Red Dot: Contact. Will the gravest threat come from closer to home than we expect? (14 page)

“You respecting liberty is noted,” they said as part of their message to the US in English, for example. The Indonesian message spoke of the country’s diversity and scenery: “See many peoples and beauty.”

After the actual meanings became more clear, claims faded about the ETs messages containing dire threats or promises of great benefits. A number of governments asked about the suspicious radio signals that had briefly emerged from a red dot in Japan; the ETs stated that a mistake in sending the dots caused the transmission, but the flaw had been corrected.

One bit of news especially captured people’s fancy: D9 communications were handled by one particular alien (they didn’t say how many there were on the ship). Western comedians and commentators immediately referred to this alien as Lt. Uhura, the communications officer on the Star Trek TV series. Cartoons and video skits mushroomed, starring representations of the original Lt. Uhura on D9. One You Tube version portrayed her relaying inane messages from Earth to an ET who looked a lot like Captain Kirk. “What will be the score of the Red Sox/Dodgers tomorrow?” “Will lemon juice remove a urine stain?”

Claire decided to start going to Forty-Two, the red dot off of a county road near Laurel, each Sunday morning. The Sunday after she met Ray, Ahmet asked to go along. He had never seen a red dot in person, for all his work to understand the ETs. He, too, was dumbstruck by the dot in the clearing in the woods of rural Maryland. He stood, mouth agape, as he absorbed the sight of the softly glowing circle of red—an enigmatic sign sent by beings from across the galaxy, who were only two weeks from reaching Earth orbit.

Claire gently roused him from his meditation and took him a few steps to meet Ray. He was there again, on his favorite grassy mound, this time sitting on a plastic stool with a cane in his lap. The multi-colored leaves had begun to fall in greater numbers and had started to dry out. Ray wore a thick windbreaker to protect against a chilly wind that swept the leaves around in small gusts. He and Ahmet shared a friendly, outgoing feeling for other people and welcomed new ideas and situations. They hit it off immediately.

They talked in depth and with great interest about the philosophy of the space aliens. Obviously the ETs had developed technology far beyond that of Earth. It could be because they had more time to work through the scientific and technical problems, or maybe they were smarter and more capable than humans on Earth. Either way, the question arose: What kind of philosophy or spirituality did they develop, given their added time or abilities, or both?

“I like to think that over the thousands of extra years—I mean in Earth time, anyway—when they were building their great technology, they were trying out new things in philosophy, ethics, and religion and debating them,” Ray said eagerly, leaning toward Ahmet. “Some exceptional people, I mean ETs, would come along with great insights. Over time, they would come up with an enlightened way of thinking, in its own way maybe equal to their advanced technology.”

“Definitely possible,” Ahmet said. “That would be great for us. It’d mean they’d treat us respectfully, and we could look at the progress they had made—in understanding life as well as in technology. It would be like being able to travel into the future, our future.

“But you know, we really don’t know if that’s what will happen,” he said, as Ray sighed and nodded in agreement. “Maybe with that extra time or ability, the strongest, most ruthless system won out and eliminated the rest. In that case, we’re in trouble—no matter how friendly their messages are.”

“Well, I’m afraid you’re right,” said Ray. “Another possibility occurred to me.”

“Dang, Ray, you’re on a roll,” said Ahmet.

“After all of their advances in technology and more development in their philosophy and religion, they may kind of still be muddling through, like us. Life may be just really hard to figure out.”

Ahmet thought for a few seconds and said, “That would be a little discouraging—if they haven’t advanced more. And it would make it pretty uncertain how they’ll treat us. But I guess it’s possible.”

“Really fascinating ideas, you guys,” said Claire, who had been listening intently while her gaze rested on the nearby red dot. After a few moments
of silence, she said, “I’ve had a few ideas since I saw the red dot last week, from a little different perspective.” She spoke rather tentatively and looked at Ahmet and Ray for a reaction. They looked back at her, eagerly awaiting her thoughts.

