NASA headquarters: February 11, 2032: 9:15 AM
Commander Benson drives his vehicle into the parking lot of NASA headquarters. The radio in his car is playing Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising while he finds an empty spot to park his vehicle. The song comes to its conclusion before he turns off the ignition key and then proceeds inside the building where he meets up with Lieutenant Commander Bishop.
"Good morning Commander Benson, how are you today?"
"Yes Lieutenant Commander Bishop. I did not sleep too well last night. You know the mission and the recent developments."
"I understand Commander. There has been some interesting debate about that distortion in space behind the moon. How long has it been there now? "
"About two weeks if I'm not mistaken Bishop. There has been some speculation about investigating the distortion more closely when we launch on April 4, and then proceed to Mars after our brief stay over at the ISS. It is an interesting phenomenon that we are all very excited about, and yet it is a little fore boding. We have never encountered anything like this before so we all want to make sure everything is running smoothly when we pass close to the moon on our way to Mars to document it. We will have a better view of the distortion when we get to the ISS. Commander Smyth may have some more detailed information on this phenomenon."
"I agree sir."
Female voice on intercom: "Commander Benson requested to the board room, Commander Benson to the board room."
"Excuse me Lieutenant Commander..." Commander Benson proceeds to the boardroom where he meets the Base of Operations, General Holden. Commander Benson salutes.
"Good morning General, if I may."
"Yes Commander have a seat, we have an interesting development about that distortion behind the moon. There is something very intriguing, something new that you need to know."
"What is it General?"
The General alerts Bensons’ attention to a video monitor on the wall. He clicks the remote that brings up the image of the moon and zooms in to a small object to the far left as it slowly creeps toward the center.
"That’s very interesting General. What is that? It looks like a small asteroid or satellite of some kind, any ideas where it came from?"
3
"At this point in time Commander we have ruled out that it is a spy satellite. All the major powers on Earth deny any responsibility for it by anyone on the planet. It's trajectory around the moon appears to be under some form of propulsion. We have detected traces of an ion trail in its wake that is beyond our technology. We suspect it has something to do with the distortion behind the moon."
"It appears to be collecting data from our own satellites in orbit around Earth. At this point we do not have any idea as to its purpose other than data collection. We are very concerned about the security of the mission. We are keeping up to date with the data the ISS is providing us to augment our resources to this unusual phenomenon."
"What kind of data is the object interested in General? Is there anything specific like for instance, secure information about NASA, NORAD and the Pentagon or any other sensitive material that could compromise the security of our operations or our country?"
"No Commander. The kind of information the object is after has nothing to do with our secured and encrypted information. It is just after general stuff like our history, the environment, even the plant and animal life on our planet. None of the information it appears to be after classified in any way. It is just general information regarding our planets history and resources."
"Well General my question is, are we going to proceed with the fly by around the moon to investigate this on our way to Mars after we refuel at the International Space Station?"
"Very good question Commander, it does not appear to be proving any kind of a threat but this does however raise some serious questions about our present plans. We would not want this latest mission to Mars come to any kind of danger or security threat. What is especially concerning is its identity. We have reason to believe... it is of alien origin."
"Alien! This is astounding! The object must have something to do with the distortion. Do you believe that they have any reason to contact us? We are obviously under some kind of covert surveillance. Maybe they want to know more about us before they make first contact. For instance like some form of prime directive?"
"It's possible Commander but we do not have enough data to determine its intent. Friend or foe it remains to be in question. There has not been any indication on being hostile. This is however the biggest event since the Roswell affair. The distortion in space could be a rift, a wormhole from some other origin in the universe or an alternate universe. It could also be a quantum singularity. The possibilities are endless. Until any further developments take place we are going to proceed with the launch as planned. Until then we may have more information on this until the launch takes place. We get periodic updates from SETI, ISS and the Hubble images."
"I agree General. This just makes it all that more intriguing though. I am to assume that this will be treated as top secret?"
4
"Yes Commander. As far as anyone else knows you and me, Area 51, the ISS and a small handful of other people are the only ones that know about this. Area 51 contacted me since it is of alien origin and I await orders from the president as to how this is going to be treated. Even the sources from some of this data do not even know. You must not speak of this to your wife Wendy or your family. As far as anyone knows this Mars mission is what it is."
"Yes, of course sir." Commander Benson arises, salutes the General and leaves the room.
Area 51: February 12, 2032: 8:22 AM
All eyes focus on the strange object orbiting the moon. The mood is tense but order is the normal protocol as the base personnel are doing their assigned tasks to collect whatever additional data is evident. The national threat level rises to orange. There is special interest in the ion trail it leaves in its wake. There has been no transmission from the object of any kind in spite of the universal friendship messages transmitted. It appears to be in listening mode only.
"Commander Taylor, have any more attempts of contacting the object through universal means been successful yet?"
"Not yet Lieutenant, the ISS did not have any luck with their attempts to contact them either but we have discovered what the satellite is genuinely interested in, look at this."
They gaze at a screen from a terminal logged in to one of the informational satellites orbiting Earth engaged by the object.
"Why would it be interested in the human anatomy?" said the Lieutenant. "It is collecting information on our physical make up, our nutritional requirements, respiration, the composition of our atmosphere, oxygen/nitrogen, how the environment supports and sustains us as well as the other flora and fauna on our planet. It seems particularly interested in the human DNA makeup, very specific. What does this mean Commander?"
"We can only think that they want to know more about us, if our world is compatible for them. This can only mean one thing and we have to assume the worst. This looks like a prelude to an invasion! Who knows what they are going to do with this data but what is even more disturbing is why they wanted to know about our physiology at the DNA level."
"For all we know they could be using this information to find out our weaknesses or to create a virus that could exterminate us like rats. We can only assume that to them we are the infestation and they want to eliminate the problem. We are that problem."