The Arrival

It shouldn't be here.

Moving on to...

...Wolf 336, F-class star...

...at right ascension 7.36]...

...5.21 declination.

I thought that was the last one.

Why'd you think that?

Because you said that it would be.

No, I distinctly remember forgetting that.

I don't know why I put up with this.

Oh, yes, I do. Because I let you drive.

I'm a ride-share hostage.

F-class star. Recent variability.

14.6 light-years away.

This is nuts anyway. The whole approach.

SETl's tough enough on microwave band.

Now you wanna search FM? With all that noise?

Might as well look for a needle in a haystack...

...of needles.

Station 5.

Is my voice even vaguely familiar to you, Zane?

Honey, I'm trying to get out of here, but as usual, Calvin's holding me up.

Should be home by 1, 1:30.

CHAR". One-thirty Tuesday? Wednesday? A.m.? P.m.?

What can I say? I'm a ride-share hostage.

- I'm gonna go pee. -Look, I will try to--

- Where are you? - Oh, I'm having a drink with Becky.

You're in some bar while I'm here working?

There's a hockey player too. He's only in town for one night.

All right. I give up. What do you want?

I want your ass in bed, Zane.

Okay. I'll leave now...

...if you leave now.

But do not talk to any strangers on the way out.

I'll see you at my place in 83 minutes, okay?

Swear you'll be there? I don't want a repeat of last week.

If I say I'm gonna be there, I will. End of story.

There is nothing more important to me right now than our--

Good solid spike.

Nice symmetry to the modulation.

Detection protocol. Now.

Zane. Zane.

Confirmation phase one. -Swing dish five degrees off-axis.

And signal fades. Looking good.

Now swing dish back on target.

And signal returns. Definitely sky-based. Wolf 336, you are howling.

Phase two.

Initiating software check.

Jumping ahead to phase three, second source verification.

Who's still online? Green Bank'? Ohio State? Moffett Field.

Checking here. Still checking.

Be there. Just be there. We gotta get another ear on this.

Software self-checks. Phase two complete.

Come on, Moffett. You're killing me. I'm dying here.

Just pick up the phone so we can confirm this.

Nothing.

Zaminsky!

Zaminsky. This is not valet parking.

Stalled out on me. Stalled on me. This piece of--

Sorry, sir.

Sorry.

[STATIC BUZZING OVER HEADPHONES]

That's it? Forty-two seconds.

We listened all night.

All night, all morning, and the sound never repeated.

It's 42 seconds of non-random, non-Earth-based signal.

This could be it, Gordy.

Sounds compressed, like a military burst communication.

No way. No way. Not at 107 megahertz.

107? What the hell are you doing so far below the microwave?

Good question.

So this is a variable star, this Wolf 336?

Fourteen point six light-years away.

All right. Okay.

So if it is a variable, it expands and contracts dramatically.

Gentlemen, maybe you can explain to me...

...how intelligent life can actually develop in such a volatile environment.

It's only been unstable for what?

- Fifty years or so. -Fifty years.

Which means it's possible some form of life could still exist.

Exactly. Maybe this is a distress call.

An S.O.S.

Maybe they're sending out their Encyclopedia Galactica...

...jettisoning their knowledge before it goes down.

Zane.

It lasted 42 seconds and it never repeated.

That's why we have to stay on this one, Gordy, in case it does.

I'll pull double shifts. I'll pull triple shifts if I have to.

But I want priority status and I want dish time. Serious dish time.

During normal business hours, preferably.

Calvin, why don't you go home, get some sleep, okay?

Go ahead. Zane.

It's a mandatory 2O percent cutback.

Tracking station has a fixed operating cost. I can't touch that.

- I've got to look at personnel. -Are you even shitting me?

Look, I can swing a month's pay, you know, instead of two weeks.

Maybe extend the health benefits two weeks beyond that, but, uh--

Let me see if I got this straight.

I come to you--

I come to you with what may be...

...the preeminent discovery of the 20th Century:

the possibility of extra-solar life.

And I get shit-canned for it?

