Madeleine Browne smoothed out the freshly-printed press-package on her desk.
"And how did you get my direct number?"
She was just finishing the press conference announcement for the SETI website when the phone had rung.
NASA.
Specifically someone named Julie Shin at the National Astrobiology Institute. Somehow she had caught wind of the goings on in Puerto Rico before the press. She knew someone in Heliophysics at Goddard who knew somebody on something called RAGSS at Arecibo who knew somebody working for SETI there... probably this intern, Daisy Tobin. Word gets around. Someone in the NAI Press Office had had dealings with her, and he gave her the number. Matt Brinker, probably - he was the SETI attaché to the NAI.
This would be the first of many calls - and they'd get increasingly impolite as the story gained traction. Maddy had been a press officer for a dozen different non-profits, each more "fringe" than the last, and she'd been through this circus too many times to count. Luckily this was just a personal-interest call.
"The watch-word is patience and restraint. We need to confirm this with as many different instruments as possible, and then set about analysing the signal to confirm artificiality."
The same note of caution was re-stated the next day in front of a roomful of gathered journos - from science magazines, websites, a few newspaper sci correspondents, two TV news stations, and as many wing-nut conspiracy sites as you could shake a stick at. Not a great showing for what could-be-but-likely-wasn't the Greatest Discovery In The History Of HumankindTM, but a respectably full room, given the short notice.
"SETI's Allen Telescope Array in California is currently undergoing an upgrade, but has been partially brought back online to provide more detailed analysis of the signal." She gulped. "NASA have - incredibly generously - offered to attempt to detect the signal with a number of their outer-Solar-System assets, namely New Horizons and the Voyagers. We cannot express our gratitude enough, as this will help to pin down the distance to the signal source via triangulation."
"So, to reiterate: The signal has been constantly transmitting on a tight-band frequency for at least the last 3 days. The signal strength is pulsing in a mathematically complex pattern that is unlikely to be naturally-ocurring. All man-made sources have been effectively ruled out. We're keeping the location of the source on the sky on a need-to-know basis for now, but that will change - SETI has always valued the contribution of citizen scientists."
Maddy gripped the sides of the podium and straightened up.
"Any questions?"
BOOM.
"And how did you get my direct number?"
She was just finishing the press conference announcement for the SETI website when the phone had rung.
NASA.
Specifically someone named Julie Shin at the National Astrobiology Institute. Somehow she had caught wind of the goings on in Puerto Rico before the press. She knew someone in Heliophysics at Goddard who knew somebody on something called RAGSS at Arecibo who knew somebody working for SETI there... probably this intern, Daisy Tobin. Word gets around. Someone in the NAI Press Office had had dealings with her, and he gave her the number. Matt Brinker, probably - he was the SETI attaché to the NAI.
This would be the first of many calls - and they'd get increasingly impolite as the story gained traction. Maddy had been a press officer for a dozen different non-profits, each more "fringe" than the last, and she'd been through this circus too many times to count. Luckily this was just a personal-interest call.
"The watch-word is patience and restraint. We need to confirm this with as many different instruments as possible, and then set about analysing the signal to confirm artificiality."
The same note of caution was re-stated the next day in front of a roomful of gathered journos - from science magazines, websites, a few newspaper sci correspondents, two TV news stations, and as many wing-nut conspiracy sites as you could shake a stick at. Not a great showing for what could-be-but-likely-wasn't the Greatest Discovery In The History Of HumankindTM, but a respectably full room, given the short notice.
"SETI's Allen Telescope Array in California is currently undergoing an upgrade, but has been partially brought back online to provide more detailed analysis of the signal." She gulped. "NASA have - incredibly generously - offered to attempt to detect the signal with a number of their outer-Solar-System assets, namely New Horizons and the Voyagers. We cannot express our gratitude enough, as this will help to pin down the distance to the signal source via triangulation."
"So, to reiterate: The signal has been constantly transmitting on a tight-band frequency for at least the last 3 days. The signal strength is pulsing in a mathematically complex pattern that is unlikely to be naturally-ocurring. All man-made sources have been effectively ruled out. We're keeping the location of the source on the sky on a need-to-know basis for now, but that will change - SETI has always valued the contribution of citizen scientists."
Maddy gripped the sides of the podium and straightened up.
"Any questions?"
BOOM.
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