Later that night, after the boys had been corralled and tucked into their individual beds, Martha, Kevin and Sam sat amicably in front of a roaring fire finishing off a bottle or two of Kevin’s home brew.
Sam found herself feeling more relaxed than she had in months. The combined warmth from the fire and old friends felt wonderful. Martha had just finished explaining how her grandmother had decided to instill a sense of their Penobscot heritage into her great - grandsons. From there the talk went to another of the Island’s oldest inhabitants.
"I can’t wait to see Happy again." Sam commented. "How is he doing?"
"He’s as crusty as ever, the old fart." Said Kevin. "Still lives out on the Head with all those broken down cars and that old hound of his."
Eventually, the conversation came around to Sam’s work in the SETI based tracking progrm over the last few years.
"Kev doesn’t believe in little green men from outer space ..... or UFOs." Martha reached across her husband on the couch for a handful of pretzels in a bowl on the coffee table. "Say’s it’s all Hollywood bullshit." She ended with her mouth full.
"Course it is!" Chimed in Kevin, "Only a fool would believe all that hype.
Roswell my ass."
"So, what do you say to that, Sammy?" Martha sat back against the cushions grinning. She was starting to have fun. This was an ongoing difference of opinion that her husband and friend had been having for years now. She knew it wouldn’t take much to get them both going. When they were kids, their arguments would get quite loud.
"God, Kevin. How can you be such a close minded idiot?" Sam snapped in disgust, fully taking the bait. "Little green men ....... Jesus."
"You tell him, girl." Martha knew that Sam was just getting warmed up.
"In our galaxy alone, Kev, there are approximately three to four hundred million stars. That’s so many that I can’t even begin to comprehend it! But think about this, Kevin. Each and everyone of those stars could be possible homes for other beings. Don’t you know that Earth is a relative late - comer to the cosmic scene?"
"Well then," Kevin, unimpressed by her figures, munched loudly on a pretzel, "why don’t we just take a little trip to a couple of those stars and check them out?"
Sam laughed, "Kevin, we couldn’t afford the gas to get to the star next door let alone the other three hundred and ninety nine million of them. That’s why the tracking programs, like the one I work with, are so vital. The interstellar distances are so vast that it’s just simply more cost effective to listen. Not to mention the time it would take in terms of years of travel to those distances.
Radio broadcasting is the only way to go."
The three sat quietly for a few moments thinking about what Sam had just said.
Suddenly, Sam started to laugh. "Really, Kev. Little green men? Aren’t you going to feel like an ass when your nearest galactic neighbor turns out to be so much smarter than you?"
"Probably better looking, too." Roared Martha, shoving her elbow deep into her husband’s ribs.
Sam shook her head as she rose from her chair. She knew when to fold with these two.
"Laugh all you want, guys, but I’m convinced that somewhere out there - lost among all those stars - is a civilization that is much older and therefore that much more elaborate than ours. Our culture has only had technology for a bit over a hundred years now. What if we are able to discover one that has used technology for one hundred thousand years? Think what we could learn from them!"
She started to pull on her jacket for the short walk home.
"Yeah," said Kevin, as he helped with the coat, "or maybe we should think about how they could blast the bejesus out of us!"
"Do you really believe that, Kev?" asked Sam incredulously, spinning around to face him.
"Don’t really know what I believe, kid. All I’m saying is this - maybe, just maybe, when all is said and done after using all your fancy science, silicone chips and amazing computer that can make a trillion fucking calculations in a heartbeat - maybe if we ever do find someone else out there - well, we may find that we would have been better off just to have kept our mouths shut."
Sam reached up to give Kevin a hug goodnight. "That’s what I’ve always liked about you, Kev. You’re so damn positive in your outlook."