Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

                        At 8 am the next morning in the GSAs main conference room found most of the world leaders milling about, including John. Mura – Jie appeared in the room and cleared her throat. Most of the leaders shrank back from her, both surprised and terrified, after all the last time she was there she nearly destroyed the world.

            “Calm down. I am not here to destroy you. Yet. I just have a little present for all of you, something of a guide book slash rule book. Just to make sure there are no confusions, after all I don’t feel like having to interact with you more than I have to. I am sure you guys don’t want me here anymore than I want to be here,” Mura – Jie explained. She snapped her finger and a heavy bound book appeared in front of each chair in the conference room, in the main language of the leader it was meant for.

            “This is a contract between me and you, as long as those rules and guidelines are followed for the next thirteen years, I will not destroy you Humans. Look at this as a good thing, there is lots of leeway in my rules, and if it’s not mentioned in the rules you can do it. See I am not entirely heartless,” Mura – Jie giggled and disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.

            John and the other leaders went to their respective seats and picked up their book which was aptly named, “Things Humanity Can Do to Not Get Blown Up” by Watcher Mura – Jie. He opened the first page and the very first page had in bold block letters, “Follow these rules and guidelines and you are almost guaranteed to not get destroyed”. John shook his head then heard the conference room door open. He looked up to see Jane Anne with Carol and the other scientists entering the room. Jane Anne looked at the books being read by everyone inquisitively.

            “Did we miss something,” She looked at Carol, “Did you send the information ahead of us or something?”

            “No. I have no idea what they are reading.” Carol nodded towards John, “Do you mind filling us in?”

            “Mura – Jie dropped these off for us,” He turned the book around so they could read the title.

            “I think she thinks this is funny, and not terrifying which it really is. I can however see it has its uses. The very first chapter is in regards to how we deal with aliens, for want of a better name.” John handed the book over to Carol who had held her hands out as soon as he said the word aliens.

            Carol glanced through the first chapter quickly a smile spreading on her face. She handed the book to Jane Anne who quickly read it as well and laughed.

            “This is perfect. Absolutely perfect,” She out her fingers to her lips and whistled getting everyone’s attention. “Folks I’m going to need you to sit down. While this rule book is surprising and kind of terrifying, it is going to be extremely useful for the reason we called you here on such short notice.” Jane Anne jerked her head back quickly, “I just had a thought. We should distribute copies of this book to the general population at large, or at least a cliff notes version of it anyway. This would help alleviate some of the population fear if they had a guide book to work off of.

            “This is also a wonderful guide for us to work off of as well, but the reason we brought you here,” She looked at Carol, “Do you want to be the one to tell since it was your teams find?”

            Carol nodded and shut the lights off while the scientists that came with her along with Jane Anne went to their respective seats. She pulled a remote out of her pocket and turned a projector on. The projector showed a computer screen with scrolling ones and zeros. “This ladies and gentleman is a message, we received from the Da Vinci probe. The Da Vinci probe for those who don’t read their memos is the probe who started to send us messages two years ago. The probe that made our Watcher show herself.

            “The probe has been both a blessing and a curse, a blessing partly due to this but also all of the information we have gathered from it. A curse because of our Watchers disdain for us, but she has actually helped us with this guidebook, it amended one of the things she first said in such a way that this,” she pointed at the screen, “becomes something we can actually respond to. One of the rules in the guide book, is as follows, ‘You may only contact species that explicitly contact you first. You may not make the first move. They must come to you.’ This ladies and gentlemen means we can respond to this message because these aliens addressed their message, ‘To the lifeforms who sent this satellite’.

            “They addressed it directly to us, so the message the boys in the labs have been creating we can send back as a response. We actually have the technology to send the message back to them because they have been broadcasting what can only be described as a blueprint to build some sort of amplifying antennae. We might actually be able to make first contact with an alien race. Well and alien race that hasn’t been watching us since we first gained sentience.” Carol turned to the speechless room.

            “We were coming here to discuss whether or not to disregard our Watcher’s order and send this message before the guidebook showed up, but we no longer have to. The only thing we really need to decide is should we let the world know about the signal. I don’t think we should. Aliens have left a bad taste in the collective world’s mouth as it were. I will however leave this decision up to you fine folks.” Carol left the projector on and took her seat next Jane Anne.

            John looked around the room taking in the various degrees of awe, respect, confusion and fear on people’s faces. He made a snap decision, “We should send the signal, it will take years to get there and years to get a reply back. It will be something we can complete after our deadline is up. I don’t think we should tell people about it though. Let’s keep this strictly need to know for as long as we can. I do think we all need to take a day or two, read these rules and guideline and discuss them. We can also decide then whether or not to distribute them in part or in whole to the world’s population.

            “These are all things that need to be done, but they won’t be done now, this is just all too over whelming, and I know I can’t be tasked with making any major decisions until we have these books read. Everyone agree to just take a step back and breathe? We could all use a two day vacation, and I think we need to take it.” John looked around to see everyone agreeing with him. “It’s settled then, we’ll reconvene here Wednesday at 8 am to get stuff sorted. See you folks then.”

            John got up and went to Jane Anne and Carol and informed them he would make a copy of the rule book and get it to them later that day. He left the conference room and ordered mark to make a copy for them. He then ordered his Secret Service detail to take him to a small low key bar. He made sure to change out of his suit and put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt as well as a baseball cap, and he went out to get very, very drunk. He wasn’t sure how much more his brain could take of the stress and surprises life kept throwing at him. Oh he hated the day Mura – Jie appeared on that screen two years ago.