People in the audience were getting out of their chairs. “That can’t be real.”

“Where’s it coming from?”

A woman behind him seized his shoulder. “Professor Blanchard, are we really seeing that?”

Michaels was on his feet, staring at the waterfall. “Derek, any chance this is really happening?”

“Anything’s possible, Karl.”

A male voice came in over the circuit. “This is Coordination. You guys have a problem?”

“Have you seen what’s coming in through the Hynds?”

“I haven’t—” He broke off. “My God, that can’t be right. Hold on.” He broke away and Derek heard him talking in the background.

The music played on. Derek’s feet pressed against the floor in a subconscious effort to stop it.

A woman’s voice broke in. “Give us a minute. We’re checking on it now.” Then she was talking to someone else: “You have any idea where they are?”

Derek couldn’t make out the response.

“Professor Blanchard. I can’t explain this. We’re not showing any technical issues.”

“Okay. Could you check it out? If you find anything, get back to me?”

“Of course. The techs are looking at it now.”

He signed off. “Ben, can you lock in on the star that’s closest to the source of this?” Water was still spilling serenely over the edge while the music continued. “Get me a catalog number.”

“For the star?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Working on it.”

Derek covered the microphone and tried to laugh everything off with his audience. “One of the reasons astronomy is such a pleasure,” he said. “You just never know.”

Then Ben was back. “It’s KL37741.”

“What can you tell me about it?”

“It’s a class G yellow dwarf. Range is approximately 7,300 light-years.”

“Anything else?”

“I can give you spectroscopic details if you want. But nothing about them stands out.”

“Can we get some additional magnification, Ben?”

“Negative. We are at maximum now.”

“Does it have a planet within the Goldilocks Zone?” In the area that would allow liquid water to exist.

He needed several minutes to respond to that. Finally, he was back. “It’s too far to determine.”

Linda was staring at the display. She looked gloriously happy. “Aliens?” she asked. “Derek, did we just discover aliens? Who play music?”

“I don’t know.”

The reporters were waving, trying to get their attention.

“We don’t need a planet,” said Linda. “Somebody’s out there. That’s all that matters. But we need a name for the star. This is going to be fairly big news, and we can’t just run around, referring to it by a bunch of digits.”

“I’m open to suggestions.”

“I don’t know, Derek. How about Clemmy?”

“That’s your cat’s name, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” She giggled. “You don’t like it?”