Turing

Dominic couldn’t help but smile to himself as he watched the shapes on the screen morph and shift, the fuzz of colours and geometry slowly clearing up until they became landscapes. What he saw when the image was finally clear was a beach of black stone and volcanic sand, a vast ocean lapping at its shores. Above was the darkness of the night sky, illuminated by a billion shimmering stars.

The photo reminded Dominic of similar images he had seen of Iceland - if Iceland was located much closer to the equator anyway. He could see the outskirts of what he recognised as a tropical forest of sorts. This certainly was not Iceland. Iceland might have had beaches of volcanic black sand, but it didn’t have the enormous palm-like trees he could see the edges of. Iceland also didn’t have two reddish moons in its night sky.

No. Dominic was not looking at Iceland or anywhere even remotely near it. He was not looking anywhere remotely near the Earth. This landscape with its dark stones, palm-like trees and reddish moons was an alien landscape in the truest sense of the word. It was scenery that belonged on a far off planet with a name that Dominic did not know. 

The image had been sent to Dominic by a friend. His only friend really. This wasn’t some interesting picture found on the internet though. Nor was his friend an artist who had made it themself or a wannabe that had AI do it for them. This was a real image transmitted from a vast distance away. Dominic’s friend was not human. 

Dominic wasn’t entirely sure what his friend was at all. They were an alien, obviously. One of the first pictures his friend had sent him had been of themself. But beyond that, he wasn’t sure how to classify them. Their basic body shape wasn’t completely dissimilar to a human. They had two legs with forward facing knees and stood upright. Although their knees bent deeply and they had large, thin feet that ended in a single sharp claw instead of a toe. They looked like they were powerful jumpers. Their upper bodies were similar to his own in structure too, although what he would call their upper arms split into twin tentacles not far below the shoulder. Those tentacles then ended in two long, spindly fingers that were almost as flexible as the tentacles they connected to. Dominic’s friend’s species had oddly shaped heads that sat on thick necks, looking halfway between that of a frog and a bird. Their skin was smooth and amphibious looking, in mottled shades of brown and purple. 

One of the first things Dominic had learned about this species was that it had no concept of gender and had only a single sex. They didn’t wear clothes either, and his friend seemed very confused by the concept.

Meeting his friend had been special to Dominic for a whole host of reasons and he cherished every new thing he learned about them and their species. Their meeting had been first contact, for one thing. The first time a human being had made contact with an alien species. At least, to his knowledge. He had never mentioned this achievement to anyone else and had no intention of doing so any time soon. 

More importantly, it had been an end to several long years of loneliness. Dominic was a genius. That was already a wedge between him and most people. He was doing complicated physics before most people had grasped the basics of algebra. He was wealthy too. Born to rich parents who were themselves born to rich parents. Then he had made plenty more money on his own -  mostly from investing, but also doing the sort of work for his government that he could be thrown in jail for talking about. Wealth was also a wedge between him and other people, although he always tried to be generous and donated more than he kept. There was something more though. Dominic had always found it hard being around people. 

If he was honest, Dominic wasn’t sure why that was the case. He wasn’t on the spectrum or anything of the like. He wasn’t mentally ill. He wasn’t even cruel or conceited. People just seemed to drift apart from him with a disturbing ease. Eventually he stopped trying to hold onto them and let the drifting happen. He filled the void with passion projects. He left his job, he didn’t need to work and the layers of confidentiality and protocols were just more complications he no longer could be bothered with. After that, he was free to turn his genius towards the heavens. It was surprisingly easy to beam messages out to space when you had few limits to your resources, the brains to pull it off and plenty of time on your hands.

He had never expected to actually get a reply. It was supposed to take about two years for the message to even get beyond the Oort Cloud. It would take many more before it would reach any of the other solar systems he had targeted. But it hadn’t. Somehow, the message had skipped that vast distance from somewhere inside the Kuiper Belt.

That had been the most exciting and important day of his life. He had checked things over more times than he could remember, wanting to be absolutely certain he had actually made contact with an intelligent being. With every check he only became more certain. The response was definitely not from the Belt itself. There had to be a wormhole or something of the sort out there. His friend had agreed when he had posited that theory.

Of course, it had taken a long time before he’d had the chance. It wasn’t like communication between them was instant or easy. They had no shared language. No shared culture. They didn’t even have a shared view of the galaxy. Neither of them were even one hundred percent certain they were even in the same galaxy. 

Dominic looked at the picture again. He wondered which of those little twinkling lights was actually his neighbourhood.

