The hours that passed seemed like days.
Anderson arranged for a burst of encoded information about their predicament to be transmitted, but not to Earth. A signal was sent using a directional array with a deliberate disregard for focus. The communications team targeted a star a similar size to the sun, located between the spiral arms, ensuring the signal strength would be barely visible from Earth. By putting Earth on the outer reaches of the radio cone, they hoped to alert Earth without giving away its exact location.
Berry pointed out that it was pointless, as any craft tracing that beam to its target would, before long, enter a quiet region of space and easily detect the radio waves and chatter that had been pouring out from Earth for centuries. He joked about it, saying reruns of T
