It was discovered much later that the alien language appeared to be comprised of seventy-six figures in their alphabet, and their number system was hexadecimal. The language was unraveled much quicker, since the mathematics depended entirely on the number base which took much trial and error to discover. By the time the first number conversions took place, most of the message had already been converted. Hidden within the text of the message, there was also buried a video file.
According to the message, the aliens were entirely peaceful, seeking only to meet other races and expand their collective knowledge. They appeared to be highly intelligent, not just advanced as their ability at space travel would indicate. They sought to trade with other cultures and maybe help the less advanced to develop their own space-faring technology. By the tone and hints in the message, it appeared that their culture was ruled by a central planetary government, not divided among millions of smaller governments like today's global community on earth, and they expected that others were like this also.
The video file, once unencrypted, showed footage of the alien race, as they appeared to verbally dictate the message. For some reason, the scientists of the time could find no way to turn the text of the message into an accompanying sound file, and they could come up with no plausible explanation why the aliens would send video without sound. The aliens were bipedal and seemed to mostly have very dark rings of hair on their heads. They had very long sideburn-type hair on their cheeks that almost reached the corners of their mouth and had a deep orangish-yellow skin tone. The scientists generally agreed that the alien race seemed to come from a solar system that had an extreme amount of ultraviolet radiation and that this was the cause for the strange pigmentation of their skin.
When the architectural design was finally decoded, it was assembled on a computer model. It had the shape of a strange satellite dish, very large, and came with coordinates to be pointed at a location very far away, in the general direction of the Cassiopeia system. The computer program intended to be utilized in conjunction with the coordinates appeared to give off a homing beacon of some sort, and appeared to also expect to have some sort of message attached. It was eventually agreed upon that the message meant to be sent was a sort of "hello" from the humans, introducing themselves and maybe giving a few examples of the culture on their planet.
A special delegation was put together drawn from English speaking ambassadors to the U.N. They voted on the content of the message, and then spent the time rehearsing and recording. Representatives from each of the races, Caucasian, Asian, Black, Filipino, and Hispanic, were chosen to read parts of the welcome message. While recording it, special care was taken to separate the video and audio files, if for some reason the aliens were unable to hear. An accompanying text message was sent also, encrypted with in the video file just as the aliens message was.
Around the globe, various cults arose. Some of them insisted that the aliens were divine and should be welcomed with open arms, as emissaries of God. More of the cults insisted that the aliens were our enemies, hoping we'd send them a signal so that they could locate our planet and enslave the humans. Many of the cults were far more bizarre than this, believing that the aliens were long lost humans that set off to explore space from some civilization that existed on earth thousands of years ago, or that aliens were already among us and that the message was meant merely as a diversion, while they marshaled their forces to overthrow the world's governments.
The world's religions offered no official explanation for the transmission or their understanding of the events that had taken place. A few of them merely reminded the people that the Lord worked in mysterious ways, and they would just have to wait and see how the events played out before making any judgments. They insisted that if they kept an open mind and their faith in God, that all would be fine. Church attendance rose dramatically, but in shifts as people tried one religion, weren't satisfied with its view on the aliens, and switched to another to find something that 'felt' right to them.
While the world roiled in confusion, the scientific community continued diligently. The scientists obtained funds from several of the world's governments and private businesses, and began the preliminary construction of the huge satellite dish. The message to be sent was finished long before actual construction began. By the time construction had finally begun, several of the representatives shown in the message had been assassinated by several of the different cults. As a result, there was a lot of public scorn for the groups and they began to lay low, fearing governmental persecutions.
Construction of the dish was completed and it was installed with a full military guard, becoming the single most heavily guarded structure in the world. The control booth for the massive dish lay several miles away, safely out of reach in case someone on the development team had made a miscalculation and the dish should fall. When the day finally came to activate the dish and begin the looping transmission, reporters from almost every country in the world appeared to film the occasion. A special booth was set up for them approximately a mile away, and with telephoto lenses they could easily see anything that could possibly happen.
