First Contact - Intergalactic Stories by Bane Bond Page B

now? NASA and
NSA are pressing me. It seems that Russians are progressing and
Chinese have introduced few thousands of scientists of different
profiles to the research.” John just waved his hand, “Easy for them
with such population… So, we work day and night, everyone is
exhausted. However, we have recognized specific sequences from the
introductory part of the message. We believe those are numbers
followed by some kind of letters. More specific; figures and
symbols representing elements from the periodic table. That should
provide a key for the remaining message.”
    Sam nodded, “Well done. Write
the preliminary report. Washington is preparing the official stand
for the UN meeting the day after tomorrow.” John raised eyebrows,
“Does that mean some joint international action is under
preparation? Since the humanity never managed to agree upon
anything, perhaps aliens will make us cooperate between ourselves.”
The question remained unanswered since Sam had already left to
coordinate other teams.
     
    *****
    Fyodor
Terentyev was staring at the square below full of motion, typical
for Moscow’s morning. His thoughts were wondering away. Quick cough
of his assistant brought Fyodor back and he turned, “You say the
message contains descriptions of interstellar flight technology?”
Assistant was nervously shifting from one foot to the other, “Yes,
that is the general opinion in the international team. And it looks
like the message ends with coordinates of some location on the edge
of the galaxy, on the distance of almost two thirds of its diameter
from us.”
    Fyodor frowned, “What is our
team saying?” Assistant shook his head, “Seems extremely
complicated. That makes research difficult, as well as the fact
that everyone has its own team secretly working in parallel with
the international one. I am afraid our guys know nothing more than
others!” Fyodor protruded his chin, “Almost six months have passed
from the reception of the message and the whole operation becomes
too expensive. Intensify diplomatic activities in strengthening
international cooperation. The stakes are too high to gamble with
competing each other, if we want to success.” As the assistant
turned to leave, Fyodor added, “Of course, maintain the spy network
to make sure that others play fair as well!”
     
    *****
    Lee Yen Fu was furious. He
glanced quickly around, to make sure the attention of
representatives of all important countries from Earth was on him,
before continuing with his speech, “Beijing demands that the
distribution of participants in the first international stellar
mission is proportional to population numbers per country!” The
representative of Belgium, followed with several other EU
countries, protested immediately, “You want to say that my country
could send one astronaut on every 100 of yours? Preposterous!”
    The Chairman of the meeting,
Brazilian Julio Gustavo, had difficulties to maintain order and to
reconcile different points of view. After more than two years of
exploration by scientists from all over the globe, the joint
research team had announced that everything is ready for building
the interstellar spaceship, based on the instructions from the
deep-space message. Such task should have brought nations together;
instead it fired quarrels over leadership, financing, number of
representatives, etc. Julio Gustavo clenched teeth. His task was to
assist the creation of the joint memorandum and, with the help of
God, he intended to do just that. Humanity had finally got the
opportunity to reach the stars and stand shoulder to shoulder with
other civilizations from the Universe. Such chance could not be
missed.
     
    *****
    Jean-Baptiste was proudly
standing in the large group of astronauts and selected scientists,
posing in front of cameras. He had a stylized Earth symbol and
small Swiss flag below it on his chest. He was the only one, but
important representative of that small country in the