Ethan was a scientist in quantum physics. To be exact, his job dictates the quality of a quantum computer. To a common eye, he is the kind of person who knows everything, from physics to the use of language. Literally, he knew how to talk with people, but maybe not so good at controlling his mood. Well, after all, a person who’s skillful enough in his own field really has nothing more to worry about.
Ethan has an interesting hobby though. While he deals with physics during the daytime, he enjoys chatting with different people in the evening. How does he find all those people? Well, he really just followed his software’s advice and added new net friends occasionally. The topics of his chats vary from mental health to philosophy, even to love.
It was a night of no chats, the time when Ethan was bored the most. He hated those nights when nobody came up with an idea to talk about. He described this as not being able to brain refresh. After a long time of waiting, he decided to go out onto the balcony and gaze beyond the horizon. Just minutes ago, when the sun had only set below the ground, the sky was a hot red color, with pinches of dark, yellow shaded clouds floating across the skyline. Later, the redness faded into a romantic pink color, shading everything with a bit of strange glow. The pink then turned into purple, which then faded out into the endless blackness of the night sky. He expected stars, but only a few came into view. Industrialization had irreversibly changed the environment more and more hostile. The sky was not just filled air any longer. It’s filled dust.
Ethan sighed and lay his hands on the windowsill, staring out blindly into the night sky. That didn’t last long, for a gentle knock on the door disturbed him. He knew it was Jackson, a star gazer as well as an astronomer.
“Enter!” Ethan called. The door opened, and sure enough, a wide man stood in the doorway. “Evening, Eddy.” Jackson greeted.
Instead of replying, Ethan asked, “What brings you here at the end of the day? Not the bar again.”
Jackson laughed, “You guessed it,” revealing an image of a strange looking star in his hand, he continued, “Found something interesting these days. Thought I’d like to share it with you.”
Ethan sighed again, “Oh, come on, Jack, I’m not in the right mood today. And by the way, what makes you so obsessed in going to the bar every now and then?”
Jackson smiled, “Obviously that’s part of why we go to the bar: you’re unhappy. My lifestyle is different from yours. You guys go for a meal together, while I prefer alcohol. And no worry dear, the pub is not all about alcoholic drinks, you can get mixed juice anyway. Coming or not?”
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Ethan, knowing that staying at home wouldn’t have made any difference, shrugged, “Alright, you get it.” Off with the lights, shut with the door, the two men went out into the night, heading to the only place that’s silent in day and violent at night: the town pub. People were singing, dancing, rapping, and can you believe it, some were even playing basketball, on the phone though.
The two took a seat at the counter, each ordering a single drink. Jackson took out that image again. “You know, I’ve watched stars and planets all those years, but this one’s the strangest. You’re a physicist, although a quantum physicist, you know everything. Guess what’s this.” Ethan made a quick scan at the star before replying, “What’s new about it? It’s just a normal neutron star. Although you added marks to indicate its magnetic poles.”
“Right, a neutron star.” Jackson continued, “A pulsar in fact. You know how some of these tend to give off pulses of electromagnetic waves. And the wave, the wave was where the magic happened.” He lowered his voice, “The waves were in a repeated rhythm. I only thought it was another kind of music from the universe before I noticed its repetition. I cut out a single repetition, slowed it down to somewhat 0.001% of its original speed, and I heard what sounded like Morse code.”
Ethan took a sip of the Cinderella cocktail he ordered. “Pulsars give out pulses, sometimes rhythms, that’s all.”
“Yeah, I thought it this way, too, until I decided to try decoding it.” Jackson continued in a nervous tone, “It was indeed Morse code, completely obeying the rules and containing useful information.” He flipped his image to reveal a content of texts. “This,” he said, “This is a message.”
Ethan looked through the content:
Dear Mr Jiang,
This is 261.6Hz Organization. Please, kindly excuse us for having tracked you for some time, but we’ve discovered that something inside you is unusual, exactly what we shouldn’t tell just yet. That piece of unusualness in you will be a great help to us if you’re willing to join our team to work on an ambitious project that might rescue the humanity. Kindly consider about that and we shall want to receive what you think around a week later.
Your sincerely
4b971c383f88f081f787088db1cfe07f95a7c292
P.S. Do not worry or panic.
Ethan’s eyes were fixed on the message. “Oh, my god.” He exclaimed, except this time, two voices exclaimed in unison. He looked behind to find, a gentlemen no other than Trebmal Nil, the greatest software engineer and computer scientist in town, himself.