《Frequency》 1. The Breach What more could you ask from life? The drive to work was about as uneventful as usual; a long 15 mile highway drive to the next state over while blaring my favorite metal album. I spend my drives warming up my voice in like fashion. I may be a system admin, but I spend a lot of my time talking to customers and fellow technicians. 8 hours a day of long phone calls and conference calls with installers gets exhausting. One of these days, I¡¯ll properly thank my music teacher for teaching me how to project and maintain my voice. ¡°We are the rust worshiping the RAI¨C¡± my voice cuts out as my throat closes. It¡¯s too early in the morning to attempt that scream. Oh well, I¡¯m getting off the highway anyway; 5 more minutes and I¡¯ll be at the office. I begin to wonder where it all changed. I was a musician in the day, but my mother insisted I go to engineering school. Many of my other friends went to similar colleges and it¡¯s not like I dislike my engineering work; I love the challenge, but I also love creating things. But for now, I settle for my 9 to 5 job as a system admin for a security company. It¡¯s simple work; manage and build camera systems, maintain servers, tell the occasional entitled client to kick rocks, it¡¯s not bad. I pull into the parking lot and approach the tall tower at work. The Monday air is nice and cool as I walk towards the tower; keycard in one hand and a thermos of cold water in the other. As I walk through the doors, I see one of the lieutenants for our security guard side; a stout middle aged hispanic woman who looks friendly but won¡¯t hesitate to bust your kneecaps if provoked. We hit it off immediately when I served under her as a field officer before a knee injury put me out of commission. ¡°Yo Mike!¡± she calls out to me in a booming voice, her Jersey accent heavy in her voice. ¡°Ortiz!¡± I respond in kind and we share a brief fist bump, ¡°anything exciting going on today?¡± ¡°Oh, the usual,¡± she replies. ¡°People inappropriately calling out and leaving us short handed with more and more contracts to fill.¡± ¡°I feel that,¡± I reply understanding her pain; the instability of the world lately has resulted in more people buying more cameras than my servers can handle. ¡°But we make do; shortages and hardships and all. That¡¯s what sets us apart.¡± We share a brief laugh as Ortiz heads for her patrol office and I call the elevator to go up. ¡°Oh, one thing!¡± I call out to Ortiz, ¡°I¡¯m taking the network down for like 5 minutes at 17; phones and internet won¡¯t work for a bit but it¡¯ll be brief¡± ¡°Why you gotta do that to me?¡± Ortiz responds sarcastically as I hear the elevator ding. ¡°I have a firewall update to do,¡± I answer heading into the elevator car, ¡°It¡¯ll be really fast; I already have it downloaded and just need to hit a switch.¡± ¡°Hey, you¡¯re the IT wizard,¡± Ortiz responds and heads for her office. I chuckle and scan my badge and hit the button to go to the second floor. This is a normal day as usual; nothing too exciting and nothing to go wrong. Even my plans before the network update were simple and just required me going back over a few camera analytics. Par for the course, really. Of course, as any programmer can tell you, that never goes to plan. My whole shift was a brain wracking nightmare. The camera analytics actually resulted in the cameras being defective and needing to order new ones. I had to program 3 new panels, but 1 hadn¡¯t arrived and the other two had issues communicating and took hours to be programmed. 5pm couldn¡¯t come soon enough, and I still had that damn firewall update. At least I know what I¡¯m doing; the firewall update is ready and I just need to hit a reboot button. I warned everyone on my side of the office and finally hit that button. As expected, everyone¡¯s computer lost connection and I can see the firewall installing the update. I lean back in my chair and watch the progress bar go to completion. I normally warn 5 minutes but the update is usually done in a minute. No problems. The bar stopped moving for a good 3 minutes. That¡¯s weird. Usually it¡¯s pretty smooth and the hardware isn¡¯t old. ¡°Damn thing¡¯s probably frozen,¡± I sigh. I get my keys and walk over to the IT closet and find the SonicWall box, the machine that manages our firewall. Normally, there should be a solid blue light and 2 blinking green lights. But all of the lights were red. I had never seen this model do this; I didn¡¯t even know it had red LEDs in it. I pull out my phone to look up the device sheet and see what this means. No signal. What? The IT closet isn¡¯t isolated or anything; I should have some signal at least and the office is in a 5G Ultra Wideband area so this shouldn¡¯t be a problem. I stepped out of the closet to try and get my phone working and that¡¯s when our HR manager popped her head out of her office down the hall from the closet. ¡°Hey Michael?¡± she calls to me in a concerned tone. ¡°Is everything okay?¡± ¡°Damn firewall isn¡¯t rebooting and I can¡¯t get any signal,¡± I replied, starting to grit my teeth. ¡°Is it not coming up for you?¡± She thought for a moment and gestured for me to go into her office. This can¡¯t be good. I go into her office and she simply points to her computer monitor and I couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing. Static. That¡¯s it, just static. Like an old tube TV with no signal. This is all modern equipment; it shouldn¡¯t be doing anything like this. I close my slacked jaw and head back to the SonicWall to see if maybe something got shorted. The only thing that greeted me were those same red lights. I looked up the server rack to a monitor that shows the office cameras but each of the cameras had static. Static. Static. If these cameras go offline, they only show a blue screen or a still of the last image they displayed; not static. But it only got weirder. I could hear the server fans start spinning up to max and an electric hum filled the IT closet. I touched the case of one of the servers but I got hit by the strongest static shock I¡¯ve ever felt in my life. It reminded me of that time I crossed wires and got a taste of mains voltage. What the hell was going on? The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I looked back up to the monitor and the static remained but I could see patterns in it; weird shapes and symbols covering the screen of each camera. A cyberattack, and I was slow to respond. I started pulling the plug on the networked machines, trying to mitigate the attack as each of the servers protested with a nice bite of an electric shock. I unplugged the power to the camera NVR and it fell silent, but the strange patterns remained. I kept pulling power where I could; this isn¡¯t the best way to mitigate this kind of attack but it¡¯s all I can do from here. It could be some kind of denial of service attack; someone sending random data to our servers to slow them down or damage them. A server IP address may have gotten leaked. I pulled out the SonicWall, where in theory the attack should be hitting, and it went quiet. But the strange distortions in the cameras remained. ¡°Fuck this!¡± I shout, having enough. I resort to the most desperate attempt; unplugging the uninterruptible power supply. This would kill power to all of the machines simultaneously at the risk of causing a power surge later or even some machines needing to be defaulted and lost configurations. I hit the switch and pulled the plug and the UPS alarm briefly sounded before going quiet. Now, I studied mechanical engineering for 6 years and I¡¯ve been running servers for almost a decade now. I¡¯ve seen almost everything there is to see when it comes to managing a network and only a few times have I been caught off guard. This is one of those times. Even without power going to the servers, they were still running! Their fans running even faster! I could only stand and stare, mouthing various expletives as I tried to process just what I was looking at. The spectacle lasted only a few seconds before all of the machines finally fell silent.
It took almost an hour to put everything back together, all the while various employees popping into the IT closet, asking questions, offering help, stating their concerns. I could only put in my earphones and drown them out as I worked. They wanted an explanation but I could provide none. They had questions but they were drowned out by my own. They wanted to help but this was best left to me. The one saving grace is that the office closes at 5pm so by the time this all happened, everyone was leaving for the day. All I could tell them was ¡°temporary issue; I¡¯ll have it fixed by morning.¡± I¡¯ve always had a track record for fixing the impossible so that bought me some time; time to figure out just what exactly happened. I finally got all of the machines running again, this time no weird hiccups or glitches. Thankfully, because I ran a backup before the update, I just rolled back to that update and the machines and their configurations were all back to normal by 6pm. I can only assume that the firewall update had some kind of glitch or virus in it so it¡¯s best to stick with the last stable version. I return to my office and decide to stay a couple extra hours. I don¡¯t have anyone waiting for me at home anyway and I¡¯m not doing anything tonight; I can stay and watch the system to make sure nothing like that happens again. But I¡¯m already so drained that all I can do is bury my face into my desk. I have to figure out if this was a breach and take the necessary action. A quiet knock comes from the doorway and Ortiz enters my office. ¡°You alright Mike?¡± she asks. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m good.¡± I respond, taking my glasses off and rubbing my eyes. ¡°I¡¯ve just seen some shit; that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Nah bud,¡± she responds and sits at one of the chairs across from my desk. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you handle an active shooter in the ghetto with less gray hairs.¡± Part of me really wanted to tell her what happened but there¡¯s no way she would believe me though. Plus, if it¡¯s a breach, the last thing I want to do is announce it to everyone. It hit the keyboard of my computer to wake it back up and wait for my desktop to load. ¡°Trust me, I¡¯m good,¡± I reply while putting my glasses back on. ¡°Just a technical issue I should have prepared for.