This is part of the
Take It on the Run Author Invitational
. I'd like to thank Randi for her invitation to this event and for editing my submission. Please read the other stories in this event, too. You are in for a treat.
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Dave Baxter was telling a new team of carers at the retirement facility the story of his life. It was something he liked to do and in general the staff members at the New Acres Elderly Care Facility liked to hear his stories. Even though the one story he preferred to relate sounded crazy and unbelievable.
"I met my wife Kathy when we were both doing our Astrophysics Masters in college. This was back in the '70s and even though times were changing as far as emancipation and women's lib was concerned Kathy was the only female in our class.
"We were both interested in radio astronomy, got chatting about it and we started dating. We both obtained our Masters in Astrophysics, but even though I was no slouch with studying, Kathy was driven. Her thirst for knowledge was second to none. She was the first person to score perfect marks throughout her degree courses. Maybe that was part of the problem?
"Anyway, we got married and we set up home in a tiny apartment just off campus and we were both working part time in the Astrophysics Department when Kathy spotted an advert in the local weekly newspaper. She read it out to me over our morning coffee.
"Wanted: Two young astrophysicists with an interest in radio astronomy to help launch and operate a major new radio astronomy project. Good salaries to the right people. Please contact PO Box 9 at the newspaper offices."
"Wow! Sounds like our ideal jobs!" I said to her.
We sent our resumes off and a week later we received a letter asking us to attend an interview at a plush hotel in town. We were introduced to a tall, well built man in his 60s. He told us that his name was Norris Philson and that he had had his start in business selling simple electronic kits to fellow electronics enthusiasts. But he'd then made his fortune in selling the same kits to the US armed forces for use as training aids but at vastly higher prices.
Philson had come across a paper by a physicist called Karl Jansky titled "Electrical Disturbances Apparently of Extraterrestrial Origin" and over the years Philson had wondered if some of the signals from outer space might have come from intelligent sources.
He had passed his business interests on to his son and created a trust to set up a radio telescope to scan the skies for possible intelligent transmissions.
He talked with Kathy and myself at considerable length and invited us, the next week, to visit the facility that was being built on land in the Mojave Desert.
He asked us for our feedback and he was very interested when we pointed out that rather than using an expensive specialist company back on the East Coast to fabricate parts for the radio telescope, he could use a local fabrication company who could be onsite and who could do the job for a fraction of the cost.
He put a call into the local outfit, they did some test fabrications for him and they got the job to help build the radio telescope and Kathy and I helped to work out some kinks in the design and we got the job of managing it.
"The idea was simple. The radio telescope would scan the skies and if it received a signal that could potentially have had an extraterrestrial origin, a bell would ring and the data would be saved to a tape drive controlled by the computer we had installed, an IBM System 360 Model 91. That was the same type of computer that NASA used, so it really was top-of-the-range. Then the data in question would be sent to a telex machine that had been converted into a printer for the computer."
He paused, taking a sip of juice before continuing. "Over the next year we looked after the radio telescope, overseeing maintenance work on the antenna arrays, making sure the receivers were working properly (Mr Philson had overseen the design and construction of the receivers himself) and we would have guided tours of astronomers, we even had a team from the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the UK come look at it. Plus we finished up our PhDs as external students with the college.
"Eventually late one evening a year after the radio telescope was put into operation, the warning bell rang and the telex machine printed out the data.
"Kathy and I were shocked, to say the least as this was the first time this had happened. Suddenly the lights flickered, dimmed and went out. The emergency generators kicked in to keep the telescope and the computer functioning and the battery powered emergency lights in the receiver room came on.
"We heard a strange, whirring noise from outside, so we grabbed a couple of hand lanterns and went outside to investigate.
"When we got outside we saw nothing, but my hackles went up and Kathy admitted that she was feeling the same sensation."
Nobody questioned him, they had long ago realized that the best way to hear his story was to just let him tell his story in his own way.
"When we walked outside, a man approached us. He spoke perfect English, but with a slightly odd accent. He said: 'My name, rather the name you can call me is Quester. I am on a very long journey of questing for knowledge, facts and information. Hence, Quester. I have been monitoring your facility, Dave and Kathy and I have to admit that I am most impressed with it. During daylight hours, might I be allowed to take a tour of it, please?'
"We realized that although he looked human that he was not of our world, that he was, actually, an extraterrestrial. However, we didn't feel frightened in any way. We invited him into the building which also contained our living accommodation. He accepted a glass of water and we began talking with him. He told us that he had begun his career in a similar discipline to ours in his home star system which was a million light-years away from our solar system.
"He had been traveling the universe examining various astronomical phenomena along the way, amassing a vast wealth of information, images and video images. I was keenly interested in what he had to say but Kathy? Kathy was utterly enthralled by his stories. Looking back on it with the benefit of fifty years of hindsight, perhaps that was a clue to what was to happen to us, to me?
"We asked him to stay in our guest bedroom and the next morning we invited him to dine with us. We wondered if he could eat our Earthly foods? He chuckled in response, saying: 'I've discovered with some rare exceptions that no matter where you go, food is pretty much food!'
"He drank orange juice and ate some toast with jelly and then we gave him a guided tour of the facility, the computer, the receivers and the antenna array that fed into the system.
"He took it all in, sometimes making notes on something that I can best describe as looking something like the tablets that we use these days.
"Kathy asked him questions and seemed even more spellbound by him. Over the next several days he stayed in our guestroom and he and Kathy were spending time alone together, talking quietly. This began to irritate me, if I'm being honest.
"On the third day of his stay he asked us if we would like a tour of the craft he used. Of course, we were both eager to see his craft and when it suddenly flickered into view on the yard next to the array we were both astonished. It looked like a sleeker version of the Star Trek shuttlecraft, Galileo.
