When Kevin has another fainting spell and vision at school and begins talking about planets, the principal suggests that Kevin should stay home. At this point Kevin decides to see Dr. Yalestrom, a psychologist.When Dr. Yalestrom asks Kevin to draw what he sees in his visions, he lets "the pencil flow over the paper automatically" and produces a detailed blueprint of a spaceship. Dr. Yalestrom believes that Kevin's visions are him trying to come to terms with his illness. The fire and destruction he sees reflect the sense of doom and the numbers counting down are part of that ending.
Kevin finally decides to tell his best friend Luna about his visions. To his surprise, Luna believes that his visions are really ones of an alien world and wonders if somehow his illness has given him the ability to connect to it. When Luna enters the first set of numbers into her phone, she tells Kevin they bring up the TRAPPIST-1e system which has planets believe to harbour life. Luna believes that Kevin should contact the scientists from SETI.
At first Kevin is dismissive of Luna's suggestion but then he decides to ask his mother to take him. His mother however, wants nothing to do with this and at first refuses to drive him to San Francisco to meet with the SETI scientists. She eventually relents and the two set out for the SETI Institute in Mountain View. At SETI, Kevin and his mother are initially turned down, but when the receptionist learns that Kevin is terminally ill, she arranges for Dr. Elise Levin, the director to see them. During his time in the lobby of the building, Kevin has a vision in which he sees a silvery object in space with the words Pioneer 11.
In talking to Dr. Levin and telling her about his hallucinations, the meaning of the numbers and that he believes someone is attempting to contact Earth. She is skeptical and tells Kevin she needs something new as proof his visions are authentic. Kevin then states that he believes they will receive a signal from Pioneer 11, a deep space probe NASA launched. Almost immediately Dr. Levin's phone rings and she is told that NASA is receiving telemetry from Pioneer 11.
Dr. Levin and Kevin race to NASA where Kevin meets Dr. Brewster and Phil a researcher who runs a number of tests on him. Eventually is allowed to listen to the Pioneer telemetry and he is able to decipher more messages, this one, "We are coming. Be prepared to accept us." However, Dr. Brewster remains skeptical. He is eventually able to translate a much longer message which has come from aliens almost forty years ago. It reveals that their world has been destroyed, three inhabited planets out of seven. Their home planet was destroyed by fires, after the collapse of their colonies.
Kevin rebels against Brewster's determination to keep the messages secret and tells the media what has been happening. He does this because he believes the messages are for all the people of Earth. More messages reveal that the aliens have sent capsules out to all the inhabited worlds, with a record of their history. It says that the capsules have a tight seal to preserve them and that they must find the capsule. Eventually the coordinates to the location of the capsule are sent. These coordinates are shared with the public and are eventually determined to be a location in the Colombian rainforest. Kevin along with his mom, Luna, Dr. Levin, Dr. Brewster and Ted, are determined to find the capsule before other teams of scientists. They have no idea that their discovery will unleash an overwhelming terror on Earth.
Discussion
Transmission is a fun, quick sci fi read that is best suited for ages nine to twelve. A young boy, suffering from a terminal illness discovers that he is able to receive and decode messages from an alien civilization. Unknown to Kevin and the NASA scientists there are two sets of messages, some are a warning that some of the messages are misleading and have been sent by aliens who will harm Earth. Eventually Kevin receives a message that is a warning to the people of Earth not to open a capsule that has landed on Earth, or they risk destruction. Unfortunately, this message is not decoded in time to prevent a world-wide catastrophe, which only Kevin and Luna do not succumb to. This sets the stage for the next book in the series.
There are plenty of holes in Rice's story line. For example when it is discovered the alien object has landed in the Colombian rain forest, the world's scientists race to Colombia hoping to locate it. It's unlikely a sovereign country would allow hordes of scientific teams to simply descend on the a delicate ecosystem so quickly. Scientists and upper level government officials would need to co-ordinate with Colombian officials to organize the search and to determine what will happen to the capsule.
As is typical in many juvenile and young adult novels, the adults in Transmission are generally portrayed as dumb, violent and unable to resolve issues or solve problems. Instead that seems to be the job of the thirteen-year-old protagonist who is remarkably good at getting the adults to do what he suggests.
Despite these flaws, Transmission is an exciting novel that reads quickly and will leave readers wanting more.
Book Details:
Transmission by Morgan Rice
Self published
169 pp.
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