The Visitors

The Visitors


The aliens announced their presence by a radio transmission picked up on August 11th.
Of course, the transmission was only picked up by the deep space listening antennas of a few nations . In an artificially created voice, delivered in over seven thousand different earth languages, it said simply, “Greeting, arrive soon.” All information concerning the receipt of the transmission was kept from the public.

In the capitals of these nations, behind closed doors, the message was discussed and debated. Some world leaders and their advisors felt it was a hoax or perhaps an effort on the part of other nations to create anxiety. Others feared invasion and calls were made to pursue the rapid development of weapons which could be deployed from space to protect the planet . Still others felt that Earth was on the dawn of a new day of interstellar brotherhood. Some nations wished to respond to the message , others were against it and were aggressive in their warning to the nations who wished to reply that they should not do so.
It really did not matter , first because among those who wished to reply there was even more heated debate on just what the reply should be; and finally, because all such debates were mooted by the simple question of where the reply should be sent .

The various deep space telescopes searched space around us to their utmost abilities , but for months nothing out of the ordinary was learned.
In December , there was a breakthrough , and at the White House a meeting was hastily scheduled. In attendance were the members of the joint chiefs of staff , the President , members of the President’s cabinet, his closet advisers, and the chief scientific advisor to the President.
The President was facing a tough reelection campaign and had been worried that sooner or later knowledge of the message would leak and there was no telling what that could mean for the election.
The President looked down the conference table at the science advisor, Reynolds , who in appearance fit the Hollywood caricature of a scientist. Reynolds was dressed in a wrinkled suit, wore greasy glasses slid halfway down his nose, and looked like he had not shaved in a week. “Well, Reynolds what’s this new development”?
“Mr. President, we have at last been able to pinpoint the origination point of the transmission’’.
There was a mummer of excited voices around the table. The Vice President , who the President had come to believe had been getting way too much media attention , spoke up. “Mr. President, now at last perhaps you will listen, we need to announce the wonderful news of this contact and prepare a response to welcome our interstellar guests.”
General Collins , head of the joint chiefs, shook his head angrily, “No no, Mr. President we have no idea what the intentions of these aliens may be, we must move forward with our space missile defense program”.
The President’s political advisor, seated at his right, looked worried and he leaned over to whisper in the President’s ear, “Jesus Christ , George, the South Carolina primary is in a month, the last thing we need is for this to come out now.”
The Secretary of the Treasury said, “Mr. President before you do anything we must consider what this would do to the world markets”.
The Secretary of State stammered, “Mr. President you may not have any choice but to make a statement, I don’t think we can trust that the Chinese won’t leak the news; hell, I don’t even know how much longer our friends will keep the message secret.”

Through all the babble, the sound of laughter suddenly could be heard, there was immediate silence as all faces turned to look at Reynolds who was leaning back in his chair laughing hysterically.
“What the hell is so funny Reynolds”? The President shouted.
Reynolds tried to compose himself , he pulled off his glasses and proceeded to wipe them with a bandanna. “Sorry Mr. President”, he said as he strained to stop his laughter. “You see, as I said, we pinpointed where the message came from. Likely the problem is really a matter of semantics.”
“ What do you mean , damn it”? barked the General .
Reynolds replaced his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said, “Well in order to understand something , it’s important to have the proper frame of reference . The aliens said they would be here “soon”. What does that mean? I guess it hinges on what the word means to you. Mr. President did you know that common house flies live for about two weeks. by contrast the giant tortoise lives 190 years, and there are sharks that have been known to live well past 250 years. If one considers plants, some of the giant sequoia trees were alive before the birth of Christ. It’s fair then to consider what the word “soon” would mean to each of them”.
“Damn it man, would you get to the point?" The President’s chief of staff complained.
“ I am but bear with me a bit longer, and soon my point will be clear”, and with that comment his laughter returned, but gradually he again gained control. “You see, the message originated in a galaxy we identify as GN-z11” . There were puzzled looks all around the table . “Maybe this will help”, and with that Reynolds stood up and began to draw with a magic marker on a white message board on an easel near his chair . He drew a circle and wrote “Earth” beside it. He then drew a larger circle some distance about halfway across the board and wrote beside it the word “Andromeda” .
He turned back to face the table. “now the Andromeda galaxy is one of the closet to our own galaxy, it’s 2.5 million light years away. If we assumed a civilization had the ability to construct a craft that traveled at the speed of light , it would follow then that it would take 2.5 million years to cover the distance between Andromeda and our own galaxy. Well gentleman, GN-z11 is, we estimate, now about 32 billion light years from us , what we can detect of the galaxy is what it would have looked like over 13 billion years ago.
Reynold’s sat back down, chuckling once again. “What I am trying to say is, gentleman, relax. I don’t think we need to worry about hurrying to spruce up for the visitors. Instead, perhaps we can just try to contemplate what the word ‘soon’ means to a species that would use it to describe a journey across 32 billion light years.”