Chaney sits back in his chair, mentally fried. “Dodds, turn that damn hologram off, will you, it’s giving me a headache. Marvin, are you saying that something could still be alive down there?”

“No, absolutely not, sir,” interrupts Dodds.

“I’m asking Dr. Teperman.”

Marvin smiles. “No, Mr.Vice President, I’m not implying anything of the sort. As I said, the fecal matter, if it is fecal matter, is very old. Even if an alien life-form did manage to survive the crash, it’s certainly been dead for longer than our own species has inhabited the Earth. And a silicon-based life form like this probably couldn’t exist in an oxygen environment.”

“Then explain to me what the hell’s going on.”

“Okay, as incredible as it sounds, an alien vessel, obviously light-years ahead of our own technology, crash-landed on Earth sixty-five million years ago. This impact was a tremendous event in human history, eh, in that the cataclysm, by wiping out the dinosaurs, led to the eventual evolution of our own species. Whatever life-form was inside this vessel probably sent a distress signal to its homeworld, which we believe is located somewhere within the constellation of Orion. This would be standard operating procedure—our own astronauts would do the same thing if they found themselves marooned on Alpha Centauri or some other distant world light-years away. Of course, the distances involved make a rescue mission out of the question. Once our Extraterrestrial NASA Control counterparts in Orion received the deep-space distress call, their only course of action would be to attempt to reactivate the alien computers on board their space craft and collect whatever data they could.”

Dr. Aldrich nods in agreement. “The black sludge was probably released automatically when the signal reactivated some kind of alien life-support system.”

The NASA director can barely contain his excitement. “Forget about building a transmitter on the moon. If Marvin’s correct, we could access this ship and potentially communicate directly with the alien intelligence using their own equipment.”

“You’re assuming this alien homeworld still exists,” Marvin says. “The deep-space signal would have been transmitted millions of years ago. For all we know, the planet’s sun could have gone supernova—”

“Yes, yes, of course you’re right about that. My point is that we have an incredible opportunity to access advanced technologies which may have survived within this vessel. The potential wealth of knowledge down there could accelerate our civilization well into the next millennium.”

The vice president can feel his hands shaking. “Who else knows about this?”

“Just the people in this room and a handful of NASA officials.”

“What about that SOSUS biologist, the one in Florida?”

“The biologist is dead,” Aldrich states. “The Mexican Coast Guard fished his body from the Gulf earlier this week, covered in the sludge.”