Alien Explorers

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The SETI Observatory recorded a set of pings on the afternoon of November 16th. The data was displayed as a very consistant stream of numbers:

0004100916371019
1579103316091669
1039106916071049
1663103110611567
1051160117331103
1553187918471283

Scientists poured over reams of paper hoping for a clue about what it might mean. This was the greatest discovery since the WOW! Signal, though they were still praying for evidence that aliens had willfully attempted to communicate with the human race.

***

"This is a frustrating star system," said Polino as his ship passed unnotice above the human's detection sensors.

Miqaki said, "This primative technology perplexes me."

The pair hailed from Ersik, the second planet from Epsilon Eridani. Neither the Ersikans, nor their technology was visible in the spectrum of light humans could identify. They were on a poaching mission. They goal was simple: to find a planet to inhabit that would replace Ersik. Scientists had identified the planets around the Sol system as prime candidates, but so far none had met their key requirement: a life sustaining sulfur environment.

As they cruised over the Arizona desert, their sensors took a few readings and they frowned. They'd already inspected Jupiter and Saturn without luck. Those locations had appealing chemical makeup, but weren't telluric planets. Mars, with it's extremely thin CO2-base atmosphere, didn't do them any good either.

"How can these beings survive with this Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere?" asked Miqaki. He studied the telescreen with the readings from the atmosphere sensor. It seems like this entire star system has been nothing but a waste of our time." But, just then the cloaked ship passed over Northwestern South Dakota and the sensor data spiked. "Polino, look here. We're getting a reading!"

Polino steered the ship to land near a stagnant lake where the strongest readings were coming from. He saw several humans gazing at it, periodically flashing it with a strobe of light from some kind of hand-held device. "This part contains precious sulfur," he observed. "But it's not nearly abundant enough for survival."

"Shall we turn back?" asked Miqaki. "We should just turn around, go home, and report our failure. Our scientists were wrong to send us here. This system has nothing for us."

"You're right," sighed Polino. "This whole trip has been a waste."

Original photograph by Randy Montoya of Sandia National Labortory. Used in the article New SunCatcher(TM) power system unveiled at National Solar Thermal Test Facility. The image depicts the Suncatcher v2.0 (smaller, lighter, more manufacturable, cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and maintainable) made by Sterling Energy Systems. Each device captures 25kWe so a farm of 60 of them (slated to be built in 2010 in AZ or CA) will produce 1.5MW (enough to power 1200 homes).

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