In many ways first contact actually proved to be quite simple. It turned out that the scientists and mathematicians were correct. Mathematics was mathematics. Engineering was engineering.
What worked for us, worked for them. How could it not? Differences in cultural and artistic inclination aside, reality remained real for both species.
Unfortunately, then there were other kinds of communication. Utter complete failure. No matter how hard we tried. No matter how hard they tried. Nothing being “said” made any sense to us and nothing we presented to them made any sense to them. We couldn’t even begin to guess how they thought and it became clear that they couldn’t do so with us either.
The big breakthrough came when someone finally realized that the answer was not linguists, scholars, or professionals of any kind. It was only when they brought in Martha Murray that advances were finally made.
In retrospect, it should have been an obvious choice. Instead, it all resulted from the moment when Martha sent in that now famous email that said “Well, obviously this is what they mean. Can’t you tell?”
Martha, and many millions of others, were very experienced in communicating with alien species and conveying meeting back-and-forth between them. Of course, you all know the punchline. Who doesn’t in our media connected world? Martha was a cat lady.
Best of all, it didn’t require a person who was obsessed with cats, just a person who has lived with a cat for years and was able to understand and send out effective messages between these two so alien species. In truth, cats and people really don’t fully understand each other and the aliens and we don’t either. Nevertheless, we can somehow convey desire and intent back and forth enough to get along and even enjoy each other’s company. Homo sapiens and silvestris catus, we owe our peaceful and mutually beneficial alliance with our alien friends to you and your relatonship.
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