ST Bycroft

Response to SETI By ST Bycroft

"They are an unusual species", Uglind said.

"Who... humans?" Glane responded from across the counter. He stuck his tentacle deep into the bowl of his midday meal of pouroag as he swung his eyes in Uglind direction.

"Of course humans'... what other species is there except us." Uglind said. Staring at his meal.

Sucking up a big gulp of pouroag Glane said "Weird I'd say, just look at the images of them, tall lanky things."

Eagerly Uglind said, "I'm not talking about their images. Being a chemist you should know that beings from another plant would appear different. I mean the behavior, their society."

Closing his top eye halfway, Glane sarcastically answered "Yes I know, but being a behaviorist you should know that beings from another planet would act weird! Yes?"

Smiling Uglind said "Yes, yes I know, but to have different language communication by region is still very strange."

"As I said weird." After finishing his meal and wiping his tentacle clean, Glane continued "But, it has been less than a rotation since we deciphered some of their broadcasts. And only a little over two rotations since ROILS has collected any of their broadcasts. And with all the different types of communication it makes it very difficult to understand anything from them. But given some time and a lot of research it will make more sense. Yes?"

"Yes, I suppose so." Uglind said.

The warning light flashed signaling the end of midday. Uglind and Glane both moved away from the counter and left the meal room leaving their bowls for the attendant.

On his way back to his work area Uglind thought about ROILS. It had been over Seventy rotations since the Receiver Of Intelligent Life Signals was constructed. He was just an apprentice then, but recalls the fanfare of the project announcement. Onsor, one of the council leaders had said 'the search for extraterrestrial intelligence would be one of the greatest endeavors of the Gulsnar...' and he was right, but who imagined that it would take so long.

Rotation after rotation, ROILS scanned the other stars but no signal was received other than natural star and space noise. Then one period ROILS detected a weak signal, a broadcast from another planet! All of Gulsnar celebrated, life had been found! No not just life, that was nothing new. Life have been found on other planets in Gulsnar's planetary group many rotations ago. This was intelligent life from another planetary group!

The call had gone out to all Gulsnars to research the signals. Uglind had been one of the first to volunteer and had been assigned to the behavior analyst area group. It was slow work at first, many period groups had gone by, but then we began to understand some of their communications. "Why so many different audio communications?" Uglind wondered aloud.

Once we started to decipher some of the communication, our understanding had moved much faster. But the broadcast signals were still strange and confusing. The current event or NEWS(?) broadcasts seems to make some sense, but most of the broadcasts were just bizarre. They did not appear to be based on real events. Not like the historical productions at our amphitheaters. No, these broadcast seemed to be fake stories. Why would they broadcast fake stories? It must have something to do with their term recreation. I wish we could get a better understanding of the term. Strange, Uglind thought.

Uglind arrived at his work area and moved past the cubicals until he arrived at his and then slid into his holder.

"Uglind, Sock-it to me" Karner the area's errand worker said waving his eye's at Uglind as he passed. It had been an amusement of the others in Uglind's area to say that for the past couple of period groups. Ever sense Uglind had monitored a very strange broadcast that had repeated that term over and over. He had spent many periods trying to find it's meaning before turning to other broadcasts without finding a resolution.

Uglind's associate, Bogel, just shook his eyes and tentacle at Karner, he knew how odd and confusing some of the broadcast were.

Uglind nodded his eye's at Bogel then turned to his monitor. He was not monitoring any fake broadcasts now just the current events. That is where the real comprehension is coming from now he thought.

The broadcast was about a conflict in a region called Africa. Uglind was amazed that so many humans were involved in a single act of violence. On Gulsnar, violence was usually by an individual only.

Uglind turned his eye's to Bogel and said "These humans are very peculiar even their violence is on a grand scale"

"I know, and that's not all, I viewed a broadcast about a historical ruler of theirs that when he cease to exist they put his remains in a giant stone structure call a pyramid. It took thousands of workers and years to create and it was almost as big as this research structure." Bogel said.

Uglind rolled his eyes in confusion and said "Why? Were his remains so contaminated that he had to be covered with so much rock?"

"No, I do not think so, but I have no idea why. It is astounding, yes?" Bogel responded.

"Yes it is." Uglind agreed.

Uglind returned his attention to the monitor. The images had changed to another part of the Africa region. The translating device on the monitor said that a weather problem in the region had dried up water and destroyed all the material to produce meals and the humans were starving. Uglind shook his eyes and tentacle and thought, if we could only send them a signal we might be able to help these humans with our technology.

Then, almost as if the broadcast had read Uglind's mind the translator was saying that one of the space exploration organizations was developing a project to search for life on other planets. Uglind observed with wrapped attention, all of his eyes wide open.

