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Dr. Ellie Arroway sat up in bed staring at the newspaper headline. Of course, she had heard the news the previous day but seeing it on a printed page that she held in her hand gave it a greater degree of finality. Her husband lay next to her, looking up at Ellie cautiously. Palmer Joss was usually pretty good at coming up with the right thing to say in any given situation, but there was nothing he could say now that would make what was happening to the woman he loved any better. He knew she hadn’t slept much the previous night. The revelation on the front page of the New York Times was fresher in her mind then. She had paced quietly, she had stomped on the floor in impotent rage, and when that got boring for her, she laid down on the bed and cried. But now, she was just staring at the headline.
“Truth Revealed About Alien Contact, Dr. Arroway Vindicated”
After a good long while, Ellie tossed the paper aside. Perhaps looking for a distraction, she turned on the tv. But just like in the movies, she happened to turn the television on just in time to catch a repeat of the last story she wanted to hear about at the moment.
“-during the incident. The signal was eventually found to contain the schematics to build a device. The device was believed to be some sort of transportation system, but the scientific community could not be certain. After the decision was made to construct the device, there was a competition of sorts to decide who would go. Dr. Arroway, the discoverer of the alien signal, was among those who threw their hat in the ring. Also being considered was Dr. David Drumlin, President Clinton’s scientific advisor. Now, Dr. Drumlin would eventually get selected over Dr. Arroway, largely because of Dr. Arroway’s atheism. However, this development would actually save Dr. Arroway’s life. Drumlin would be killed by the Sons of Eden religious terror group’s bombing of The Machine, along with thirty-seven others.”
“Approximately one year after the bombing, 60 Minutes aired an expose on the matter of the signal in which significant misconduct was discovered. Much of it was based around Drumlin himself. At a White House press conference shortly after the signal was decoded, Drumlin was introduced as the leader of the team that made the discovery. The 60 Minutes investigation found that this was extremely untrue. First, it was Dr. Arroway who led the team that made the discovery. Second, Dr. Drumlin had not participated in the work at the VLA complex at all. But what made Drumlin’s acceptance of credit for Dr. Arroway’s work particularly galling was the fact that he had, for years, been working to stop Dr. Arroway and her team from doing the work of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.”
“The 60 Minutes piece led to an outcry from Dr. Drumlin’s friends and family. They complained that his legacy as a national hero was being tarnished. However, the team at the venerable news show stood by their reporting. A threatened lawsuit by Drumlin’s relatives never materialized, and the White House was made to apologize to Dr. Arroway for their role in Drumlin’s theft of the credit for Arroway’s discovery. While then-White House Chief of Staff Rachel Constantine and then-President Bill Clinton both made public apologies, then-National Security Advisor Michael Kitz refused repeated demands that he apologize to Dr. Arroway. Kitz never offered a reason for his refusal, he simply refused.”
“When the second machine was activated, this time with Dr. Arroway as the occupant, the passenger pod was seen to fall through the maelstrom of light and energy that formed in the center of the machine before landing in the safety net below the device. Dr. Arroway returned with a tale of having spent hours on a wild ride through the cosmos before meeting an alien avatar modeled after her own late father, Theodore Arroway. She was told that her state-of-the-art recording unit recorded nothing but static. This led to people claiming that Dr. Arroway was making up her whole story. It also led Mr. Kitz to suggest that Samuel R. Hadden, the industrialist who had financed Arroway’s work at the VLA, had faked the signal as some kind of publicity stunt or perhaps as a sick joke. Eerily enough, Hadden succumbed to cancer on the Mir space station that very day.”
“Ultimately, the congressional investigation drew no concrete conclusions. Dr. Arroway and Mr. Hadden were both cleared of any wrongdoing, and the US government gave Dr. Arroway’s work a sizable grant, allowing for the VLA to be significantly expanded. Dr. Arroway has continued her search for extraterrestrial intelligence, having stated her belief that the aliens who reached out to us will do so again in the future. A poll conducted last year for the fifth anniversary of Dr. Arroway’s voyage indicated that just over forty percent of Americans believed Dr. Arroway’s claims to be true. Time passed, George W. Bush entered the White House, Michael Kitz made an unsuccessful run for the US Senate, and Dr. Arroway continued her work.”