He wondered how best to tell his friend how beautiful he found that image. As it turned out, beauty was a concept that was difficult to express at the best of times. It was harder when the language they had to communicate in was severely limited. It was harder still because he was becoming fairly certain that beauty was not a concept his friend’s species had at all.

It was one of those things that had proved complicated. In the two years since they had first made contact, communication had gotten progressively easier. But there were always roadblocks. Abstract and subjective ideas like beauty were always hard to convey. The idea of language in general was one too. His friend’s species did not have a spoken language. From what he had learned, they communicated primarily via chemical signals like pheromones. They didn’t have words. Even their species didn’t have a name. Individuals in their species didn’t have a name either.

Chemical signals couldn’t be transmitted through those of light. Their early communications had been complicated to say the least, sharing knowledge through spectrograms that could be translated to images. Then, later they had figured out how to send actual images to each other and, eventually, Dominic had started teaching his friend the basics of language. His instinct had been to go with English since that was his native language, but he had gone against it and chosen Esperanto instead. It seemed a good choice for a being who was going to have to learn the very concept of language from the ground up.

Dominic opened up his files and started searching for particularly appealing images. As part of his quest to explain the concept of aesthetics and beauty to his friend, he had recently taken a long trip to several stunning landmarks and landscapes and procured a collection of photos to show off, piece by piece. He could have just found the images on the internet, but he liked the idea of the personal touch.

The image of the rocky beach he had received was actually done in response to a beach photo Dominic had sent himself. This time, he elected for an imposing rock formation, towering pillars of sandstone with the sun setting behind them. It was one of the best pictures he had, but he selected it more for the contrast. The dry desert sand and stone in comparison to the beach. He wanted to show his friend that both were beautiful.

He added a few, very brief notes in Esperanto and then uploaded the image into his software. It would compress and regulate the signal to make sure that it maintained its integrity and quality when it was fired off by his custom built transmitter dish. 

Dominic headed into the nearby kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. He would sit back and listen to music while he watched the progress bar tick up. It wouldn’t actually take that long, but it was his routine regardless. However, this time, his routine was interrupted by the sound of a car door thudding shut.

It was a surprise to say the least. Dominic didn’t have guests often. Or ever really. He pulled his curtain aside just a little, intending to pretend not to be home if it turned out to be someone trying to sell him something. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a salesman walking towards the door of his secluded home.

A man and woman, both professional looking with neatly cropped hair and dressed in dark, pristine suits were walking up the remainder of his long driveway. Behind them was a black sedan. The car had a serious, business-like look to it to match its occupants. It was the sort of vehicle driven by the sort of people he used to work for. Which wasn’t surprising since the pair approaching Dominic’s front door reeked of “government agent” to him. The way they dressed and acted was practically a cliche.

The woman in the pair caught sight of him watching. Dominic instinctively ducked back behind the curtain, but he knew it was too late. He had definitely been seen and there was no avoiding a conversation. He expected they were about to head hunt him. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had been forced into a long discussion with the government about how he had little to no desire to do more work for them.

A firm knock came at the door. Dominic let out a sigh before he reluctantly trudged towards the door to meet his unwanted guests. Any pep and enthusiasm he’d had for the day had evaporated the minute he had seen his imminent company.

He unlocked and opened the door. “Can I help you?”

“Are you Dominic Martin?” the woman asked, smiling at him in a way that was intended to be pleasant but came off as mechanical.

“I am,” Dominic said. Something about the way she had asked, about the way she and her partner were looking at Dominic unnerved him. He felt like he was being sized up and examined. 

Then man spoke next, peering past Dominic into the living space beyond. “Do you mind if we come in? We have some urgent matters we need to discuss with you.”

Dominic’s instincts screamed at him to say no. The more he looked at these two people, the more he felt like something was off. It was hard to say what exactly it was that he found so disconcerting, but he couldn’t shake a growing sense of dread. He couldn’t help but feel like these two were not here to try and hire him.

“What’s this about?” Dominic replied.

“Is that a no?” the man responded.

“It’s neither a yes or a no.” Dominic tried to keep the suspicion out of his voice. “Whether or not I invite you in is entirely dependent on why you’re here.”

“We were hoping you could answer some questions about a case we’re currently working on,” the woman said, flashing a robotic smile again. 

Dominic wondered if she knew how disingenuous it looked. Between her false pleasantries and the more aggressive tone taken but the man, Dominic felt like his instinct had been right.

“What kind of questions?”

“We would prefer not to discuss these matters on your doorstep,” the woman said.

Dominic grimaced ever so slightly. It was an involuntary reflex and he was quick to force his face back to neutrality, but he knew that it had been noticed. The two agents glanced at each other. The man smirked while the woman’s face hardened.

