The from space a little after midnight, local time, on a Friday. They were up in the South Pacific, just of the International Date Line. A satellite-watching station on an named Kalua was the to them, though nobody the four or five minutes. But it is that the very message was up and recorded by the instruments.
The satellite-tracking unit on Kalua was a of all its fellows. There was the station itself with a pointing at the stars. There were two above ground by posts. In the room in the a light over a desk, three or four lights to that the self-recording were properly operating, and there was a multiple-channel tape into the wall. Its tape sedately, a plastic from one to the other at a pace.
The staff man on had gone to the installation's for a cup of coffee. No in the room, unless one the of a piece of weighted-down paper on the desk. Outside, trees and their long in the wind under a sky full of stars. Beyond, there was the of upon the of the island. But the no sound. Only the tape moved.
The abruptly. They came out of a and were recorded. They were and and musical. They were and distinct. They did not a melody, but nearly all the of were there. Pure notes, each with its own pitch, all of different lengths, like quarter-notes and eighth-notes in music. The needed only and to a tune.
Nothing happened. The for something over a minute. They stopped long to to have ended. Then they again.
When the staff man came into the room with a coffee cup in his hand, he the instantly. His dropped. He said, "What the hell?" and to look at the instruments. He some of his coffee when he saw their readings.
The said that the came from a almost directly overhead. If they were from a source, no plane was them. Nor they be from an satellite. A plane would move at a across the sky. A would move faster. Much faster. This source, according to the instruments, did not move at all.
The staff man with a blank on his face. There was but one explanation, which he did not for an instant. The answer would have been that somebody, somewhere, had put a out into an twenty-four hours for a of the earth, of the ninety to one-hundred-twenty-four-minute of the to around the world from west to east and to pole. But the piping, were not the of thing that modern would have to about cosmic-particle frequency, space temperature, micrometeorites, and the like.
The stopped again, and again resumed. The staff man was into activity. He to other members of the outpost. When he got back, the for a minute and stopped altogether. But they were recorded on tape, with the that had been their duration. The staff man played the tape for his companions.
They as he did. These were from space where man had been. They had to the message to from the the and planets. Man was not alone. Man was no longer isolated. Man....
The staff of the station was very much upset. Most of the men were white-faced by the time the message had been re-played through to its end. They were frightened.
Considering everything, they had every to be.
The second pick-up was in Darjeeling, in northern India. The Indian government was then through one of its of in science. It had set up a satellite-observation post in a British on the of the town. The acting of the staff to the second to Earth. It some seventy-nine minutes after the reception, and it was up by two stations, Kalua and Darjeeling.
The Darjeeling was at what he heard—five of the same of notes. After each pause—when it that the had stopped they actually did so—the was the same as the one before. It was that such a of sounds, a full minute, be by any natural of events. Five were out of the question. The notes were signals. They were a which was to be sure it was received.
The third was in Lebanon in to Kalua and Darjeeling. Reception in all three places was simultaneous. A from a not possibly have been up so around the Earth's curvature. The of the area of reception, too, proved that there was no new with an period of twenty-four hours, so that it in the sky relative to Earth. Tracking observations, in fact, the of the to move westward, as time passed, with the motion of a star. No of Earth possibly with such an unless it was close to a parallax. This did not.
A French station up the next of sounds. Kalua, Darjeeling, and Lebanon still received. By the time the next was due, Croydon, in England, had its radar-telescope on the part of the sky from which all the the came.
Croydon four seventy-nine-minute and four five-minute of the noises. It reported that there was a of at an great distance, position right so-and-so, such-and-such. The every seventy-nine minutes. They be by any of the involved. The was broad-band. It more than two and was not necessary. A man-made would have been to as narrow a wave-band as possible, to save power for one reason, so it not be that the was anything but artificial. Yet no Earth science have sent a out so far.
When at the station on Kalua, it to from space. On the other hand, in the United States, the Antilles, and South America to up the sounds.
The news of the was in the United States. In the South Pacific and India and the Near East and Europe, the whole too for the of the public. News pressure in the United States, though, is very great. Here the news broadcast, and got it.
That was why Joe Burke did not to complete the for which he'd taken Sandy Lund to a suitable, spot. She was his and the only permanent employee in the he'd and operated. He'd her all his life, and it to him that for most of it he'd wanted to her. But something had to him when he was a small boy—and still at intervals—which a block. He'd always wanted to be with her, but there was a of two in a strange-starred sky, and trees with like none on Earth, and an emotion. There was no for it. There be none. Often he'd told himself that Sandy was and desirable, and this was at and at the least delusion. But he'd been able to do more than when talk them away from matter-of-fact things.
