Pa'an

As soon as the highly charged cloud of debris near the Moon cleared, Zovo was on the air and talking on several frequencies at once with as many radio operators. The hams were used to organization and excited to play a part in history. They brought in other hams, set up shifts, broadcast schedules and arranged a message relay system connecting Novo to questioners all over the planet. Here are some of the ten thousand questions he answered over the next several days, as the moon waned and approached a point where communications would be lost due to the Sun’s interference:

“Are there any other humans out there?”

Ans: Not that we know of.

“Has Christ/Mohammed/the Buddha visited your planet?”

Ans: Not by that name. We have had great prophets and philosophers in our long history.”

“Are you the Messiah/Mahdi/anti-Christ?”

Ans: No.

“How close are humans to joining the galactic empire?”

Ans: There is no such thing, but perhaps humans will create their own some day.”

“Is faster than light travel possible?”

Ans: Not for me.

“Are humans likely to survive as a species long enough to reach the development of the Pa’an?

Ans: Your future is not yet determined. Humans have great promise but seem to create their own disasters. We certainly hope you will reach or surpass our achievements and we are willing to help in some ways.

“Will the Pa’an give us the secret to cheap energy/better weapons/eternal life/universal prosperity?

Ans: Sorry, no we won’t even if we could. Sentients must earn their technology or risk losing control of their own development as a race. We Pa’an are not so self-righteous as to believe that our way is the only way. We are products of our trials and our history as you are of yours.

“Do the Pa’an have the solutions to the monster set/the Poincare conjecture/the mass of the Higgs particle/the nature of dark energy/the philosopher’s stone?

Ans: In some cases I can set you on the path to solutions, in others it would be dangerous either to you or to me. I will consider these on a case by case basis. Aura and I have already contributed knowledge, and we may be able to contribute more.

“What do Pa’an do for entertainment?”

Ans: We admire creative things and novelty. We like your science fiction – it is a vision of your culture projected in novel directions. Here is some of our art, and here is our basic dictionary and grammar, within the very limited capacities of this radio channel. Complete transmission would take 11.5 of your years at this information rate. I will select a subset.