Response

"Our experts confirm that the signal did not originate from this planet or even from within this galaxy. They have traced it to the Mercuria quadrant, a distant star system dominated by a dwarf star much alike our own star and hosting 12 planets in it's orbit. The signal emanated from the third planet from the star".

The minister of ICTs was making a presentation before an emergency sitting of the cabinet.

The president and his ministers were seated around an oblong table discussing the signal from outer space which 24hours earlier had dominated all the media boss channels, blocking all communication country wide for a good 6minutes.

The ministers seemed divided on how best to handle the issue which had caused a mix of excitement, anticipation and almost out right panic among the citizenry.

One school of thought spearheaded by the minister of health was all for ignoring the distress signal. While the the other led by the minister of science and supported by the minister of defense was for an immediate military response.

"Think about it", the minister of health was saying, this conflict is not in the next neighbourhood or another country. It is way out there in outer space..."

"My point exactly the minister of science abruptly cut in, ladies and gentlemen, this is the opportunity we have been looking for..."

"An opportunity to go back to the old ways of barbarisn and endless wars, the minister of health abruptly cut in exclaiming in alarm? That archaic age of barbarism belongs in the archives of history and surely not in our age".

"We are not talking of barbarism" another minister interjected. "The question before us is how soon can we respond to the threat if indeed that is what it is".

"Threat?", another minister asked curiously.

"I thought this invasion was taking place worlds away in another galaxy. How does it present a threaten to us?", another minister added her voice to the discussion.

"A signal reached us from an unidentified source in outer space. That suggests someone or something out there is reaching out to us. Ladies and gentlemen make no mistake, they are either aware of our presence or soon. Either way they will find us".

What are you trying to say, the minster of of health asked.

"All my colleague is saying", cut in the minister of defence, is that a meeting with the aliens is unavoidable. We don't know what they are capable of nor of their true intentions for wanting to locate us".

"My point exactly, it's either they will find us or we will find them, so far they seem to have found us. It would there fore be wise on our part to control the next level of engagement with them". We do not want to be like our ancestors whose ignorance of the presence of other people beyond the horizon resulted in colonization, slavery and under development when those other people found us and engaged on their own terms, the female minister continued, emboldened by the support from the minister of defence.

The president held up a hand for silence.

"Thank you all for your contributions. Having heard arguments on both sides of the discourse, there are a couple of issues that stand out clearly".

All the ministers were silent, listening attentively to the president.

"Point 1 we must act immediately to allay the concerns of our people, there by avoiding unnecessary panic among the citizenry" No. 2 we need to investigate the matter further before taking any action, to that end I propose sending a vessel to visit the planet and find out exactly what is happening".

There wass unanimous nodding of heads in approval, by the ministers.

"I leave it up to space command to select the space craft as well as a pilot for this mission into the unknown. If there are no objections I wish to declare this meeting closed