Radio Static

Dustin placed his hand on the doorknob with great care and slowly pulled his weight against the door as he turned the key to avoid making more noise than was necessary. He listened intently for any movement inside as he slowly pushed the front door in and peeked around before he slinked inside.

He kept the knob turned and placed his other hand on the edge of the door as he shut out the warm summer night. The only sound was the ticking of the grandfather clock from the living room. He had made it back in without waking his grandparents.

He pushed a button on his Casio watch and lit up the face, 23:59.46. The grandfather clock will be going off any moment now, its chimes will be the perfect cover for him to move upstairs pull down the ladder to the attic and climb up into his lab.

“Three, two, one.” He counted down the seconds on the watch and begin to move quickly up the stairs just as the first Dong of the clock began. He all but ran up the stairs and tripped over the black cat that was laying across the top of the steps.

“Stupid cat.” he thought in his head.

That had cost him at least 2 chimes. he moved down the hallway and pulled on the attic’s door rope. It came down with ease and almost too quickly. The unfolding ladder almost struck him in the face.

The chimes continued to ring through the house as he pulled the ladder and door back up behind him, shutting it as the last chime echoed through the old Victorian house.

The attic smelled of mildew and dust. He always had to fight the urge to sneeze whenever he first entered. Reaching above him in the darkness he groped until his hand slapped a dangling chain.

With a tug, the room was lit and revealed the boxes and furniture covered in sheets placed up in the attic away from the world and eventually forgotten. Boxes full of souvenirs and photos from a time when his family was complete. A time when his father was still on Earth and his mother was still conscious.

He moved to the far end of the attic and removed the sheet from his desk where he had his tools and radio components neatly laid out and ready for assembly.

On the wall over his work area hung a picture of his dad wearing his orange space suit, smiling in front of the American flag with his helmet in his lap. Dustin was starting to resemble his father more now at 14 than his grandparents had thought when he came to live with them 4 years ago. If only he could see him now.

He removed his backpack and fished around in the main compartment and removed the new radio transceiver and placed it on the desk for deconstruction.

He took his seat and rolled up his sleeves and set his glasses on his nose. He took the Phillips head screwdriver from a wire cup and began to remove the screws that secured the metal cover over the radio components inside.

This new transceiver was the strongest one on the market to date but still didn’t have enough power for his intentions. He needed to increase the power enough to reach the satellites that circled the planet.

If his calculations were correct the spacecraft named HERMES would be somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. Accounting for the increase of the spacecraft’s velocity as it catapulted around the planets and continued to gain velocity from its solar sails it should be close to Tempel 1 on its maiden voyage to Titan.

The craft was commanded by Dustin Heckman Senior who launched out into space five years ago to be part of the final test flight before sending a colony mission to Titan. He left behind his wife Mary and his son Dustin Heckman Junior.

A year into the voyage all the members of the crew were put into cryo-sleep to allow the Ship to travel at a speed faster than any human-designed craft has ever gone before.

That same year Mary was struck by a bus while on an afternoon run. She was alive, but just as impossible for Dustin to reach as his space-bound father.

With the Cover removed he then began to replace the fuses one by one, documenting the changes in his notebook and calculating if the new resistance will still allow for his message to be sent without the fuses burning out.

He was sure that this new transceiver would succeed where the others had fallen short. The hobbyist market was beginning to get flooded with military-grade equipment now that Cold War Two had ended and tensions were once again lowered to a reasonable level.

After replacing the fuses, he began to solder in new wires and routes onto the circuit board connecting the antennae and laptop to the transceiver so he can send a digital voice message instead of being dependent on sound waves alone.

Trying to get a message to the HERMES using his small, constructed antennae would be like trying to hit a quarter-size moving bull’s eye a mile away with a slingshot. Impossible was an understatement.

Instead, He had to send a message to one of the thousands of satellites orbiting overhead. That satellite then had to relay the message to other satellites. That made a network of satellites that could push the message like a shotgun blast to HERMES.

The way his dad had explained the ship to him was that the crew would be put into a suspended sleep, but their minds would still be working and operating the ship. The crew would be in a simulation that was a mix between lucid dreaming and virtual reality.

Since the rest of their body was hibernating it allowed for their brains to work at an incredibly fast and efficient speed. When the message reached his dad, he would be able to see it even though his body was still asleep.

He finished the last of the soldering and checked the connections with his multimeter. It showed continuity between all the circuits and was ready to go. He looked at his Casio, 02:15.34. In less than five minutes the satellite he intended to use to start his message relay will be passing for the 5th time that night.

