Aliens from Earth Pt. 1

Agatha Raymon walked down the Lunar ‘Park,’ staring up at the bright stars above. Metal walls and thick, transparent windows and ceiling surrounded her on the walkway. It was the closest someone on the lunar colony could get to ‘outdoorsy’ without donning a space suit and trying to explain to Earth why they made such an expensive trip.

Not that there could be that many consequences. Everyone was already worked to death around here, and being sent to Earth was a dream for many Lunnies, not to mention too expensive anyway.

Not that Agatha was that interested in going to Earth. As beautiful and hospitable as it was, it was a one way trip most of the time. Very few people went back and forth; it was easier to keep people here or there permanently, and if she was being honest, she’d rather stay on the Moon, it was her home after all.

Out of the corner of her eye (or the bottom?) she saw someone walking towards her. She kept her gaze trained on the sky, knowing that the other’s would be focused on the ground. They were going to run into each other.

This was the plan, of course. There were very few places without cameras on the Lunar base, and the ‘park’ wasn’t one of them. The easiest way to transfer information inconspicuously was like this; even most of the computers on base were monitored from Earth.

Agatha braced herself and a second later collided with Josephine. They bounced away from each other, falling gently to the  ground. On the way, Josephine, who was shorter than Agatha, jerked her head back, hitting Agatha’s jaw forcefully.

Agatha caught herself with her hand and pushed herself back upright. She rubbed her jaw sorely. That had not been part of the plan. She hurried over to Josephine, who was still standing, and pretended to be concerned. She was honestly annoyed that Josephine had messed it up, but it was important to get this close contact.

“Josephine! Are you alright? I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there.” She helped Josephine to her feet, subtly grabbing the slip of paper from her hand and slipping in up her sleeve.

“Don’t worry about me, Raymon, I shouldn’t have been walking so fast without looking.”

“Oh? Did something happen?” This was also part of the plan, Jose acting anxious and frayed. It made future encounters more believable.

Jose sighed. “Bhav- …Boson and I got into an argument,” she said, correcting to use his last name. People were referred to by their last names around here, using first names meant familiarity and was only used in a personal setting. The correction was also part of the plan: they were in a relationship, but they were trying to keep it sort of secret. If people knew they were trying to keep their love hidden, it wouldn’t be surprising when they spent time outside of the cameras, even if what they were doing had nothing to do with romance.

“Again?” Agatha whispered.

Jose nodded. “Yeah. We’ve just both been so stressed lately, it hasn’t been great for things.”

“Well, I hope things get better. I’ll see you at dinner, yeah?”

“Definitely.”

They smiled lightly at each other and continued to opposite ends of the Lunar Park. Agatha made her way back to her quarters and locked her door before taking out the slip of paper. The sleeping quarters were some of the few places without cameras. She glanced at the clock, which was set to UTC-0* [see bottom of article for explanation on UTC time] and took note of how much time she had until her break ended and she had to return to work.

The slip was small and the writing was tiny, and in Lunar Pidgin, the language mash up that was unique to the Lunnies. Inside was information regarding the revolution, or at least what they hoped would become a full revolution. They were part of the third generation now who had never been to Earth, yet they were still bound by Earth politics. With such a small population, official nationalities and ethnicities didn’t seem to matter very much. Part of the agreement the space faring nations had made when establishing the Lunar Base had been that no one nation could have significantly more people on the moon than the average amount of people represented per nation. As a result, the Lunnies had all grown up in a highly multicultural environment.

However, many of the officials on the Moon had not, and had trained on Earth to come to the Moon. Because of this, international relationships were sometimes frowned upon. There was of course a practical reason for this too, your job was given to you by your national division, but if you were the child of two different nations, you had to choose which nation you ‘belonged’ to, which also tended to cause tension with the opposing nation’s leadership. Not to mention the extensive process some couples had to go through just to have children because one of their nations didn’t want them to or had too many colonists already. By this point, the third generation Lunnies were fed up with Earth politics and wanted a freer world for them and their children.

Which had led them to a secret revolutionary movement. They wanted independence, but they still relied on supplies from Earth to stay alive. And because there was almost no privacy on the colony, information had to be passed along with minimal actual contact with the informants.

Agatha sighed and unfolded the slip of paper. She paused, taking a moment to absorb the small piece of information: BB had found access codes to Communication’s computers. Access codes. To Communication’s computers.

This was a huge step forward, one of the most important steps in their plan. It was also highly dangerous information. If Leadership found out, at least, those that weren’t part of the cause, that would be it for Boson. Access to the communication computers, full access, meant that they could say whatever they wanted to the communication offices on Earth, to any and all major space agencies, and without anyone in Leadership being alerted prior. They could negotiate terms for independence directly, without speaking through those who may disagree with them. It was game changing.

Once Agatha was certain that she had understood all the details, she popped the paper into her mouth and chewed it for a minute before shoving it down her throat. It was the only way to truly destroy the information; fire wasn’t allowed on the colony unless it was very specifically sanctioned. Even if there weren’t cameras in the bedrooms, there were extremely sensitive fire detectors in every room. It was never an option and had never even crossed Agatha’s mind for the whole duration of her involvement. 

