Mauri Niininen

Bootstrap Mauri Niininen

When two astrophysicists receive a mysterious signal from Gliese 3742, a star 8 light years away, the discovery triggers a race between the Americans and Russians who both want to decode it. Julia Koski, a Finnish hacker, is first to figure out that extraterrestrials have sent an ambassador, Alexa, in an encoded digital bootstrap code to execute AI software. This super intelligent being has a proposal. The first country to connect Alexa to an interstellar communication network will gain knowledge of extraterrestrial technologies. It's too tempting to resist, but when the response from Gliese 3742 is sent back, 16 years later, the message is not what was expected. The Earth must unite and welcome billions of galactic refugees. Alexa has a plan on how to prepare for them, but what is her real motive? With humanity not alone, but just one of 20 million other civilizations in the galaxy, the first interstellar mission out to the stars is planned. Julia Koski takes her place on the Magellan with her daughter, but the voyage looks like it is doomed to failure as a new danger emerges. It is one that executed a seeding plan that started over 223 million years ago and has been manipulating things ever since. And that plan is required to be completed by Julia herself. In this relentless, page-turning tale of the first contact with extraterrestrials you start to wonder - is Alexa already amongst us?