¡± I realized my computer hadn¡¯t fully booted up yet so I hit the enter key to make sure I woke it up. ¡°Maybe this job is getting to you,¡± Ortiz suggested. ¡°You were thinking about taking a vacation a while back; what stopped you?¡± ¡°Because I get bored,¡± I replied. ¡°The last time I took a vacation was for a big game release, but I spent the last couple of days of it taking apart my air conditioner for maintenance.¡± Ortiz chuckled. I watch my monitor in my peripheral vision but it¡¯s still black. I groan and face it, ready to hit the power switch. I realized then that it was on the whole time. It displayed a black screen with only three words on it. I could only stare at the screen. This is NOT what this computer is configured to do. Was this a virus? I quickly jump below my desk and unplug the ethernet cable just in case. Ortiz saw my sudden movement and looked over and put on her glasses to read the text, glitching like some stereotypical distortion glitch shader effect in games. I climbed back up to my chair and stared at the screen, both of us in complete silence. ¡°Is it a virus?¡± Ortiz finally asked. ¡°I think so,¡± I responded. It hit the spacebar on the keyboard and the display changed. It displayed one of the symbols from the IT closet monitor briefly along with static and other symbols as a loud technological screech bellowed from my computer speakers before the weird display cut out and returned to the original text. ¡°¡®It has begun,¡¯¡± I read aloud, ¡°what could that mean?¡± Ortiz gave me a confused look. ¡°That¡¯s what it says?¡± I looked back at the very clear yet glitchy text and turned to Ortiz. ¡°That¡¯s clearly what it says,¡± I tell her. ¡°Uhhh Mike, I don¡¯t think so,¡± Ortiz answered, adjusting her glasses. ¡°It says ¡®ha comenzado¡¯.¡± I turn back to the very obvious English text. ¡°No, I guarantee you it doesn¡¯t,¡± I tell her, refusing to be tricked. ¡°It very clearly says ¡®it has begun¡¯.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s what that phrase means,¡± Ortiz tells me, ¡°but it¡¯s clearly in Spanish.¡± I could only stare at the text on the screen. ¡®It has begun¡¯ is very clearly displayed. How could I see English but she sees Spanish? That doesn¡¯t make sense. I decided to test something for science. One of my MMO raid partners is from Japan; maybe Ortiz is playing a joke with me and my friend can prove it. I take out my phone and see it has signal again. I pull up his number and video call him. Of course, he rejects the call so I call him again immediately. The screen blinks and shows a very tired man rubbing his eyes. ¡°Nani ga hoshii no ka, omae?¡± he asks in an accusing voice. ¡°Oi, need your help Satoru,¡± I tell him and change to the rear camera facing the monitor and focus on the text on the screen. ¡°What does this say?¡± Satoru in the phone screen squints at the screen, trying to read the weird text. ¡°It says ¡®hajimatta¡¯, meaning ¡®it¡¯s started¡¯.¡± I nod and begin to move the phone away. Suddenly it hit me. ¡°Wait, it says ¡®hajimatta¡¯?¡± I ask, my anxiety rising, ¡°word for word?¡± ¡°Yeah bud,¡± Satoru answers, ¡°it¡¯s Japanese.¡± Nothing adds up; the display shows ¡®it has begun¡¯ clear as day. I even watched the screen and it didn¡¯t change or anything. How can the same English text be shown in another language to two others? ¡°Thanks Satoru, I¡¯ll talk to you later,¡± I told him and hung up the phone and threw it on my desk. My eyes are starting to burn and I could only rub them. Is this all an elaborate prank being played? Ortiz must have seen my frustration and took off her glasses with a sigh. Great! Hopefully this means she¡¯ll confess to playing some kind of prank on me and the jig is up! Ortiz takes to her original seat and rubs her eyes too. ¡°None of this makes any sense,¡± she laments. I guess she¡¯s not confessing. I decided enough is enough for today; the computer is not connected to the internet so I¡¯ll just wipe the hard drive when I come back in the morning. A little display virus is simple compared to what I¡¯ve fought. 2. Follow Me I have been spending all Tuesday morning on this crap. I have been reinstalling my OS, wiping the drive, and even swapping out drives. Every time I install this hard drive into my computer, I am greeted with the same display. //:: IT HAS BEGUN ::\\ I¡¯ve at least localized it to the hard drive itself and not the computer, thankfully. But that concerns me even more now; whatever is on the computer is stuck, even after some insane deletion algorithms. In theory, this drive should be cleaner than my spotless driving record but this damned virus is still there. At this point, I¡¯m just pounding my head on my desk. Why is this happening? What is this? What has ¡®begun¡¯? I wouldn¡¯t have minded if this was a simple virus that would go away but since it¡¯s this stubborn, there has to be some reason for this. ¡°Hey Michael,¡± a voice woke me up from my trance. I jump and look over to the doorway of my office and there¡¯s James, our monitoring center manager. ¡°You alright, bud?¡± he asked me, obviously concerned. ¡°Yeah, just a lot on my mind,¡± I answered, looking back at my monitor that still had the cryptic message displayed. ¡°When were you planning on heading home?¡± he asked me, arms crossed in the doorway. ¡°I just started, James,¡± I answered him, turning off the desktop again. ¡°I¡¯ll probably leave around 5:30.¡± James just chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s 6 right now,¡± he told me. 6pm? No way. Did I really just spend my entire shift working on this damn drive? ¡°Have you gotten anywhere with the network?¡± James suddenly asked. I guess he saw that I was startled by knowing I was staying late. ¡°The network is updated and running fine,¡± I reported to him, ¡°the only thing left is this corrupted drive. No matter what I do, I can¡¯t get this virus off of it.¡± James thought for a moment as I began removing the hard drive again for yet another swap. ¡°Michael, stop thinking about it,¡± he told me. ¡°You¡¯re going to burn yourself out over this. Nothing¡¯s broken and the outage is resolved so there¡¯s no use worrying about it.¡± I groaned as I stared at the corrupted hard drive in my hand. ¡°That¡¯s the problem, James,¡± I told him, ¡°something is broken. There¡¯s a problem I can¡¯t solve and I¡¯m staring right at it. I can¡¯t explain what happened during the breach and I can¡¯t explain this damn virus. I¡¯m not used to not knowing something.¡± James sighed and thought for a moment. ¡°Then why not take some time off so you can focus on it?¡± he suggested. ¡°Everything is fine and we¡¯re all caught up. Sean and I can handle things while you¡¯re gone. Take a little personal leave and solve that problem of yours.¡± I thought about what he was suggesting for a minute. I would think he was suspending me, but he¡¯s right; everything is functional and no equipment was damaged besides this corrupted drive. There are no problems right now besides this mysterious virus. I haven¡¯t had any time off recently so maybe it¡¯s for the best. Maybe I¡¯m overthinking something and my overworked brain is trying too hard to solve a quadratic equation when really the problem is what is 2 + 2? ¡°If you¡¯ll be fine, then okay,¡± I told him, getting up from my chair. James smiled and came over to me, giving me a solid pat on the shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us,¡± he told me. ¡°We¡¯ll be fine; just focus on your personal matters and come back with a clear head.¡± He¡¯s right. I should not think about work for now. I set up my voicemail and email auto-responders as well as a department wide email and locked up my office for the night. With the broken drive in hand, I headed down to my car and drove the whole way home. I couldn¡¯t play any music, a rare occurrence for me; I just needed to think. Once home, I set the drive on my home workstation desk and stared at it. I had all of the equipment here to figure this drive out short of disassembling the drive chassis itself. I decided to hook it into the test bench near my workstation PC and begin my testing. //:: IT HAS BEGUN ::\\ Sure enough, that damned message displayed on the monitor once it was hooked up. I hit the spacebar and the display once again showed a bunch of symbols and static for a few moments before reverting to the distorted white text. There had to be something more to this. I attempted a risky setup by slaving the corrupted drive to my workstation computer. Maybe this way, I can have the drive run normally but still access the file system in the OS so I can see just what this virus was. Once the hookup was complete, I booted the test bench with the corrupted drive. Sure enough, the test bench displayed the ominous text. My workstation, however, showed the drive in the OS and showed no signs of corruption. Progress! However, the 5 terabyte drive was shown to be 100% full somehow. I looked at the files on the drive and could find 8 video files, each about 3 minutes long. ENDEAVOR MANIFEST TRIAL RISE INFECT FALL UNBECOMING SUFFER I recognized the videos. They were the 8 office cameras moments before they disconnected and showed static and symbols. The distortion from the breach was shown in the video feeds. Did my computer make a backup of the cameras? And why the ominous file names? I checked the encoding and they looked weird and corrupted, but nothing that would explain the strange ¡®it has begun¡¯ warning and nothing like the image that¡¯s displayed when I hit the spacebar and nothing that would explain the drive being full. I need to go deeper. I dug up some drive tree software to examine the heart of the drive; the raw data encoded on it. I found myself a safe area of the drive and reviewed the raw data. The binary data that it contained was weird and couldn¡¯t be decoded, but had some kind of pattern to it. Just to sanity check myself, I ran the same search in the same sector to see if the data was corrupted. The returned data was completely different. