It was created under the impression of a Creepypasta. I hope you will appreciate it.
It was terribly hot in the desert. The incandescent plates of the telescopes, like the eyes of some huge creature, looked up into the sky and eagerly caught every rustle, every sound that arose in the boundless blackness of space. They wanted to close the SETI project more than once. It was clearly a loss-making business, to maintain expensive equipment, scientists, staff, for what? Listen to the silence?
The work was boring and dreary. We send various messages to all corners of the universe. Their content changes periodically, but the essence remains the same: our genetic code, human image, basic chemical elements, information about the Solar system and about the Earth.
But we have not received an answer. Until yesterday. Last night we received two signals of clearly artificial origin. One of them contained the construction of some unknown device. It has yet to be studied more closely.
But the second one was more interesting. It contained unknown DNA. As well as the sequence of its connection with our DNA to obtain a stable form of life.
The whole observatory was literally standing in my ears. The cool guys from the government scientists have arrived. They took all the signal data and decryptions with them. The most important of them, Xavier Fitch, was indescribably glad when he saw the decoded DNA sequence. Then he said that it was definitely not a human genome. He said it was a breakthrough, the greatest contact in history, that we might have been given the key to a new life. He was arguing with another scientist whether to use the instructions from the message and create a new species. Their voices could be clearly heard even outside the control room.
- "You don't understand. Perhaps because of the great distances they cannot reach us. This journey can take millions of light years. No living creature can survive such a long journey. That's why they sent us their code and instructions on how to use it to create a hybrid. In fact, this is how they send their ambassadors to us. Did you want to meet aliens? So, here they are, right in this message. Create them and ask them the questions you want to ask."
- "Mr. Fitch, this could be dangerous. After all, we can't know for sure what purpose this message was sent for? What if this is a way of invading?"
- "Don't be silly... DNA alone is clearly not enough for an invasion."
That was the end of the argument between them. Taking all the data with them, they returned to the research center.
And now, sitting on the rocks and finishing another cigarette, I thought, why did they actually send us this message? And was it meant for us at all? Maybe we accidentally intercepted this signal. Or maybe they, like us, were sending this message everywhere, waiting for a response? You can talk about this topic endlessly. But the job itself won't work, and you'll have to come back. I threw away my cigarette butt, went up the stairs and sat down in my operator's seat.
This time it was the same as before. It's boring. Nothing, just empty noise. However, what else do we want? A heart-to-heart conversation? We have already made a world-wide discovery. We have fulfilled the dream of humanity, now we know for sure that we are not alone in the universe. The closure of the project is definitely delayed.
Grinning at my own thoughts, I got up from my chair and made myself a cup of hot strong coffee, because sleep was taking its toll, and my eyes were literally closing. There are only 6 hours left until the end of my shift. And then I can go to bed. With what pleasure I would now lie down on the bed and plunge into the arms of Morpheus.
The harsh, nasty beep of the transmitter snapped me out of these sleepy dreams. All the equipment flashed various lights, and the system, making many short clicks, like an old typewriter, began to knock out a sequence of binary code from zeros and ones on the printer.
Sleep instantly left me when I ran up to the monitors and watched in disbelief as a new message had already been picked up by our radio telescopes, but now they were looking in a completely different direction, and another part of space was opening up. So it could hardly be a repeat of yesterday's signals.
Grabbing the tape, I immediately started decoding it. The computer easily handled the simple binary code. A text appeared on the screen, after reading it, I felt a chill inside, as if the starry void itself had passed through me. My hands were shaking, my fingers were numb. My heart clenched and ached from the stabbing pain. I looked around the room in fear, it seemed that every shadow and every rustle carried a deadly threat.
Summoning all his willpower and feeling cold sweat break out on his temples, he looked up to read it again:
"Switch off! Don't listen to them! Don't answer! It's a trap! They need a new life! They crave her! Our stars have gone out! Be silent, merge with the void and maybe... You will be saved."