Contact Us by Al Macy Page B

Cronkite. One of many,” he said. “We tried to control it, but it was a game of whack-a-mole. Shut down one, and another would pop up.”
    “Obviously, Cronkite intended to make them public,” Charli said. “That’s why he chose WikiLeaks.”
    “Right.” McGraw continued. “IBSR is handling the coordination of the scientists around the world, together with the International Association of Engineers.”
    Guccio said, “Hold on. IBSR?”
    McGraw looked at him. “Sorry. That’s the International Board of Scientific Research. The groups are insuring that there isn’t too much duplication of effort around the world. We have plans for over forty devices, and the boards are checking that everyone isn’t making a salad.”
    Everyone looked at him.
    “You know,” McGraw said, “when you go to a potluck, if it isn’t organized, everyone might make a salad, with no one bringing a dessert. The coordination insures that all the plans get looked at.”
    He continued. “So, back to the devices. The thing is, the plans themselves are hard to understand. You might expect each plan to start with some kind of description of what it is. ‘This is a plan for a transporter,’ or ‘This device is a raygun.” That’s not the case. And all the plans are different, like they are from totally different civilizations.” McGraw picked up his tablet to control the wall display.
    “For example, here’s an image from a plan that is clearly a space elevator.” McGraw displayed a view from space of a green planet with a cylinder that extended down to the surface. He pointed. “You can see a gondola here. By the way, this is a photograph of a completed project, not a drawing.” The next slide showed a line-drawing of a small device. “But here’s a plan for something that looks like a TV remote.”
    “What does it do?” asked Hallstrom.
    “No idea. Some plans come with a legend. Some of those legends include the periodic table of the elements. For this one, it’s immediately recognizable.” McGraw displayed the next slide, a chart just like one that might appear on the wall of a chemistry room, except that it was upside down and backwards. None of the symbols were recognizable. “But check out this one.” The next slide showed the elements as a complex spiral with three separate loops.
    McGraw turned off the image. “Because the plans are so different from one another, I’ve concluded that they were collected from a number of different alien civilizations.”
    “I’m missing something here,” Hallstrom said. “I don’t see how we can have enough in common with the designers that we could possibly build these plans.”
    “I understand, and for some devices you’re right, but some plans hold our hands and show us how to get started. Some of the plans are strictly software, by the way. But we’re working our way through them and hope to have some of the easier ones built soon.” McGraw put down his tablet.
    “Hold on.” Young held up a hand. “Isn’t there something we’re forgetting here?”
    Everyone looked at him.
    “Don’t we need to decide whether we’re going to build these or not? I hate to rain on your parade, but I see some negative outcomes here.”
    Guccio was nodding and the president asked, “Such as?”
    “Okay. Let’s say some aliens want to destroy us, but instead of sending troops they just give us these plans and say ‘Greetings Earthlings, here’s a plan for a magic can opener.’ We build it, and it causes a chain reaction that destroys the planet.”
    After a dramatic pause, Young went on. “Or maybe it’s a Trojan horse. We build a transporter and out pour interplanetary warriors.”
    “It’s good that you consider these things, but I have to say that you don’t know what you’re talking about here,” said McGraw.
    “And you do?”
    “These are issues that have been discussed in the SETI field for years. The main problem with your idea is that you don’t see the vast