First Contact

Hargo

I squeeze my way through a crowd of people to chase down the National Security Administrator.

As I enter the hallway I see him. He stands with his hands in his pockets listening to another member of Project Wow. He doesn't look amused at all.

As I approach them the member from Project Wow says goodbye and leaves.

The administrator ignores me momentarily and turns to walk away.

I begin to follow him. My short legs strain to keep up.

"Excuse me Sir?" I said.

He continues to walk.

I hold my hand out to gently grab his coat jacket.

"Excuse me Sir." I said again.

This time he turns around with a scowl on his face. His demeanor is intimidating.

"Can I help you?" He says looking down and towering over me.

"Yes. If you have a moment I would like to ask a few questions?" I said hugging my folder to my chest, flashing my pearly whites.

He hesitates for a few seconds before answering. His eyes scope me out from head to toe. His face hardened like an 1800's portrait.

"Walk and talk." He says.

He turns to leave and I follow.

I sift through my folder to find my notes. I pull out a piece of paper and skim through my notes as we walk.

I don't know what I should ask first. I don't want to seem like I care too much about this project but at the same time I want to come off as a serious and qualified contributor. I should have put more thought into this, don't choke...

"You mentioned in the presentation that NSA has been monitoring incoming signals for 3 years since 2012. Why wait till now to assemble a team to investigate? Why not begin it in 2012?"

His strides are getting longer and faster. I have to pick up the pace to keep up with him.

"We needed sufficient time to analyze the data. These signals could easily be confused for earth anomalies." He says without skipping a beat.

"Is it possible that the signal is bouncing off of a satellite?"

"Well it could be possible, that's why you're here."

Quick, I have to think of something else that might throw him off.

"May I request documents from NSA regarding the signals? I would like to compare the narrowband signal to the binary, I think there might be something we are missing ---"

"I'm sorry, your name was?" He asks stopping abruptly in the hallway of NASA headquarters.

"Oh, um... Jeanette Walker, Principal Investigator SETI Institute." I hold out my hand and smile.

He looks over my hand in disgust.

"Ms. Walker, You will not be getting any documents from NSA, all of the data you need is provided for you in your file. Is there anything else I can help you with?" He asks with a smug look on his face.

"Uh, yes actually I would like to know what you're not telling us. If it could benefit the investigation in any way I think you should come forward with whatever information you are harboring."

His eyes narrow.

He doesn't say anything instead, he turns to walk away.

Stubbornly, I follow behind him again.