Numerical Symphony
by: Lily d'Jerusalem
A/N: For anyone who doesn't know about numbers stations, don't look them up alone at night, they can only be classified as eerie. I've always wanted to hear a station in real time myself, but I don't have much time to keep an ear on the radio. Oh well, maybe someday. And you can thank Illogically for introducing me to numbers stations (aka blame her for this).
Disclaimer: I only have the tiny spychangers Hound toy, how could I own this multiverse of awesomeness. Also, I don't own numbers stations, the governments of the world do. I hope this won't get me killed. Tell my puddin' I love him.
14044-80372-82970-98923-91173
The sun was shining down on the hilly terrain Hound was currently in. He sat at the top of the tallest hill, on a dirt road which would supposedly lead to an old mining town that had long since shut down. The road went on into the horizon, surrounded by miles and miles of grass and pure blue sky with but the occasional cloud.
He loved these kinds of days, a mission in a beautiful setting that left him with only the sounds of nature and his radio. At the moment nature was quite quiet, there was a slight breeze but nothing in the way of insects chirping or animals calling to one another; no bit of water to gently make noise. Today was the kind of day that he was glad to have an AM/FM radio. Unfortunately with the only settlement within half a day's drive being the abandoned mining town he was going to investigate, his speakers only purred out a soft static to tell him that noone was broadcasting. He sunk a little on his suspension system before continuing on his way, still scanning the waves in hopes of some travelling music.
There was only the static which softly rolled from his speakers.
He left the static on, and turned on the radio's autotune feature, letting the white noise slip to the back of his mind with the sound of the breeze and the earth shifting under his tires.
"-Nine, six, four. Eight, seven, nine, six, four. Eight, seven, nine, six, four."
Hound stopped, focussing on the faint signal from the radio. It was a feminine voice, though the interference made it hard to understand. He started down the road again.
"Seven, seven, nine, two, four. Seven, seven, nine, two, four. Seven, seven, nine, two, four."
The signal grew stronger little by little as he continued down the disappearing road. It was definitely a feminine voice, but it sounded ever so slightly mechanical as well. It was still quiet, the breeze and earth murmuring and barely audible compared to the numbers calling clearly across the radio. Hauling down the road he began to wonder if the abandoned mining town was really abandoned, it was the closest place that someone could be broadcasting from and anything from there would be of a similar strength to the odd message coming across his radio.
But as suddenly as he had discovered the odd woman reading numbers across the airwaves she stopped and a chiming song played for a few cycles before also going silent. The airwaves were once again completely silent.
Had the broadcaster somehow known he was approaching to investigate? It seemed unlikely, more likely was that whatever message which was being put out had finished and that he would not hear anything more on the airwaves until another message needed to be transmitted.
But what message was so important this far in the middle of nowhere that such intricate coding was required?
He continued on, if anything the mining town would be the first place to look for answers.
He realized he was beginning to become irrational but the hourly broadcasts were completely unnerving!
Every hour, at some minute combination that ended with a three another broadcast was sent out. He could handle the woman's sombre and mechanical voice reading combinations of numbers out and the faint beeping of morse code intertwined with fanfare like music but the fifth transmission had utterly alarmed and unsettled him. A young human sparkling had been reading sets of numbers out this time, monotone as if beaten into submission and hopelessness. The thought of using the very young in any kind of covert operation, even as part of broadcasting was not something any Autobot would approve of. It was making him wonder just what other kind of wretched things humans were capable of.
17:43.
As every minute set with a three passed he awaited the next set of numbers, storing the codes for future analysis and dreading hearing that broken sparkling's voice again. A song chimed briefly and brightly out of his speakers, the loudest and clearest of all the transmissions, confirming once again that the mining town was the most likely source of the messages.
"Eight nine four ten. Eight nine four ten. Eight nine four ten." The woman's calm voice came sternly from his speakers.
Hound was relieved, he would come upon the town after cresting one final hill and be in it within five minutes. As the transmission finished, he finally was on the top of the hill and saw a small settlement below. It wasn't much, maybe six central buildings and a few outlying, all of which were clustered by the hills opposite to the one he was on.
But he didn't see any life. No humans, no animals, it was as if no one at all lived there.
He cautiously proceeded down the hill, activating the program for his holographic driver and acting casual. Simple infiltration techniques in case all the humans had gone inside. But as he scanned the buildings he found no trace of them, nor did he find any in the multitude of tunnels and bunkers underground either. It seemed that the town had been deserted.
As he took note of the small details, thought, it began to look as if the humans had evaporated in the midst of their daily lives.
Things lay on the ground, coffee mugs were half filled, a full meal was set on one of the tables and books lay open on desks underneath lamps which were switched on. There seemed to be no reason that the settlement would be abandoned, even after scanning the air, soil and local water sources for anything that was harmful. But there was nothing.
A clock chimed the turning of the hour. Hound was inspecting the central most building which seemed to be more of a governmental office than a home or town hall when the static broke again. A young woman's voice read out the sets of number. Unlike the other transmissions though she had a small flicker of emotion in her voice. Fear. Sadness. As if seeing the end but knowing that she needed to complete her duty and so she read on. Tracing the transmission by its strength he found the transmitter hidden in a tree by one of the smaller houses in the grouping. He scanned the inside of the house but found no one, only active radio equipment. Switching his focus back to his optical sensors he then peered through one of the house's windows as the transmission ended.
The woman's voice was cracking and blurring like Carly's did when she was distressed and crying.
He knew it wasn't possible but he thought he saw someone run out of the room with the radio equipment, what looked like a young woman.
But there was nothing. His scanners showed no life in all of the settlement.
And so, finding nothing in the settlement, he left. He had come to the settlement because the sudden absence of people had never been explained and that had intrigued both Wheeljack and himself. It didn't make sense and he wanted to try and figure it out but nothing hinted at what might have happened. None of the scans or what he saw said anything other than it was an empty little settlement in the middle of nowhere. No sign of humans ever having been there other than the untouched objects within the buildings. There weren't even records of who had lived there.
As he began the drive back to the base he switched off the radio. There was nothing being broadcast and he was fine leaving it at that until he got back to the base and had Wheeljack to try and decode the numerical code that had been broadcast.