To say that Phillip Yardley was a skeptic would be an understatement, but he had learned to listen to their theories and foolish assumptions with a degree of tolerance, if not interest. He had no time for irrational speculation himself -- or any unnecessary interaction with his associates. Yardley was a hard-nosed scientist, but when you work in the area of astronomy, the lunatic fringe is never far away. In fact, he shared his workspace with a wild-eyed colleague who expected contact with an alien civilization within his lifetime. Yardley took advantage of the flexibility his seniority afforded and deliberately worked at odd hours when he knew he would be alone, except for an occasional exchange with the janitor, Manuel. But even that was mercifully kept to a minimum since Manual's command of English was rudimentary.

So it was that Phillip Yardley found himself alone in the observatory one night several hours before dawn when he noticed a very strange series of lights in the night sky close to the star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. Visibility was hampered somewhat by the remnant of a supernova explosion centered around the star Lambda, but there appeared to be a pattern in the frequency of the lights. His younger colleague would have jumped to the conclusion that it was contact from another intelligent being or civilization in space, but Yardley was not that reckless and was glad he was alone. He prudently studied the lights and made notes. There was always a logical explanation for phenomenon such as this, even if it was not readily apparent.

As Phillip Yardley made notations corresponding to the pattern of lights, he realized that the same sequence was repeating over and over. It suddenly dawned on him that it looked like Morse code, which he had become familiar with during the war. He smiled to himself at the ludicrous notion that an alien civilization would use something as primitive as Morse code to communicate with Earth. As an experiment, though, he began to translate the pattern of lights as if it were Morse Code. But, just as he suspected, it was just a nonsensical collection of letters -- V E N I M O S E N P A Z.

Yardley heard the door open behind him as the janitor came in to tidy up. "Venimosenpaz, Manuel," he said jokingly to the old man, "The aliens are sending us a message."

"They come in peace?" the janitor said smiling. "muy bueno."

THE END