Zane...

...I know how important this is.

But searching for E.T.s in this political environment...

...is a tough sell on Capitol Hill.

If we don't start spending money on harder science, we're gonna lose it.

Let's forget about me for a second. What about the signal?

I'm skeptical...

...but it is interesting.

I'll pass it along to Decoding.

See if there's a pattern recognition there, but--

I don't have to tell you. You know the rule.

- If you can't confirm it-- -Then it doesn't exist.

What asshole made up that rule? Can we fire him instead?

It doesn't please me...

...to be losing the brightest and the best.

I wish there was another way. I honestly do.

Well, it is finally cooling off in the south/and...

...after a day of near-record temperatures.

But hot again tomorrow and hot again on Thursday with no letup--

How are you doing for money? If you need me to, I could--

No. There's a SETI program up north.

Guy who runs it, Bill Wyatt, was begging me to come up. Might give him a call.

You're not really thinking about going back to it, are you?

We had a bell ringer this morning. Really good signal.

I just couldn't confirm it in time.

You had something really good last year too.

Turned out to be what? A broken microwave oven.

What's your point? There's always something to give me false hope?

- That I'm wasting my life? -I didn't say that.

But, you know, it's interesting that you did.

Well, come on. Someone is watching.

What?

How in the hell did I wind up with somebody like you?

I got tired of rich guys with good futures.

No. Really. What is it you see in me?

What made you call me the first time?

Boy, when their self-worth goes, mmm.

Okay, I see a man of great intelligence...

...dedication, cute little kind of insecurity.

- Little paranoia-- -This went to shit fast.

Zane, why do we always have to analyze everything? Can't you trust that I love you?

Algorithms I trust. Boolean logic I trust.

Beautiful women, they just mystify me.

Two years and we're still talking about trust? It's amazing.

I should shut the hell up, huh?

Look, it's your career, Zane, and I will support any decision that you make...

...but if we are gonna make it...

...we've gotta take care of our problems here on planet Earth.

And that is just a little hard when you're always off looking at the stars.

Listening.

Listening.

Are we falling apart here? Is that it, Char?

I don't know, Zane.

Are we?

- How'd you do on the test? -Pretty good.

No, I'm saying it's incomplete. There's no chemical breakdown.

There's no broadband chart analysis. Want me to go on?

That information isn't available at this time.

This information was promised me two months ago.

Come on. These are not national secrets.

This is a routine analysis of the atmosphere. Why should I--

There's a problem with that satellite. It's blind to certain trace gases.

Really? As of when?

I believe it lost a solar panel.

Some functions were shut down to save energy.

Well, look, here's my problem.

I've devoted my sabbatical to greenhouse trace gases.

If I don't get this data, I might as well be counting cow farts in Montana.

You'll have to wait until the new satellite is in place.

- Okay. When's the launch date? - NA SA doesn't have that information.

Round and round we go. Thanks for naught.

Moffett Field.

Bill Wyatt, Zane Zaminsky. How are you, man?

Oh, yeah, Zane. Hi.

I know you said you'd get back to me, but I felt obligated...

...to let you know about a job offer that came up. Telecommunications.

Looks pretty sweet too. I mean, the health plan alone, you know?

Well, good. You should take it, Zane.

I don't think things are gonna work out here.

Uh, but I thought you were looking for radio astronomers, Bill.

Some good creative thinkers? Isn't that what you said?

- I remember you saying that. - Creative is one thing.

Too creative is another.

I'm not tracking.

I'm not sure I should be saying this...

...but I talked to Phil Gordian at J.P.L.

- He wouldn't quite-- The indication was-- dust say it.

He said you were faking signals in order to keep your job.

I do believe this permit's expired, Zaminsky.

Why haven't you?

Zaminsky! Zaminsky!

To raise the temperature of the planet tenfold...

...to change the atmosphere into one suitable to colonization...

...to construct farms and cities...

...and build an infrastructure capable of supporting thousands of colonists.

Make no mistake about it.

Never before have we undertaken a task--