glimpse of this unknown world. What a day for the Kolok people! Just a few years ago we saw our first close images of what Dr. Enohr renamed Tertia Major and Tertia Minor. And now this! Then Damosians set foot on the moon! What a decade!
  "Dr. Enohr, Dr. Enohr! Could we have a word with you, Ma'am?"
  "Yes, of course, Otnas. We're all so thrilled here, we've not only proven that Unias exists, look at that image coming on: an atmosphere! an ocean! a continent! We've sent down a land probe to see if there's life there, plants, animals. This is exciting beyond words. First Tertia Major and Tertia Minor, both with an atmosphere, both with life; now this!"
  "What do you think this will do for the Kolok people? Will we be able to..."
  Otnas's voice was drowned out by the cries coming up from the small crowd gathering at the site. They had just seen the first pictures taken on the surface of Unias–the land probe had alighted on what looked like a glade, with some sort of grass. A group of strange spherical objects, apparently life forms of some sort, came up near the probe. They seemed to be trying to eat it!
  "By Oarnn! What is that?"
  "It looks something like a plant," replied Klor. "Look at them! They're able to move very fast by rolling up or down hills. There must be a hundred of them around the probe! I wonder what they sound like."
  At just this moment, the Unias probe, circling far out from the planet, went behind the sun. What a time for the transmission to end! They would not have new images for ten hours!
  "Otnas, in an hour we'll have processed some more pictures, and we'll have had a little time to sort through and process the pictures we have, and to analyze what we've seen. Then we'll be able to give you a better idea of what we think this is. Excuse me now; I've got to get to work!"
  "You heard Dr. Enohr. We'll be back to you in about an hour. This is Otnas Omer reporting. Back to Studio Central."

  The probe turned its cameras, unexpectedly, upwards, further above the surface. It was programmed to do this in case some interesting object appeared–a moon, a meteorite, something of the sort. But at a distance of about 500 km away, it revealed a shocking sight.
  "Ecnelav, look at this strange image. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was a space ship! It looks just like what I thought these things would look like."
  "Let's see if we can get a better picture of it. By Oarnn! It's huge! It looks big enough for a small village! Quick! get hold of the High Commissioner!"
  On the screen there was a picture of a disk-like structure, slowly rotating, and apparently examining the small probe. Ecnelav could make out what seemed to her to be cameras, and also some small sensors, some kind of devices that were able to discern what the probe was, and what it was doing.
  "Don't let these pictures get out to the public until we get official clearance. We don't want to cause panic among the people. Let them see what our little land probe is doing, now that it's gotten free of those spherical things."
  "Oh, no! This is worse!"
  "What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
  "Take a look for yourself: somebody's there! Is Unias inhabited by an intelligent alien species? Or is that what the creatures in the space ship look like?"
  They all gathered around the large screen. A leader was there with a small party. They held a few of the spheres in their gloved hands, they were petting them and talking to them while coming near the land probe. They appeared not to be as tall as the Kolok, but were like us, bipedal. They soon located the camera, and appeared to be talking into it. Damn! We had not loaded sound on the probe, because of cost overruns and various other problems.
  "What are they saying?"
  "We'll have to turn on the sound."
  "Sound? What sound?"
  "I had an extra 100,000 flen to spend, and packed in a sound transmitter. Since we weren't officially authorized to have sound, I was going to surprise you all with the sounds of Unias. In fact, I already have a recording of the whirring chirps of the spheres, and of the wind. Let's listen to these aliens."
  Martin was speaking. "... of the people of Earth, we wish to let you know that we are here on a scientific mission, and that we come in peace. If you have a language synthesizer like mine, perhaps you can understand me. But since we know where the land probe and the main ship are sending their messages, we will soon come in peace to meet you."
  "I can make out a rhythm to what that alien was saying, but the words make no sense."
  "Ecnelav! What's happening there?"
  "I can't believe it! They've disappeared in thin air! They must have come and gone in transmat beams. More science fiction! Gar! Get the High Commissioner here at once!"
    

