 
Michael 'Bren' Brennan - Lead Guitar, Short Arms, Deep Pockets
On August 17th 1957, the National Transmissions Monitoring Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, intercepted a short burst of radio traffic, broadcast on what appeared to be a ULF (ultra-low frequency) waveband. It lasted just under 11 seconds and would have been dismissed as deep space noise from a dying star had it not been for one thing - a series of regularly timed pulses which appeared to be using the radio frequency as a carrier wave. They were faint, but quite distinct, and their symmetry and regularity indicated an intentional signal, as opposed to random radio noise.
This in itself was enough to cause great interest and a degree of alarm. The Cold War was escalating
 as information came from the East that the Russians were about to launch something called Sputnik -apparently an artificial satellite. No-one knew what it was intended to do and there were fears in the Pentagon that its purpose was not entirely benign. Was this transmission connected to the mysterious Sputnik?
What was in little doubt was that the signal had not originated from an earthbound source. The trajectory and strength indicated an origin in the vicinity of Titan, the largest of Saturn's eighteen moons and this brought fresh panic. It was just conceivable that the Russians had managed to launch a space vehicle capable of making the transmission, but it was unthinkable that it should have got as far as Saturn without anybody noticing. This had to mean that it was not of terrestrial origin.
Two years passed with little more than speculation as to what the signal was and where it had come from. In 1959, NASA's Ames Research Center started to manage the SETI programme - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. UFO-mania had reached epidemic proportions in the US and elsewhere and wild rumours were circulating about a place called Roswell and a facility known as Area 51. SETI started to conduct searches in the quiet region of the electromagnetic spectrum (the so-called 'microwave window' between 1000 and 10,000 mHz) and made a startling discovery. Messages identical in structure to the original one were being received on almost a monthly basis, and were coming from much further away than Titan.
 This was now approaching National Emergency proportions, and a frantic rush to decode the signal started. It took some time to separate the message from surrounding static and interplanetary noise and when this had been done, the data was passed to the West's encryption and decode agencies for analysis. Technology in the early sixties did not enjoy the sophistication we know today, and three years passed before a rough translation was available. The advent of encryption/decode computers in the early seventies made the task somewhat easier and in Spring 1978 a full text was available.Twenty one years after it was first received, it made astonishing reading and went thus:
"People of Earth,
We from the planet Tharg salute you and wave our fingers at you in a pleasant fashion.
We have this day downloaded one of our kind to your world.
His name on our world is Brr'naaf Egad Nobhed and you shall know him as Bren.
He is wise in the way of stringed instruments (except banjo) and will cause delight amongst you, but not on Thursdays.
He is not of your species and you will not understand anything he says, but he is harmless
unless exposed to cheese scones and those of your kind known as women.
We are glad to see the back of him.
Live long and prosper."
If nothing else, the people of Tharg are at least refreshingly honest. Looks like we're stuck with him.
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