“… bz … bzt … #/%ual co#@%ct bzzt …”
“… #on@%%m&$ …”
“… bea&$#%ul Ma-// bzzzt …”
In the middle of a field on the far North Coast of the Island of Moafin, there lies a small, plain looking, white concrete building. What is unique about this building, however, is that it is surrounded by fifteen receiver dishes that are each ten stories tall. Beside the single door to the building there is a small, bronze plaque.
— Begin quote from ____
Headquarters of the Moafish Eternal Search for Something.
Authorized Personnel Only
— End quote
Inside the building a man with a long white lab coat was leaning a little too far back in his chair while taking a nap. His feet were resting on top of an impressive array of buttons and switches, which were mounted in a semicircle with a few monitors and radio receivers. The man had a scraggly red goatee on his chin and a mop of curly red hair on his head, with an enormous pair of thick glasses in-between.
There was a constant hum of static coming from one of the radio receivers, and the only other noise came from a rather rotund person who was sitting in the next room on a sofa, completely engrossed in a video game.
All of a sudden some barely intelligible syllables came through the static. The redheads eyes snapped open as he jolted slightly, which cause his wheeled chair to skid forward a half inch, sending its occupant tumbling over backwards onto the ground. He quickly flipped himself over, stood up, tripped over his lab coat and fell over again, then grabbed onto the chair and hauled himself up to the speaker the noise had come from.
Nothing but static.
The redhead looked over to the other room. “Uh, Brian, did you… uh, hear anything, just a second ago?”
The other man continued to stare at this television screen. “Nope. Nothing. In fact, I heard the same nothing we’ve been listening to for three dang years!! Go back to sleep, Virgil.”
The redhead, Virgil, looked back at the radio. Still just static. He shrugged his shoulders, jotted down a few words in a logbook, and leaned back in his chair again.
The static droned on.
The pilot woke up as his comm spat out a garbled mess of sound. He was annoyed that he got woken up. Nothing ever happened out at the Jovian node, however, he had a feeling he had better investigate. If nothing else, it may provide the first excitement he had in months.
Beep… beep.
Beep… beep.
“Bzzrrztt - <Confirm eight second delay. Maintain course and heading.>”
"<Fission reactors one through three primed. Beginning primary deceleration burn… now.
We are now five days from Earth.>"