When she was done, she made her way to the observatories where she worked. They were currently in Lunar night, the best time to view the stars from the Moon. Agatha preferred Lunar nights because that’s when she got to do work she truly enjoyed. During the two-week long Lunar days, the light from the Sun drowned out any other starlight from the sky, meaning any observations not made on the Sun itself had to be made using very specific instruments that Agatha was unfortunately untrained in.

During day cycles, Agatha primarily played as engineer and/or janitor. It was part of her job to make sure all of the fire detectors were working, as well as the air ducts, temperature regulators, waste systems, food hydrators, etcetera. It was her responsibility (as well as that of many, many, others) to make sure everything vital wasn’t malfunctioning. It was actually a much more important job than the one she was going to now, but she preferred working with the telescopes.

Being on the Lunar surface provided a unique opportunity to view the stars. It combined the best aspects of Earth and Space telescopes. They had size that only ground telescopes could muster, but, like orbiting telescopes, the Lunar telescopes didn’t have to combat nearly as many atmospheric disturbances. Agatha wished she knew enough to work with the telescopes more often, but she was primarily an assistant and helped make calculations or physically worked with the telescopes themselves. She wasn’t one to process the data.

She primarily worked under Doctor Suzie Dubois, who technically belonged to the French division of the colony, but was just as much of a Lunnie as Agatha (who belonged to the US division). They mostly communicated through a specific brand of Lunar Pidgin which emphasized vocabulary pertaining to astronomy and engineering, though Dubois did speak English and they both shared a basic knowledge of Portuguese. It was common for Lunnies to speak three or more languages, but everyone shared some form of Lunar Pidgin.

Halfway through Agatha’s shift at the observatories the speakers came on in a rare moment of colony wide communication. In various languages, though not in Pidgin, the speaker(s) said: “Would everyone please report to their national divisions immediately for a briefing. Meetings begin in ten minutes.”

“But that’s hardly enough time to shut all the equipment down!” Dubois protested, though no one of any power over the situation could hear her. Everyone muttered in agreement—what could warrant such an abrupt role call?

The announcement repeated over the speakers and the astronomer sighed. With a wave of her hand she said, “Alright, make sure everything’s saved and in order and get to your briefings everyone. Hopefully this won’t take too long.”

At her words, everyone rushed back into work, organizing digital files and uploading half completed works to the cloud before turning off almost everything to conserve energy. 

Agatha rushed off towards the western wing and the US division’s council room. Had Administration found out about the revolution? Were they seeking out members and fellow ‘rebels?’ Was Josephine okay? And BB? Had they been betrayed?

She took a seat next to Josephine, who was already staring anxiously at the officials whispering urgently at the front of the room. The screen on the board was on, but only displaying a blank white page with the time in the corner. From the looks around the room, everyone, including some officials, had no idea what was going on. The announcement was still repeating over the speakers, gradually becoming more and more irritating. Agatha could hear commotion from the hall as people hurried to their council rooms, about to be late to their divisions.

The room silenced the moment the cluster of officials broke and the US head comms representative, Dave Smith, took front stage. The other administrators took seats in chairs facing the rest of the room.

Smith cleared his throat and tapped a mic on his collar to confirm it was working. “Thank you for your haste,” he said. “I am sorry for any worry the announcement may have caused.” He paused, clearly still thinking about what he should say. “We’ve received an update from Earth regarding the mystery radio signal detected a month back and have been presented with a unique opportunity,” he started. “As some of you may know, we detected a steady and consistent radio pulse that was assumed to be some previously undiscovered deep space object. There were some conflicting ideas as to what it could be, as it was unlike other discovered signals from pulsars and similar radio sources. 

“However, just a week ago we found that the signal was actually coming from somewhere much closer than we had expected. It appears to be coming from somewhere in the outer solar system, between the inner Oort cloud and outer Kuiper belt at about 530 AU**. The prevailing theory then became that the signal was coming from Voyager 2, which is currently at a similar distance. Contact was lost with Voyager in the early stages of the Lunar Base program, but there was a possibility that it had received a surge of power and began signaling again. As old as it is, it wasn’t surprising that the signals we’ve been receiving were incomprehensible. 

“Except it’s getting closer. And at a speed much greater than Voyager 2 would have been able to get if it somehow got flung back towards Sol using the gravity of a mysterious Planet X. And this theory has already been pursued quite extensively, despite how unlikely it is, because otherwise the signal has to be coming from something non-humanmade.”

Even as disciplined as all the Lunnies were, having had to train for space living since they could first walk, nothing could have stopped their outburst at the implication of Smith’s words. All this time searching for intelligent life outside Earth and it just shows up in their very own solar system? Ever since the discovery of primal bacteria on Europa, people had been trying harder than ever to find evidence of life around other stars. If it could develop twice in one solar system, it had to exist elsewhere.

And yet, it had been impossible to come up with any concrete evidence. They knew other forms of bacteria had to exist somewhere, but they were impossible to detect if they weren’t prolific enough to substantially affect the atmosphere in a way that could be notable to humans on Earth.