“The effect of seeing the red dots is so profound—just the sight of them, and of course the realization that they represent extraterrestrial life that’s approaching us—that it got me to thinking about us, people around the world, and how the red dots changed the way we view things. I’m talking about from an intellectual standpoint, and how it alters the way we view the world.” Claire spoke slowly. These ideas had come to her in the last few days, but only now was she starting to put them together.

“It may be on the same level as the revolution in thought started by Copernicus and Kepler,” she said. Claire and Ahmet looked quickly at Ray to see if he was following.

“That the Earth isn’t the center of the universe,” he said, nodding his head.

Claire went on. “And I think it’s not only intellectual. You know, I think we as individuals kind of shape the way we look at our own world, our lives, to make us feel more safe and happy and to understand things better—even if intellectually, it doesn’t really make sense. It protects us from the fear that bad things just happen.” She hesitated for a second as her explanation touched on painful memories.

She went back to when she was eight and her mother was struggling to survive cancer. One morning, as she sat on her bed, she seemed to see her fantasy self a few feet away, singing alongside Brittney Spears before adoring fans (although she didn’t quite understand Brittney’s new songs) or addressing Congress or the UN as powerful politician. Then those visions disappeared and she was a little girl, sitting on her rumpled bed, worried sick about her mom. It was a painful realization, but accepting her fears and her mother’s condition rather than leaning on wishful thinking made Claire better able to focus on her visits to her mom, and enjoy them more. Now she also thought about how she and other people sometimes seemed to shape their religious and political beliefs to make themselves feel more secure.

She paused and saw that Ahmet and Ray appeared puzzled, as if they weren’t sure where she was headed. “So I think facing bad things in our lives may actually make us feel better, but it’s hard and scary to do that, so usually we kind of fantasize because we think that is what will make us feel better,” she added.

“Like Walter Mitty,” said Ray, zipping his windbreaker up higher against the cold wind. “Only serious.” Claire and Ahmet looked blankly back at him. “He was a character in some funny short stories, who always made himself the hero in fantasies,” said Ray.

“Yes, something like that,” Claire said with a smile. “One major point is, because our view of the world makes us feel secure, we don’t give it up easily. It takes a shock of some kind, maybe an intellectual discovery that’s been scientifically verified, or something physical and emotional.” For a few seconds, she gazed at the red dot a few yards in front of them and listened to the rustling leaves. Then she said, “You know, way back in my younger days, I dated a test pilot for a while.”

“Here comes the good part,” Ahmet said, nudging Ray in the ribs.

Ray smiled, shook his head and said, “Don’t pay any attention to him.”

“I never do,” said Claire, smiling back. “But he said he and other pilots who flew at sixty thousand or seventy thousand feet, where the colors get very vivid and you could see the curvature of the Earth, got what they called the ‘break-off effect.’ He said it was a feeling of detachment from Earth, part of a larger environment, and it made him feel euphoric, but some other pilots were scared out of their wits. Either way, it did something to you that would last a long time. Of course, they knew beforehand that the surface of the Earth was curved and the thinner air made colors darker, but actually seeing it was profound. Then there’s what they call the ‘overview effect.’”

“That’s a life-altering change that comes when you see the Earth from space,” said Ray, proud that he could show his knowledge of space travel. “Usually it’s a deep feeling like a religious awakening, but not always.”

“Exactly,” said Claire. “And I think the red dots produce something even more profound than the break-off or overview effect; everyone already
knows the Earth looks different from far away, but no one really knew there was life, intelligent life, on other planets until a few weeks ago. Plus, only a handful of people traveled into space or near space, but now everyone has seen or heard about red dots. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to view the ETs as benign, along with the fact they may have weapons.

“Of course you still got all the normal things like going to work, raising a family, going to baseball games, and all that, but seeing these incredible things from another world, I think, will jolt you enough to shake up the mental and emotional structure you’ve built to keep you safe.”

“I had a thought,” said Ray, with some hesitation. “It’s kind of dumb, but… I got seasick once. I took the family on a deep sea fishing trip and it was pretty rough. All the tossing around disturbed my usual frame of reference and caused a stress that made me physically sick. I won’t go into the details. D9 and the red dots, I think, also disturbed our frame of reference—like Claire said—and caused a stress that might make us psychologically sick.”