"Bogel, Bogel!" Uglind cried.

Bogel, hearing his associate's excited call swung his holder around and replied "Yes, what is all the excess energy about."

"Bogel, the humans are creating a project like ROILS!" Uglind said.

"What?" Bogel said sliding up and out of his holder and coming over to Uglind's cubical. "It must be a error in the translator or one the fake broadcast."

"No!" Uglind replied "It is one of their NEWS broadcasts and they are calling it SETI - search for extraterrestrial intelligence."

All of Bogel's eyes opened wide and his tentacles went limp.

Excitedly they both viewed the broadcast again.

After viewing the broadcast several more times, Bogel said "we must contact the council immediately."

"Yes, we must contact Onsor, and we should do a search of all references to SETI in the broadcast files." responded Uglind.

When the information spread about SETI all of Gulsnar celebrated. The excitement was almost as great as when the first signal was received from the humans. It was realized that Gulsnar would be able to communicate with species from another planetary group.

For the first few periods there was nothing but celebration and speeches from the council leaders. Onsor took the lead in the festivities and his popularity increased dramatically at this time. For he called on Gulsnar to construct a transmitter to contact SETI, GRSETI - Gulsnar's Response to SETI. GRSETI in conjunction with ROILS would make the Gulsnars a inter-planet group species able to communicate with other planet groups. He called on the Gulsnar to send the first signal to SETI within two rotation periods. This was not much time for there were many things to do besides the construction of the transmitter. But all of Gulsnar was behind the project so finally the celebrations eased and the Gulsnars settled down to the business at hand.

The first task was to research the broadcasts for information about SETI. This slowed down the work on the general broadcasts but it was necessary to meet the time frame specified. There were many references to SETI but most were short and of a confusing nature or were not clearly translated. There was even less information of a technical type. SETI seemed to be searching randomly but if GRSETI broadcast on many different levels one of them should be received and the communication would be started.

The next major step was the communication itself. What should the first signal be composed of. The debate was long and heated. Most of the population wanted to send a signal that contained images of the planet Gulsnar, population centers and the Gulsnar beings themselves. The council leaders wanted to send a diplomatic signal inviting the humans to the great event of the new communication between our species. Whereas, the technical areas wanted to send a signal that was purely scientific in nature. They stated that this was important so that the humans would recognize the signal as generated by an intelligence and not just a random space signal. They also said that it was critical that Gulsnar's space coordinates and broadcast signal levels were sent to and understood by the humans so that they would know how and where to communicate with us.

In typical Gulsnar fashion, the final version of the first signal to be broadcast incorporated parts from each major viewpoint. Although the signal was weighted on the side of the technical area. The signal started with a simple on/off listing of the first group of pure numbers One, Two, Three, Five, Seven, Eleven. This part of the signal was repeated one group of times. Then technical information about broadcast levels and coordinates was sent. Finally Onsor's message and the images of Gulsnar where combined into a short but meaningful visual display.

Almost two rotation periods later, as Uglind headed toward his work area he thought back, it had been a long time since the discovery of SETI, The first transmission from GRSETI was finally sent just nine periods ago. It would take over ten rotation periods before the signal would reach the human's planetary group. And if the humans received, understood and responded to the signal immediately, it would be another ten rotations before we would get the first response to GRSETI. But time did not matter, there was always time and there was plenty to do just to monitor the broadcasts we had on file. It was good to finally get back to some orderly work.

Bogel was already at work intently viewing some broadcasts on his monitor when Uglied slid into his cubical holder. Uglied was going to view some the fake broadcasts hoping that a fresh start would help him understand these strange signals.

"Uglind, come to my cubical" Bogel called, "something has happen to SETI!"

Uglind slid out of his holder and moved quickly over to Bogel's cubical. "What has happened?" he asked.

Bogel looked at Uglind with confusion in his eye's and his tentacle shivering said "I was monitoring a NEWS broadcast, and the translator said that SETI has been devastated by something called a budget cut."

"Budget cut... What is a budget cut, some sort of asteroid?" Uglind asked.

"It could be... but I do not think so. It seem as if the humans just do not want to continue with the SETI project. As if it is not important enough." Bogel said shaking his eyes.

They both view the broadcast again. Then Uglind said "SETI has not been destroyed, they are only making it a much smaller effort. Our signal might still be received, it may just take more time."

Bogel with his eyes and tentacle drooping said "But why? Why would they start a great project and then stop halfway, strange."

"I do not know," Uglind responded "I just do not know... but Glane was right. These humans are weird, very weird."

Copyright (c)  ST Bycroft  2023