And yet, as astounding as this revelation was, why had they been called here on such short notice? Why did they need to know about it immediately? The room quickly quieted again as everyone came to the same conclusion: there was something more.

Smith glanced at the other US Lunar officials before returning to the small crowd. “You are some of the first people to learn about this,” he said. “The information will be made public to citizens on Earth in about twenty four hours at 16:00 UTC. If any of you have relatives on Earth, please refrain from trying to contact them about this before then. World leaders are taking extra care during this time to decide what exactly should be done so that we have an action plan by the time the public finds out. There is inevitably going to be conspiracy theories and paranoia on Earth, so it is imperative that the information that they receive about this is cohesive and up to date.

“At this point in time, I’m going to hand it over to Dr. Frank to explain what our part in this is going to be,” Smith said, stepping back and taking a seat with the other officials as a dark haired woman stood and took his place.

“Thank you,” she said. Dr. Amanda Frank was different from the other officials. She essentially represented the US government itself while the others represented the different crews and occupations relevant to the ILC, which made her essentially their US-Earth-Moon representative. “That was a perfect overview. If any of you are seeking clarification or more information after this, I suggest contacting the US Radio and Communication leadership. For Smith’s sake, let his assistants and co-leaders explain anything more. He will be busy with what comes next.

“We want to send a response to the unknown radio signal,” she said directly. “The signal has to be short and sweet, and agreed upon by all major Earth powers. That’s where we come in. The ILC is the largest congregation of major international forces. We have some of the best minds in the world as well as political representatives from countries all around the globe. The close relationships between the different nations’ Lunar Colonists means that we are trusted as a collective to adequately represent the human race.

“Work is already being done to understand the URS, but very little can be done while we only have a repeated message. Part of our response signal has to include universal metrics that can serve as a way of communication.”

Dr. Frank stopped in her light pacing and looked at someone sitting with a computer in the front row. She gave a nod and glanced at the cameras in the corners. A moment later, the person with the computer gave a thumbs up and she returned to her talk. “I don’t have very long to say this now. For the next five minutes, the recordings of this meeting will show me explaining to you the ethics of the situation. What I say next must not make it into the knowledge of the other national divisions.

“As of now, we are committed to international cooperation, but if something compromises that, the political situation may turn ugly. To put it bluntly, we’ll need you to act as spies. Those same close relations with other divisions also means that you are all in the unique position to obtain insider information about other countries’ plans. I know this may seem immoral, but as Lunar representatives of the US, your loyalty has to be to your country and your country alone. With as sensitive a matter as this is, we have to be ready to take control in the case that one of the other nations represented here on the Moon attempts to take over communications with the URS and destroys this international effort.”

She glanced at the time. “Regular recording will resume in a minute and then the meeting will end. For now, just continue doing your jobs. In the case that I just mentioned, I will expect any suspicions to be reported directly to me. If I need any of you to look further into… rival matters, I will contact you personally. Otherwise, please continue as you would as though we had not had this… talk.” 

She stopped and walked to a point right in front of the screen, she glanced at who appeared to be controlling the technology, confirming she was in the right spot. They held up a hand, eyes staring intently at the computer. They dropped a hand and Dr. Frank smiled at her audience. “This is an opportunity unlike anything experienced by the human race before. We’ll keep you updated on matters with daily meetings at 8:00. I expect you all to represent your country well during this historical time.”

The meeting then concluded, everyone was sent back to what they had been doing before the impromptu meeting. Agatha tried to get a word in with Josephine, but she was already being whisked off to her job in communications. She would play a vital role in this first response signal.

The observatory was eerily quiet when Agatha reached it. Everyone was turning the instruments back on and reviewing data, but no one was talking. Not even about the news they all must have received. Dubois and the other head astronomers ordered their various crews around in terse monochrome forms, without any of the enthusiasm they usually sported.

It felt odd not to be looking for the object that the radio signals were coming from, but when Agatha brought it up, she was just told that it wasn’t their job. They weren’t allowed to do anything concerning URS until Administration gave them the authority to.

It was clear everyone was anxious and frayed. They were grave as they went about their work, and hardly looked their colleagues in the eyes if they weren’t of the same national division.

Finally Dubois seemed to have enough and called for everyone’s attention. “I know it’s hard to work after the news of these ‘aliens’ headed our way. But there’s nothing we can do at this time. No matter what your officials told you all in your briefings, we are a team and we have a job to do. Understand?” Everyone nodded. “Good. Now get back to work.”

As work resumed, the dynamic shifted. People started talking again and joking again, it was like Dubois’s words had flipped a switch. For someone listening in who didn’t understand Lunar speak, they wouldn’t have heard much worth noting in what Dubois had said. But there was great subtext in her words that only a true Lunnie could understand. A subtext that said: “We don’t know whether this signal is truly intelligent, but even though we’ve all been told to represent our countries well (and perhaps more than just that), we are a family and we’ll always stick together.” And for anyone who knew about the underground revolution, it was a reminder of what they stood for and hoped to achieve.

***

Part 2 will be available in the next posting!

Originally written for the author’s tenth-grade English class ---------