His transmission window would be less than two minutes, but the hard work had been done. This time it had to work. He turned on his laptop and typed out his message

Dust 1 ths Dust 2. Mary 1 hd acdnt. n hsptl x4 yrs. Com hom.

He felt a little embarrassed by the message. He was 14 now and needed to start acting like a man. At least that’s what his grandfather told him. His father was putting the finishing touches on a project that had spanned over five decades and billions of dollars to fund. It couldn’t be sacrificed because one boy was lonely.

Eventually, he decided to change his message. He didn’t need his dad to come back. He was strong and able to take care of himself. He did want his dad to know that his mom had been hurt though.

The Combined Space Agency had decided to keep any bad news from the crew. The thought was that with only their brains active it would ruin their psyche and possibly lead to severe problems with the ship itself.

He had the right to know though God damn it. Here his dad was risking his life for all of humanity and his own family is falling apart because of a freak accident.

Dustin Changed the Message. It now read

Dst 1, Dst 2.

Mry 1 n hptl “t=4yrs”

Dst 2 ok

CM GL

He felt better about this message. It wasn’t whiny like a nine-year-old kid but in his head sounded like how a man should send a message. Putting the mission first and personal feelings were shoved deep down inside instead. At least that’s what his grandfather told him to do.

He moved over to the attic window and peered through his telescope up into the night sky. He had already oriented it on the satellite’s orbit, but one should always check before transmitting. He saw the satellite enter the telescope's field of view. Moving back to the desk he turned on the radio and pressed enter on the keyboard of his laptop.

POP! The circuit board flashed like a miniature firework display as sparks and smoke filled the dank attic. He choked as he moved to the window to breathe in the fresh air.

“God damn it all to Hell.” He muttered into the night sky. His calculations were off. He needed a fuse that could put up with the additional resistance. Covered in sweat and exhausted from the night he looked down at his Casio 02:25.32.

It was getting but the satellite would be overhead in another hour and a half. If he worked quickly, he would be able to swap out the fuse and get his message transmitted.

He returned to the desk and looked over the transceiver and immediately saw the damaged fuse. An easy fix and was done in less than a minute. He didn’t want to wait for the full orbit, there had to be another satellite capable of starting the relay closer to his current position.

A few searches on the web proved he was correct and a satellite capable of relaying the message would be overhead in ten minutes. He typed the new coordinates into the computer and watched as the antennae and telescope shifted.

Getting up he peered through the lens into the dark sky above. A light entered the scope, he returned to the computer and hit enter again. This time he saw the “message sent” confirmation.

A smile crossed his face he leaned back in his chair and let out a silent cheer as he pumped his fists into the air. The message had been sent and was traveling through a network of satellites overhead and in less than half an hour it would begin its journey across the solar system.

Bing! The notification sound made him jump from his chair with a hushed scream barely escaping from his clenched teeth. He had just received a return message.

This was impossible. There was no way that the message had been transmitted across the vastness of space to the HERMES, then to have been processed by his father, and his father to send a return response in less than a minute. Something was most definitely wrong. He was sure he must have made another error.

He opened his inbox and saw a message without a subject from a sender with the username 1. The message read

⋔⟒⌇⌇⏃☌⟒ ⍀⟒☊⟒⟟⎐⟒⎅

⊑⍜⍙ ⎅⟟⎅ ⊬⍜⎍ ⎎⟟⋏⎅ ⎍⌇

⟟⎎ ⍙⟒ ⍀⟒☊⟒⟟⎐⟒ ⏃⋏⍜⏁⊑⟒⍀ ⋔⟒⌇⌇⏃☌⟒ ⍙⟒ ⍙⟟⌰⌰ ☊⍜⋔⟒ ⎎⍜⍀ ⏃ ⋔⟒⟒⏁⟟⋏☌ ⟟⋏ ⌿⟒⍀⌇⍜⋏ ⍙⟟⏁⊑ ⏁⊑⟒ ⌇⟒⋏⎅⟒⍀

Fear rose from Dustin’s groin up into his chest and his ears began to ring as he tried to make sense of the writing on his screen. What was going on?

Then he began to think rationally. This was probably a prank. He must have sent the message and accidentally transmitted it to another hobbyist who thought they would have a little fun and transmit back an “alien message”.

A smile once again crossed Dustin’s face as he laughed under his breath at his own cowardness. He decided to let the prankster know the gig was up and that he was sorry for any harm he had done. He sent the following message.

