Calling Home (Stranded, Part 6)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

I’ve finally fully recovered and now it’s time to think about going home. It relieved me greatly that the staff in this secret government facility immediately agreed to let me go. They never once tried to make me stay in the days I've spent here recovering.

Either they’re extremely nice or Rick is a very influential person. But it doesn’t matter what the reason is, I’m glad that the situation is like it is.

They even brought me a new spacesuit which allows me to walk freely through the corridors. I only made use of that possibility once as I couldn’t stand the stares. I felt like some kind of study subject.

Rick’s presence is a lot nicer, he never ever makes me feel like I’m something weird, despite my off-putting looks. I at least assume that my purple skin and huge head appear off-putting to them, as the human’s pink skin and tiny faces make me slightly uncomfortable every time I look at them.

Anyway, I won’t have to look at them forever and I might even regret one day that I didn’t study them more intensely. But I just don’t have enough energy, not to speak of the missing instruments. And I’d really like to get my hands on a blood sample … _@suesa

”What are you thinking about?” Rick asks me.

”Oh … uhm … home”, I improvise. Regardless of his displayed affection, I shouldn’t tell him I’m fantasizing about studying individuals of his species in detail. Might seem … alarming. Even if it is not him directly I would want to analyze.

”Do you miss it”, he asks. ”Your home planet?”

”A lot. Everyday. I haven’t been there in a year. My mission was supposed to return after my trip to Earth’s orbit.”

”Do you think your people will come and pick you up?”

”I hope so.” The smile I give him is pained. ”My ship’s crew is clearly dead, they would never have failed to pick me up again. And even if there was a good reason for them to be late, they would have tried to find me soon after I crashed. But they didn’t. So the only hope is that a different ship nearby picks up the signal.”

”We will try our best to contact whoever might be out there.” Rick tries to be reassuring but I can hear that he doesn’t have much hope either. Communication in space is … tricky. The distances are just too huge. And humans are relatively unevolved when it comes to communication over long distances.

I remember passing the probe called “New Horizon” when we flew by the celestial body they humans named Pluto. We had scanned it and noticed that it was emitting radio signals with data with Earth as the target.

I remember how we joked about the slow transmission, as the data took almost 5 hours to reach its destination. 5 hours! Our transmissions could have done that in a fraction of that time.

”With what will the message be transmitted?” I ask, secretly hoping that the humans might have devised something more effective by now.

”There is that project, called Lone Signal”, he says, **”It’s a giant radio dish that sends messages towards the Gliese 526 system, that’s about 17.6 light-years away. It’s a fun project, everyone can add a message to be transmitted.”

”And you’re going to use that thing?” I’m skeptical. ”Is it even the right direction?”

”Probably not, no. But that’s no problem.”

”Why?”

”Because I only intended it to be an example of how we transmit messages nowadays. Just imagine, this project is available for the public! The government's tools are much more sophisticated than that. They have their own satellite dish with which they will send your message. And not just in one direction, but in all directions!”

My eyes grow wide.

”That’s dangerous!” I shriek. ”The Splerions …”

”Will think it’s some random interference. Your predecessor, the one who survived, left us some information on how to contact your people safely without drawing too much attention to ourselves. It has since been implemented into a system which has been subject to constant improvement over the years. Everyone is positive that our message will come through, undisturbed.”

I’m not so sure about that but Rick looks so proud, I don’t want to discourage him.

”Are you happy to go home soon?” He asks me.

”Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s not even certain if my people will actually come and pick me up”, I say.

It’s not even certain if my home planet hasn’t been wiped out by the Splerions by now, I think.

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Sources:

How exactly does New Horizons send all that data back from Pluto?

New Project Will Send Your Messages to Aliens in Deep Space

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Begins Intensive Data Downlink Phase

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Picture taken from pixabay.com

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