[stylist] {Spam?} "Space Friends Indeed," Chapter 1b, 736 words

[John J. Boyer]

Many thanks to those who wrote critiques of the first part of Chapter 1. 
Here is the second part. Things really begin to happen. The first part 
was mostly background.

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The temperature outside was a brisk minus 10 degrees Celsius. The sky was clear. The moon was near its first quarter. It and the stars gave enough light to see
   one's way about. Thankfully, conservation measures which were part of the effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions had decreased light pollution to the point
   where it would not interfere with his observations. The silence was so deep that he could hear the occasional soft hum of an antenna rotator.

   He went to the telescope and uncovered it. Where should he look? Maybe he would see a new variable star in that relatively empty piece of sky. The American
   Association of Variable Star Observers would be pleased. There were a few stars scattered about, barely twinkling in the dry, still air. But what was this? One
   star was twinkling in a peculiar manner. As he gazed at it, letters and words began forming themselves in his mind. It was sending Morse code! Something about
   greetings. And it's color was peculiar also, green. Was it a laser? How could someone pull off a prank like that? The code paused, and he could see a tiny, faint
   disk. A planet? But it was where no planet should be. Was it just in the same line of sight as the laser? The code resumed.

   Anne's voice broke into his thoughts. "Dad! Dad! the ham bands are full of talk about a funny signal on 6 meters. Somebody is sending CW and saying that they are
   aboard a spaceship as big as the earth. I can hear it too!"

   He took his eye from the scope and glanced up at his 6-meter beam. It was pointed in the same direction as the instrument. Then he looked at Anne. She had rushed
   out of the house without her coat and was already beginning to shiver. He took her hand and said "Come on, Honey. Let's get inside!"

   In the radio room the dots and dashes were pouring from the speaker at about ten words per minute. The signal strength was S7, well above the noise level. Prank
   or no prank, he wanted a recording. He set up a file and started the decoder. Letters began to crawl across the computer screen. He texted Kathy, asking her to
   join them. As an astrobiologist she would at least enjoy the joke. She came carrying Jenny, whom she was nursing. Taking a seat, she listened to his description
   of his observations and looked at the computer screen.

   Anne had been listening also. Now she went to her own station and began chatting excitedly with her over-the-air friends. Not everyone could receive the 6-meter
   signal, but anyone who knew Morse code and had a good pair of binoculars could read the "spaceship's" laser transmissions.

   They seemed to be in a number of languages. Some were indecipherable. One was Spanish. Another Kathy identified as Arabic. As an amateur archaelogist she had
   spent some time in the Middle East and Egypt.

   The English message was straightforward: "Greetings peoples of Earth, we have been asked to come to your aid at this crisis in your civilization. We inhabit a
   spaceship as big as your own planet and have solved many of the problems confronting you."

   The signal was growing weaker. David wondered why. Perhaps there was some sort of atmospheric disturbance. But the decrease was smooth, not fluttery. It looked
   as though the signal was drifting off the antenna's sweet spot. An idea struck him. He got to his feet and reached for his coat.

   "Where are you going Davy?" asked Kathy.

   "I want to have another look through the scope."

   He had to adjust the telescope to get the star back into the field of view, but the adjustment was in the direction he suspected. There it was, a tiny disk
   flashing green Morse code. He texted Anne and asked her to rotate the antenna for maximum signal strength. Looking up, he saw it swing from side to side,
   wriggle, then settle on the new direction in which the telescope was pointing.

   Back in the radio room he said: "Well, Kathy, maybe this is what our premonitions were about. Whatever that thing is, it's not turning with the earth. The
   telescope and the antenna both had to be moved to compensate for the Earth's rotation. So it's not terrestrial. It hasn't moved against the background stars, so
   it's not in close earth orbit. If the little disk I see is really the size of the Earth it's in the outer reaches of the solar system."

-- 
John J. Boyer, Executive Director,
GodTouches Digital Ministry, Inc.
Email: john at godtouches.org
Website: http://www.godtouches.org
Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Mission: To promote universalPeace, Love and Service