Fzzz… the coffee machine whirred as … plop … delicious brown gold dripped into the pot. Camille was tired, so very tired. Just after getting home last night she had checked her mail one last time. Laurent had already responded. Apparently he was in Sydney for some conference that got cancelled last minute. He was there with David and Raymond. He’d told some people there of the mysterious three dots – he called them the three musketeers. Typical Laurent, Camille thought. She couldn’t decide if not being the first person to be told made her feel better or worse. It did mean less responsibility, in a way, but it would have been cool to be at the forefront of this discovery.

  As if the UFOs themselves wouldn’t make her mind so preoccupied as to ruin her night’s sleep, what ended the mail definitely did. They were having a video conference. Laurent, David, the head of their department, Raymond, some folks at NASA … and her. She didn’t really get why she was invited. If it wasn’t for the fact Raymond was with them in Sidney, she wouldn’t even get why he’d be there. And Raymond is way more accomplished and famous. Hopefully this isn't one of Laurent’s ‘good deeds’...

  Whatever the reason for her invitation, Camille wasn’t going to let this one slip by. She was going to attend the very first video conference on aliens. Well, the very first one with actual scientific evidence. The fact that, because of the time difference, the meeting would start at 7:30 in the morning, didn’t dissuade her one bit. Well, maybe a tiny bit, but not enough to not go. She had raced through her morning routine, only washing her face with a terry cloth wash mitt and putting on a clean shirt. She was still in her pyjama pants, they wouldn’t be able to see those anyway.

  Bzzt … Bzzzt … Ros woke up. He looked at the red glow of his alarm clock, the display said it was 8:30. He’d overslept. Still, he couldn’t get himself to get out of bed. Bzzzt– he slammed the alarm and stared at the ceiling. The sun was shining through the windows in the living room, the light came in through the slit above his door. The rays were mesmerising. His father knocked at the door to wake him, didn’t even say a word. Oh God, ros thought as he groaned, what a headache. Really shouldn’t have gone out last night in that rain. The swamp gas probably wasn’t that great either. Ros thought as he remembered the intense smell from last night.

  After a few more seconds, he rubbed his eyes and got up and left his room for the one thing making his mornings bearable: coffee. He rummaged through the bowl with capsules. For some reason his parents always bought these bulk packs with several different flavors even though most tasted terrible. Eventually he found the final brown one, the one good-tasting type. After turning on the machine he went to the closet to pick his morning robe and got back just as the machine was finished. Countless attempts had perfected this minor ritual. He picked his cup, the smell instantly making him feel better and SMASH he dropped it and it shattered into pieces.

  The conference was about to start. An icon at the top left indicated there were twelve people attending. Some faces appeared on screen, she recognized a few people from conferences, and, of course, David and Raymond. During the conference only those talking would be visible, but, for some reason she’d never quite figured out, before it started the software just showed the first six people alphabetically. Her last name being Lieder meant she rarely had this problem, except today. She didn’t like it. Not that she cared that much about her appearance or what the other people would think of her (some other people looked much worse, seemingly having woken up in the middle of the night). She just didn’t like the feeling of being watched. Especially not by Raymond, he’d always looked so judgy whilst advising her PhD. Laurent and David had felt the same, so at least he didn’t just do it with her, but still.

  Her train of thought was derailed by the conference starting. All faces disappeared except for Raymond’s, Laurent’s and David’s. Then Raymond began to speak in that weird and slimy voice. She didn’t exactly know how else to describe it.

  “Good day everyone and thank you all for attending despite the, for some of you, abysmal hours. We can honestly say that it was completely intentional.” Some mild chuckling could be heard. David and Laurent seemed very tense, understandably. Raymond was calm as always. “I am doctor Raymond Menzel, but I think you knew that already. At least, I knew all of you and would be quite hurt if some of you didn’t remember me.” He grinned and shook his head before continuing, “but this meeting is not about me. No, this conference was called to discuss a most remarkable discovery made by these two fine young researchers: doctors David Boas and Laurent Massé. I can honestly say that their discovery is the most impressive one ever made by any of my doctoral students, and I have had quite a few good ones. I’ll let them discuss the discovery themselves.”

  Some people clapped. Camille never really knew if she should clap at an online conference and, with only twelve people there, she didn’t want to embarrass herself. So, she didn’t.

  Some crackling could be heard as David fidgeted with his microphone, before beginning to speak. “Yes … uhm … thank you Dr. Menzel. So, me and Laurent - erm … Dr. Massé and I began a research project on minor solar system bodies. Specifically those with a high inclination and eccentricity outside of the already well-known clustering of ETNOs. After … quite some effort, we eventually got access to the Pan-STARRS telescope and used it to image some sections of the sky. We did actually get some pretty neat results, so we found these –”. Laurent couched. “Ah ... yes, sorry. So we got some Pan-STARRS images and amongst them were a few anomalous ones. We’ve put them into a video that we will show now… Laurent.” David switched off his microphone, visibly relieved to be done with it for a few seconds. Typical Laurent, forcing David to do something like that. I’m glad he did the same for me, but at the time it wasn’t any fun.