As the dish was activated and it began moving to its preordained coordinates, a great gasp rose in the audience at the sight of such a massive structure moving. It tilted to point somewhere just over the west horizon and then stopped. The transmission began soundlessly, much to the disappointment of the reporters. They had been hoping for some horrendous malfunction or even a power failure. Receiving nothing for their trouble, they dejectedly began to pack up their gear.
Suddenly they heard a large cranking noise as the dish began to move again. Curious, they turned to watch, as the dish was supposed to track to its coordinates and not move again. The dish began to straighten up, seeming to be pointing at the sun. When it seemed completely pointed at the sun it froze. The reporters began furiously snapping photos of the malfunctioning dish.
Back in the control room, it was determined that the dish had completely sent its message one and a quarter times before its mysterious breakdown. No one could understand what had happened and they began making plans for a complete diagnostic of the dish. The reporters finished their pictures, and began to disperse, already planning the stories that would portray this incident as barely averted catastrophe.
Weeks later, as the evidence was gathered, it became clear that someone had entered a new program into the dish. After panicked research, it was determined that the new program had come from earth, not from an unknown alien craft. It appeared that one or more of the cults had someone managed to reprogram the massive machine. The computer was completely locked out and no one could see any way to get into it again, it appeared to be waiting for something to happen or else further instructions.
Several months later, satellite photos began to detect something large moving rapidly through space, coming in the direction of earth. Its estimated arrival time was within the next week. A fury rose in the world population as people began to anticipate actual contact with an alien intelligence. The cults began to prepare their bunkers, as they were sure the aliens were here to subvert the human race.
When the spaceship finally arrived, it was a solid black sphere that orbited earth, according to the satellite photos. A small ship detached and began to descend slowly through the atmosphere, appearing to head toward New York, where the U.N. headquarters were located. Delegates began to collect in the building, preparing quick speeches that they hoped to make for the new arrivals.
At the site of the satellite, a sudden whine filled the air. One of the cults had managed to slowly replace the guards with their own men had taken control of the control room. Several of their computer technicians pounded the keyboard furiously, inputting the satellites new instructions. The whine intensified as a large energy transmission was sent out of the atmosphere, directly towards the sun.
In New York, the delegates gathered in the large park in front of the U.N. building. The ship was slowly descending towards them. Suddenly the sun began to darken. The world's eyes turned to look as they watched the sun almost go out, and then flare brightly causing most of the watchers to go temporarily blind. The larger ship still in orbit began to move away, in the direction opposite the sun.
The whine at the satellite dish continued to grow, becoming ear piercing. The people in the control tower began falling to the ground, clutching their heads in pain. One of them, apparently the leader, lay on the ground slowly whispering, "We shall save the earth from these invaders, they won't survive their attack on earth". The cult in power decided that projecting large amounts of energy into the sun would cause a massive solar flare that would permanently disable the alien ship.
They were half right. The energy did cause a reaction in the sun, but not what they had intended. The sun's surface darkened as it withdrew in a highly dense ball. As more energy pumped into the star, in began to rapidly expand, growing brighter as it practically exploded. It stayed intact but leapt in size. It quickly engulfed Mercury, then Venus, heading right for Earth. The flames scorched the surface and destroyed the atmosphere long before the sun actually touched the planet. The mothership, still accelerating away from earth was overtaking by the expanding star, being reduced to ash before it had even gotten beyond Saturn. The sun finally stopped expanding a few million miles before Jupiter, but the heat was intense enough to ignite the gaseous planets surface. The presence of another, albeit smaller, star in the solar system destroyed the rotation of the remaining planets, causing them to careen wildly through space before finally crashing into the sun's surface.
Light years away, an alien star ship picked up the signal from earth. After deciphering it, they determined it was a welcome signal to another species that this ship was familiar with. As they began journeying towards the distant signal, the ship monitored its destination through a satellite relay system that allowed them to use the sensors of the ship that had almost already arrived at earth. They watched the planet Earth as it grew larger in the viewer. They watched as the greeting ship disengaged from the mothership and descended to the planet's surface. They watched as the sun darkened and then expanded, quickly destroying the visiting ship and the entire solar system.
The crew stared in horror as the last of the images faded, then slowly bowed their heads in disappointment. Without a word, the helmsman changed their course back to their previous exploration track.