Voyager - Tell A story To Me Contest #12

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Can you hear that?”

Sam looked up at her monitor. An unmistakable bright red marker flashed on the screen. The scanners she had designed and built were picking up a signal that wasn’t coming from their planet.

She looked over at her partner, William. They shared the same look of disbelief.

“It works.”

Sam said to herself.

“Sam. It doesn’t just work. It’s picking something up.”

They tapped and clicked in a harmony of sounds as they searched for the location of the signal. They glanced at each others screens and typed faster, wanting to be the first with the answer. They arrived at a conclusion at the same time.

“We need a bigger computer.”

The young scientists scrambled out of their seats and took the data they had collected to
their Manager.

The small office was crammed with filing cabinets and storage. The smell of smoke almost knocked Sam off her feet. The old man sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair inhaling the smoke.

They stood outside his office, waiting. Sam rocked up and down. William picked at a scab.

“What if it gets rejected again?”

William looked at his best friend.

“It won’t. We have better information this time. There is clearly something out there.”

Sam felt nauseous but she didn't voice any further concern.

Their manager finished and signalled for them to enter. William brought the data they had collected onto the screen. They all gathered around to look at it.

“We need a bigger computer to see what this unidentified object is.”

The old man opened a draw and pulled out a form, he added a signature to it and handed it to Sam.

They left his office and headed back to their own desks. Sam stopped halfway there, she had read the form. She made a high pitched squeak before speaking.

“We have permission to take it to Compu2.”

William took the form from her and read it himself.

They looked at each other with wide eyes and open mouths. Sam’s heart beat faster.
They ran across the Space Studies Centre campus to a building they had only seen during a tour they had on their first day.

The second largest computer’s handler was an old woman who had been long forgotten about. They passed the information to her and she imputed it into the Compu2. The two scientists watched with fascination as the computer whirled into life and started calculating. After several long minutes the computer stopped. A screen displayed a crystal clear image of a small object travelling in space.

The young scientists bounced around the room in excitement. They took the image back to their manager who insisted on taking it higher up the chain himself.

---

After three weeks of being excluded from the conversations regarding the object in space, Sam and William were invited to a confidential debate. The debate would decide whether the object was worth the resources it would take to bring it down to the planets surface.

Sam squished into a spot at the side of the hall. She had to stretch to see above the heads of those sat down. Sweat trickled down her skin.

The debate turned into an experience Sam never wanted to relive. Voices shouted from every angle in an effort to be heard. She was pushed and shoved by fellow colleagues.

The final decision was to invest in the retrieval of the object.

Sam felt happy with the outcome despite the conditions it was born in.

A specialist team were chosen to work on the project. Sam felt a rush when her name had been called, identifying her as the sole mind that had created the scanner in the first place.

---

3 years after the discovery of the object. The Centre had finally designed, built and tested a machine capable of capturing the object and bringing it down to the planets surface safely.

They had kept the mission a secret from the outside world, those within the selected team were sworn to secrecy from others within the centre.

Sam had found it difficult to keep things from William, but after a while of gaining no information from her, he had stopped asking questions. He had stopped talking to her in general.

The day of the capture there was a cloud of anticipation hanging over the entire campus. Everyone knew something was happening.

Sam watched from a distance as her teammates secured the object and brought it down. It had been easier than any of them could have foreseen. The object had already been getting closer to their planet and further pulled in by their gravity.

The object was secured in a building in the centre of the campus. Sam’s team scanned every inch of it before letting anyone near. They were careful to follow rules and procedures.

Sam watched as each scientist had their turn of looking and handling it. Her eyes kept coming back to the gold circle on one side of the object. Even when she went home and closed her eyes to sleep the image was imprinted on her eyelids.

---

William threw stones at the chain link fence surrounding the building that contained the object.

“It’s not fair. I should be in there too.”

Sam had heard it a lot over the last 3 years.

“We still don’t know what it is.”

“I don’t care. I just want to see it.”

Sam sat down next to William on the grass bank.

Over the days that the scientists worked on the object, there was nothing in the news, not even a whisper about its existence. Only the scientists with the highest security clearance were allowed anywhere near it.

Sam understood William’s resentment. They had discovered the object together, but the funding only called for one of them to be allowed on the project, and it had been Sam’s design that made the scanner.

“Well the place should be empty now.”

Sam pointed to her identification with a small smile. It’s not the first time they had broken the rules.

They climbed the fence and ran across to the building.

Inside, William clapped eyes on the object for the first time, his mouth dropped open and his eyes widened.

“It’s beautiful.”

Sam watched him as he seemed drawn to the gold circle.

“Whats this?”

Sam shook her head.

“I told you, we don’t know anything about it yet.”

William reached out to touch it, making Sam flinch. He carefully touched the gold circle and picked at the edge. It dropped from the objects’ surface into his hands.

Sam made a noise of disapproval.

He placed the gold circle onto the top of the object. He read the symbols carved into its surface. Something clicked into place and then a loud screeching noise filled the room.

Sam covered her ears.

“Make it stop!”

William scrambled over the object to stop the noise.

The room fell into silence. They looked at each other with dawning horror as their ears began to bleed. There was nothing they could do. They had heard the sound, the pitch too high for their brains to handle.

Their bodies were a warning. The scientists stopped investigating the object. Burying all record of it. The death siren could kill no more.

This is my entry to the @Calluna’s Tell Me a Story Contest.

Find out about it here.

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