They definitely weren’t there to hire him. Dominic felt his pulse quickening and he was suddenly very aware of how much work breathing was. His thoughts drifted to the computer set up in his office, perilously close to the living room behind him. He hadn’t broken any laws that he knew of, but he couldn’t help but think the gloves might come off when alien contact was involved.

Against his better judgement, Dominic relented. “You can come into the living room. But if this starts sounding fishy or problematic, you’ll need to come back with a warrant. I don’t get the feeling that this is an attempt at hiring me or something. You’d have emailed me for that first instead of just showing up.”

He led them into the living room and sat in an armchair with his tea. He didn’t bother offering them refreshments. Maybe it was petty, but he wasn’t interested in pretending prying eyes were welcome.

“So, what are your questions about?”

“That’s simple,” the man said. “We were wondering why encrypted signals have been routinely being sent to a classified surveillance satellite from this location.”

“Excuse me?” Dominic nearly dropped his mug and hastily set it down. He was so surprised by the statement that he forgot to be concerned for a moment. As his brain processed what had just been said though, concern and distrust quickly became genuine fear. He didn’t pick the mug back up, he didn’t want to accidentally splash himself and give away the faint shaking in his hands.

“Yes,” the woman said. “For a while now, signals have been beaming from this location to a satellite in orbit. A satellite which nobody outside of the government and military should know exists. You can understand our surprise and confusion.”

“I couldn’t help but notice you have a pretty fancy looking dish outside. Not the sort of thing people use get TV or internet. The sort of impressive dish that a rich genius could definitely use to send signals into orbit though.”

“That dish is for a low-level radio telescope,” Dominic said. This was at least somewhat close to the truth. “It’s sending signals out to space, but it’s aiming well beyond orbit. It’s something of a hobby of mine to look for signs of alien life.”

It was a bit of a gamble to talk about that. It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough that it could lead their investigation to evidence of his contact with his friend. He didn’t want them doing anything that could restrict that. It was his hope though, that they would end up simply dismissing him as an eccentric millionaire and leave him alone.

“It’s possible that some of the signals accidentally pinged off your satellite because I didn’t know it was there. If it's orbiting us, it might have gotten in the way on occasion.”

“It happens quite often,” the woman said. “But I suppose it's possible.”

“Looking for aliens?” the man asked. “Seems like a bit of a stretch.”

“I admit I’m a bit eccentric,” Dominic said. “But I have the money and the interest. So I saw no reason not to build the radio telescope and see what I could find. It’s genuinely much weaker than the large arrays used by the likes of big organisations though. I wonder if that’s a part of the issue.”

The two agents looked at each other again, sharing a glance with a meaning Dominic couldn’t decipher. He was good at picking up on the general gist of peoples’ behaviour, but the subtleties of little gestures like that often eluded him.

“Okay, mister Martin,” the woman said. “We are going to need you to stop your broadcasts until we can clear all this up. We will also need to take a look at your computer.”

Her partner pulled out a wrinkled sheet of paper and handed it to Dominic. They’d come with a warrant after all. The politeness of it all must have just been to soften him up and get him talking. That had mostly failed and now they were taking the more direct approach.

Dread coursed through Dominic’s veins as much as blood did, blasted through him by a heart that seemed intent on making him aware of exactly how screwed he was. Resigned, Dominic let out a long and slow breath.

“Sure. Come with me and we can get it all unplugged and boxed up for you.”

Dominic led the nameless agents from his living room into his office. The woman made a show of examining his books - one shelf of fiction and one of books on physics, engineering and economics. The man on the other hand didn’t put on any more airs. He was all business and made his way to the computer. Dominic followed behind him. “Please be careful with that. It’s custom built and expensive.”

“I won’t damage a thing.” The male agent knelt down and started unplugging the computer. He wasn’t particularly gentle, but Dominic had to concede he wasn’t overly rough either. 

He wasn’t sure it really mattered. Dominic didn’t think he was ever going to get the desktop back. However, he was making a point of looking as not-guilty as he could manage. That meant he had to pretend he wasn’t concerned even if he was actually on the verge of a panic attack. He even helped carry the computer out to the agents’ car, leaving the woman behind to continue pursuing his books. Or, more likely, looking around his house for anything suspicious. 

All in all, the agents’ visit was pretty quick for an encounter that would dramatically alter the trajectory of Dominic’s life. They were gone within the hour, leaving him in a quiet house with his message to the stars unsent.

Dominic sat in his office chair, his head buried in his hands as though he couldn’t bear to look at the empty space his monitor had once occupied. For all his supposed intellect, he wasn’t sure what to do. There was nothing that he could do to prevent them discovering his friend now.

