Those who wondered why we had no Contact often assumed grand conspiracies or catastrophic disasters that kept them away or hidden. Some suggested a far more mundane reason. Perhaps they simply could not agree on how to Contact us. Perhaps it was not grand design, but grand incompetence. Many thought that if their governments spent as much time in committees or on fact-finding missions as our own, Contact would never happen.
I served on Columbia for a time during The War. She was a good ship, built back in ’56. Back then the politicos decided to limit the construction of dreadnoughts to one a year. So the Navy used the funding for ten dreadnoughts and built her, the most massive single warship ever built by the American navy. A bit big for me, but she was a good girl. Since I retired, we still hook up when we can. I love the looks on her crew’s faces when she welcomes me on board.
Columbia is a name long associated with America, the ethereal woman who calls us to progress into the future. We named cities and universities after her, and spacecraft named for her led us into space. And then there is Columbia, the fifth American colony world, where statues of her and Uncle Sam greet everyone at the spaceport. I’m one of many who act as Columbia’s face to visitors, guiding them everywhere they wish to go.
When I chose to be born, I knew it would be difficult. My partner was from a bad family. They thought they were a great family, and that is where the difficulties began. He recognized the truth. He had long before he met me. That is why he volunteered to serve in the first place. I recognized someone who wanted to make the worlds a better place and chose to help. It has been a difficult journey. The worlds do not change easily or quickly. But we have time.
Many people who answered the Fermi Paradox assumed that any alien capable of Contact would want Contact. But some theorized that they simply chose not to talk to us. To my mind, this is the most probable theory. The Peloran do not talk about it, but when they made Contact it was via radio transmissions using our frequencies and encryptions, in perfect, if slightly old fashioned, English, suggesting that they had been watching us for some time.