  "Contact!" cried Christina. "Intelligent life, certainly coming from this planet's orbit-mate! And this seems to be a planet that we Earth people could live on. As soon as we get word from the bio lab, let's do what we can to keep these spheres alive so that we can present them to the people we'll soon meet. I sure hope they're friendly types!"
  "Well, Commodore, so far the spheres seem to be friendly enough. We found some lichen-like substance that they seem to delight in. We've got them and their food supplies isolated in the alien area of the bio lab, so as not to contaminate them. Let's hope they live through the trip to Planet 2."
  "A pretty sophisticated land probe, Martin? It seemed stationary to me. And I must say that the control vehicle looked a bit primitive, like the things sent to the Moon and to the other planets back in the 20th and 21st centuries."
  "With all due respect, Susanna, let's not forget that our technology in those days was pretty sophisticated, or at least sophisticated enough to begin exploration of outer space as well as of the solar system. All we've done is continue to build on their discoveries and their technologies. They moved so fast in just four or five centuries. Have we gone as fast since, say 2500?"
  Kwali opined, "I understand what you're driving at, but without belittling that bygone era, compared to what we have, this civilization seems to be close to the beginning of its technological phase. I bet they didn't harness electricity until 100 years ago. On the other hand, they are far enough advanced that they'll be able to understand us, and we should be able to understand them. I wonder what they look like."
  "Little green monsters, probably," quipped Martin, "with antennas coming out of their heads and googly eyes."
  "While you guys have been chatting, Colombina has prodded our somewhat reluctant radio to listen for signals from Planet 2. Our sensors have transmitted the sounds to our translation matrix, which is beginning to make some sense of it. Listen to this."
  "...alien life forms that seem to be somewhat shorter than us, with two legs and two arms like us, a kind of fur on their heads instead of scales, and appendages on either side of their head. Their skin is various shades of brown. They ... [an undeciphered portion of the message, a mixture of sibilants and plosives separated by vowels] ... craft is immense, large enough to carry perhaps 1000 people, and is perhaps ten stories high, or more. It dwarfs our probe. ... [Static makes the rest untranslatable]."
  "Colombina, does our translator know enough of this language to allow us to communicate with these people?"
  "Yes, Christina, we've actually been able to decipher quite a bit of their language, which seems to be called Kolok. But you will need an adapter so they can attach the ear piece somewhere."
  "What do you mean?"
  "You heard their description of humans as having appendages on either side of the head. It probably means that they don't recognize ears."
  "Of course! I should have guessed. Still, they must have an otic or auditory membrane of some sort that allows them to hear. After all, if they're speaking that means someone can hear them."
  "Mujama, would you remind us of what we know about these people?"
  "Yes, Commodore. They're tall, have two arms and two legs, scales on their head instead of hair, ..."
  "They must be lizards or reptiles!" exclaimed Susanna. "I focused on their not knowing a word for hair, using fur instead. If they're lizards or reptiles, that would explain their lack of ears. I wonder if they're warm-blooded or cold-blooded, if their young hatch or are born live, if they have hands with opposable thumbs. I'm sorry, Mujama, I got carried away."
  "They're intelligent and literate, they really don't know much about their own solar system (I infer this from their having to prove that this planet exists, judging from some of their statements about what they're calling Unias)."
  "We also know that their home planet is called Damos, that they are Damosians and also Kolok."
  "How do you figure that, Kwali?" asked Mujama.
  "The same way we learned all that other stuff: I listened to the translator."
  "Damos," repeated Christina, "Damosians, Kolok. I suppose their name for themselves is Kolok, just as we call ourselves humans. And the other planet is called Unias. Let's ask the translator if this is the way the word is said in Kolok, or if it's been transposed into a Latinate form for our benefit."
  "And while we're at it, do they have a name for their sun?"
  "It is called Chromos."
  "Now we must find a place to land. How are we doing on that score, Kwali?"
  "Commodore, I think I've identified their capital city and the chief government buildings. There's a large statue out front, in a kind of courtyard. Right now it seems not quite deserted, but at least when you materialize you won't be in a crowd."
  "As we've agreed, and following our mission statement, we'll go down with a small group, three senior staff from Control, seven non-commissioned staff from security, support, and engineering. We'll bring along the spheres as an offering. We should have a dozen headsets and one speaker. I've strapped on a translator homing device that works two ways. Kwali, you, April and Susanna will stay here. Also as we've agreed, Martin and Mujama will come with me. You've selected your assistants?"
  "Yes, Commodore."
  "Christina," said Susanna, "be careful."
  Christina usually insisted that in the Control Room people refer to her by title, but she let this slip by, understanding that Susanna was speaking to her as a friend more than as an officer.
  "Don't worry. We won't do anything that Kwali wouldn't do."
    

