Contact - Carl Sagan [31]
Ellie paused in the doorway of the control room-they called it that with conscious irony, because it was the computers, in another room, that by and large did the controlling-to admire the small group of scientists who were talking with great animation, scrutinizing the data being displayed, and engaging in mild badinage on the nature of the signal. These were not stylish people, she thought. They were not conventionally good-looking. But there was something unmistakably attractive about them. They were excellent at what they did and, especially in the discovery process, were utterly absorbed in their work. As she approached, they fell silent and looked at her expectantly. The numerals were now being converted automatically from base 2 to base 10… 881, 883, 887, 907… each one confirmed as a prime number.
"Willie, get me a world map. And please get me Mark Auerbach in Cambridge, Mass. He'll probably be at home. Give him this message for an IAU telegram to all observatories, but especially to all large radio observatories. And see if he'll check our telephone number for the Beijing Radio Observatory. Then get me the President's Science Adviser."
"You're going to bypass the National Science Foundation?"
"After Auerbach, get me the President's Science Adviser.'
In her mind she thought she could hear one joyous shout amidst a clamor of other voices.
* * *
By bicycle, small truck, perambulatory mailman, or telephone, the single paragraph was delivered to astronomical centers all over the world. In a few major radio observatories-in China, India, the Soviet Union, and Holland, for example-the message was delivered by teletype. As it chattered in, it was scanned by a security officer or some passing astronomer, torn off, and with a look of some curiosity carried into an adjacent office. It read:
ANOMALOUS INTERMITTENT RADIO SOURCE AT RIGHT ASCENSION 18h 34M, DECLINATION PLUS 38 DEGREES 41 MINUTES, DISCOVERED BY ARGUS SYSTEMATIC SKY SURVEY. FREQUENCY 9.24176684 GIGAHERTZ, BANDPASS APPROXIMATELY 430 HERTZ. BIMODAL AMPLITUDES APPROXIMATELY 174 AND 179 JANSKYS. EVIDENCE AMPLITUDES ENCODE SEQUENCE OF PRIME NUMBERS. FULL LONGITUDE COVERAGE URGENTLY NEEDED. PLEASE CALL COLLECT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION IN COORDINATING OBSERVATIONS. E. ARROWAY, DIRECTOR, PROJECT ARGUS, SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A.
CHAPTER 5
Decryption Algorithm
Oh, speak again, bright angel…
-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
The visiting scientists' quarters were now all occupied, indeed overcrowded, by selected luminaries of the SETI community. When the official delegations began arriving from Washington, they found no suitable accommodations at the Argus site and had to be billeted at motels in nearby Socorro. Kenneth der Heer, the President's Science Adviser, was the only exception. He had arrived the day after the discovery, in response to an urgent call from Eleanor Arroway. Officials from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Defense, the President's Science Advisory Committee, the National Security Council, and the National Security Agency trickled in during the next few days. There were a few government employees whose precise institutional affiliations remained obscure.
The previous evening, some of them stood at the base of Telescope 101 and had Vega pointed out to them for the first time. Obligingly, its blue-white light flickered prettily.
"I mean, I've seen it before, but I never knew what it was called," one of them remarked. Vega appeared brighter than the other stars in the sky, but in no other way noteworthy. It was merely one of the few thousand naked-eye stars.
The scientists were running a continuous research seminar on the nature, origin, and possible significance of the radio pulses. The project's public affairs office-larger than in most observatories because of widespread interest in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence-was assigned the task of filling in the lower-ranking officials. Every new arrival required an extensive personal briefing.