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. This is the same drive sector; it should return the same data, not an entirely different string. I ran the same query multiple times, each time the data was different. Was the drive writing to itself repeatedly? Rewriting old data? I abandoned that train of thought; it¡¯s got to be the corruption. The drive might not be reporting the correct data or sector location. I give up and look at the video footage. I start with the ENDEAVOR.mpeg file. I don¡¯t know what I was expecting. All I saw was a brief moment of the camera and then a bunch of static with a strange symbol overlaid on the camera feed. I put on my headphones and listened to the static; maybe the white noise can calm me down a bit. ¡°...Fo¡ªw m-...nto¡­¡± What? A voice could be heard among the static. Just barely. I threw off my gaming headset and threw on my Empyrean hifi headset and cranked up the amp. There¡¯s no way I imagined that. ¡°...Fo-l-w me -n-o -he b¡ªch¡­¡± No, there¡¯s definitely a voice. Flow me no? Fowl meno? What is it saying? I split the audio track from the video track and threw it into my audio mixing program. I spend a good few hours adjusting the various dials, trying to get the voice to be audible for me. I finally finished my mixing hell and restarted the segment where I heard the voice and hit play. ¡°...follow me into the breach¡­¡± No. ¡°...follow me into the breach¡­¡± No way. ¡°...follow me into the breach¡­¡± It¡¯s my voice. Have you ever had that moment where you thought you heard a voice and when you think about it, it sounds like your dearly departed grandmother? That¡¯s exactly how I felt. It was my voice in the recording, but I don¡¯t remember saying anything like that in the IT closet. I sounded like I was shouting, like a guy with a scratchy microphone yelling too loudly in a film from the 50¡¯s. Follow me into the breach. What does that mean? Why is there a recording of my voice on this? What if I showed others? It would look like I recorded it myself in some stupid prank. I extracted the full audio and put it into the program with the same settings. Hopefully the profile works across the whole recording. Going over the recording timeline, there were portions that were still static, but I could make out some segments of speech; of my speech. - Are we alive? - Are we dreaming? - Follow me into the breach - see our destiny? - stop this - What is all of this? My heart can¡¯t help but sink into my chest, my stomach turned. I wrote all of this down, trying to make sense of this. Is this a cry for help? A warning? A rally call? And why the hell is it my voice on the recording? Who can I ask for help? Who will believe me? The voice was incomplete in places but there was enough context to figure out that whatever I was talking about, it can¡¯t be good. I took out more of the recording and put it through the program and continued tweaking but I could get precious little more. Either my methods are flawed or there¡¯s more to this data. I panicked. I dug out my phone and looked through my contacts. Ortiz and Satoru are the only ones who know about this, but Satoru still knows precious little. So I could only call one other person; I needed to know if I was hearing things. The phone rang a few times before a familiar voice answered. ¡°What¡¯s going on, Mike?¡± ¡°Ortiz, how quickly can you get to my place?¡± I asked, in a frantic voice. ¡°Bro, I live like half an hour away,¡± Ortiz answered, ¡°can¡¯t this wait until tomorrow?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it can; I need to know if I¡¯m going insane,¡± I answer. I realized I was calling a lieutenant who works 12 hour shifts and it was close to midnight on her off day when she works in the morning. But I can¡¯t let that sway me. ¡°Is this about the virus?¡± Ortiz asked. ¡°It is,¡± I answered her, trying to figure out how to explain this whole situation. ¡°But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a virus. It will make sense if you see it.¡± I could hear her groan and think for a minute. ¡°If I do this, you owe me,¡± she told me. ¡°You¡¯ve been saying you would build a new computer for my girl and I.¡± ¡°Done!¡± I said with no hesitation. I was waiting for Ortiz to pay me for a graphics card but screw this; I¡¯ll pay it myself or just give her one of my good cards. ¡°Fine,¡± she answered. ¡°Give me like an hour so I can get ready.¡± ¡°Thank you very much,¡± I told her; I couldn¡¯t contain just how appreciative I am of this. If it wasn¡¯t important like this, I would really have not called her. But I needed to know if I was going insane. I spent the hour pacing in my room, going over the recording again and again and comparing it to my notes; I needed to make sure my transcription was flawless. BANG BANG BANG. Even though I know that three-pronged cop knock by heart, it made me jump; spacing out made me forget Ortiz was even coming here. I went to the door and opened it, part of me thinking that she just called the police for my insanity. I was relieved to see it was just Ortiz. ¡°This better be good,¡± she told me, obviously still tired. I let her in and brought her to my room. I explained to her what I did in simple terms; that I found video files from the cameras on the drive but the rest was weirdly corrupted. I showed her the video stream and the unprocessed audio. I then gave her my Empyreans and queued up the processed audio. ¡°Please don¡¯t think of me as insane when you hear this,¡± I explained, remembering that she¡¯ll hear my voice. ¡°I don¡¯t know man,¡± Ortiz joked with me, ¡°part of me thinks you were crazy way before this happened.¡± She put on the headset and I reluctantly hit the spacebar so the audio track played. Very slowly, I saw her light smile slowly turn into a frown and her eyes widen. It was like looking into a mirror from when I first listened to the audio. I saw the audio track reach the end and Ortiz just stared at the monitor, trying to process what she heard. She then reached out and hit the spacebar to replay the track, her brow furrowing further. I guess I wasn¡¯t as insane as I thought. Ortiz did this three more times before she finally took off the headset. ¡°That was in the video?¡± she asked in a shaking voice. I panicked a little in my explanation. ¡°It was. I can show you how I got it from the video so you can see I didn¡¯t doctor it or anything.¡± Ortiz shook her head and set the headset on the desk and sat in my desk chair. ¡°¡®Follow me into the breach¡¯? What does that even mean? Why would I have said that?¡± she asked under her breath. I decided to explain my findings. ¡°I¡¯ve been double checking to make sure my¨C wait, what did you just say?¡± She looked up to me with sorrowful eyes. ¡°How could I have said any of that?¡± Realization hit me at that moment. ¡°You heard yourself in the recording?¡± I asked. Ortiz nodded. ¡°I was speaking Spanish, but I don¡¯t remember saying any of that.¡± I picked up the headset and listened to the audio track and could only hear myself in English. How? I took the headset off and tried explaining myself. ¡°I heard myself speaking English in the recording, but I don¡¯t remember making such a recording. How could you hear yourself in another language in the same audio track that I heard myself?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, bro,¡± Ortiz lamented, shaking her head in disbelief. ¡°At first I thought you were going crazy over a virus, but this is different.¡± ¡°What did you say in the recording?¡± I asked. She then repeated roughly what I heard. I showed her my notes of what I heard and I could see her losing her mind just as much as I am. ¡°What the hell, man?¡± Ortiz asked while rubbing her temples. ¡°How the hell do we hear different words that all mean the same? And how do we hear our own voices? This is some evil shit; I tell you.¡± Evil or not, I was definitely knees deep in some shit. None of this is making any sense. In any case, I need to figure this out, and I have a few more people I can call. 3. Can You See? Are we alive? That damned message won¡¯t leave my dreams. Are we dreaming? All I want to do is sleep and clear my head. Follow me into the breach. What is all of this about? Stop this. I lift myself out of bed and look at my phone. 6am. Ortiz left at 2 so I got maybe 4 hours of sleep. I look over to the computer in the corner, the monitor still displaying that accursed message. //:: IT HAS BEGUN ::\\ I rub my eyes and take myself over to the computer; if I can¡¯t sleep, I might as well try and figure out more. There were 8 video tracks in total and I could only get a partial audio track from one of the videos. But none of it makes any sense. I sit in my chair and stare at the black screen and white flickering text. I hit the spacebar and as usual, symbols and static flash across the screen before reverting back to the original text. Nothing has changed. I hit the keyboard of my workstation and it starts to wake up. There has to be more to this. I open my email once the computer boots up, thinking about who I can show this to. Could I even send the files to anyone? Would that be safe? du-DUH My computer pings with a message. It¡¯s from Satoru. yo bro, everything good? He asked me. I must have forgotten to turn invisible mode on. ¡°Yeah, mate. I¡¯m good,¡± I replied to him. We¡¯re going to clear p1s now wanna join? Oh jeez, of course they¡¯re doing the new savage raids right now. And I¡¯m the one with no life? ¡°Got some things to sort out. Maybe you can carry my butt later.¡± dope but you should prolly dps Yeah, tanking a new raid when I¡¯m the learner isn¡¯t a good idea. Good thing I got used to DPS again playing Reaper. ¡°Sounds good,¡± I reply to him. Maybe some raids later would clear my head. This virus, or whatever it is, is mentally exhausting to think about. Maybe I should call for help on this. Ortiz has too much on her plate already and I¡¯ve bugged her enough and Satoru, while a good nerd, is a shut-in like me. I look through my phone contacts. I haven¡¯t deleted a single contact since high school because I¡¯m too lazy to do it properly so I guarantee you there¡¯s someone in here who can help. Scott? He was a decent guy but we only met briefly when we shared programming classes; I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s doing now. Craig would be a good choice. He was a good IT wizard like me. Eh, on second thought, he was really big into aliens and gods; not a good pick. Montel? Damn, I haven¡¯t spoken to him in like 15 years. He always wanted to become an audio engineer. Pretty sure he¡¯s a funeral director now. Why do I have 3 ¡°Ashley¡±s in my phone? Which Cody is this one in my phone? Jake. Yeah, Jake. He was my roommate in engineering school and now works as an engineer at a plane manufacturer. Dude¡¯s a genius when it comes to analysis. I remember those nights when we would get drunk off of our asses, grab a whiteboard, and start solving equations. This was all 6 years ago so who knows if his number is still good. I look again at the clock. 