  "Their craft is hovering overhead, High Commissioner Ylro. It's very high up, beyond unaided eyesight, but our telescopes have it in full view."
  "What do you think they are planning, Neac? As Chief of Security for the Planetary Government, what plans have you made in case they are hostile?"
  "We do not believe they are hostile, sir. Dr. Enohr, who is here now, says that they have tried to communicate with us, unsuccessfully so far. And in any case, we have not been able to detect any other craft. I would suggest that this is a scientific mission, probably exploring the galaxy. It is obvious that they are a technologically advanced society, much more advanced than we are. If they were hostile, they would certainly have taken action against us by now. I would stake my reputation and my career on their being peaceful."
  "I don't ask for such sacrifices, Neac. Let's wait and see what they have in mind. Meanwhile, what preparations have been made for their arrival?"
  "We do not know where the aliens will land their craft, or rather their shuttle. Furthermore, we did not see a shuttle or any similar craft in the images we have of Unias, and so we can only speculate on how or where they might choose to land. We have nevertheless sent Deputy High Commissioner Amil to Bobol; we believe the landing strip there will be long enough for any shuttle the aliens send down. A small greeting party is accompanying her, along with the official band. We hope to show them by outward signs that we bear no hostility to them, but that we welcome them to our capital city and our planet."
  "Are the highways cleared of vehicles?"
  "We have done better: the rapid train has been sent to Bobol, and the tracks are being secured to protect the people who might press too close."
  "When they come here to Ihled, we must greet them most warmly. A state reception of the highest order is imperative. We need our wisest counselors and teachers to be present, and some representatives of the people."
  "This has been done, and in addition I have ordered the finest of our linguists to study their language when they arrive, so as to allow us to begin to communicate with the aliens as quickly as possible."
  "So far, I am told that we know they have come from a great distance, from a planet called Irrt or Ert, from somewhere beyond the solar system. This worries me, Neac."
  "Why, High Commissioner? It is an exciting moment for Damos, coming as it does in this period of unprecedented advances in the world of science. An unhoped-for but often dreamed-of encounter with the unknown from beyond the stars."
  "It is the devotees of Schad who worry me, Neac. Their belief in the literal truth of the Book of Oarnn, their interpretation of certain passages in such a way as to equate life beyond Damos as the domain of Evil, their sense that the universe exists for the benefit of the Kolok, these tenets coupled with a fanaticism that is dangerous might incite them to do violence to our visitors. We must take steps to protect these people from the Schadites. We should not show this dark side of Damosian culture."
  "I understand, High Commissioner, and indeed we are offering all the protection we can. Only authorized personnel will come into contact with them."

  The strange tingling sensation that accompanied distance matter transportation, so familiar to this veteran group, seemed somehow more intense that day. Then they landed, hundreds of kilometers below, at precisely the point Ju-sen had selected. Once their nerves had calmed a bit–a matter of two or three seconds that felt like hour–they formed a line that advanced towards the imposing figures at the bottom of the steps. They walked silently and slowly, looking at the powerful architectural splendor of the Capitol and the surrounding edifices. They paused at the monumental statue of what appeared to be a hero or a god. Then they resumed their pathway to the tall people awaiting them.
  "Neac, they materialized from nowhere," whispered the awe-stricken High Commissioner. "Are they gods?"
  "Ylro, this must be how they transport themselves from their spaceship. They are paying respect to the statue of Oarnn."
   "Have the band strike up a lively fanfare when they reach the flower-bed. I shall then advance and greet them."
  The familiar music, stirring and welcoming, announced the visit of important state visitors. Ylro moved forward, bowed, then raised his arms in greeting. "Welcome, strangers, to Damos. May your stay among us be long, and your hearts warm as long as you remain here. May our peoples be friends forever."
  Christina and her group stopped. Christina bowed, lifted her right arm in a gesture of friendship, and spoke, thanks to the translator, in flawless Kolok. "We come in peace and friendship from across the immensity of time and space of our common galaxy. We wish you long life and warm affections, and we offer you, as a pledge of our intentions, these first living beings we found on your sister planet of Unias, near your land probe."
  The first contact: a miracle of peace, mutual respect, and friendship.
    

  "Schad and Oarnn will not tolerate these emissaries of Evil. We must drive them from our world, for the salvation of the Kolok people, for the future of Damosian life! We must arrange a meeting of Schadite leaders to deal with this crisis."
  So spoke Ogatrac.