InterstellarNet: Origins by Edward M. Lerner

hard, but otherwise it worked well enough, and it gave him opportunities to better bond with the other steerers. Morning jogs with Vladimir Antinov were pure bonus.
    Pounding along a Central Park path, Dean saved his breath for keeping up. Antinov was fanatically fit and perfectly willing to do all the talking.
    Today Vladimir mused aloud about the latest pronouncement from Dean’s former colleagues in the Media committee. The soldier’s perspective was always an eye opener, as different from Dean’s commercial frame of reference as Dean’s was from the academics and bureaucrats who dominated the task force.
    “Good technique, my friend. Divide and conquer.” Vladimir did not appear to be sweating, or even winded. “Analyzing as much of the message at once as possible makes sense.”
    “In my world,” Dean wheezed, “we call it parallel processing.”
    “The labs back home say it is an interesting approach.” Vladimir referred to what had indeed proven to be a transmitter design.
    Dean was reminded of his favorite evasion. As in: This casserole is interesting. “More surprising than interesting.” Pant, pant. “Curiously complex.”
    “You should think like a Russian. Consider Mir . I loved seeing the faces on your astronauts when they first came aboard. They were in shock about Mir . So primitive. So klugged.”
    “Kludged?”
    “Yes, thanks. Kludged. Despite our kludging, or maybe because of it, USSR had a space station twelve years before a single piece was launched for a NASA space station.” Vladimir jogged in place at the crest of a low rise until Dean, huffing, caught up. “The best is the enemy of the good enough.”
    “My brain…is not at its best when bouncing.”
    “You Americans believe advanced capability requires advanced technology. You think ET’s solution must be simple and elegant.” They zigged off the path to pass some mere power walkers, then zagged back on. “You never think of Mir .”
    “So.” Dean was out of breath and struggling to follow. “You’re…saying…brute force.”
    “Perhaps. Of course, I would not know an elegant radio design if it shot at me. I only suggest that you consider it.”
    “Food…for thought.”
    “Only five kilometers. You would not survive a real run.” Vladimir pointed across Fifth Avenue to a coffee shop. “Come, we will get some real food.”
“The University of California at Berkeley announced the discovery at the end of the ET message of a deadline for Earth’s response. Dr. Enriqué Ramirez, of the Department of Computer Science, stated that ET has requested that Earth begin its reply ninety-seven days from today.
“A UN spokesman confirmed that its task force had been seeking an independent validation of a similar translation. The spokesman would not comment regarding what answer the task force might recommend, or even whether a response is under consideration.”
—GlobalNet Evening News
    With the clock running out before a pre-reply COPUOS review—and the authorization vote Alex Klein predicted the task force would lose—Dean broadened his search for inspiration.
    After much fruitless surfing and chat-room lurking, he encountered A note on amplifiers in the Lalande 21185 transmitter design by a Joachim Frisch. Dean clicked the URL and began scanning. An aura of professionalism emerged and his reading slowed. Googling yielded nine papers by Frisch in refereed engineering journals, although the most recent was ten years old.
    Dean’s second read-through was very slow and deliberate. He was reminded of, and thought deeply about, Vladimir Antinov’s comments about Mir .
    It was early evening in Frankfurt. Hoping that Herr Frisch was not out enjoying the Oktoberfest, Dean reached for the phone.
From the SETI Conspiracy chat room:
Suspect_Everyone: So now there’s a pressing deadline to answer ET. Who else smells a six-legged, bug-eyed rat?
42_is_true: How convenient! ET spies on us for 30+ years and we get a few months to