It was a tiny area compared to
galactic scale. Only about 100 light years across. When the race
happened upon a periphery, and detected the new signals, there was
great excitement among their scientists. They naturally tried to
keep it quiet. But just as on Earth, when a new species is first
detected, word tends to spread. Slowly at first, then faster and
faster, the news trickled from one advanced race to another. It was
within a relatively short span of galactic time that several races
sent observers to the outskirts of the newly discovered sentient
system.
And it was not too long after
that, that Earth observers began to detect unusual movements out in
the neigborhood of Neptune.
At first it was explained away.
“Just some more planetesimals stirred up by Neptune's orbit.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.
A new comet or two. Add them to the catalog.”
But a few astronomers were
tracking the objects, which were lit at times, unlit at other times,
and moved quite erratically.
“No matter how much a
planetesimal tumbles, it does not fly in formation with others, then
suddenly break off and move in odd directions without any
gravitational explanations.”
A couple adventurous races moved
in closer, to get better visuals on Earth's orbiting ISS and Comsats.
The NASA and RSA scientists who were tracking them tried to keep
that quiet, too. But the story soon leaked. The sources were
discredited, and the lid was kept on for the time being.
Military branches were informed,
and brought out their “just-in-case” manuals. Variations on the
“fire everything we have and pray” strategy were reviewed.
Governments consulted with each other. It was decided that as long
as the 'bogeys' didn't make any outright hostile moves, we would
observe. After all, we might learn a thing or two.
A probe was discussed, between the
Europeans, Russians and Americans. After much haggling, it was
agreed that a set of two probes would be sent. Cameras, radar and
radio sets. But no identifying marks. After all, it was reasoned,
if they are watching us, we certainly have a right to watch them
back.
The 'bogey” movements slowed, and
soon they blended in perfectly with the background. Someone on the
other end got the rogues to cool it, and folks were just watching for
the time being.
They followed the Earth probes
with interest. They even allowed them to bathe the ET's with radar,
lidar, and a lot of other “ar”s. Eventually, the probes
journeyed out into the Kuiper belt and beyond. They sent back data
that was inconclusive at best. But at least the Earth agencies got
some more good close-ups of Pluto.
Earth became a de-facto galactic
petri dish and/or zoo. As life went on down on terra firma, the
space agencies would have periodic spurts of exploration, followed by
decline. Funding and accidents were blamed. Planned Mars colonies
never quite got off the ground, and the Moon was exploited, but only
with robotic devices. People contented themselves with the usual
mundane pursuits, and human life went on.
When this or that pair of lovers
would take a hand-holding walk at night, and look up at the stars,
and wonder about their fates and how they became intertwined, little
could they know.
Their fate was not in the hands of
gods, kings, presidents or corporate potentates. The zookeepers
were mostly to blame.
The End