“Ray,” said Claire with a smile, “when you get a thought, be sure to tell us what it is.”

After a pause, she said, “I guess the question is, what do you have when you rebuild that mental structure or frame of reference?

“We’re starting to get the answer to that. What I mean is the aliens could do something that changes everything; they might give us the cure for all our diseases, or they might kill us all. But they haven’t done anything yet. Just showing up and sending the red dots they, on purpose or not, opened the door for us to do all sorts of things ourselves.”

“OK. OK,” said Ahmet. “But don’t forget that having super-advanced aliens approaching from outer space and not knowing what they’re going to do is scary, no matter what your beliefs are. Claire, you said you had like a panic attack when you first learned about the red dots. At least for a couple of minutes. But the thing is, how do we deal with that fear, and with the shock to our beliefs?”

“That’s it,” said Ray, leaning forward, eager to make a point. “We could have set aside our differences—Liberal and Tea Party, different religions and countries—and focused on preparing for the ETs, maybe separately or even
working together. But instead, we’ve retreated into our own shells to protect our beliefs. We’ve become more hostile to other groups.

“I mean, you always heard some people say there should be a revolution,” Ray said after a brief pause. “But it seemed like just loose talk, blowing off steam. Now, groups I’ve heard on radio and TV seem to be really getting ready to fight.” The three friends fell silent and gazed at the red dot.

“Really adjusting to profound changes is going to take time,” said Ahmet after a few minutes. “I spent a year in Egypt, working on my masters, and people I talked to were very disillusioned about the Arab Spring. It seemed so hopeful when it started fifteen years before, but instead of a new era of democracy and openness, they got either chaos or an old-style dictatorship that was even more heavy-handed than the old one. Maybe in another fifteen years, or fifty…”

“Thanks a lot, Forty-Two,” said Ray. His quip relieved the solemnity of the moment, and he, Ahmet, and Claire enjoyed a brief laugh.

Then Claire and Ahmet got up to leave, though Ray said he would stay a bit longer and see them again soon at Forty-Two.

The two NASA scientists went to Denver One, and to what had become somewhat of a routine of poring over recent D9 messages, searching for fresh insights while waiting for the rush of excitement that arrived with a new message. But the thin film of normality at Denver One—and many other work places and homes around the world—did not tell the whole story.

F
AMILY
C
RISIS

I
n every country,
individuals and families struggled with how to cope with the mounting tension and fear. Scott, Claire’s driver in her early days at Denver One, began to engage in something he rarely did—reflection. Usually he got a gut feeling about something and went with it. But the growing, painful rift in his marriage made him think maybe he and his wife could find a better way. Yes, they would still have to brace for the arrival of terrifying creatures from another world. But there must be some change to keep them from getting so angry and fighting all the time, he thought.

Late Friday afternoon, just over two weeks before D9 was due to start orbiting Earth, Scott approached Maggie. It was a good time, he thought, because she had almost an hour before she started fixing dinner, and she couldn’t use that as an excuse to avoid discussing something serious. Their son, Carl, as usual was out with some friends, and their daughter, Laura, was in her room upstairs, probably watching TV.

Scott and his wife had changed from their clothes from work—Scott’s driving job and Maggie’s secretary work at a warehouse—not so much because the outfits were too fancy to wear at home, but so they could hang them up and wear them again without washing and ironing them.

The two-story house, their gleaming pride and joy when they’d bought it new with the help from a government loan eight years earlier, now had a cluttered, lived-in look. The front door opened into the living room, which was anchored by the big, old-fashioned cathode ray TV Scott bought used before
he got married. Prime viewing space went to Scott’s well-worn easy chair. A book case occupied much of the wall next to the front door, featuring Carl’s numerous sports trophies, pieces of the Laura’s artwork from school, pictures of the rest of the family, and a dozen or so books placed on the top shelf, almost as an afterthought. For all its familiar homey touches, the house now seemed strange to Scott, because of the new tension between him and his wife.