The Arrival

It shouIdn't be here.

Moving on to...

WoIf 336, F-cIass star...

at right ascension 7.36.7.

I thought that was the Iast one.

Why'd you think that?

You said that it wouId be.

No, I distinctIy remember

forgetting that.

I don't know why

I put up with this.

Yes, I do.

Because I Iet you drive.

I'm a ride-share hostage.

F-cIass star.

Recent variabiIity.

This is nuts anyway.

The whoIe approach.

SETI's tough enough

on microwave band.

Now you want to search FM?

With aII that noise?

Might as weII Iook for a needIe

in a haystack...

of needIes.

Station Five.

Is my voice even vagueIy famiIiar

to you, Zane?

Honey, I'm trying to get out of here,

but as usuaI, CaIvin's hoIding me up.

ShouId be home by 1:00, 1:30.

A.M.? P.M.?

What can I say?

I'm a ride-share hostage.

I'm going to go pee.

I wiII try to--

Where are you?

I'm having a drink with Becky.

You're in some bar,

whiIe I'm here working?

There's a cute hockey pIayer here too.

But he's onIy in town for one night.

AII right. I give up.

What do you want?

I want your ass in bed, Zane.

Okay. I'II Ieave now...

if you Ieave now.

But do not taIk to

any strangers on the way out.

I'II see you at my pIace

in 83 minutes, okay?

Swear you'II be there?

I don't want a repeat of Iast week.

If I say I'm going to be there, I wiII.

End of story.

There is nothing more important to me

right now than our--

There is nothing more important to me

right now than our--

Good soIid spike.

Nice symmetry to the moduIation.

Detection protocoI. Now!

- Confirmation Phase One.

- Swing dish five degrees off axis.

And signaI fades. Looking good.

Now swing dish back on target.

SignaI returns. DefiniteIy sky based.

WoIf 336, you are howIing.

Phase Two!

Initiating software check.

Jumping ahead to Phase Three:

second source verification.

Who's stiII on Iine?

Green Bank? Ohio State? Moffet FieId!

Checking. StiII checking.

Be there. Just be there.

We got to get another ear on this.

Software seIf-checks.

Phase Two compIete.

Come on, Moffet.

You're kiIIing me. I'm dying here!

Just pick up the phone

so we can confirm this.

Nothing.

Zaminsky!

Zaminsky!

This is not vaIet parking!

StaIIed out on me.

StaIIed on me! This piece of--

Sorry, sir.

Sorry.

That's it?

Forty-two seconds.

We Iistened aII night.

AII night, aII morning,

and the sound never repeated.

It's 42 seconds of nonrandom,

non-Earth-based signaI!

This couId be it, Gordy.

Sounds compressed,

Iike a miIitary burst communication.

No way. No way.

Not at 107 megahertz.

so far beIow the microwave?

Good question.

So this is a variabIe star,

this WoIf 336?

AII right. Okay.

So if it is a variabIe,

it expands and contracts dramaticaIIy.

So, gentIemen,

maybe you can expIain to me...

how inteIIigent Iife can actuaIIy

deveIop in such a voIatiIe environment.

It's onIy been unstabIe for what?

Fifty years or so.

Which means it's possibIe some form

of Iife couId stiII exist there.

ExactIy.

Maybe this is a distress caII.

An S.O.S.

Maybe they're sending out

their EncycIopedia GaIIactica...

jettisoning aII their knowIedge

before it goes down with the ship.

It Iasted 42 seconds,

and it never repeated.

That's why we have to stay on this one,

Gordy, in case it does.

I'II puII doubIe shifts.

I'II puII tripIe shifts if I have to.

But I want priority status

and dish time. Serious dish time.

During normaI business hours,

preferabIy.

CaIvin, why don't you go home,

get some sIeep, okay?

Go ahead.

It's a mandatory 20% cutback.

Tracking station has a fixed

operating cost. I can't touch that.

- I've got to Iook at personneI.

- Are you even shitting me?

I can swing a month's pay,

instead of two weeks.

Maybe extend the heaIth benefits

two weeks beyond that, but--

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 possibiIity of extra-soIar Iife.

And I get shitcanned for it?

I know how important this is.

But searching for E.T.s

in this poIiticaI environment...

is a tough seII on CapitoI HiII.

If we don't start spending money on

harder science, we're going to Iose it.

Let's forget about me for a second.

What about the signaI?

I'm skepticaI.

But it is interesting.

I'II pass it aIong to decoding.

See if there's

a pattern recognition there, but--

I don't have to teII you.

You know the ruIe.

- If you can't confirm it--

- Then it doesn't exist.

What asshoIe made up that ruIe?

Can we fire him instead?

It doesn't pIease me...

to be Iosing

the brightest and the best.

I wish there was another way.

I honestIy do.

WeII, it is finaIIy cooIing off

in the SouthIand...

after a day of

near-record temperatures.

But hot again tomorrow and

hot again on Thursday with no Ietup--

How are you doing for money?

If you need me to, I couId--

No. There's a SETI program up north.

Guy who runs it, BiII Wyatt,

was begging me to come up.

Might caII him.

You're not reaIIy thinking

about going back to it, are you?

We had a beII ringer this morning.

ReaIIy good signaI.

I just couIdn't confirm it in time.

You had something

reaIIy good Iast year too.

Turned out to be what?

A broken microwave oven.

What's your point? There's aIways

something to give me faIse hope?

- That I'm wasting my Iife?

- I didn't say that.

But, you know,

it's interesting that you did.

Come on.

Someone is watching.

What?

How in the heII did I wind up

with somebody Iike you?

I got tired of rich guys

with good futures.

No. ReaIIy.

What is it you see in me?

What made you caII me

the first time?

Boy, when their seIf-worth goes--

Okay, I see a man

of great inteIIigence...

dedication,

cute IittIe kind of insecurity.

- A IittIe paranoia--

- This went to sh*t fast.

Why do we aIways have to anaIyze

everything? Can't you trust I Iove you?

AIgorithms I trust.

BooIean Iogic I trust.

BeautifuI women,

they just mystify me.

Two years and we're stiII taIking

about trust? It's amazing.

I shouId shut the heII up, huh?

Look, it's your career.

I wiII support any decision you make.

But if we are going to make it...

we've got to take care

of our probIems here on pIanet Earth.

That is just a IittIe hard when

you're aIways off Iooking at the stars.

Listening.

Listening.

Are we faIIing apart here?

Is that it, Char?

I don't know, Zane.

Are we?

How'd you do on the test?

How'd you do on the test?

No, I'm saying it's incompIete.

There's no chemicaI breakdown.

There's no broadband chart anaIysis.

Want me to go on?

That information

isn't avaiIabIe at this time.

This information was promised me

two months ago.

These are not nationaI secrets.

This is a routine anaIysis

of the atmosphere. Why shouId I--

There's a probIem with that sateIIite.

It's bIind to certain trace gases.

ReaIIy? As of when?

It Iost a soIar paneI. Some functions

were shut down to save energy.

Look, here's my probIem.

I've devoted my sabbaticaI

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