Probe

In another time, in another world, far across the universe, a transient spatial rift opened in front of an alien probe fleeing the Limit Cloud of an unremarkable star. Riding the waves of the fabric of space through the tear, the mysterious object returned to the universe in a high orbit of Ezirast, adrift far from the bustling trade lines of the Starrial System.

Se'er An Akasi, an up-and-coming scientist based at the Eir Ekil University in orbit of Arialum, discovered the probe shortly after its emergence into the Silky Way on an archaeological expedition to recently discovered Qomarat ruins on Ezirast's asteroid moons. Pulling it into the Hurlburt 's cargo bay and resolving to check on it later, she forgot about it for the duration of the expedition. But Qomarat ruins are a dime a dozen, especially of the poor preservation found at Ezirast, and this finding was much rarer. Upon returning to her job, the scientific community jumped on the probe, studying every inch of it and working to decode the mysterious message bolted to the side in a primitive metal disk. Akasi was set for life with funding to study this little thing.

The probe was fashioned by a civilization that had seemingly just left their homeworld. Cold-gas thrusters, radio transmitters, and a data storage system based on a kind of magnetic tape used briefly for the earliest exploration probes were the pinnacle of technology for whoever these people are or were. Innumerable bulky objects which were later determined to function as scientific instruments, held away from the polygonal body of the probe on a number of spring-loaded pylons.

The white-painted dish, with a number of radio-wave transmitter and receiver systems associated with it, dominated the appearance of the probe. It was clearly designed to be a massively overclocked RADAR system as well, another technology long abandoned by modern civilization. A massive pylon extending upwards and outwards, mostly outwards, from the probe contained primitive metal-and-wire equipment to measure magnetic fields in the least efficient way possible. Twin metal rods, 8 meters long and covered in partly eroded paint, had unknown purposes.

On the same side as the magnetometer and the seemingly pointless metal rods is a large radiation-hardened cask with a much clearer purpose: to power the entire structure with the radioactive decay of plutonium. This technology, while primitive, is extremely stable and difficult to break and so is often used on things that need to be in the middle of nowhere with very little maintenance. By the time the probe was recovered, the vast majority of it had decayed away to lead.

The other side of the probe is dominated by a large pylon with seemingly every single kind of camera that this civilization had. A variety of oversized mirrored cameras, which upon testing revealed what the visible wavelengths of the probe's home civilization were. A painted panel was bolted to the scaffolding beneath the pylon for unknown reasons.

But by far the most fascinating thing about this mysterious probe was the polished metal plate mounted on the side of its octagonal body. The builders of the probe inscribed instructions on the plate, attempting to communicate a number of things without writing anything in their language. Dominating the plate is a set of lines which are thought to show the location of the probe's origin, relative to fourteen pulsars. This map of pulsars has been cross-referenced with long-range maps of large parts of the galaxy collected by both the Ervo Sector powers, the nations of the Alliance of Five, and many civilizations encountered along the voyage of the FSS Kareland, and matched with none of them. Thus, the homeworld of whoever built the probe is either deep in unexplored space or outside of the galaxy altogether. The spatial rift which deposited the probe over Ezirast was of no help in finding out where it is.

The rest of the symbols were completely inexplicable until an intern had the bright idea of taking the plate off the side of the probe. Beneath it was revealed a primitive disc, riven with concentric grooves. Suddenly, the other symbols made sense as pictoral instructions for how to use this disc. The primitive device was quickly assembled, the scientific community eager to see what information the mysterious message had. The first words seen of this alien civilization were engraved in the center of the disk, seemingly serving as a title. What this title is has yet to be translated.

The disk was placed on the device, and sound was heard. Meaningless crackle covered up the first few seconds of the primitive recording, likely eroded by its time in space or passage through the spatial rift. But when it cleared up, the first words from this world were heard. As more and more flowed from the speaker, most believed them to be some sort of collection of greetings, in all the languages of the probe's homeworld. This implied a unity uncommon among planets of this technological level.

The probe would be the only evidence of this far distant civilization known to the people of the Silky Way, with the world and its people locked away by unknowable distances. The probe, fancifully termed the "Wayfarer" by the public in honor of its unimaginably long journey, sits on a pedestal, gawked at by creatures its creators never imagined, awaiting a transmission from its home that will never come.

(sounds directly transcribed as best as possible)

silim ma he me en

hoytinez po testi kayreet

crackle idade atodos

gok waai hoo maa zuk gok waai ping on gin hong fai lok

adannish lu shulmu

...

ao jee, jee aya noo

ashulee

nomoskar, bisse santi hok

...

tanti auguri e saluti

ayoobowahn

Fifty-five in total were encoded on the primitive golden disk, ending with a simple message:

Hello from the children of planet Earth.