Contact

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

March 21st 2157

            Jake had managed a quick cleaning and change before meeting the others in the lab.  By his estimations there was maybe two minutes before they would receive the message.

            Mathews was at his workstation typing away like always.  Salim stood over his shoulder giving advice where he saw fit.  Mel was sitting at Jake’s workstation, not doing anything but staring off into space.  Luca and Sam were still hovering around the cube.  Jafta was no were to be seen.

            Jake wasn’t sure what to do, so he simply moved behind Salim at Mathews.  The workstation beeped and Mathews pressed more buttons.  “Hey everyone, the message is coming in.”

            Everyone in the room began to migrate toward Mathew’s station.  Some quicker than others, Mel hug back not wanting to be in the front of the group.  Jake thought that he now understood her state of mind, if only a little more than before.

            The hatch that Jake had entered through just moments before opened and Jafta floated in.  He made his way beside Mel and the group was assembled.

            Mathews brought up the full holo on the wall.  It was filled with static for a few moments and then was replaced by Doctor Reed.  Like before the image was frozen for a moment before it began to play.  The only difference from the last message was the look on Doctor Reeds face.

            His usually handsome face was clouded with a frown and a look of disappointment or concern.  “Thank you for your excellent work and for the questions that you raised.”  There was a pause as he organized his words.  “Let me first start with the last question that was asked of me.  Mr. Muntaris, I fully understand your request to return to your family, and we will do everything that we can to reunite you with your family.  However it will be some time before we can return you to earth.”

            Jafta visibly tensed up as if he were ready to fight Doctor Reed right there on the spot.  Doctor Reed continued,” and this leads me into the next question.  Mr. Lund, I am going to ask that you and everyone on the station not send any messages to your family friends, or the media.  The company wishes to release these revelations in a controlled manner, which I hope you can all understand.”

            “It seams that we have stumbled upon the next stage in the history of man kind.  I am not going to speculate all of the possibilities for what this means.  Let me start with the simple things.  I have read the theories that were sent to me by your team.  At the very least this means that we now know that there is much more to our universe than we knew.”

“If this is future human tech, then we are about to unlock a vast amount of knowledge that will catapult our knowledge years into the future.  If this is indeed alien made, well than this means something all together different.”

“If this is the case, then… well we find ourselves with the first contact from an alien species.  My advisors have informed me that if this is alien in origin, then it is at least hundred of thousands of years old.  And it is quite possible that this alien race hid this cube much like a time capsule.  I would like your team to prepare the station to go into hibernation mode.  Pack anything that you may need including the cube and take the shuttle to the Mars Orbital Station.”

“At the Mars Orbital Station you will meet up with an escort that will take you all to the Callisto Research Station of Jupiter.  To answer Mr. Massri’s question, everyone who wishes to be part of the research team may continue to do so.  Anyone who would like to continue working on the Near Asteroid Station Four can continue to do that.  And anyone who wishes to return home to earth, then we can help out with that as well.”