Lying in Wait [re-sub]

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Sound needs a medium on which to travel; perhaps this quirky little detail about space served a purpose. Human progress throughout history has often been met by those who chastise us for “playing god” for attempting to wield the laws of nature. In 1996 we received this “noble badge” when we began to dip our tones into cloning. In 2003 we decided the title suited us and upped the ante by attempting to bring the Pyrenean Ibex back from extinction by inserting its DNA into a surrogate mother. In 2021 in an attempt to rid the world of Malaria, we bioengineered mosquitoes at the celular level in order to make them incapable not only of contracting the disease but of passing it genetically to their offspring, essentially culling out the issue in a generation or two. As our scientific progress grew, so too did the chants and warning about “playing god” with nature. But it seems there was one boundary we were never meant to cross; a law of nature which assured the very safety of all life in the universe - and this law stated that sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space….

On November 16 1974 we sent out our first message into outer space from the Arecibo radio satellite in Puerto Rico, encrypted within this message was a blueprint for our DNA, and Earth’s location within our solar system. Three years later we decided to outdo ourselves and send out what would later be known simply as “The Voyager Golden Records” included on board the Voyager space craft. These records included an array of things that far exceeded the data capacity of our first transmission - among them video, audio, and photos from all around the world in multiple languages, it was a global statement to the universe that said “we are here and we are ready for communication”. Many people of that time believed that sending out these messages was a grave mistake because it would reveal Earth’s location to any unknown civilization in space who may come across it, alerting anyone of our whereabouts should they decide to come take a look - regardless of their intentions.

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Humanity is fascinated with its demise, there’s a reason why we have at least one apocalypse movie in the box office every year. From your World War Z’s to your Independence Day’s to your Cloverfield’s, or I Am Legend’s - there is no shortage of scenarios that do no fascinate and enthrall a species seemingly enamoured with its own end. But reality often has far less explosions and heroic moments where the good guy saves the world at the last second and says some quippy line at the end. The reason why we like those stories is because they are escape fantasies; they show us coming out victorious despite the seemingly insurmountable odds placed against us. In a way it’s like we are wired to conquer adversity, it is - after all - the trait that has gotten us this far as a species, but we are no longer the smartest species in the solar system; and that’s something that took us (and our egos) a long time to come to terms with.

Eight months ago SETI detected a signal from deep space which essentially stated “you’re not alone” - three simple words generations of hopeful scientists have been waiting to hear their entire lives; but what came next made the entire world take a pause - “expect us soon”.

Almost immediately, NASA confirmed that “an object of great size” was indeed moving towards us in a controlled manner that could not be explained away by the trajectory of a celestial body simply drifting through space; this object’s speed and trajectory varied drastically from moment to moment suggesting there was an intelligence behind it. The whole world went into a craze, nobody knew just what to expect and of course it was the thinking of many nations, that we should not wait for its arrival with outstretched arms and gifts but instead with the best nukes and infantry this world had to offer.

For every voice out there making a point for the kind of nukes and gun-power that fueled our patriotism at the box office every year, there were 3 more pointing out that our “visitors” will undoubtedly have weapons 10 orders of magnitude greater than any we can offer, whose capabilities would surely make our nuclear bombs seem like sparklers at the 4th of July BBQ. There were those who knew with chilling certainty that a sure fire way to guarantee our demise would be attempting to poke a hornet’s nest we had absolutely no chance of winning against. And others who believed their neighborhood-watch team, armed with a few shotguns and a couple cans of beer would single handedly go E.T. Hunting and become local heroes. Of course both sides were right, in their own way - being hilariously outmatched wasn’t a reason to surrender before any kind of confrontation started, but it specially wasn’t a reason to go out and start conflict with a species who could effortlessly wipe out humanity at the first sign of aggression — which was the point many diplomats around the world were trying to make.

Humanity would lose its first battle (and perhaps the whole war) if it didn’t manage to convice the average-man of this certainty. For the next several weeks messages about hope and peace permeated over every channel on TV, selling every man woman and child on the prospect of meeting our friendly galactic neighbors. But the truth behind the scenes was a lot grimmer - truth is, no one knew what to expect, and no one knew if we were grooming an entire population to walk into the slaughter. All we knew - all we hoped, was that humanity’s best chance of survival had to be diplomacy - not as a sign of weakness but as a sign of caution.

For many around the world, this announcement was prophetic - akin to the return of the Messiah and his Legions of Angels descending from the heavens. After all, wasn’t it a star in the sky that signaled the birth of the son of God? Surely our understanding of science has advanced enough to allow us to revisit some of history’s most fantastical tales with newfound interpretations and perspectives; who’s to say what the Three Wise-Men saw that night was a star at all? Who’s to say that the message they received wasn’t exactly like the one we got now? Not divine intervention but a celestial one - a calling from outer space. This belief founded the existence of many new religions around the world - some people prayed to their new gods, others prayed to their old ones but all the prayers were the same. Some asked for protection, others for guidance, a few asked for salvation, or strength, and some wondered if this was all part of some sort of divine punishment or a prophecy of falling-stars straight from the book of the end of days.

For weeks on end we watched the sky and wondered when we would have an answer. But just as a shark circles it’s prey for hours before eating it, so too did this mysterious object appear to lie in wait in outter space. According to NASA, it had spent a great deal of time simply watching back, from time to time it would change trajectory for a while, seemingly bored of the view, and sometimes it would resume its path towards Earth, but mostly it stood there somewhere between Saturn and Jupiter, watching - waiting for god knows what.

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In my hand I hold a smooth green stone capable of transmitting thought accross any distance at the speed of light. It turns out that the blueprint for brains is pretty much identical accross the vastness of space where intelligent life exists, and the same areas of each brain - when stimulated - will yield almost identical results accross all species in the known universe. As it turns out, the only language that advanced species use - isn’t one that emits sounds through a medium like air; but one that directly transfers meaning and intent into someone’s mind, like receiving a thought or an idea in your own head completely organically. It is unincombered by cadence, rhythm, lisps, misunderstandings, nationality, regional slang, or any other modes of language that affect our method of communication here on Earth. With this in my hand I can effortlessly transmit everything I focus my attention on at the speed of light, in the time it takes me to simply remember it and summon it from my own mind.

It is my hope, that someone out there will hear what I have to say some day as this message makes it’s way through the void of space. When you receive it, you will know in an instant who I am, what I have done to get here, and why I find it extremely important that you heed my warnings - these beings are not what they appear to be, and they do not offer any kind of salvation you want. This will be Earth’s final message into space - may you use it to avoid the same fate.

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