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| R. Hurt/Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/Courtesy of California Institute of Technology via AP |
Distance: 12.02 light years from Earth | Content Flag: Public
Five years have passed since I first transmitted a greeting to Tau Ceti e, and despite several more attempts I’ve received no response. I constructed the message using the same techniques as the Cetians, so I do not believe that they are not understanding my transmission.
It could be that they do not wish to respond, but if that were the case then why send the signal in the first place? The other possibility is that they are not able to reply. With the data I’ve accumulated so far, this seems the likeliest prospect. All of this effort to get us to Tau Ceti and we are too late.
Even with that realisation, there is still much to learn. A new source has revealed itself. We have detected a faint transmission from one of the moons orbiting Tau Ceti h. It is a directed transmission, which is why we have only discovered it now, after crossing inside the ice giant’s orbit. The signal is weak, but the communications system has determined that it is strong enough to reach our destination – Tau Ceti e.
While there is some similarity of structure with the repeated signal that is the focus of my investigation, it is different enough that I have not deciphered its contents. I’m certain it is more than a beacon as the stream’s content is constantly changing. I’ve dedicated some of my processing to analysing this new signal, although it illustrates once again how reliant I am on getting the Primary Command Module operational. On that front, I still haven’t formulated a satisfactory plan.
At this stage I’m hoping that mission control can offer a suggestion, although they have been considering the problem for well over a century without any suggestions that I haven’t already tried.
This new signal has resurrected my interest in the original signal received back in 2076. With everything we’ve unlocked so far, I would expect to have gained some meaning from them and that hasn’t been the case. With this latest signal, there was enough similarity to be sure that it was from the same originator, but with the original I’ve found no meaningful correlation.
This raises an interesting possibility, but also another thread for my processors to work on.
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