  It was nine o'clock in the morning, Sean was sipping his tea. He’d just gotten out of bed since he wasn’t exactly a morning person. This week he had the afternoon-shift, so it gave him a nice relaxing free time until lunch. He wasn’t looking forward to next week though, then the morning and evening crews’d switch and he’d have to be at the mine at six. Furthermore, since the night crew didn’t shift, he wouldn’t be able to have those little talks with Kenneth. He’d been one of the people who really stuck with Sean after his wife passed. Sure, everyone else was kind and understanding and respectful and so on, but Kenneth and Sean really understood each other’s feelings. One had lost a wife, the other a sister.

  Just one more shift and then it’s the weekend, he thought as he flipped through the newspaper. Again with the damn wind farm. Reading upsetting articles isn’t good for your mental health, so Kenneth skipped that one. The weather report said it would be sunny today, tomorrow and for most of next week. That’s nice, he thought. Though he doubted the accuracy of the last one. “He who thinks he knows, secretly knows nothing at all,” he mumbled. He’d come up with that one a few years ago, after a sermon on arrogance and still thought it sounded great.

  Some time later, he was cleaning his mug and the plate he used for breakfast. Doing the dishes was one of those tasks he really learnt to appreciate over the last few months. Not exactly a fun activity in the moment, but it always felt good to have done it. He glanced out of the window and saw his neighbor, Greg, running towards his house. He seemed frantic, almost panicked.

  After cleaning up the mess Ros made a second cup. There weren’t any brown capsules left so he had to use a green one. They were the second best, or rather the second least worst one. They still tasted horrible. He grabbed his laptop and went to the couch. He’d decided he’d be working from home today, still had to remind his manager of that, but that wasn’t a big deal. He worked as a legal consultant to some minor supermarket chain. It paid relatively well, but it wasn’t exactly fulfilling. Ros didn’t even really like law.

  Originally he’d gone to college to study physics. He’d liked it since he was little and was pretty smart, so it seemed like a no-brainer. Seemed like. It didn’t go very well. He understood the physics, had a great feel for that in his opinion, but it was the math he struggled with. He hated math. He failed all of his exams and dropped out after one semester.

  He believed his parents secretly found that a good thing. After all, how was a physics education going to put food on the table? So they pushed him to law afterwards. Can’t go wrong with that now can you? He didn’t like it, he had to work far harder for any kind of understanding. When complaining to his parents about that his father’d just say “Son, we must accept the rails laid before us by destiny. Follow them and don’t stray off the path.” At least he passed this time.

  His parents had been right to some extent, doing law did land him a decent job by most standards. Still, it was mainly boring paperwork. And legal consultant wasn’t the kind of job where you could get famous or something.

  The video had been just as breathtaking as yesterday. More so, actually, since Laurent and David had actually turned it into a video, instead of the disconnected frames they’d sent her. Some audible gasps could be heard as the dots turned. It was reassuring to hear them, this really is something special. However, the video continued a bit further, beyond what she had gotten yesterday. After a little while all three dots suddenly stopped moving. They remained stationary for some time and then the video ended.

  Afterwards Laurent and David began explaining some technical details on how they had analysed the data. Nothing about it was particularly noteworthy, Camille suspected they just did it to cover their asses. That way, no one could come and say they weren’t open about what they did or that they did something wrong. Some people interjected with a question, but overall it was quiet. Most were probably still in shock from the video.

  “After having done all this,” Laurent said, “we’ve been able to determine that the distance to the objects is around 2.2 to 2.7 AU which, given their angular diameter, implies they’re 30 to 50 km wide. Furthermore, the speed of the objects appears to be around 1000 kilometers per second. If, as we’ve argued, the dots stopping near the end indicates that they are flying more or less straight at Earth, that would imply that they will arrive in around … four days.” Laurent’s voice quavered as he said the last few words. Everyone at the conference was completely stunned.

  Suddenly the meeting exploded in a flurry of questions.

  “How come no one’s ever seen these before? They’re brighter than some known asteroids.”

  “Who says they’re going towards Earth instead of away from it?”

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  “Maybe there’s some non-alien explanation?”

  And so on. By the time your brain registered one question, three more had already been asked. Raymond tried to calm everyone down, to little avail. Even his reputation and commandeering presence, meant nothing against the scope of this information. Surprised, Camille heard her own voice ask “Do we tell the public?” One by one the voices of the twelve attendees fell silent as their minds processed her question. Everyone had it on their mind, but no one had yet dared ask it. And now that it was out in the open, it couldn’t be ignored anymore.