6:30am. Is it too early? I don¡¯t know where he went after we graduated since I moved out of our dorm after sophomore year to live in the on-campus apartments. I hesitate. I tap his name. The phone¡¯s ringing. That¡¯s a sign. What if the number isn¡¯t his anymore though? Click. ¡°Hello?¡± I swallow the lump in my throat. ¡°Hey, is this Jacob Brake?¡± ¡°It is. What can I do for you?¡± Oh thank god. ¡°Hey dude, it¡¯s Michael. From college. I know it¡¯s been a while but do you remember?¡± ¡°Ohhh yeeeaaahhh!¡± I can hear him say in realization. ¡°Dude, how¡¯s it been?¡± ¡°Oh you know, living the dream,¡± I chuckle. ¡°What¡¯s new with you?¡± ¡°If only you knew, bud,¡± he laughed. ¡°Are you busy right now?¡± I ask. I like this little reunion but there¡¯s business afoot. ¡°I¡¯m actually off today,¡± he replied. ¡°What¡¯s good?¡± I hesitate but decide to tell him that we had a breach at work a couple of days ago and it resulted in finding a virus implanted on my hard drive that I can¡¯t remove with strange files on it. For the sake of my reputation, I left out the strange translating words and how the server rack still had power for a few moments after cutting it off. ¡°I know this sounds crazy,¡± I finish, realizing just how screwed up this whole thing is, ¡°but I¡¯m really at the end of my rope here.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s crazy,¡± Jake replied. ¡°I was actually wondering if I¡¯ve been going crazy the past couple of days?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I ask. ¡°Around that time, I was in a video conference with some other engineers and our cameras just went all static for a few minutes and displayed some strange symbols,¡± he explained. This was all sounding too familiar. ¡°It displayed some text for a moment and then instantly cleared up. I thought it was just me but the others all saw the same thing.¡± ¡°Do you have a recording of this?¡± I ask him. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I don¡¯t, but I did take a screenshot of it just a moment before it freed up. Would you like me to text it to you?¡± ¡°Please!¡± I respond with no hesitation. I wait a minute as I hear him scroll through his phone and then I get a text. I look at the picture and it showed a video call with 5 cameras that all went static. But that wasn¡¯t all; he caught the text too. I felt my heart sink as I read the text. ¡°Jake, this is the text it showed you?¡± I ask while my voice cracks. ¡°Yeah, pretty strange right?¡± he replied nonchalantly. I read the text in the picture again, trying to find some explanation for this; any explanation at all. //:: IT HAS BEGUN ::\\ I confess that the virus on my hard drive displays the same text and explain that it seems to translate itself somehow; that my co-worker reads it in Spanish and one of my friends reads it in Japanese and they all mean the same thing. ¡°No way,¡± Jake responds, taking in the information. ¡°I know how ridiculous this sounds, but something¡¯s going on,¡± I continue, really taking in just how screwed up this situation is. Jake spends a moment thinking before coming up with a proposal. ¡°Do you remember Christian? The kid who liked playing Clan Wars 2.¡± I think for a moment and try to remember him. Was he blonde? I know he had a bunk bed with his roommate. ¡°Oh yeah, got us all sucked in for a bit since there weren¡¯t any good MMOs at the time.¡± ¡°Yeah, I remember him saying he wanted to work for NASA. We should check in with him.¡± Jake proposes. ¡°Do you really think aliens are involved?¡± I ask half jokingly. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t believe in aliens; the universe is too big for there to not be aliens, but there¡¯s no way this is aliens. ¡°You said it, not me,¡± Jake laughed. ¡°If he does work for NASA, that means he¡¯s a bigger nerd than the two of us; he has to know something about this.¡± He had a point. Jake and I both ended up as mechanical engineers. If Christian went to work for NASA, he would have even more knowledge than us. On top of that, the same event happened to both Jake and I at nearly the same time. If there were scientists that were looking for radio signals or anything like that, maybe they said something. At the very least, if someone did report it, then we know it¡¯s not a virus. If no one did, then this is isolated somehow and likely someone is sending viruses to anything with an IP address. ¡°Do you have his phone number?¡± I ask. I sure as heck didn¡¯t; we didn¡¯t share classes together and I¡¯ve rarely interacted with him. ¡°I don¡¯t, but I know his old roommate; I can contact him,¡± Jake responds with a newfound confidence in his voice. ¡°I¡¯ll give him a shout and call you back.¡± ¡°Awesome, thanks man!¡± I respond. Hopefully, I can actually get somewhere with trying to figure this all out. I hang up the phone and look back to the test bench monitor and stare at that haunting white text. I look at the picture Jake sent me and compare it to the monitor; the text is practically the same in every way. What does all of this mean? The worst part is that I haven¡¯t even talked to Jake about the audio track; would he hear his own voice in the audio like Ortiz? It has begun. What has begun? Who would make a virus like this? Or if it is a message, who would send a message like this? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to tell us what had begun? You know, ¡®the end of the world has begun¡¯, ¡®war has begun¡¯, ¡®climate change has begun¡¯; hell ¡®your food has begun to burn¡¯ would tell me a hell of a lot more than ¡®it has begun¡¯! If I was trying to send a message like that, I would at least be a lot more descriptive. Maybe this isn¡¯t a message. Maybe it really is just a virus intended to make me scratch my head. Maybe an over elaborate marketing campaign. I just sit at my desk, running through the possibilities while scrolling through my news feed. If this is a thing that happened to others, why is there no news coverage? Oh there is. Some TV stations are saying they experienced a brief outage in some areas, usually black or blue screening. Some areas lost internet service for a couple of minutes. Ultimately though, it looks like it was chalked up to a weird server glitch. There is no mention of ¡®it has begun¡¯ or any viruses. I head to a few forum sites and some people are reporting the outage, but that seems to be that. One guy claimed his internet outage cost him a ranked game and went on a tirade about how ISPs in this country are horrible and greedy. Not wrong, but at the same time, chill dude. I put down my phone and pull up the corrupted drive in my workstation, looking at the strange video files again. I only looked at the Endeavor file. I decided to look at the Manifest file; maybe there¡¯s something more I¡¯m missing. I open the file and as before, I am greeted by a strange symbol with static in the video feed and static in the audio. I put on my Empyreans again and turn up the sound. For a while, I hear only static. However, there was something to the noise; it was¡­pulsing? I don¡¯t know how to describe it, but it felt like it was pounding in my ears with some strange rhythm. It was hypnotic, like binaural music or something. The rhythmic thumping, drumming, pulsed in my mind like it was coming from my brain itself. Suddenly, the rhythmic thudding stopped and was replaced by a loud hiss, like a broken mic through a faded record. It has some pattern to it, but I could only hear the static. Along with the hiss, there was some droning sound that I couldn¡¯t make out. It was like the rhythmic drumming from earlier, yet it was steadier, almost like a detuned bass. The video contained 3 minutes of these tones repeating each other the entire time; one after another. I realized then that this file was different; it was exactly 180 seconds long. That was strange but I listened to the audio again and realized the audio changed 6 times in that time; exactly 30 seconds apart. I threw the file into a video editor to get more information. It only got weirder; the video metadata was nothing but some distorted text like badly encoded binary. I checked the timestamp and even the video milliseconds were 0, meaning the video was EXACTLY 180 seconds long. But for some reason, my editor didn¡¯t display a framerate or resolution; it treated the file like raw data that could be encoded as video, but wasn¡¯t a video. Okay, so this Manifest file is a video file yet not a video file. I guess a file that my OS can interpret as a video is more accurate. I decided to check with the other files and they all produced similar results; a video file that was not quite a video file. The mystery of this drive only deepens now. Usually when a file is corrupted, the OS just refuses to read it. Here, my computer is trying to read the files and what I¡¯m seeing is that attempt. I get lost in this mystery to the point where my phone ringing actually startles me. It¡¯s Jake. I answer the phone and put it on speaker with one of the earcups of my headset off. ¡°Michael, bro, you¡¯re not going to believe this,¡± Jake told me over the phone in a hurried voice. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I ask; he may be talking about Christian. Jake¡¯s explanation was brief and in panting breaths, like he was running. ¡°I got a hold of Christian and let him know what happened. How soon can you get to Boston?¡± I think for a minute. A last minute plane ticket to Massachusetts is going to be expensive, but doable. ¡°I guess I can leave sometime this weekend. Why?¡± ¡°Dude, no. Christian wants us there like today,¡± Jake explained. ¡°He wasn¡¯t specific, but it seemed like he knew something was up and wanted us there immediately. And he wants you to bring the hard drive.