Exodus - Chapter one: First contact
Exodus
Chapter one: First contact
It is the 20th of
August 2166. And depending on one's location on the planet, it is roughly
midnight. 1:33 to be exact. Tau's communication satellites only had to transmit
and transfer minor data packages from various sites across the world. But
suddenly, the entire network almost crashed. "What the fuck just happened!?" a
communications expert said as he was brought back to real life from his idle
thoughts. The screens were black. Every one of them. But subsystems still
suggested that data was being transferred. "What the fuck is going on
Williams!?" the supervising officer yelled as he walked into the main coms
room. "Are we being attacked?! Is it a cyber-attack, or are they taking down
our satellites?!" he asked frantically as he was already barking orders into
his earpiece. Williams, a human, was rather unfazed by the large German Shepard
yelling in the room as more and more people flocked into the room to try and
sort this mess up. "Answer me god damn it!" the dog shouted once more before he
was shut up by what appeared on the multiple screens.
Meanwhile, Tau was sleeping
in his home. For him, the past few weeks were uneventful. The world in general
seemed to be void of any major conflicts or controversies from either politics
or celebrities. So, when the phone rang, he was rather... annoyed by it. "Sir!
You won't believe this!" a voice shouted through the phone. Tau had to pull it
away, and his ear rang for a few seconds before he snarled back into the phone.
"What the fuck is so important that you had to blow my eardrum in the middle of
the night!?" and the man on the other side went on unfazed. "Sir you have to
see this! This will change the course of humanity forever!" Williams said
rather enthusiastically as he sounded like he was going to burst with
excitement. "You have to see it, if I just tell you won't believe me!" he
insisted and Tau just grumbled back as he got out of bed. A few minute later,
he had a coffee mug in his hand, and was walking, in the escort of his guards,
to the helicopter pad. He got into the chopper, and was on his way to his
communications hub somewhere deep in Russian territory, far away from any
listening devices, and spying attempts. The flight took him a couple of hours
to get there, and when he did, he was a bit surprised. The large data
channeling facility was bristling with activity. It was actually at full
capacity.
When he landed, he was
greeted by the site main administrator, as well as the commanding officer. The
German Shepard was the first to shake his paw, and he started to give him a
brief rundown on what had happened. "That's a lovely story general, but are you
sure that this isn't just a hacking attempt mixed with a practical joke?" Tau
grumbled as he didn't quite believe what he was told. "That's why this nerd
will explain from now on" the Shepard grumbled as they entered the main control
room. "Ahh, Tau Maxim! A pleasure to finally meet you" Williams greeted him
rapidly as he hardly contained his excitement. "Just show me what all the fuss
is about, and try to convince me that it isn't just some bad joke from a
talented hacker working out of his garage." Tau snarled back at him before he
was pointed to the larges screen on the opposite wall. The screen lit up, with
what seemed to be an oscilloscope pattern on it. "Not impressed" he grumbled as
he looked at Williams. And then, a sound was heard from the speakers in the
room. There was still no picture, only the trembling line of the oscilloscope
as white noise was heard. Tau was just about to fire Williams, but was
interrupted by a voice.
"Greetings. We are here to
greet you on behalf of the galactic community." A female sounding voice said.
"Please, do not fear us. We come in peace. We are sorry that we couldn't make
the first greeting in person, so to speak, but this will have to do." She continued as Tau was listening
closely. "We will make proper contact on the 30th of August at what
you call 12:00 Greenwich Mean Time, on the following coordinates: 47?20'53.33" North, 9?03'27.48" East." And the transmission terminated. "Okay.
Why is this so important? It's just a voice recording, nothing more" Tau
grumbled at both men. The Shepard just walked away, leaving Williams to explain
himself. "Well, first off all, it wouldn't be so fascinating, if the entire
recording didn't come in a few nanoseconds. Nearly fried our receivers down
here and on our satellite. That's what caused the entire system to force shut
down" Williams hurried to explain, but was cut short by Tau. "You have one more
sentence to impress me before I fire your ass and send you on a refreshing
holyday in Siberia." He growled lightly as he didn't seem impressed one bit.
"It came from roughly the area where the Moon is. So it's not terrestrial."
Williams explained in what could only be described as a fan boy talking about
something he really like to someone who has no idea what he's talking about.
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" Tau yelled as he leaned into the closest monitor he could
find. "You have got to be shitting me..." he said as he saw the numbers and
calculations. "No, I'm not... But sadly, that's not it" Williams said as he sat
down by his side.
A long and exhausting
explanation later, Tau was brought up to speed on what happened and what was
happening. "So you're telling me, it was a directed radio signal? Pointed to a few
specific satellites and ground stations?" he asked as he finally thought that
he managed to wrap his mind around what he was told. "Yeah, pretty much sir.
Far beyond what we can do now" Williams answered as he took a sip of coffee.
"Do you know what this means Williams?" Tau asked as he looked at him with
sincere concern in his eyes. "More or less. What concerns me that now multiple
governments know about this. But so far, everything's quiet" the other said
back and Tau just nodded his head. "If this gets out, people will most likely
panic. And no one wants that. That's why they're keeping quiet about this..." Tau
said as he was seemingly lost in his thoughts. "Where is the location again?"
he asked as he stood up to get some more coffee. "Somewhere in Switzerland,
near a town called..." Williams said as he looked at the computer "Bütschwil" and
leaned back into his seat and kneaded his eyes. "And the time gives us roughly
nine and a half days to figure out how to handle this mess" Tau said as he
poured himself a fresh cup of coffee.
"What I want to know, is why
haven't we taken down our main data banks yet?" the general asked as he came
into the room with the latest satellite images of said location. "Because, if she spoke in English, they probably
already know everything about us, and know the best way to kill us. So, either
they're really here in peace, or this is just a joke on their part to cause
panic." Tau said as he took a sip. A moment of silence followed, as everyone knew
the impact that this will have on Earth. "So, what now?" Williams asked, but it
was more to break the silence. "Well, we'll have to get troops there as soon as
possible. God know what the others will do, especially America. Remember what
happened when a kid managed to guess a username and password to the secret
Pentagon servers? That was almost the start of World war three" the Shepard
said with almost a chuckle in his voice. "Yes, and that's what worries me" Tau
said as he turned towards the screen on the wall, showing a satellite image of
the supposed landing site.