The Mansly Affair

Computer stations and monitors blinked back on, streams of data flooded all the screens and for the first time since the satellite's arrival from above the lunar colonies...it began to move.

The history books are full of quotations and accounts of what happened next in this episode in Earth history.

The plain facts are that the satellite had never been fully shut down since its malfunction above the lunar colonies, until the day that Professor Hanes pulled the switch. This turned out to be the action required to trigger the program that had been placed in its memory banks. A signal sent across the vast universe in search of technology or intelligent life able to be used by the program. Since the satellite had been used to control such an essential part of human existence as climate control on a newly inhabited planetary colony, it knew it had encountered intelligent life in the human race.

Once, if at all, it found a host, the program would take over the chosen vessel and carry out its programmed instructions, always consisting of the same orders.

Reconnoitre of surroundings and data transmission.

The satellite had flown through the walls of the research facility that historic day to begin collecting information which it would send back to its creators, thus allowing them to adapt to any environment before they journeyed there.

After nearly 100 years of fiction it became fact. Intelligent life apart from the human race existed in the universe. More importantly, soon after the satellite began its new task, Earth's galactic neighbours arrived.

The world was in a frenzy after the news that whoever, or whatever sent the signal would eventually arrive on Earth. Even though technology and ever popular cinema had managed to create more and more epic stories of life on other worlds and how the first encounter might be, no one knew exactly how it would eventually turn out. The scientists had seen that the satellite was sending a transmission and although a trace was put on its path, the signal was lost as it spread further into space. After flying through the walls of the research lab to start it's reconnaissance, the satellite flew high into Earths atmosphere and began orbiting the planet collecting data. All the information was relayed back to the research computers as well as being sent out as a signal, only this time the information was readable.

As usual the sceptics continued to predict world domination or destruction at the hands of the visitors, some even claiming the satellite would be pulling the sun towards Earth, ending life as we know it. Even in the 21st century certain religious beliefs and prophecies were still adhered to strongly.

All the countries leaders and political groups had been meeting to discuss the situation on a daily basis, in some cases a second government was set up to allow one to concentrate fully on the running of their country and the other on the visitors. They set up their headquarters in four different countries; The United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa and China.

The world in 2048 was a peaceful one, which meant all the negotiations concerning the visitors ran relatively smoothly, only the occasional boosted ego caused an argument. One thing many agreed on was when the visitors would arrive. The satellite had begun its journey and data transmission directly above The North Pole before orbiting the planet. It was tracked every step of its trajectory around the planet and adjusting for Earth rotation, was travelling at twice the planet's speed. The logical conclusion was that it would have completed its orbit after six months, at which time it would have returned to its original position above the North Pole. Once a complete orbit had been finished the leaders believed the visitors would arrive soon after as all the information from Earth would then have been collected.