“That brings us to today. A hidden detail from Dr. Arroway’s trip through the machine has sent shockwaves around the world. A classified report was leaked to the Washington Post that revealed a stunning detail about Dr. Arroway’s recording unit. While the government acknowledged that the unit had only recorded static, it is now known that the Clinton administration hid the fact that the unit recorded roughly eighteen hours of static. The report goes on to note that it is not physically possible for the device to have recorded hours of static in a matter of moments. The only explanation left appears to be that Dr. Arroway did in fact go on a roughly eighteen-hour journey. Whether the aliens deliberately disrupted the recording unit, or the machine just happened to have that effect on the equipment is not known. The report could only speculate.”
“But either way, the report revealed a shocking truth: The United States government lied to the American public about the existence of alien life, and made a deliberate attempt to discredit Dr. Arroway, when they knew all along that she was telling the truth. As of this time, there has been no statement from the Bush Administration, former President Clinton, nor Mr. Kitz.”
Ellie turned off the tv and sat back down on the bed. Palmer wrapped his arms around her but said nothing at first. He gave his wife a few minutes more to process the day’s events. Finally, he softly spoke. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”
Ellie Arroway sat quietly for a few moments, struggling to put her feelings into words. “I feel a lot right now. I feel betrayed, because I was betrayed. But I also feel vindicated, because that happened, too. I never doubted that what happened to me was real. Not even when Kitz tried to convince me that Hadden had duped me. I knew it was real then, and I know it’s still real now. But damn it all, why did they have to do that? Why did they have to lie? How did it help them? How did it serve national security or the national interest? Why couldn’t they just acknowledge that there really, really is intelligent life out there in the universe?”
“Well,” Palmer said, “some of them will probably offer some kind of vague excuse for how they thought it was best at the time. Others will insist that it was someone else’s idea and that they’re not to blame. And some, like Kitz probably, will insist that they were right to do it then, and that they have no regrets whatsoever. Probably only Kitz, now that I think about it. I can tell. That is a guy who just doesn’t do ‘remorse’.”
Ellie let out the faintest chuckle at that. “Yeah, you’re right about that. So, what should I do now?”
“Well,” he began with a deep breath, “You’d have a pretty good case if you wanted to sue some people. I mean, the talking heads on Fox News who are always saying you’re a fraud and this and that can claim that they didn’t know any better. As long as they knock it off starting now. And Clinton was president, so he gets a pass. But Kitz you can sue.”
“I’m pretty sure being the National Security Advisor makes you lawsuit-proof, hun.” Ellie replied.
“Well, yeah. But not for Kitz. I mean, what he said at that hearing would be protected. But remember, he’s been punching down at you for years. When he was running for the Senate, for instance, he kept calling you a fraud and a waste of taxpayer money. You could sue him for defamation and slander for that.”
“I guess I could. But what would that get me, other than money? Guys like Kitz…it’s like you said. He doesn’t do remorse.” Ellie told him.
“I know, sweetheart. Of course, you could also sue the federal government over what the administration said and did.” Palmer suggested with a laugh. They both knew there would be no lawsuit. Neither one of them was the kind to do something like that.
“Maybe it’s enough that everyone will know that what happened to me was real. That the doubters will finally shut up. Well, some of them will still doubt, anyway. But most will listen now. And that frees me up to listen for the next signal.” Ellie said, now in a slightly better mood.
“Kitz’ll see his reputation take a bit of a beating, now that everyone will know what a fraud he is. As for Clinton, he didn’t have much further to fall after Ken Starr got through with him. Hey, maybe Hillary found out about the eighteen hours, and that’s why she dumped him,” he suggested.
“Yeah, maybe. I mean, when I met her back in the day, she really seemed like she wanted to believe that the aliens were real. If she found out later that Bill was hiding the truth about that, it might have pushed her over the line. Not that her husband cheating on her in the Oval Office with an intern wasn’t a good enough reason by itself.” Ellie mused.
“Yeah.” Palmer said. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, he spoke up. “You know, JT is gonna start hounding you for a statement he can give to the press.”
Reminded of the VLA’s spokesperson, Ellie rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, you’re right. Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t called yet. Almost like someone called him first and told him to give me some time.”
