Cats and Technical Publications
The website loaded in nearly an instant. Certainly faster than it had a right too, when one considers the coordination of technology that just occurred.
A TCP packet egressed her network, out her modem into a tangle of infrastructure. Thousands of switches, routers, servers, and millions of miles of wire carried her desire to view a simple login screen which routed to the closest CDN with the simple command:
"Show me."
In response, a framework of protocols across the entire OSI layer, a series of data flow laws ordained by numerous cross-disciplainry consortiums and organizations flooded a completely different route than it took to get there. An army of data frames, in perfect order and timings, like that of a marching army war.
As she tapped in her user name and password, both of which were types of cheese, a fat tabby cat waddled over her arms and struggled under its girth to climb into the cardboard box besides her computer screen. When it’s paws felt the familar fleece blanket neatly tucked inside for padding, it did a few ceremonious spins before plopping down in the same direction it started.
The website she just logged into cost a small fortune every year just to access. But it was a necessary evil in academia. Behind this paywall was access to the latest scientific papers for consumption and peer review.
Ever since SETI announced that it may have potentially discovered a signal of extraterrestrial origin months ago she could hardly wait to see what the findings were. SETI had made similar claims before but this time it was different.
After several months of radio silence from SETI and its collaborators, rumblings started to appear on the internet from “insiders” who warned this would change the course of human history.
It’s not as if SETI was biding its time. As per protocol, SETI set out to verify that the signal wasn't of terrestrial origin. Once it had been determined the signal wasn't the result of someone microwaving a hot pocket, they then had to replicate the results from another antenna on Earth. After that signal was reproduced, SETI put out the word and almost all the space antenna arrays around the world fixated on the star known as HD 164595 to listen in on the signal.
And they listened for a long time. Waiting for the signal pattern to change. It repeated over and over until the signal strength dropped by 10% before abruptly stopping.
Then began the task of comparing and analyzing data. Many theorized that it would be some sort of mathematical sequence. They reasoned any advance species would be bound by the same principles of mathematics that we were; therefore, math was a universal language among “intelligent” species. Pi, prime numbers, the Fibonacci sequence, anything that let anyone worth listening know it wasn’t random noise. Others thought it would untranslatable or beyond the comprehension of humans. Then of course, those who said it was a natural phenomenon we did not understand and not “little green men”. But that didn't stop them from trying to decode it anyway.
And now the day was finally here. The day SETI published their findings on “The Astronomical Journal”, a leading scientific journal owned by the American Astronomical Society.
It didn’t take much scrolling before she saw the link for the research paper, in bold font, down the site "Message encoded in radio burst from HD 164595".
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Summary: Signal discovered emanating from star HD164595 was decoded and found to contain binary data which when converted to ASCII, translated to an English sentence. The message appears to be a public service announcement stressing the importance of eliminating carbon-based life forms found during interstellar travel. Protocols should be established to isolate Earth from detection by extraterrestrials.
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Below this brief abstract was the meat and potatoes of the paper which she managed to read through the sinking feeling in her stomach.
Something out there viewed all the life that evolved on earth as dangerous. An evolutionary cancer of chemical reactions and natural selection. All life on Earth was nothing more than a weed sprouted in the middle of a hidden oasis. At least until whatever they are, find us, and rip us from the ground.
She knew then, despite our incredible technology and progress, humans would be isolated from something bigger we would never understand until we all died or became something else that would no longer be human.
Her gaze met the tabby's green eyes which lazily held open in squint. It's tail rhythmically bumping into the cardboard box.
She booped the cats nose with her finger to which it responded by rubbing it's face on her hand.
"There are some mean things out there that want to kill you, Dr. Katz."
The cat purred in response to the warm, comforting tone of her voice, completely unable to understand the words she spoke.