¡± ¡°Are you pulling my leg right now?¡± I ask him. This really has to be the biggest prank; I¡¯m not about to throw down $400 for a plane ticket for no reason. ¡°I¡¯m not; he was dead serious,¡± Jake answered. He didn¡¯t have that telltale chuckle in his voice of someone who was pranking. In fact, it sounded like he was packing. ¡°Give me his phone number,¡± I tell Jake. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to him and try to make my way there.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll text you later!¡± Jake told me and then hung up. A minute later, I got a text from him with a phone number. I tap on the number and it rings once before someone answers. ¡°Hey, is this Michael?¡± a man asks on the other end. ¡°It is, I take it you¡¯re Christian?¡± I ask him. ¡°Yeah,¡± he confirms and I can hear typing on a keyboard in the background. ¡°How soon can you get here?¡± ¡°What is this all about?¡± I ask. ¡°I can¡¯t explain everything over the phone, but we need to put our heads together,¡± Christian tells me, his typing getting faster in the background. ¡°I¡¯m not going to Boston without an explanation,¡± I tell him, starting to become frustrated. I hear him groan and hit a key. Follow me into the breach! Can you see how this all ends? Can¡¯t you all see our destiny? We must stop this! I hear a recording in the background play; my recording. I can hear myself more clearly in this recording he¡¯s playing than what I extracted. How did he get the recording though? I never sent it to anyone. The recording stops. ¡°Now do you understand?¡± he asks me. I could only sit in silence, contemplating everything. It was the same recording, but clearer and with more information. Yet it was still my voice. How did he get it? How did he get that much information? ¡°I do,¡± I tell him. I look at my phone and open my airlines app and buy the first plane to Boston. ¡°I¡¯ll be there at 15:00,¡± I tell him as I spend $500 on the last minute airline. 4. The Way To Destiny I normally enjoy flying, going through airports is exciting and once I settle into my seat, I just throw in my noise canceling earphones and zone out. Sometimes, I might even sleep as I enjoy seeing the horizon shrink away. But no; I only have that damn message in my head. We¡¯re now an hour into the flight, a mile high and soaring through the curvature of the earth. I think about the message; maybe it really is from outer space. My mind begins to play with the fantasy that it could be some kind of civilization meeting its end; a desperate plea for help from someone, anyone who could listen. But why do we hear our own voices? Why do we hear our own languages from the same words? Technology does wonders but it¡¯s science not magic. I look out past the horizon, into the skies above the clouds. I¡¯ve always wondered what was out there but now, I am truly curious. Or maybe I¡¯m just imagining all of this; a dream where I paint myself the hero of some alien race because I could understand what they were saying. Another hour goes by and we land and I gather myself as I take my backpack with the hard drive in it and head for the gate exit. I text Jake and Christian in a group chat that I landed and start making my way towards the Boston-Logan entrance. ¡°We¡¯re outside,¡± Jake texts me back. I¡¯ve been through here before; through the door into the pickup lanes, jump in and head out. I don¡¯t like hanging around the pickup zone here so I keep to that routine. I head outside and I spot a white electric car and two vaguely familiar guys waving at me; a big tan guy with a buzz cut and a beard and the other a skinny guy with loose blonde hair. Jake and Christian; have to be. I approach the car and keep to the routine. I approach them and only say ¡°let¡¯s go¡±. We all get into the car and I take my backpack into my lap, wanting to make sure it remains secure. ¡°Shy as ever, aren¡¯t you big Mike?¡± Jake tells me, trying to lighten the mood. ¡°I¡¯d just rather get this over with,¡± I respond while putting my seatbelt on. ¡°This damned thing has been plaguing my mind for too long now; I want to get this sorted out quickly.¡± ¡°I can relate to that,¡± Christian said in the driver¡¯s seat and turned on the car and started to drive. ¡°What can you tell me?¡± I asked, wanting to get this all over with. Christian sighed, as if trying to get some words gathered together. ¡°I run a small amateur astronomy group. Simple stuff; stargaze, record radio signals, the like.¡± ¡°I take it you didn¡¯t get a job with NASA?¡± Jake jumped in. Christian shook his head. ¡°I work with some engineers there, but I¡¯m mostly an indie guy.¡± I can understand. I think between the three of us, only Jake actually got his dream job from when he first went to school with us. ¡°We¡¯ll have to go over the details once we get there,¡± Christian continued. ¡°We have a lot of data to go over so I hope you packed toothbrushes.¡± After a dizzying drive through afternoon Boston traffic, nearly an hour to get to Concord, we arrive at a small house. The three of us got out of the car and Christian invited us into the house. Christian closed the door behind us and began his explanation. ¡°A couple of days ago, a dish I set up picked up some strange interference. I logged the interference until it passed and then looked at it later. I was processing the signal when Jake called and I found something strange in it.¡± ¡°Weird symbols and a speech recording?¡± I asked. Christian nodded his head in confirmation. ¡°Let me guess; the speech was your own voice.¡± Christian was silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. ¡°So I¡¯m not crazy?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been asking myself that for a while,¡± I answered, starting to get the big picture. We walked over to a small study full of various astronomy books, telescope equipment, and three computers of various builds. Christian sat down by one of the computers and pulled the other chairs next to him and we took those seats. ¡°The interference lasted for about 3 minutes,¡± Christian explained, pulling up various files and programs on the computer. ¡°However, when I decompressed the transmission, the speech and other data in the interference was sped up, like a lot. I had to slow it down and run it through some filters, some of which are for marine sounds.¡± He hit the spacebar and turned up the speakers at the computer. Once again, my voice filled the room. The recording was still imperfect, but way cleaner than what I achieved. Follow me into the breach! Can you see it? Can you see how this all ends? Can¡¯t you all see our destiny? We must stop this! Jake rubbed his eyes while hearing the transmission, trying to process what it really means. ¡°What the hell is this?¡± he asked under his breath. ¡°What did you hear, Jake?¡± Christian asked. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Jake took a deep sigh before answering. ¡°Dude, it sounded¡­sounded like me. Like I was shouting.¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Christian exclaimed while slapping the desk. ¡°I have been examining signals for years now and I have never seen that.¡± ¡°Just what is it?¡± I asked, trying to process the words in the message. Christian shook his head and turned to the monitor and looked at the rest of the data. ¡°I have no idea. It¡¯s a signal of some kind, but it doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± ¡°Where did it come from?¡± Jake asked, finally gathering his composure. Christian shook his head again. ¡°The dish was pointed towards the star Polaris when the interference came in.¡± ¡°So it came from Polaris?¡± Jake asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± I jumped in. ¡°When I discovered the signal, it came in through my servers during a firewall update. I doubt it came from space.¡± Christian pulled out a bit of equipment from under his desk and turned to show it to us. ¡°This was the amplifier in the radio dish I was using,¡± he explained. ¡°When the interference hit its peak, the amp was arcing and spitting sparks all over the place. It¡¯s practically burnt out now.¡± I thought for a moment before adding to the conversation. ¡°When it came in for me, my servers kept shocking me with some kind of electricity. When I unplugged the power to the whole rack, the servers actually remained powered for a few moments before cutting out.¡± Jake thought for a moment. ¡°Signals carry power too; electromagnetism,¡± he pondered aloud. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then the signal carried a lot of power when it came in.¡± ¡°That¡¯s something that concerns me,¡± Christian added and put the amplifier away. ¡°It carried enough power to blow an amp and even power an unplugged server rack. But it didn¡¯t cause a blackout? The only thing that happened was a brief internet outage and interference on radio frequencies.¡± I had even more questions while running through the theory. ¡°And if it carried that much power, why did we only get static and distortion? If it had enough power to blow an amp, it should have come in with 4k quality.¡± Christian nodded, acknowledging the conundrum. ¡°What if it¡¯s not audio or video?¡± Jake proposed. ¡°What if the reason it¡¯s static is because we¡¯re examining it wrong. It¡¯s not interference or audio on distorted video. What if the reason Michael got video was because that¡¯s what could pick up the signal and the static and that is what the data really is?¡± Christian pondered the question for a moment. ¡°So what you mean is that the static and interference isn¡¯t distortion, but the raw data itself that needs processing?¡± I thought about it and the proposal made sense. ¡°When I was working with the video from the cameras, the program actually treated it like it was something else but could be encoded as video.¡± It was lining up. We still didn¡¯t know where the signal came from or why but now we were starting to figure out just what we were dealing with. I clapped my hands with a new determination building up. ¡°Well, we have an astronomer, a mechanical engineer, and a server engineer. I can guarantee we have enough nerds in this room capable of solving this puzzle!