This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service, William Armstrong normally writes plays and puzzle books, and J.W. works at a laboratory. This story runs 932 words, and this review contains spoilers. 

First contact is an extortion text from the Karg. It’s a licensing agreement for a cyberworm to use Earth’s computing power to mine galactic cryptocurrency. If Earth agrees, the worm will only use part of Earth’s available resources, but if not, the worm will erase all digital information. With little choice, Earth’s governments agree, and the worm builds capability and begins to transmit. Meanwhile, Earth’s scientists work on countermeasures, and searching the galaxy for signals on similar wavelengths, they find that the galactic economy seems to work mostly on this kind of extortion. Also, gossip suggests the Karg economy collapsed decades ago. So, now Earth is in an awkward position. Can they eliminate the worm and successfully carry out a charm offensive to join the galactic culture? Or will they need to save the countermeasures, just in case?

First, the Prime Directive comes from Star Trek. Also known as the non-interference directive, it prohibits members of Starfleet from interfering with the natural development of alien civilizations. I’m not sure how it applies, as there appears to be interference all around here. Maybe that’s the point.

The story is a fairly straightforward narrative without characters, written in present tense. It outlines the contact and both the surface and the covert responses from Earth. The part about the Karg having somehow done themselves in is an entertaining twist, and Earth’s strategists make use of the knowledge for leverage. It looks like they’re in.

On the less positive side, I think this should have been either longer or shorter. With characters and development, this would make a great novel. On the other hand, shorter would have been a quicker and more entertaining read. This is unusually positive, by the way. Given Earth’s politics, I’d expect a lot of wrangling would doom our chances of carrying out a workable strategy.

Three and a half stars.