A team of scientists at Uhuru Center has received and deciphered signals from deep space. The message is evidently an inquiry regarding the progress of the mission to suffocate humanity in its embryonic stages before it can become an impediment to an interstellar empire. Shortly thereafter, a reply was sent from earth orbit asserting that the final stages of the operation are well underway. According to the SETI team, the reply listed many current environmental and social crises having the concerted effect of increasing ignorance and fear, poisoning the air and water, financial manipulation imposing servitude and political paralysis, and engendering conflict between factions of the disenfranchised. Imposition of authoritarian controls, including the internment of millions and starvation and enslavement of billions, is in progress. The SETI group suspect the message to be a hoax conceived by radical groups bent on destroying Western civilization. But computer operators using advanced algorithmic systems emphatically support the veracity of the information. They note a reference to a "first effort" two hundred thousand earth-years ago which reduced human population to a few thousand, but cite words to the effect that "a few ingenious rascals got away". Further updates have been interrupted by technical difficulties.