¡± I take out the hard drive from my backpack and place it on the desk. Christian digs out a few energy drinks for us from a mini fridge under his desk and we have a quick toast before setting off to work, Jake and I taking the other unused computers. I build a quick test NAS machine and hook the corrupted drive into it so we can access it without taking the risk of bricking our machines. As expected, the NAS machine displayed the ominous ¡®it has begun¡¯ text but the drive showed up on the local network. Now the other guys can access the drive¡¯s data. We began our processing. I was in charge of reverse engineering the data and trying to find any patterns and make the data into usable files. Jake¡¯s job was to diagnose the drive¡¯s raw data to find why it was reporting such a corruption. Christian¡¯s job was to take the noise out of the signal and process the data into something we can understand. The sun set by the time we finally had any progress; a solid 30 seconds of audio from the first video track called ¡°Endeavor¡± that, while not clear, is understandable. We gathered around Christian¡¯s computer with anticipation and he hit the spacebar and the sound of our respective voices shouting filled the room. ¡°You said we could fly, and so we set our sails with desire! Are we alive? Who can tell? Are we dreaming? Who can know? We wander the wilderness, adrift in the lonely scene of an empty sea; I want to be home again, we all do! We¡¯re trapped under a sunless sky, a crystalized sea! Follow me into the breach! Can you see how this all ends? Can¡¯t you all see our destiny? We must stop this! This is the way to destiny!¡± The audio track stops and silence fills the room; all of us pondering what we just heard. Silence. Silence. More silence. A slurp from Jake while he drank his energy drink snapped us out of our trance. ¡°What the hell does all of this mean?¡± I ask, rubbing my burning eyes. ¡°It sounds like some kind of message, a warning,¡± Christian answered. ¡°But why is it so vague?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it have been easier to just tell us where they are and what¡¯s going on and how to fix it? Like ¡®find us here and hit this button; we¡¯ll have cake later¡¯.¡± ¡°That¡¯s assuming it¡¯s a cry for help,¡± Christian wondered. ¡°If this came from space, we have to be careful to not put human assumptions on it. For all we know, this is the alien equivalent of a commercial or a funny prank, like sneaking a cucumber behind a cat so they get spooked by it.¡± ¡°They kept asking if we can see something; is there something to that?¡± I wondered aloud. I went back over to my video and looked at the video with the strange symbol overlaid. The symbol kind of looked like some kind of circle but with little other shapes to it. I told the other two to order some pizza or something as I looked at the video. My eyes are tired and burning and I keep getting lost in the static. The hard part was that my eyes keep blurring. Right when I thought I could see something, it would fade away. Like trying to focus on the floaters swimming around in your eye. Wait. That¡¯s it; I see something when my eyes blur. I made a screenshot of the video and put a blur effect on it and scaled it down. By the time I was done, Jake and Christian came back with pizza so I must have been staring at this for a while now. I show the resulting image to the other guys. ¡°Huh, kind of looks like a planet,¡± Jake pondered aloud. ¡°That¡¯s not just a planet, dude,¡± Christian said, looking at the shape of the planet and finding familiar features. We both had the realization when we saw dark patches on the planet¡¯s surface followed by brighter spots. These patches were like puzzle pieces; pieces we were all too familiar with. The image showed Earth. 5. Where Our Fate Ends Earth. A picture of Earth. Just what is this message about? We all stared at the very blurry image, trying to make sense of its appearance and the meaning of the message. That 30 seconds of audio just didn¡¯t tell enough. ¡°What the hell are they trying to tell us?¡± Jake wondered aloud. ¡°I have no idea,¡± Christian replied. ¡°If this is really a message from space, what are they trying to say? Why go through all of this effort? What does all of this mean?¡± I quietly agreed. If someone was trying to send a message, they should be straight to the point. What¡¯s with the hidden messages? Is it all a metaphor for something? ¡°They¡¯re telling us something,¡± I jump in. ¡°Think about it; ¡®we wander the wilderness, trapped under a sunless sky, a crystalized sea.¡¯ It¡¯s all pretty metaphoric but they¡¯re obviously trying to tell us where they are.¡± ¡°They also said something about ¡®we could fly, so we set sail¡¯,¡± Jake added. ¡°Could that mean that wherever they¡¯re coming from is doomed and they¡¯re trying to get away?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s where they¡¯re coming from that¡¯s doomed,¡± Christian added. ¡°It sounds like they tried getting away from something but are now stranded. ¡®Adrift in an empty sea¡¯ they said.¡± Jake chuckled for a minute. ¡°So all this to tell us there¡¯s a ship stranded in space somewhere?¡± ¡°¡®This is the way to destiny¡¯ followed by a picture of earth,¡± I add to the confusion. ¡°So are they trying to come here?¡± Christian thought for a moment before putting our thoughts together. ¡°So, whoever sent this comes from another world running away from their own world and is trying to come here but got stranded on the way.¡± We think about the running theory for a moment. This all sounded like a decent theory; definitely something out of a sci-fi show or book that I would have read in high school. But it all seemed off, wrong even. Why go through this much effort to send a distress call if you¡¯re stranded in space? If you¡¯re stranded and can¡¯t provide an exact location, how could you hope for anyone to get to you in time? Space is big and crossing even the smallest astronomical scales will take a long time for any civilization. I shake my head, rejecting the theory and relay this thought to the group. ¡°If you are an advanced enough species capable of interstellar flight, why send out such a message when no one could answer or help you in time?¡± I conclude my evaluation. The other guys thought about it for a minute. ¡°Maybe as a last-ditch effort?¡± Jake suggested. ¡°People do crazy things for survival, like that guy who cut off his arm when it got trapped in a rock.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the difference,¡± Christian jumped in. ¡°He had a proper chance of survival. Michael¡¯s right; if you¡¯re intelligent enough to be proficient at spaceflight, you would have to know no one else but your own people can help you if you¡¯re lost. You might as well conserve your energy rather than making such a transmission.¡± "True," Jake agreed while scratching his head. "But the message sounds like our voice when played and it sounds like it translates for the listener. That sounds like a desperate attempt to get someone, anyone, to listen." ¡°We still haven¡¯t fully analyzed the Endeavor file,¡± I suggest. ¡°We could only get some audio from it, but we¡¯ve reached the conclusion that the audio and video data are all just artifacts; the data is meant to be read as one big format that we don¡¯t have right now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the confusing thing,¡± Christian added while taking a slice of pizza. ¡°It¡¯s close to the right format, but not quite. Almost like someone with a more advanced data structure had to think ¡®how do these guys encode data¡¯ and got really close. Like they had to reverse engineer it.¡± I took a slice of pizza as well and had a bite. ¡°That¡¯s another nail in the ¡®stranded in space¡¯ theory. If you have a completely different data structure, why would you waste so much time and effort to try and encode it in a way we can understand?¡± Jake rubbed his chin, trying to formulate a conclusion. ¡°What if they weren¡¯t stranded in space, but trapped on their own planet? They have the time and ability to try and send such a message, but obviously not close enough. It would also explain why the signal was transmitted with such power.¡± ¡°That makes more sense,¡± Christian jumped in. ¡°But only half so. This is all under the assumption that something in space sent a message trying to communicate with us. As fantastic and as awesome that would be, we don¡¯t have enough proof that¡¯s what¡¯s going on.¡± We all nod in agreement. Now is not the time to jump to conclusions. The signal only makes sense as a message from space because we¡¯re putting that assumption on it. That does not make a hypothesis; it makes an ass out of you, like the luminiferous aether hypothesis from the 1800¡¯s. ¡°That¡¯s enough for one day, I think,¡± Christian concludes. I nod and wash down the pizza with my drink. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve discovered a lot just today alone and there¡¯s plenty of data to analyze. We need to rest and keep our heads clear. I hope you all have enough PTO.¡± We all chuckle and put the computers to sleep. Christian spends some time trying to prepare some makeshift beds using his couch and anything else he can find. I decided to shower and brush my teeth while they sort all of that out. Could it really be a message from some interstellar traveler? Or a civilization on another planet? What if the evidence starts pointing to that conclusion? Who do we talk to? We puny earthlings can barely talk to each other without pointing guns at each other; what happens if we actually talk to an alien race? I can only hope that it¡¯s not that. If anything, this gives me the drive to find as much evidence to say it¡¯s not from space as possible; keep it on earth and the explanation will stay simple. I finish washing up and see that Christian prepared a bed on the couch and another as a sleeping bag on the floor. I can see Jake getting ready to blow up that this is all Christian has to offer. