Mayday!

Mayday!  (E) A December 2016 Entry for Pesky Prompts #2105334 by Chris Breva

Dr. Francis sat in his office at a research lab for S. E, T. I. (the office commonly known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Like many of his colleagues he truly believed that intelligent life existed on other planets. He was intent on making contact. There had of course been numerous attempts to cut funding for the program. He had to be creative in coming up with new ways to convince the powers that be that S.E.T.I. was a viable program and not a monumental waste of government money. This day he would have a way to do so.

It was around noon when the event occurred. A technician came rushing into his office. "Sir" the technician gasped, "you have to come listen to this."

"What is it", Dr. Francis asked.

"It's a mayday sir" the technician answered.

"Why would I want to hear a mayday" Dr. Francis asked. "Report it to the proper authorities!"

"Sir you don't understand" the technician replied, "the mayday is coming from just beyond the moon!"

Dr. Francis was ecstatic at this revelation. He was certain there was nothing man made any where near the moon. If a mayday was coming from there it had to be extraterrestrial.

"Have you confirmed your findings" he asked the technician.

"Yes" the technician answered. "And sir, the mayday wasn't in any strange language as we originally suspected. It was in clear English on a standard frequency. At first I thought it was a hoax of some kind, but readings indicate that it's authentic and originating between the moon and the asteroid belt."

"Let me hear the message", Dr. Francis replied.

The technician toggled a switch and a recorded message began playing. "Mayday! This is Gorgon of the planet Zuri Alpha attempting to contact the inhabitants of Earth. Your attempts to search for intelligent life on other planets have been successful. However the equipment your are using is wreaking havoc with my guidance systems and on board computers. I am in great danger. I have come as an ambassador of my planet to seek a peaceful relationship with your race. Please disengage your radio telescopes. I repeat mayday! Mayday!"

"Disengage all of out search equipment" Dr. Francis ordered. "Contact NASA and brief them on the situation. As much as I hate to, you should probably contact the Pentagon as well. Advise them that we have made contact with an extraterrestrial spacecraft en route to Earth carrying an ambassador on a peace mission. Advise them that our equipment may disrupt any peaceful relations before they begin and we are attempting to disengage our equipment. And send one last message into space. Tell Gorgon we understand and are shutting down our network. Shut down will however take some time."

"Yes sir" the technician answered and began scurrying about to comply.

Gorgon sat in the cockpit of his ship waiting to see if the Earthlings would comply. He checked his onboard computers and held his breath for the sensors to indicate that his ship wasn't being probed. His planet's intelligence agency had indicated that Earth did not have the technology to probe the inside of his ship. However he was unwilling to take chances. After all it was essential that earth shut down their probes before his invasion force was detected.

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