Part XX

    110107.3bp "I should take the time here to document what I have learned so far of this race of beings.  It would be incorrect to call them new because they have existed in a technological world longer than we have ours.  I was originally shocked by their simplistic origins but once I came to understand more about the nature of the universe, the thought process of science fiction now seems overrated.  These beings are not unlike our own race.  They evolved over the course of millions of years as carbon based, oxygen breathing life forms and are the dominant species of their planet.  An exceptional difference is that H2O is not a natural occurring compound on their planet.  It is instead, H2O2 and it is the vital element to their survival just as water is to us.  We share surprisingly similar traits in regard to humanity and I think it can now be traced as a scientific principle.  That a carbon based planet capable of supporting a natural versus supplanted ecosystem, will evolve according to a common evolutionary tract eventually culminating in the emergence of an intelligent species with the practical human traits both physical and mental that we have long believed were synonymous with our own origin.  I am both disheartened and excited by this theory because while my humanity cries at the realization of not being totally unique, my rationality is warmed by the thought of the probability of more carbon based lifeforms in different systems.  The Kepler missions take on an even greater importance with this discovery.
    To describe the physical nature of these beings is difficult as I have yet to develop a program that is compatible with their technology.  I will give as much detail as I can but the more I think about it, they seem more humanistic than alien.  They are only slightly taller than humans averaging six to six and a half feet tall.  There are exceptions on either end of the scale as with all species.  Skin tone pigments are more varied than ours.  The younger generations have a brighter complexion that fades to a grey with old age.  Their life span has lengthened to 150 years as they have evolved, which is associated with advances in medical care rather genetic traits. They are bipodal, with opposable thumbs and other generic traits associated with humanoids.  Their heads are somewhat disproportionate to the rest of their bodies, lending to an unattractive appearance by human standards.  I believe in retrospect, the best description will not be through words but through visual means.  
    I do not have a translation for the name they call themselves; their language is much more advanced than our own.  My contact Boruth is constantly making adjustments to our translation and phonetic filtering module which has made increasingly steady progress over the past year.  These beings have the same goals, aspirations, and heartache that we do.  Crime, disease, famine, drought, war is no stranger to them just like all the good things in life we take for granted.  Love, happiness, peace, prosperity, fortune.  Those things translate easily.  
    Their infrastructure follows suit in its similarity.  They have hospitals, police, militaries, entertainment, recreation, highways, air travel as well as space travel.  Which leads me to my next understanding.  We have tried for years to locate extraterrestrial life.  Well so have they.  The universe is just as big here as it is for any other race of intelligent beings.  They have the same sky to look at albeit a different perspective of the constellations.  How likely is it that two needles in a haystack will touch each other?  Not likely unless one is magnetic, which is what we have assumed all along.  We put too much stock in alien life having the ability to find us, we never took into consideration that they have the same restraints as us.  Now they do have an impressive space exploration fleet but that hasn't yielded any success to date.  With our galaxy as large as it is, it is simply too unrealistic to find alien life by happen chance.  That is why they created their network.  It is broadcast out to anyone that has the capability to pick it up.  Even with that effort, the likelihood is still slim that an intelligible race would have the ability to comprehend the application of the signal.  As I said when I reacquired the signal and input the stream as internet protocol, it shut down my system.  The upgrades were necessary to contain a link to a network of that magnitude.
    In all this journey still has a distance to travel before anything physical that can persuade the close minded thinkers that this is real.  I could have easily disproved the notion had I not discovered the signal back then.  So while I can relate to them, I choose not to.  The look on their faces..."