Local Cluster

by

Elton Gahr

It was six thirty-seven EST and Andrea was sipping her first cup of coffee when the message appeared in a green text on the monitor. Still half asleep it took her several seconds to fathom the meaning of the message at which point her brain was suddenly entirely awake.

It read, in clear and simple English, “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Five minutes of frantically double checking everything on SETI’s near antique computers told her that either someone was much smarter than her or this hadn’t been sent by any of the known human spaceships or probes. Backtracking the signal direction suggested it had come from deep space.

She considered what to do for a full minute before she began to transmit the information to everyone everyone she could think of from scientists to media. If this was what it looked like it was then everyone deserved to know and if it wasn’t then someone would figure out how the hoax was being done before it the news reached the public.

Ted, her boss who lived an hour away arrived in just under thirty minutes still not wearing shoes and struggled to read the data from the screens because he had forgot his glasses. He was the second person to see the data directly, and he agreed that it was unlikely to be fake. He then sent out a marginally more officially worded message acknowledging that they had got a signal.

Ten minutes later people had began to text and email her with suggestions how how to send a message back.

While they were planning a second message appeared. It read, “Apologies for formulation previous communication. Vessel AI not programmed for introductory interaction. Emotions are pleasure and astonishment at finding unpredictable intelligence on celestial body designated garden. We arrive soon. Time duration not translated for correct date. Soon. More will be explained as translation enlarged.”

It took a few minutes to be entirely certain what the message meant, but Andrea took it as a peaceful greeting. And since her boss had The President of the United States on hold while he tried to coordinate a suddenly global emergency through an under-funded office that had six official employees Andrea took control of the radio system that had been programmed to sent a message and was only waiting for anyone to agree what that message should be so she typed, “Greetings from a single member of the human species. The best measure of interstellar distance we have is the distance that light can travel. Our simplest to understand the measure of time is the time taken for our planet to orbit our star. A more specific time would be helpful to prevent panic.”

As she hit the button to send the message Andrea hoped that she would only be fired and not executed for treason, but she had dealt with bureaucracy before and didn’t think waiting a week to sent a bland, noncommittal response was a good idea.

Luckily no one seemed to notice until a reply appeared ten minutes later it said, “It is admirable your species is competent of information of scientific and cultural width to interpret concept light year. Also, pleasure in recognition of the personal freedom allowed individual to communicate without fear of punishment. We acknowledge peril of knowing our beingness. It is recorded that unplanned intelligence are fearful of meeting others. Transition from alone to many is difficult. We ask you not use crude atomic munition in response to arrival. We defend individual cultural units in way you have selected to split yourselves. Assuming calculations of orbit are correct we will arrive in time it takes for your planet to orbit your star one quart of rotation. We ask for communication to continue and will answer questions if able.”

Three months was hardly any time at all, but there were plenty of questions but they had answered one of the most important. She probably wouldn’t be executed. That response made her wonder if they might understand humans better than their language skills suggested. But since they had asked for questions she decided that she could ask as easily as anyone else and since no one else was she didn’t even risk wasting the short time they had so she typed, “Does your species plan intelligence?”

The response was faster than before. It read, “My species does as do many others. We are what you might call farmers. We created this local cluster of stars and helped to foster life on many planets. We anticipated one-hundred and twenty-three-thousand orbits before intelligence would begin in this part of the cluster. You have birthed yourself well ahead of scheduled and on the wrong planet. This suggests existence of knowledge we did not previously have about nature of life. This excites us. We hope the answer aids in your understanding.”

Andrea wasn’t sure what to think, but everyone else was too busy discussing how to respond to notice she had already done it so she asked another follow up question, “Can you clarify the phrase local cluster of stars. We use the term solar system for a single star and the planets around it and galaxy for all the stars that orbit a central location. We believe there are about ten billion stars in our galaxy. We use a base ten number system and a billion is ten digits deep.”

The response was considerably more astonishing. It responded, “We understand confusion. Your species is young and knows only what can be done by the astonishing young. Both word solar system and galaxy are useful measurements. We would call the local cluster of stars all those created about 13.7 billion orbits of your planet around the local star before current time. You should not be ashamed if you believed this to be all there is as you do not have ability to see it.”

Ted glanced at the screen seeing the text and after leaning close to the screen so he could read it sat down next to Andrea, then fumbled for the speaker and read the conversation to whoever was on the other side of the phone.

After a few seconds the crackling voice of the President of the United States said over the speakerphone, “Did they just say they created the universe?”

“More or less,” Ted said, then added, “Though the term universe would be inaccurate. Perhaps local cluster of stars is more correct.”

Andrea looked down at her coffee that was still half full and took a sip. Then she typed, “I do not think you will have answered all of our questions before you arrive.”

“My job is to expand intelligence to all planets in this cluster of stars. Your appearance is current top priority. We expect one hundred and twenty-three-thousand orbits of your planet around the local star before we will be needed elsewhere. That should be sufficient time to get you started.”