Read Online Contact Us by Al Macy - Free Book Online

with a probe or a drone.”
    “I guess it’s hard to imagine a computer ranting about relative merits of advice from Glinda the good witch.” Young took a sip of coffee.
    “Exactly,” Guccio said. “The image I’m getting now is some fat alien lounging in a spherical spaceship, drinking a beer, watching The Wizard of Oz on TV, and yelling obscenities at the screen. I think I’d prefer a computer.”
    “Seth,” Hallstrom said, “what about the image of Walter Cronkite? What’s that all about?”
    “First, it shows that the alien has access to our old TV broadcasts. Either his civilization collected them as they leaked out into space, or he’s accessed our archives somehow. The former suggests they’ve been watching us for a while.”
    “What about seeing Walter Cronkite talking instead of some alien creature?” The president checked off something on his pad.
    “That’s an easier one.” McGraw put his pencil down. “We have apps that can create a realistic cartoon and animate it to say or do whatever we enter. With a much more advanced version of that, Cronkite’s broadcast would not be hard to create. That is, just animate a cartoon of Walter Cronkite and add in the words.”
    Charli said, “Psychologically, maybe he figured it would be traumatic enough for us to get a broadcast from an alien, and by choosing a human form to display, the broadcast would be less shocking.”
    “And he was so careful to speak calmly and not to say anything upsetting.” Young was drawing spacecrafts on his pad.
    “Good point. Maybe he had good intentions but got carried away.” Charli looked around the room. “Which brings us to the most important question—”
    “Is he crazy?” Hallstrom finished her thought.
    “Exactly,” Charli said. “My feeling is that he’s impetuous, impulsive, and … fervid, but hopefully, not crazy.”
    “There she goes with those fancy prep school words again.” Guccio made Stevie Wonder motions with his head.
    “Should we bring in some psychologists?” asked the president.
    “Find some that have worked closely with extraterrestrials.” Young looked up. “Oh, wait a second …”
    “Again, good point, but it wouldn’t hurt to get some opinions from experts on earth-man psychology. I’ll set that up,” Charli said.
    Charli had never intended to get into politics. She had an aptitude for science and math from an early age, skipped two grades, and entered MIT at the age of fifteen. She graduated three years later with a minor in political science. That’s impressive unless compared with Alia Sabur, who went directly from fourth grade to college and graduated suma cum laude at age fourteen.
    Charli caught the attention of a state senator at a Massachusetts science and government event. The senator convinced Charli to become a political intern, and she later ended up working on one of Hallstrom’s campaigns.
    “Is there anyone here who believes that Cronkite is on our side?” The president looked around the room but didn’t see any definitive gestures. “Anyone believe the bad witch is coming?”
    Charli shook her head. “I just don’t feel we have enough to go on. Even if his presentation hadn’t been over the top, I’d be skeptical. But there is something I’m pretty sure of.” She paused. “If Cronkite has the technology to wipe us out, and I suspect he does, the continued existence of the human race may depend on how we interact with him.”
    The president cleared his throat. “Maddix, what about international coordination?”
    Young nodded. “Well, the UN is handling that, but they’ve been pretty slow off the blocks. Some countries are already annoyed that Cronkite chose to visit us only, and hasn’t stopped at other places around the world. Hopefully, the UN will have its act together by the time we need to respond to this event.”
    When the meeting broke up, Hallstrom asked Charli about the Jake situation.
    “I’m going to call him tomorrow,” she