Contact across the Solar System

Invitation to Visit

As the conversation continued, some people started grumbling that they'd want more evidence of the SSC than a hit-and-run contact and transmissions from the Moon. The grumblers were joined by some important politicians in the United States and elsewhere, something that was potentially serious for the contact effort.

Arranging for more concrete evidence could be difficult over an open channel, and Sheila McKenna proposed starting encrypted communications. That caused a lot of controversy, even within the Message Committee itself. It seemed to many people that the MC and its supporters were going back on their commitment to openness, but then again, lots of diplomatically sensitive matters have to be kept secret.

Sheila then had another problem. She knew that encryption depends on using some encryption key, but she thought that either her or her SSC counterparts would have to send over the encryption key that they would be using, and some eavesdropper could then pick it up and read their messages. One of the other MC members vaguely recalled that there was a way to get around that difficulty, and he researched the issue. He came back with a solution, the "Diffie-Hellman protocol", some commonly-used cryptographic trickery with encryption keys. He explained it to Sheila and the other MC members, and they agreed in principle. They then sent a message to the SSC about it.

When the Gang received it, Firkon decided to handle this issue, since he'd been involved with some of the comm links that they were using. He asked some people with some knowledge about comm systems and cryptography, and they also agreed that it was a good plan. They could even run Earther software, to avoid having to write a version themselves. Firkon then explained this protocol to Orthon and the rest, and they agreed. After consulting with some politicians about it, they sent back their agreement.

When Sheila got it, she and the other MC members got to work on deciding who gets to see their secret messages, and they decided to include their patrons and associates with appropriate security clearances.

Once the MC got the go-ahead from its patrons, the MC and its SSC counterparts set up their encryption software and exchanged test messages.

While all this was happening, the anti-espionagers were getting very annoyed that the MC was not making SSC espionage its top priority. The MC only addressed the issue in a perfunctory manner, and continued to ignore it, at least in the anti-espionagers' minds.

Likewise, anti-contacters followed the anti-espionagers from residents' reports. Some anti-contacters thought that the anti-espionagers have a valid concern ("Nobody likes being spied on"), while Kudelimi and some others thought that they don't have anything to complain about with the way that many Earthers behave. Kudelimi also rather grudgingly praised Orthon for being very restrained in his current contact effort.

The MC did have something pleasant to report around then, however. An anthropologist in it assessed how the contact effort was going, and he said that it was exemplary. The SSC revealed itself to us and let us decide what to do next. Sheila sent his comments off to the Gang, and Orthon quickly responded, saying that the Earth Contact Committee is very flattered by this evaluation. He also asked if there was anything that they could do better.

Something better was already being discussed by the MC and various important officials in various places. It was to send some Earth people on a tour of the SSC worlds. The Gang liked the idea, but responded that for a first time, it ought to be kept simple. After a lot of wrangling on the Earth and on the worlds, they all decided on invite only a few people on a tour and to only a few worlds. If something goes wrong, then it won't be a big loss. Then how to select the people who would go. Politicians who were big supporters? Since they are in command of their nations' military forces and intelligence agencies, that should help enforce safe passage for the SSC's vehicles.