Sorry Wrong Station

Good Night

He hit enter on his keyboard and chuckled as he walked over to the telescope to look up at the night sky one last time before going down to bed. With a smile cemented on his face, he placed his eye against the scope and froze.

There was the satellite that was supposed to have passed ten minutes ago. It sat suspended in place dead in the center of his telescope’s lens. The smile left his face and was replaced by his slacked jaw.

Bing! The notification sound sang into the night again making him jump from the telescope. He approached the computer with caution and hesitated to open the message. His mouse hovered over the icon for what felt like an eternity before he finally clicked to open it.

⋔⟒⌇⌇⏃☌⟒ ⍀⟒☊⟒⟟⎐⟒⎅

⍙⟒ ⍙⟟⌰⌰ ☌⍜ ⏁⍜ ⏁⊑⟒ ⏁⍀⏃⋏⌇⋔⟟⏁⏁⟟⋏☌ ☊⍜⍜⍀⎅⟟⋏⏃⏁⟒⌇ ⍜⎎ ⊬⍜⎍⍀ ⋔⟒⌇⌇⏃☌⟒ ⟒⌇⏁⟟⋔⏃⏁⟒⎅ ⏃⍀⍀⟟⎐⏃⌰ ⏁⍙⟒⋏⏁⊬ ⋔⟟⋏⎍⏁⟒⌇

Again, fear rushed through his body. He moved back to the telescope, but clouds were beginning to form in the sky and the wind began to blow as though it were a hurricane. Rain began to fall in great big drops and lightning began to strike all around the neighborhood.

Every transformer on the street's telephone poles were struck by lightning. Dustin was completely soaked from the rain but was frozen by what he had seen. In a state of disbelief and shock, he stood in the window and stared up at the storm that had materialized out of a clear summer night.

A bolt of lightning struck the transformer next to his house and it exploded lighting up the night sky with a deafening boom. Then another bolt struck the house itself and the transceiver blew up into sparks for the second time that night.

Then, as suddenly as it had all started, the noise and rain stopped. Dustin stood wet, cold, and shivering in the dark attic window. He felt as though the whole world had been swallowed by a shadow and he stood on a surfboard as he floated through the abyss of space.

The light flooded every space around him. He could not see outside of the light the attic had disappeared from his view and he felt weightless. He looked down at his shoes and saw that the laces were sticking straight up, and he could feel his hair being pulled on top of his head as though someone had rubbed a balloon on it.

Then he felt his feet lift off the ground and he certainly was floating. Slowly being pulled up into the light. Slowly, as though he were on an escalator at the mall. He tried to look around, but the blinding light was all he could see. To his surprise the light didn’t hurt his eyes.

He leaned back and relaxed his body as he floated higher and higher into the light, he could now make out small shadows in the distance. His heart began to pound harder in his chest as the thoughts of extraterrestrial and high school biology experiments began to fly through his mind.

He could feel his body floating but it was no longer moving. He looked around in the light and felt someone say “Hello, don’t be afraid.” He felt these words in his mind. No one had said them.

“How can I not be scared,” He thought

“Yes, we’re sorry for the intrusion we received your message and though we did not understand it, it was the first message that had ever been received from your species by ours. What did it say?” the voice inside his head asked.

“What do you mean you couldn’t understand it, aren’t we talking right now?” Dustin responded.

“Yes, but that is because we are using organic telepathy both our species have brains created by nature, and as a result, we can understand one another even though our thoughts sound different from our spoken language, our minds can translate the message for us. Written language is always a construct and impossible for a brain to interpret without a preexisting knowledge or a key.” The voice answered

“What’s your name?”

“We no longer have individual names we are all one.”

“What do you call yourselves then?”

“Your mind would not be able to comprehend our name without the knowledge of our spoken language, but the word that would most accurately translate would be Ants.”

“Ants are tiny insects here on earth”

“Yes, insects that are part of a hive mind. With citizens that work together for the greater good and venture out from their nests to colonize new areas. That is why we have chosen the name Ants for you to use to address us.”

Dustin’s heart sank as reality sank in. “Are you here to colonize Earth?”

“We are observing to see if the planet is sufficient for our needs. At this time, it appears that the Human species makes this planet inhospitable for their own species let alone ours. Instead, we are here on a reconnaissance mission to observe the planet and to signal back when the humans have ended.”

“What!”

“What are you confused about? Your species' time on this planet is nearing an end soon. With the population rising out of control and the lack of resources for water, food, and energy it is only a matter of time until the species dies out.”

“We will not die out; we will not go extinct.”

“Your opinions are your own. We will not fight to make the obvious clear to you.”

