[ WP ] You have just been sworn in as President , and are being told the truth about alien life ... but it 's incredibly far from what anyone had ever imagined .

`` Madam President – I wanted to congratulate you. I voted for you in the primary and the general.'' 
 
 The NASA Director was at least 8 inches taller than me but I somehow still seemed to tower over him. `` Director Harris, while I appreciate the sentiment, that better not be the reason for this emergency briefing. NASA is n't exactly at the top of my list of priorities right now.'' 
 
 `` Of course. My apologies.'' He paused and fiddled with his glasses. I think he expected me to say something, but I stayed silent. `` Madam President, are you familiar with the Voyager program?'' 
 
 `` Not really.'' 
 
 `` The Voyager program launched two probes to study the outer solar system. They're currently the furthest manmade objects from earth. And about 2 years ago, we received a transmission back from Voyager 1 that it had crashed.'' 
 
 ``... so?'' 
 
 `` Let me explain. Space is *massive*. Mind-bogglingly, astonishingly massive – and it's mostly empty. The odds of a crash are so low as to be practically zero.'' 
 
 Two minutes and I still had n't learned a single piece of useful information. `` Director, I really do n't have time for a science lesson.'' 
 
 Director Harris adjusted his glasses again. `` I'm sorry, but it's crucial you have proper context. Ok. So there was a crash. We chalked it up to pure bad luck. But a few months later we learned that Voyager 2 had crashed the exact same distance away from the earth.'' 
 
 `` They crashed in the same place. That makes sense.'' 
 
 `` No! They were the same *distance* away from us, but in totally different locations. Separated by billions of miles.'' 
 
 `` Interesting. But I'm not quite sure I follow.'' 
 
 `` It turns out there's a giant solid sphere about 32 billion miles across surrounding our entire solar system. Our sun is at the center of it.'' 
 
 `` What - um. What?'' 
 
 The director had stopped messing with his glasses. For the first time in our brief chat, he actually seemed like the sort of person who would have a title like'Director.' `` Madam President, we're surrounded completely by a giant enclosure. All the distant stars and galaxies we see at night? They're just projections on the sphere. Completely fake. Almost as if someone placed them there to *look* like distant stars to our equipment.'' 
 
 I was silent for several seconds, trying to think but failing to do so. `` What is it? This... enclosure?'' 
 
 `` We have two main theories. Best-case scenario? Aliens did this for some reason. Maybe to protect us. Maybe to protect themselves. Maybe we're just in some sort of Alien zoo.'' 
 
 `` That's the *best* case scenario? What's the other?'' 
 
 `` That we're all agents in a simulation. A simulated solar system living inside a supercomputer run by much more advanced beings. And that's why we never published the result. Because if they realize we know, they might decide their little experiment has outlived its usefulness.'' 
 
 Well. All that stuff I'd been briefed on about JFK and our chemtrails program did n't seem quite so shocking anymore.
