John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction: The Envoy — David J. Schow

Since college, Steven Allard and Benjamin Raines have competed to be the first to make genuine alien contact. Corporate mega-science versus home-grown improvisation. Now they both apparently succeed at the same time — but one such contact is a transmission, and the other seems to be a ghost. What Steven calls “the Envoy” offers enormous benefits to humankind on Earth. But Ben receives another, more sinister Creature who warns against the Envoy's generosity. It's all a false handshake as a prelude to stripping Earth of every single consumable resource … but how do you say no to an instant cure for cancer? Ben Raines must race time and go to war against his best friend to try and stop the Earth from being ravaged. And how can he prove the Creature is not just another greedy invader?