The light around Dustin began to dim and he was able to see he was suspended in the center of a round room surrounded by what appeared to be human children. Their faces were covered with a clear mask and their bodies were covered in what looked like a biohazard suit.

Behind the mask, Dustin could make out the large eyes of the Ants with pinpoint pupils to filter out the blinding light. They had two slits that made up the nostrils of their nose and where a mouth would have been on a human there was a series of ruffles resembling a fish’s gills.

“What are you going to do to me!”

“We are collecting the bacteria from your body and taking blood samples to learn about viruses on your planet. They will be present long after your species is gone, and we must build up our immune system before colonizing.”

An Ant moved towards him and wiped his bare arms with a cloth and another over his face. Then they put a swab in his mouth and finally he felt a pinch in his neck as they extracted their blood sample.

He was frozen suspended in the white room by static electricity. His heart pounded. Every alien movie he had ever seen flashed before his eyes.

“No, we are not interested in that. Your internal workings are none of our concern. We no longer colonize through force instead we observe from a distance and wait for the inhabitance of a planet to extinguish themselves”

“I hope you like waiting because Humans are going to be around for a while.”

“Time is of no importance to us. We have been observing Earth since your species tested the first atomic weapon. Once you developed a communication system that could connect every human on your planet to one another we considered contacting your kind.

The white walls of the room changed to show images of violent events throughout Earth’s history.

“We had thought your species would have reached a global understanding and oneness like us. This did not happen.”

“Are you using the internet as a weapon to divide us more?”

“No, we are observers. Your species has weaponized the internet on its own. It is such a powerful tool. It upsets us that it now controls you instead of you controlling it.”

Dustin felt his body slowly moving towards the ground and felt both feet securely on the ground. An Ant moved towards him with an outstretched hand.

In Its alien hand, it held a family photo of Dustin with his parents. They were all smiling in front of a lake. It was taken on the last birthday he had spent with both his parents. He took the picture and stared at it.

“Family units are a thing we have evolved past. Our records indicate that when we had them our species suffered a great amount of conflict. Our records also show that it was the last time our species experienced happiness.”

“I miss them, both of them.”

“We do not understand your emotion towards these two individuals, but we do not have to. For your donation, we intend to help the mother. We are grateful for your donation and hope you enjoy the rest of your life.”

“You’re going to let me go?”

“Yes, there are only two things you can do. either tell everyone about our encounter which is too surreal for your species to believe. Or you keep our encounter a secret. Both will not have any effect on our observations.”

Dustin couldn’t believe it. They were surely lying. Nobody would kidnap an individual take their blood and then let them go to tell the tale. Surly these were his last moments.

“Goodbye, Dustin.”

The white light surrounded Dustin again. It grew brighter and brighter until his mind made him feel a burning sensation all over his body. Then, darkness.

He couldn’t see anything but the darkness. He assumed he was in space floating aimlessly in zero gravity. Then he could make out the stars and constellations in the sky above.

He turned his head and could make out the attic and radio station lab in complete shambles. The roof was destroyed, and fires were still burning on some of the telephone poles.

He could hear sirens and dogs barking in the streets and his grandparents yelling for him in the house below. He moved his hand to his neck and felt where the Ants had taken his blood. It was slightly raised and tender to the touch.

He got to his feet and ran downstairs to meet with his grandparents and to tell them of his strange encounter. As soon as he saw them, they didn’t let him get a word in, instead, they scolded him for playing in the attic and insinuated that the state of the neighborhood was all his doing.

They were only partly right. He moved off to his room as they had demanded and climbed into bed. The events of the night are still fresh in his mind. He lay awake for a long time until sleep finally overtook him.

The next morning, he woke to the sound of hammering on the roof. Looking out his window he could see a pickup with a construction logo on the side and men in tool belts moving to and from the truck.

He moved to his mirror in his room and examined the bruise on his neck. It resembled a hickey though he had never even had a girlfriend. He got dressed and made his way down to the kitchen.

Unplugging his phone from the kitchen counter he saw a missed voicemail. While pouring his orange juice he thought it was strange that someone had called him, and even stranger that they had left a voicemail.

“Dustin, it's Mom. I’m awake. I miss you. please come see me when you get this. I love you.” The voice in the message was choked with tears before hanging up.

The orange juice overflowed the glass. She was awake. His mother was awake. He was no longer alone in the world. To be raised by his out of touch grandparents. His family unit was once again complete. He thought about the Ant’s words.

There would continue to be conflict in his life, but there would also be happiness. These two things made life worth living. Otherwise, Humans were no better than Ants.