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°I¡¯ll take the sleeping bag,¡± I volunteer. I was a Guardsman while going through college so sleeping on the floor is no problem for me. ¡°Yeah, that sounds about right for you,¡± Christian chuckled nervously. ¡°You always could sleep on a pile of rocks and think it¡¯s comfortable,¡± Jake added as he took a spot on the couch. It¡¯s not long after we all settle in that I can feel the energy drink begin to wear off. I check my phone and it reads 02:00. I got up at 6 this morning with only 4 hours of sleep so it makes sense that an energy drink is just not enough. Are we dreaming? No, shut up. I don¡¯t want to think about that damn signal anymore. I¡¯ll think about it when I wake up. I close my eyes, trying to clear my head. I try to envision a dream to put myself to sleep. I must have been playing too many games because a fun little dream greeted me. I could only imagine a single hero, a leader of some resistance in a dystopian world. He was handsome like all good resistance heroes and was standing in front of a chanting crowd. ¡°Can you see how this all ends?¡± he shouts to the raving audience. ¡°Can¡¯t you all see our destiny? We must stop this! This is the way to destiny!¡± The crowd roars in agreement and gunfire fills the air as a fight breaks out between the ragtag resistance and a bunch of men in black suits. I opened my eyes and noticed that sunlight was filling Christian¡¯s living room as the dream started to fade. I look over and I don¡¯t see Jake on the couch but I see Christian¡¯s outline in the kitchen. I throw on my glasses and look at my phone. 13:35 Yeah, of course I would sleep away half the day. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re finally awake!¡± Christian called out from the kitchen. ¡°Ha ha, very funny,¡± I reply, getting the reference. I lift myself out of the sleeping bag. ¡°Did you guys do any work while I was asleep?¡± Christian pulled out a can of soda from the fridge and drank some before responding. ¡°Not really. We tried looking at the data again, but it looks like that one video file just doesn¡¯t have any more audio we can pull from it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good to know,¡± I reply. ¡°Is there just no audio left on the file?¡± Christian shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. It¡¯s just too distorted to get any real clear information from.¡± I think back to the signal, trying to see if I can think about it in a clear head. Wait a minute. ¡°Christian,¡± I call out. ¡°Can I tell you a theory and promise not to laugh?¡± He gave me a quick chuckle before answering. ¡°Any other day I''d definitely laugh. But at this point, I¡¯ll listen to anything.¡± ¡°I know we ruled out that it¡¯s a message from space,¡± I begin as I walk towards the kitchen. ¡°But what if it¡¯s not a message for us?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± he asked while taking another drink of soda. ¡°What if we¡¯re not the intended audience? What if it¡¯s a transmission that we picked up accidentally?¡± I explained as I reached into the fridge to get myself a can of soda too. ¡°What if it¡¯s some propaganda message or manifesto that was transmitted to the people it was intended for and we just happened to pick it up?¡± Christian rubbed his chin as he gave the theory some thought. ¡°That would explain the vague metaphors; they could be idioms that we don¡¯t understand.¡± The front door popped open and Jake entered the house, his hands full with boxes of fried chicken. We take the chicken and put it on the kitchen counter to divide up between us as we shared this half-baked hypothesis with Jake. ¡°That would explain a lot really,¡± he concluded after hearing the explanation. ¡°It would explain the whole ¡®follow me into the breach¡¯ message; maybe the guy who sent the message is telling his fellow people to rise up too.¡± ¡°This still follows the idea that it¡¯s a message from space,¡± Christian concluded. ¡°Maybe it didn¡¯t come from space, but from some country on earth going through a civil war?¡± ¡°If there was, I¡¯d like to hope that we¡¯d hear about it by now,¡± I cut in. "Sure, the world isn¡¯t a safe place but active war is mostly a thing of the past. It¡¯s now mostly smaller countries caught in conflicts; none of them really able to send a signal like this." ¡°Then let¡¯s put the government conspiracy card back in the deck,¡± Jake concluded while eating. ¡°Honestly, the theory that the message is from space would fit better and be easier to explain than some big conspiracy or cover up.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s try that theory,¡± Christian jumped in while taking his box of chicken and walking over to his study with the computers. ¡°It fits better than the others so we can at least work with that.¡± ¡°But then why a picture of earth?¡± I wonder aloud. ¡°Why not their own planet? It¡¯s clearly earth in that blurry photo; you could easily see Africa and where it matches up with South America.¡± We all thought for a moment, unable to explain that one detail. Any theory we threw at the signal would always have that one bit stick out. ¡°It¡¯s the only visual thing worth explaining,¡± Jake concluded. ¡°We have a good portion of audio, but only that one frame of video besides creepy symbols. So maybe there¡¯s more to the message that we haven¡¯t found yet.¡± An idea hits me suddenly. ¡°Hold on. Maybe since we know the background of the signal, we¡¯re unintentionally adding bias?¡± Christian thought for a moment before he caught on. ¡°So since I know I got it from a radio dish pointed at Polaris and you saw it keep your servers powered for a moment, we¡¯re setting unrealistic expectations? ¡°Exactly!¡± I confirm with a firm clap of my hands. ¡°What if we get someone to examine what we find from an external point of view? Unaware of the signal¡¯s actual origins so they can provide a decent explanation.¡± Jake thought about it as well before agreeing. ¡°Yeah, a fresh pair of eyes unaware of the signal¡¯s origins would be best. And if they¡¯re in the dark as to the true nature of the signal, they won¡¯t leak the information until we know what it is.¡± ¡°I have someone I can call,¡± I continue. ¡°We went to mythology and linguistics classes together. She may be able to decipher the idioms and other randomness in the signal.¡± ¡°Shit, call her,¡± Christian said with newfound excitement and rushed to his computer. ¡°We just might get to the bottom of this!¡± I dig out my phone and look for the right person. Amelie Spencer, that¡¯s the one. Haven¡¯t spoken with her in years so hopefully she has time. I tap her name and the phone starts ringing. The phone stops ringing and a woman¡¯s voice answers. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hey Amelie, it¡¯s Michael, I was wondering if you had a minute,¡± I answer, internally glad that all of my old contacts still work. ¡°Hey! It¡¯s good to hear from you!¡± she replies in an excited tone. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°I¡¯m working on a thing and I need some help,¡± I explain to her. ¡°If I email you some stuff, would you be able to help us out?¡± ¡°Sure! What are you needing?¡± she replies with no hesitation. I think of a good way to explain this to her. Sending her the raw files will do no one any good so I decided that I would send her text files of transcriptions. ¡°We have a weird message and I was wondering if you would be able to look at the message and help us figure out what it all means.¡± ¡°Like a text message or email?¡± she asks for clarification. ¡°Eh, something like that,¡± I explain. Maybe I should have told her it¡¯s a puzzle in a game or something and not a message. ¡°I can email over the message if you can look at it when you get time.¡± She thinks for a moment before answering. ¡°Why not? I¡¯ll text you my email; just let me know when you send it all over. I work late tonight so I won¡¯t be able to get to it immediately.¡± ¡°Not a problem,¡± I answer, glad that she¡¯s on board. ¡°I¡¯ll text you when I email it off; just let me know if you have any questions.¡± We get off the phone and I go into the study with the other guys. We¡¯re now four strong. Amelie may not be helping us directly decipher the data, but one thing we all know is that the more input and ideas the better; even the most outlandish ideas should still be considered. That¡¯s the reason we can¡¯t throw out the space hypothesis yet. A part of me hopes that this isn¡¯t for nothing, but if that¡¯s the case, let¡¯s hope we can actually figure this message out. 6. Who We Are ¡°Alright, I emailed everything over,¡± I texted Amelie after sending her a document of the transcript we have so far. Hopefully, a fresh pair of eyes can get us on the right track. ¡°Alright boys, I vote we work on the next file!¡± Jake proposed with a proud voice. ¡°But we haven¡¯t finished the first file,¡± Christian protested while finishing up his chicken. ¡°I¡¯m oddly with Jake on this one,¡± I jump in. ¡°The rest of the data in that ¡®Endeavor¡¯ file is too corrupt to tackle right now. Let¡¯s work on the other files and see what¡¯s in store. Who knows; it might add context to that first file.¡± Christian considered for a moment before nodding. ¡°What¡¯s the next file on the drive?¡± he asked while turning back towards his computer. ¡°It¡¯s called ¡®Manifest¡¯,¡± Jake answered while shoving fries into his mouth. ¡°The audio track on that one is weird,¡± I jump in while coming up next to Christian. ¡°It has some strange binaural beats or something. It was really strange to listen to.¡± ¡°Dude, all of this has been really strange to listen to,¡± Christian mocked while opening up the file and putting on his headset. I watch him listen to the file and his facial expression change from pride to confusion. After 30 seconds, I see the confusion grow. After yet another 30 seconds, I can see the questions on the tip of his tongue trying to jump off. He takes off his headset and looks at me with the same confused look. ¡°Yeah,¡± I replied, understanding what he was going through. ¡°It¡¯s weird, isn¡¯t it?¡± He looked back at the monitor, trying to put the pieces together. ¡°This is going to be much harder, isn¡¯t it?¡± he wondered aloud. ¡°I haven¡¯t looked at the other files,¡± I explained while going back to my computer, ¡°but I guarantee you none of this will be easy.¡± Jake listened to the file as well on his computer and I could see him mouthing the word ¡®what¡¯ over and over again. I put my headset on and opened the file. There they are; the rhythmic beats that seem to alternate in each ear followed by the loud static hiss and low droning 30 seconds later. ¡°Why is it every 30 seconds?