Meeting her bemused look, Palmer looked into his wife’s eyes and said, “Well, if I did that, it would be some top-quality husbanding.”
Smiling at her husband’s wonderful antics, she laughed and said, “Yes it would. And in that scenario, you would be entitled to be richly rewarded.” Ellie leaned in to kiss Palmer, and for a few minutes, things were good again. After breakfast, Ellie’s time ran out, and JT Richmond called her cell phone.
“Boss, I hate to nag-“ he began.
“And yet you do so with great frequency.” Ellie interjected.
“Only because you don’t take the PR aspect of the VLA’s operations seriously. But that’s okay, because if this job were easy, my paycheck would be smaller. The news agencies are asking for a quote from you about all this.” JT explained.
“Which news agencies?” Ellie asked out of curiosity.
“Pretty much all of them, actually. So, what do I tell them?” he asked.
Having given the matter some thought over breakfast, Ellie sighed and said, “Tell them that I am understandably furious with the Clinton Administration over not only their lies about the footage, but their efforts to discredit me. I am also angry at the Bush Administration, as they must have also known the truth once they got into the Oval Office, and they likewise questioned my integrity. I believe that I am owed an apology by former-President Clinton, former National Security Advisor Kitz, and President Bush. Overall, the United States government owes me an apology, but more importantly, they owe the American people, and frankly, the entire world an apology for lying to them as well. And in case they ask you about it, tell them that I have no intention of filing any lawsuits over the matter. That’s crass. I’m not crass.”
“Got it.” JT replied. “Though you could make a mint off of Kitz. Guy’s loaded.”
“I’m sure he is. Probably invested heavily in clubbed baby seal futures or something.” Ellie said. She turned to her husband and smiled as he tried to clear his throat. He had been taking a sip of coffee when Ellie spoke and had nearly choked on it from laughing. Palmer smiled at his wife to let him know he was okay. After signing off with her PR rep, Ellie got ready for another day of work at the VLA.
“Think they’ll call today?” Palmer asked as he did every day.
And as she did every day, Ellie replied, “I always think they’ll call today. And one of these days, I’ll be right.”
And one day, she was.
The Bush Administration refused to apologize for carrying on the previous administration’s smear campaign against Dr. Arroway and her supporters. This was cited as part of the reason George W. Bush lost to Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham in the 2004 election. Bill Clinton did apologize, as did several members of his cabinet who were involved in keeping the secret about the eighteen hours of static. Kitz, as predicted, refused to apologize. Dr. Arroway never sued anyone, seeing such behavior as being beneath her.
On July 19th, 2009, Ellie was lying in bed listening to the feed from the VLA, which now had over two hundred antennas. At first, she thought it was a dream when she heard that familiar tone. After all, she had dreamed of the signal many times over the years. As she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings, she realized that she was truly hearing it this time. As she had twelve years earlier, she rushed to the control room, barking orders into her cell phone the whole way there. Just as before, the tone carried on for several minutes before halting for a few seconds. Then came the prime numbers. With the VLA’s state-of-the-art computer setup, it was fairly straightforward to translate the tones into visual media.
Ellie stared at the schematics of The Machine, unchanged in almost every respect but one. The image of a person standing in the pod had been replaced by an image of two people side by side. The Vegans wanted two people to go this time. There was certainly room in the pod for a second person. Especially since she would insist this time that the chair be removed. Ellie was certain that if she hadn’t got out of the chair when she did, she would have been slammed into the wall, perhaps fatally. She chuckled at the dark humor of that. They see a pod coming in through the transit system, it arrives, they open it up and find her dead from blunt force trauma.
“Why was she in a chair?” they’ll say. “We didn’t put a chair in the schematics for a reason. Why would they change the design like that?”
Maybe they would have buried me on Vega, she thought. The idea had some appeal.
Of course, there could be no doubt who would go this time. The Machine Consortium offered no objections when Ellie told them of her intentions. She promptly boarded a plane to Japan. No real delay was needed, as the machine had been carefully maintained over the years. She needed only to make the trip, get into the pod, and go. And so, it was only four days later when Ellie Arroway and Palmer Joss climbed into the pod and told Mission Control that they were okay to go.
And away they went.
And this time, the recorder worked perfectly.
And the world was changed forever.