An alien civilization on the brink of extinction transmits their DNA code in hopes that a distant civilization will intercept their message and recreate their life-form.

"Life Beyond" is available on Amazon.

SYNOPSIS:

A genetics researcher, Jennifer, finds signs of DNA only in meteorites found in Antarctica. She meets up with an astronomer, Darrin, at a SETI convention. There is instant chemistry between the two young university instructors. Unfortunately Darrin’s unapproved presentation at the SETI convention is misstated by a news reporter, landing him in trouble with his Dean. A later confrontation with the reporter ends in a black-eye for Darrin. In return he tries to have the reporter fired. Using insight from Jennifer’s research, Darrin searches for ET’s radio signals in the South Pole skies. Darrin is successful in finding a message from ET, but is constantly tripped up by the meddling reporter. As Darrin and Jennifer unfold the message, they discover the most important portion of the message is encrypted. They learn it can be deciphered by re-creating ET’s life-form using segments of DNA described in the message and an earthly host. Meanwhile the reporter sabotages Darrin’s car and causes the death of one of his graduate students. Jennifer test the re-creation process first using a mustard plant and then mice as the host, but fails when a chimpanzee host is matched to ET itself. Her failure leaves only one option.

While the story has some similarity to CONTACT, it is uniquely different based on the question of “what if an alien civilization was on the brink of extinction and their only option for survival was to transmit their DNA code into space, hoping some distant civilization will intercept their message and be foolish enough to recreate their life-form.”