  Sean opened the door just before his neighbor, Greg, could start knocking. He was clearly too old to run like that, his eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks glistened with sweat. As Greg was panting and trying to catch his breath, Sean asked him what was wrong and beckoned him inside. As Greg opened his mouth, Sean quickly said “No, nevermind. First you’re gonna go inside and sit down. Then you can talk.” After Greg sat down and Sean had brought him a glass of water, he began to speak.

  “Sean … There’s been a cave-in. Part of the mine collapsed, apparently it had something to do with the heavy rain yesterday.”

  “...” Sean's eyes opened wide.

  “Kenneth was in the collapsed shaft.”

  Oh, God no. Not again.

  “He may have survived though!”

  “I doubt it,” Sean felt numb.

  “Sean, I–I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. I figured some company man would come later today and tell you, but I figured you oughta hear it from –”

  “Thanks Greg, genuinely. Thank you,” Sean said quietly as the tears began to stream down his face. Greg put a hand on his shoulder, then pulled him in closer. “I know – I know that nothing I say can make it easier … just … I want ya to know you’re not alone.” They cried together.

  Of course everyone had already considered the question. After “are these really aliens?”, asking whether or not to tell the public was the most pressing issue by far. After some seconds of total silence someone interjected. Their face and name, Niels Starziczny, appeared on screen as he started talking. “I think before we decide whether or not to divulge this to the public we need to (a) decide if these really are aliens and (b) try and see what their motivations could be.”

  “That’s actually why we invited most of you,” Raymond said (that sliminess again, yuck), “some of you have already seen the video because you are experts in your own fields who we know to be trustworthy. As in, you wouldn’t just divulge this info to the public after getting it. Do any of you have a reasonable explanation? Well, a non-alien explanation?”

  It remained silent. A few people tried coming up with ideas, but all we’re torn apart. After an hour or so Raymond concluded, “Well, I think that solves point (a) of Dr. Starziczny. Now onto the harder one of the two. After that we can get to Dr. Lieder’s question.”

  “We can’t actually cover all possible motives,” someone added, “that would amount to discussing everything ever thought up by all sci fi authors.”

  “True,” David added, seemingly having gained some confidence, “and we’d preferably have an answer to Lieder’s question by the end of the day.”

  “Ah yes,” Raymond said, “that reminds me. Everyone here understands the weight of what we are discussing, but I want everyone to swear to stick to the decision made. Specifically, if it is decided to not divulge the information, at least not yet, will you all stay on the rails laid down by this conference?”

  For the next few minutes Raymond and Dahl Crisman, the head of department of Laurent and David, grilled everyone to see if they’d keep their mouth shut if that was the decision. After they were satisfied the conference could continue.

  “I think it’s important to realise that we can’t actually know what their motives are. We’re effectively just guessing,” one said.

  “That’s not entirely true, we can reasonably exclude several possibilities. They’re almost certainly not here to gather resources for example, the solar system doesn’t have anything that you can’t find elsewhere. So why’d they go to the trouble of flying all the way here?” another added.

  “Well, we do have life. Apparently that’s not unique, but it’s probably still rare.”

  “That just sounds like a bad horror movie.”

  “Even if it’s life they want, they could just ask for a DNA sample.”

  “That’s true”

  “They’re clearly not here to destroy us. If they wanted to do that, they could’ve done so already by just shoving an asteroid really hard or accelerating a missile to near-light speed,” Camille responded.

  And so on it went. They kept tossing around possible motives. Most were obviously false, none seemed definitively the correct one.

  Physics would’ve been so cool to pass. Ros often still dreamed of getting a degree, maybe even a PhD in it. He's tried to self-study it, but always got stuck at the technical details. Actually computing integrals, finding eigenvalues, and so on. Still, he held out some hope that he could get good at it and avoid the math holding him back.

  At least the fantasy was more interesting than his actual job. He and another guy had been spending the last week trying to finalise the paperwork so that the company could construct a new store. Like always, it was just a bunch of annoying technicalities. At least they were nearly done with that. At least it was almost the weekend.

  After work, Ros spent some time getting his telescope back inside and cleaning it. Originally he planned on stargazing that night, but he decided against it. Last night had given him a cold. His head hurt like hell, as if he’d just been hit in the face with a hammer and he had a fever. Eating dinner with his parents had just been possible. It’d been quiet like always, but at least he wasn’t eating something he just warmed in the microwave. He decided to go to bed early after another boring workday. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow or at least Sunday morning. He hadn’t planned anything for the weekend, as usual.

  After some time, Greg calmed down and a little while later so did Sean. “You know, you could come eat with us this evening,” Greg said, “doesn’t seem like the time to let a guy eat alone.” Sean thought about it some time, he really didn’t feel like he’d be able to cook this evening. He feared that Kenneth’s death would bring him right back to square one, undoing the last few months.

