John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction: The Envoy (John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction: The Envoy #1)

Two cutting-edge scientists, friends and rivals since college, race to be the first to make alien contact. One finds a golden entity that offers to cure the worst Earthbound diseases. Simultaneously the other has discovered a creature that could be an alien or even a ghost. Is it two-in-one extraterrestrial contact... or something more monstrous?