Neighbors

During the span of three generations, we have been trying to contact an alien species that simply moved in and planted roots in our solar system. In that time, many things have changed in our culture. Many religious faiths changed their perspective, and others only grew stronger. Philosophical views were altered, and science headed full steam in a single direction, trying to learn as much as we could from our new neighbors. One man, Bob Darnell, identified the intrusion from a home computer utilizing a space noiseaEUR'detection software, which he downloaded from SETI, and our world began to change exponentially. Ours is not the only story of change. Our new neighbors have a tale of tragedy and adventure that exceeds Earth's far beyond our ability to even begin to comprehend. They have many wounds to lick with no inclination toward entertaining a welcome wagon. We are relentless in our efforts to have our new neighbors pick up the phone. So much so that for nearly forty years, we have been working tirelessly to make longaEUR'range manned space travel a reality. Finally, Connie Dolan, with a master's in astrophysics and a doctorate in particle physics, has developed the shield technology necessary to protect us from those pesky subatomic particles intent on bombarding our skeletal structure and turning us into osteoporotic blobs of flesh before we could complete such an undertaking. Connie is a thirdaEUR'generation Darnell that has, since her childhood, considered this her legacy. Of her other academic achievements, she is also commander of the Envoy and is on her way to ring the doorbell.