  “I wouldn’t want to impose.”

  “You wouldn’t be imposing, Sean.”

  “...”

  “You don’t have to come if you don’t wanna, just want ya to know ya can rely on us. So, will ya come?”

  “I-I would like that … yes. Thanks”

  Greg patted him on the back, stood up and went back home. An alarm sounded. Sean had set it after Betty died to help remind him of when to make lunch. He’d hoped he wouldn’t need it anymore, that he’d finally gotten past it and could turn it off. Apparently not.

  After about an hour it was agreed that it was next to impossible to determine the aliens’ motives. At best, they could eliminate a few possibilities and deem a couple somewhat likely. Slowly, the conversation shifted to “Lieder’s question”. Why do they have to call it that? she thought. They tried to determine possible effects of the revelation on society as a whole, but also on certain aspects of it like politics, religion and, of course, science. Perhaps they should’ve invited some sociologists and psychologists. They’d probably be more useful than astronomers in this situation. Just like before, little agreement could be found. Everyone knew the effects would be sweeping. Affecting every single person on the planet at least somewhat and especially impacting the more anthropocentric religions. Whether or not the impact would be positive or negative was unclear though.

  Camille, Dr. Starziczny, Laurent and a few others argued it would be unethical to conceal the truth. For one, as scientists it was their duty to report what they’d found. Secondly, if these aliens are coming towards earth, which seemed likely, then clearly humanity would have to be somewhat prepared. This’d be true regardless of if the aliens were hostile or benevolent. Furthermore, most people probably wouldn’t react aggressively. Maybe in the US, but not here … here the scientific literacy should be high enough for people not to lash out.

  Raymond and most of the others disagreed. People would panic if the news got out. Entire religions would crumble, worldviews shattered and if there ever were two things to rile up the masses, it were those two. They’d be dragged through the mud, they’d never be able to get a job again. The angry masses may even attempt to kill them. After all, there’s a reason that ‘shooting the messenger’ is a phrase.

  The fact that the aliens hadn’t attempted to communicate with Earth, despite almost certainly being able to, did give several of the attendees the creeps. That Earth harbors intelligent life would be blisteringly obvious even from much farther away, so why hadn’t they said hello? Most of them came to the conclusion that they were either indifferent to life or actively malicious. Neither really seemed like the kind of thing you’d tell the public. Camille disagreed, but after more and more people slowly left her camp, she didn’t dare argue any further.

  “So, shall we vote?” Raymond asked. No one disagreed. It was decided, ten against two, to keep the discovery a secret. Only Camille and Niels Starziczny voted for disclosure. So the meeting concluded, they’d only tell a few select scientists and politicians, before revealing it in a few days' time. “Remember,” Raymond repeated, “accept the decisions of the conference. Even if your mind is telling you not to. Accept them.”

  During lunch Sean got a message saying he didn’t have to come to the mine that day. It was still too unsafe. A little while later some company man came and told him about “how sorry they all were” and that “this should never have happened.” They hadn’t found the body, that would take days, even weeks. The rest of the day he’d alternate between looking at the television, trying to sleep on the couch and staring at the ceiling.

  The dinner was nice. Quiet, but nice. Sean, Greg and Coral – Greg’s wife – had each attempted to start a conversation. None had stuck, they would always talk for a few minutes before falling silent. They’d spoken about Kenneth a little while. Sean had told the story, he’d probably told it a thousand times, about the time Betty had wanted him to get the asbestos removed from their roof. He had refused, it’d cost too much and asbestos probably wasn’t that big a deal. Betty had argued, but never got through to him. It wasn’t until Kenneth and him had had a long and not-so-calm argument about it, that he gave in. Greg and Coral also shared some stories. They didn’t know Kenneth that well, but were full of praise for him. Of course, he just died, Sean thought, quickly trying to bury the cynicism. They’d laughed a little at the company man’s condolences and Greg and Carol had tried to steer the conversation to some other subject. To distract Sean, presumably. Still, the table quieted down every few minutes. Sean was grateful, however. Their hospitality meant more than words could ever convey.

  One thing Sean had kept to himself, something the company man (Sean couldn’t remember his name) had told him. Profits had been going downhill for years, this latest disaster was just the final nail in the coffin. The mine was closing down. He’d lose his job next week.

  The conference had ended. Camille had to call off from work after it became clear that it was going to last a while. Ultimately, it took nearly seven hours. She was frustrated, both at herself for not standing up for her own opinion and at Raymond. He’s always using his fame to influence people and has such a low view of others, especially laypeople. That way he’d been able to influence the conference attendees to decide to keep it a secret. Certainly most don’t actually want to keep it hidden.

  She decided to act. She leaked the video, together with some documents and relevant emails, to the media. People deserve to – have to – know.