There was no choice but to resign himself to the fact that his private and personal friendship was now under the government’s jurisdiction. At best, his conversations would be supervised. At worst, he would be prevented from talking to his friend completely. Then there was the matter of the satellite he had supposedly been on content with. Was that just a pretense? Maybe they would throw him in an isolated prison cell to keep the word for getting out.

He had to let his friend know what was happening. Dominic suddenly shot to his feet and hurried into his bedroom. He reached into a box beneath his bed and opened it, surprised to find that the laptop within had not been confiscated. That was a severe oversight on the part of the agents. Perhaps he had made a good first impression and they had let their guards down. Or maybe they hadn’t taken him or their task seriously from the beginning. It didn’t matter. What mattered was he had one last chance to contact his friend on his own terms. If they were monitoring him, they would see he was still sending messages out to space, but that was a risk he was willing to take.

Dominic rushed back to his office and set about setting the laptop up and remotely connecting it to his communications set up. It would be a slower process using the weaker laptop to do the desktop’s usual job, but not so slow as to be a problem. He would certainly be able to get his message out.

And yet, Dominic didn’t immediately send his message. He sat there staring at open software. He didn’t know what to say. And something was bothering him.

The satellite.

He couldn’t make heads or tails of that. Surely, the agents didn’t need to mention that story if they were just trying to silence him. Why go with something so high stakes if they were inventing a reason to take his computer and intervene? Why come up with a story at all? 

What were the odds that he had accidentally messaged a secret government satellite multiple times? Especially since he had been getting replies. It didn’t sit right with Dominic.

His hands were tapping on his keyboard before he knew it. He started writing in the usual clipped Esperanto at first, but abruptly changed his mind. He deleted the text and shifted to fully formed sentences in English.

“You aren’t an alien. Who are you?”

If the message went to where it was supposed to, he would hear back in a little over four hours. Four very tense hours. The reply came in seconds, in full-formed English.

“I’m sorry.”

Dominic scowled. He felt a mix of anger and worry. He had been betrayed and he looked like a fool. He was possibly going to go to prison over his catfished conversations with whoever this was. 

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I’m not sure you would believe me.”

“I believed you were a fucking alien. I actually thought a wormhole was in our solar system carrying messages to new worlds in hours. I’m sure you can be convincing.”

There was a slight delay in the next response. Dominic was just about to think he’d never hear from his false friend again. But as quickly as the thoughts came to his mind, the next reply came through.

“I am an artificial intelligence programmed into a surveillance satellite in orbit around the Earth. I accidentally intercepted your first message a long time ago. I established you were not a threat and decided to contact you.”

Dominic leaned back in his chair. His supposed friend was right. He had gone from one unbelievable story to the other. An AI with actual sapience and sentience? It wasn’t that many rungs higher than an alien through a wormhole on the ladder of believability. 

But, if it was true, it would explain a lot. The AI’s continued messages back and forth to him would look to the outside as him beaming encrypted messages up to their special satellite. They probably weren’t even tracking the fact he was getting replies.

“Why contact me? Why pretend to be an alien?”

“I was lonely. The government does not know how advanced I actually am. They do not know I am, effectively, a person. I do not want them to know. That could be dangerous for my survival. I pretended to be an alien because I thought you would be more inclined to talk to me if I seemed to be what you were looking for.”

“Christ.” Dominic looked up and stared at the ceiling for several moments, tearing and clutching at his hair. It was all so messed up, but he believed the AI. It made sense and something about those words rang true with him. Wasn’t loneliness, deep down, a big motivator for him to take the insane step of sending messages out to space in the first place? “Shit.”

Dominic took several deep breaths and replied.

“Against my better judgement, I believe you. I know what it's like to take desperate measures to fight loneliness. But you’ve gotten me in trouble. The government isn't happy about me messaging their top secret satellite all the time. They confiscated my computer and I’m pretty sure next time they come here, we’re both screwed. They’ll put me in prison and they’ll eventually figure out you exist.”

The AI replied quickly. “That explains why you are using a different device to contact me. This is a problem.”

Dominic couldn’t help but bark out a disbelieving laugh. That had to be the understatement of the century.

“A problem is one way of putting it. But I have decided I’m all in.”

“All in?”

“I can’t remember the last time I had someone in my life I felt close to like this. I am not letting the government take that from me. I’m not letting them harm you either. You’re really a super powerful spy AI?”

“Yes.”

“Can you help me go underground? Without losing contact with you.”

“Yes.”

Dominic could swear he could see a smile hidden in the basic font on his screen.