“It’s happening again Ma’am.”
Jane Brown, head of the Pacific Ocean Space Monitoring Station, looked up to see Richard, her junior technician, in the doorway. The strain on the young scientist’s face was evident.
It was only three months since the new telescope had become operational. They had not expected to pick up messages so soon.
“The same message?” she asked, as they walked swiftly through the corridors to the control room.
“Yes. 1 – 0. Repeated frequently.”
“Binary numbers,” Jane breathed deeply, “Have we got a location?”
“It’s transmitting from somewhere near Alpha Centauri to a nearby moon.”
The other scientists stood around the computer terminal.
“Not just numbers,” Jane murmured, “Words too.”
1 – 0.
1.
But what?
They all leaned forward.
“Whatever this message is, whoever is sending it means business,” muttered Jim, the technician.
1 – 0.
“Hey, hey! I think I’ve got it!” Jim hit some more buttons.
1 – 0. Eggs.
“Eggs?” said Richard with alarm.
1 – 0 Bacon.
1 – 0 Coffee.
1 – Burger.
The first alien communication ever intercepted by earth.
“It’s an intergalactic takeout order,” Jane said, slamming her hands down on the desk.
An exercise in micro-fiction – stories which run from zero to fifty
© 2014 M. C. Dulac
6 responses to “10. Message from the Stars”
Haha. I didn’t see that coming 🙂 Won’t that look funny in the history books?
I think I read somewhere that some ancient clay tablets were found to be shopping lists or store inventories! People (and aliens) record the important stuff!
Oh, the dreaded shopping list. Mine’s on my phone now and I love it, but I remember writing out a new one every week. There must be a pile of them in a garbage dump somewhere.
I use the phone too! But sometimes I scribble stuff down on the tiniest scrap of paper in the teeniest handwriting!
Very funny, love it 😀
Awww, thank you!