Chapter 16 — The Message

"Good afternoon. Or… maybe good morning. Good evening. You have reached Gropius' phone number. I'm currently unavailable, but don't worry. Just leave me a message after the tone, and I will call you back as soon as possible. Er — thank you..."

Marvin was still at the maternity ward. He had spent the last two days changing diapers and taking care of the newborn, without too many hours of sleep. His wife and baby Eugene where now resting. He went out of the room and sat down alone on a corridor bench. Since he still had Gropius' number, Marvin decided to make that call in order to apologize.

But Gropius did not take the call. Instead, Marvin reached the answering machine.

"Beep!"

"Mister Gropius? This is Marvin. I'm terribly sorry for what happened the other day. I was supposed to come to your place. But… I really got caught in some solid trouble. My wife… She was pregnant. And the labor started just when we arrived in your neighborhood. So, we had to rush to the hospital, and then… You certainly know what happened. It was the very same day when the city got attacked. And we were at that hospital that got wrecked. But, we're fine now… I mean… Anyway. That explains the no show. I know I should have informed you, but we were quite busy trying to survive. However, I'm still interested in meeting you if possible. I still think you were right despite the appearances. Hope you're fine and you've suffered no consequences of the events. So, if you still agree to discuss, please call me back."

After the attacks, Elias Nordheim, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, appeared on every screen in the world.

He had his usual solemn look on his face. After adjusting his silver glasses, he began a compelling speech.

"My dear fellow citizens of this world... Tonight I am just like you, shocked by what happened in Montreal, Canada…

" The Exolibs have decided to attack a major city without an explanation…

"This is a very difficult day for all of us…

"We all stand alongside the families of the victims…

"The only way for mankind to survive this ordeal is to remain united…

After these few generalities, Elias Nordheim stated his plan for dealing with the situation.

"Maybe the most unbearable part of what humanity is enduring now is the fact that we do not understand the Exolibs. The hardships we are going through appear to us as a form of complete absurdity. An enemy can be fought if we possess the absolute certainty of his irreconcilable position. But we still don't know what their goal is. Maybe they want something from us, something that we fail to understand. And we fail to understand it because the communication gap that separates us from the Exolibs has not yet been bridged.

"Fortunately, we possess a new kind of technology that could maybe help us to communicate with them.

"This technology allows us to address a message to the Exolibs… and hopefully get an answer.

"Actually, this message has already been sent, today, on behalf of mankind. Our message is a message of peace. This is what we are asking for.

"To you, dear citizens of this world, I want to send a message of hope. Let us never lose hope, and let us not forget that if we remain united, we shall prevail."

The same night, Nate Maxwell, the CEO of Gaia Inc. was on Stephen Emerson's show.

 The discussion was revolving around this new technology that had been invented by Maxwell's company and used by the United Nations to get in touch with the aliens.

"So, Nate, tell us more about the Gaia Program. What is it? And why is it one of our only hopes to put an end to this terrible situation?"

Maxwell was an almost bald chubby man, with a strange goatee and a nice white shirt. Although in his fifties, he looked somehow like an overgrown adolescent geek cosplaying as the rich CEO of a big tech company.

"Well, Stephen, it is essentially a linguistic tool run by a powerful AI that can generate messages in a new language."

"You see, you and me, we both speak the same language. So you could use our Gaia Program to cipher a message if you don't want me to understand what you said. So it can make it very difficult for me — or almost impossible — to decipher your code.

"But now, suppose we don't speak the same language. And you want me to understand what you say to me. How do you proceed? What kind of language do you use to make sure I am able to decipher it?

"This is the exact problem we are facing if we want to speak to the Exolibs.

"We don't know what language they speak. Are they able to understand English? Or any other human language? That's really not certain.

"And we certainly don't speak their mother tongue. We don't even know what they use as a language. Is it based on sounds, just like our own? Or is it based on colors? Flavors? Scents? Something else that we can't even imagine?

"We suppose nevertheless that the most universal language is probably mathematics. Mathematical concepts should be the same for us, on Earth, or in another galaxy. And if the Exolibs have travelled across such distances, and if they have these crazy technologies we've all seen, it means they're probably good at math.

"The problem is that the symbols we use to write the mathematical concepts may differ a lot from the symbols they use. So we have to build a whole new language for this purpose, a language that contains in its very structure the key that would help to decipher it. We have to find a clever way for our symbols to mirror the mathematical principles they describe, so everyone in the entire Universe, if clever enough, could finally understand it, independently of his original culture.

"That's what Gaia is all about. Our AI has generated a such language, based on mathematical concepts and universal constants. And another AI, that didn't know this language has been able to decipher it and translate it. So we hope that the Exolibs will be able to understand our message too."

"What does this message say?" asked the host, Stephen Emerson.

"Well, it explains that despite the clash between or cultures, we are seeking peace. And it asks what we should do, us humans, to make it possible. We promise to take into consideration whatever they're expecting from us."

"So, basically, we are now waiting for an answer. Is that correct?

"Yes."

"Let's hope it will arrive soon. And let's hope it will be pleasant news."

"It will. I think so."

Nate Maxwell smiled in an odd way.