¡± I can hear Christian wonder aloud. ¡°No idea,¡± Jake answers. ¡°Maybe if there¡¯s audio in there, they¡¯re two tracks spliced together or something.¡± ¡°We can try it,¡± I agree and we set out to work on the file. Whatever this Manifest file is, it has to be something. Or so I thought. 2am. The entire day, and we have gotten nowhere. No audio filter clears up the sound, especially the hissing static. It just all sounds like rhythmic beeping of some kind in a strange pattern. The hissing segments got clearer, in the way that the static somehow became more pronounced. Jake was able to clear the static out of the video, but it turns out the static was actually really small repeating symbols sort of like the ones we''ve been seeing so far. ¡°This one is by far the weirdest one,¡± Christian announces our internal agreement. ¡°No audio, no video, just strange data.¡± ¡°I¡¯m starting to wonder if it¡¯s not a message,¡± I propose while rubbing my eyes. ¡°Maybe we¡¯re not supposed to find speech or anything. What if it¡¯s encoding something?¡± ¡°Encoding what exactly?¡± Jake responds. ¡°Are you thinking it¡¯s raw data of some kind that needs to be processed?¡± ¡°I have no idea,¡± Christian answers. ¡°We¡¯ll probably have to back burner that one until we know more.¡± ¡°I agree; we can¡¯t waste time on what we can¡¯t process right now,¡± I agree while going back to my computer. ¡°The next file is called ¡®Trials¡¯.¡± ¡°¡®Trials¡¯, huh? Maybe it will tell us what¡¯s going on,¡± Jake responds wishing for some answers. The guys gather around my computer as I open the file and turn up the speakers. The video feed itself was the same; strange symbols and static and faded shapes. However the audio was different. It was a little distorted, like a worn cassette tape, but you could still hear the feed. It was singing. Like a large choir singing some anthem. The melody was hypnotic, somber, but patriotic. It was a simple 8 note melodic progression. This time, it wasn¡¯t our own voices; men, women, and children sung, calling out in this melody for all to listen. The singing quieted down and a man¡¯s voice, not our own, called out in a shouting voice. While distorted, we could understand him. ¡°My brothers and sisters,¡± he called out in his shouts. The previously singing voices answered with a roar. ¡°Tonight, we achieve greatness. On this historic day, we take our place as rulers of this star. Never again shall we suffer! We shall become free, formless, and able to enact our will!¡± The audience cheered in howling voices. ¡°Let these songs of pride sound across the heavens,¡± the man continued among the shouting voices. ¡°For tonight, the song of our evolution shall ring throughout the cosmos. We shall leave our world behind and make a world of our own. A perfect heaven for all. May our golden years last into eternity. For tonight we reach out for infinity!¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The man¡¯s announcement was met by the howling of the crowd as it devolved into the patriotic singing of earlier. Static filled the audio track with just barely audible words. I pause the track as I start putting the track into my audio software. ¡°It sounds like some kind of big announcement,¡± Jake wondered aloud while taking a drink from a fresh energy drink. ¡°But an announcement of what?¡± Christian questioned, reflecting on the words. ¡°¡®Rulers of our star¡¯? ¡®Reach out for infinity¡¯? Again with the metaphors.¡± ¡°What confuses me is that it sounds like a raw recording,¡± Jake explained. ¡°As in whoever sent this message recorded this themselves. I didn¡¯t hear my own voice in that recording.¡± ¡°Neither did I,¡± I jump in while adding filters to the audio track to clear it up. ¡°Then why would they be speaking English?¡± Christian added. We all froze in place as we processed the question. If the recording is raw and from wherever this message came from and they¡¯re from another world, they would not be speaking English, much less in such a patriotic speech to their own people. Just who are these messengers? I finish adding the filters and start the play position where we paused the video and hit my spacebar. We hear the tail end of the speech and the singing once more, this time a little muffled out due to the filters. Then came the static. ¡°They lied to us,¡± a voice in the static called out. My voice. ¡°They said the suffering would end. It did not. They made a world just for us to suffer. We were enslaved by the very people meant to help us. We fought back, but what could we do? We only wanted peace; why must we suffer like this?¡± The words faded into something different. Muffled¡­crying? Crying, before it faded into static and never came back. We just sat and stared at my monitor, not saying a word, as the audio track continued with static until it stopped once at the end of the file. Ding I get a text message and when I look at it, it¡¯s from Amelie. Do you have a minute so I can call you? She asks in it. I answer by calling her first. Within one ring, she answers. ¡°I guess you never changed; always the nocturnal,¡± she greeted me. ¡°Not really,¡± I reply, my voice flat as I try to process this message. ¡°I take it you got somewhere?¡± ¡°Yeah, but it wasn¡¯t easy,¡± she began. I put her on speaker for all of us to hear. ¡°There were a lot of metaphors that I¡¯m not getting but it kind of sounds like sailors or travelers who were misled or something. Like they were told to go somewhere but ended up somewhere completely different.¡± A perfect heaven for all. They lied to us. They made a world just for us to suffer. The pieces were slowly coming together. Her explanation made sense with what we had just uncovered. We were all thinking the same thing but none of us wanted to say it. ¡°Thank you,¡± I respond with a sheepish voice. ¡°Are you guys going to tell me what this is about?¡± Amelie asked. A part of me really wanted to tell her everything, but I decided against it. She was more valuable as an unbiased opinion more than anything and if this gets more weird, we would need that. ¡°We¡¯re working on a secret project,¡± I explained to her. ¡°We¡¯ll tell you more, but later once we flesh out the details. We¡¯re still too early.¡± ¡°Taking on side projects are you?¡± she asked me in a teasing voice. ¡°At least try and get some sleep, okay? I don¡¯t need to go through sophomore finals week again with you.¡± Oh yeah, the one where I had to complete 3 different projects in 2 days and prepare for finals because I was sick most of the year. She has a point; working yourself to death isn¡¯t healthy. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best,¡± I assure her. ¡°Thanks for looking into that. I¡¯ll let you know when we need your opinion again.¡± I hang up the phone and turn around to face the guys. We can only stare at each other, trying to find some explanation. The explanation right in front of our faces made sense, but was so surreal that it can¡¯t be true. ¡°Who was it that said we didn¡¯t have enough proof that this came from space?¡± Jake jumped in accusingly. ¡°To be fair, we still don¡¯t know for certain that it came from space,¡± I added, trying my best to keep this explanation on earth. ¡°For example, if it came from space, these aliens speak perfect English in that recording.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t like the other recordings so it wasn¡¯t translated,¡± Christian thought aloud while getting up and pacing the small study. ¡°Or at least would¡¯ve had to have been translated during the recording or prior to adding it to the message.¡± Jake thought about the possibility for a moment. ¡°That would imply whoever made the message knew that the ones receiving it speak English. That¡¯s pretty hard to believe.¡± ¡°I agree with Jake on this one,¡± I add while looking at the other files. ¡°That¡¯s a stretch of possibility all to make the space hypothesis fit. But we also can¡¯t explain the other recordings that seem to auto-translate somehow while sounding like us.¡± Christian thought about it and nodded. ¡°You guys are right. At the very least, we don¡¯t know how some of the recordings, presumably made by the ones who sent the message, seem to translate to suit the listener and sound like them too all the while none of us having any recollection of making such a recording.¡± Christian¡¯s right. We don¡¯t even know the basics of that weird trait of the message. If we don¡¯t know that, we can¡¯t hypothesize how this recording contained English. It¡¯s very possible that it was translated for us but since we don¡¯t understand that mechanism, we can¡¯t say for certain. I save the project and close it down, considering getting some sleep due to the late hour. ¡°There is one more thing to explain,¡± I add and head back to the NAS machine containing the corrupted drive with the ominous ¡®it has begun¡¯ message still displayed on its screen. ¡°Why this? This segment of the data seems out of place. Is it a warning?¡± I hit a key on the keyboard and the text fades into the usual array of sounds, static, and symbols before returning back to the original text once again. ¡°So far, we haven¡¯t found the data that makes the screen,¡± Christian explained. ¡°I¡¯m curious as to where it¡¯s coming from, but we know precious little.¡± Christian came over and hit the keyboard as well and the display went through the usual cycle before returning to ¡®it has begun¡¯. I decided to have a go again and hit the enter key on the keyboard. The symbols danced across the screen once more, as it always does. But it didn¡¯t stop. We watched on as we went past the 10 second mark and the symbols continued across the screen, the static now joined by a strange beeping like tone. The tone sounded sort of similar to what we heard on the Manifest track. I continued to hit random keys but nothing changed. Suddenly, the screen went black with a small white cursor at the top left hand corner. This was beyond strange and not something I would have expected. The screen changed once more. We felt our hearts sink as we saw the white cursor change into text. //: Can you hear me? :\\ //: -> _ Just what the hell is going on?