Tonight, though, he'd his car where a river in the moonlight. There was a of and in the air and a of music came from his car's radio. He'd Sandy here to to her. He was to the a had him up in.
He his throat. He'd taken Sandy out to dinner, to the of a job for Interiors, Inc. Burke had started Burke Development, Inc., some four years out of college when he he didn't like for other people and work for himself. Its was to designs and for too small to have research-and-development of their own. The latest, now-finished, job was a wall-garden which those decorators, Interiors, Inc., might to the very rich. Burke had it. It was a job. A rich man's house have one or more which looked like a on edge, with occasional small flowers or fruits from its close-clipped surface.[A]
It was done. A production-job room-wall had been and the check for it banked. Burke had with the idea that like that might be useful in a bomb or in an where it would keep the air fresh indefinitely. But such ideas were for the future. They had nothing to do with now. Now Burke was going to over an dream.
"I've got something to say, Sandy," said Burke painfully.
She did not turn her head. There was moonlight, water, and the of the night in springtime. A perfect setting for what Burke had in mind, and what Sandy about in advance. She waited, her away from him so he wouldn't see that they were a little.
"I'm something of an idiot," said Burke, clumsily. "It's only to tell you about it. I'm to a that a girl I—Hm." He coughed. "I think I ought to tell you about it."
"Why?" asked Sandy, still not looking in his direction.
"Because I want to be fair," said Burke. "I'm a of crackpot. You've noticed it, of course."
Sandy considered.
"No-o-o-o," she said measuredly. "I think you're normal, except—No. I think you're all right."
"Unfortunately," he told her, "I'm not. Ever since I was a kid I've been by a delusion, if that's what it is. It doesn't make sense. It couldn't. But it me take up engineering, I think, and ..."
His voice away.
"And what?"
"Made an out of me," said Burke. "I was always about you, and it to me that I took you to a of and such in high school, but I couldn't act romantic. I wanted to, but I couldn't. There was this delusion...."
"I wondered, a little," said Sandy, smiling.
"I wanted to be about you," he told her urgently. "But this me from it."
"Are you to be a to me now?" asked Sandy.
"No!" said Burke explosively. "I'm up with myself. I want to be different. Very different. With you!"
Sandy again.
"Strangely enough, you me," she told him. "Do go on!"
But he was tongue-tied. He looked at her, to speak. She waited.
"I w-want to ask you to m-m-marry me," said Burke desperately. "But I have to tell you about the other thing first. Maybe you won't want...."
Her were definitely now. There was soft music and water and soft wind in the trees. It was definitely the time and place for romance.
But the music on the car radio cut off abruptly. A voice interrupted:
"Special Bulletin! Special Bulletin! Messages of unknown are Earth from space! Special Bulletin! Messages from space!"
Burke over and up the sound. Perhaps he was the only man in the world who would have such a moment to to a news broadcast, and he wouldn't have done it for a on any other subject. He the high.
"This is a special from the Academy of Sciences in Washington, D. C." the speaker. "Some thirteen hours ago a satellite-tracking station in the South Pacific reported up of unknown and great strength, using the also used by now in around Earth. The report was from India, then Near East the same report. European and were on the when the sky area from which the come rose above the horizon. American have again the report the last minutes. Artificial signals, not by men, are now Earth every seventy-nine minutes from space. There is as yet no hint of what the may mean, but that they are an attempt at is certain. The have been recorded on tape, and the which are those which have been sent to Earth by alien, non-human, beings no one how away."
A pause. Then the car radio, with night and the calls of for background, gave out crisp, noises, like someone playing an selection of notes on a wind instrument.
The was plaintive, but Burke in every at the of them. The were higher and in turn. At intervals, they paused as if groups of a word. The on for a full minute. Then they stopped. The voice returned:
"These are the from space. What you have is a complete message. It is five times and then ceases. An hour and minutes later it is again five times...."
The voice continued, while Burke and in the car. Sandy him, at hopefully, and then bewilderedly. The voice said that the was very great. But the power for artificial-satellite is only a of a watt. These signals, the minimum from which they come, had at least thousands of them.
Somewhere out in space, than man's had gone, of electric energy were to send these to Earth. Scientists were in about the possible the had traveled, they were meant for Earth or not, and they were an attempt to open with humanity. But nobody that the were artificial. They had been sent by means. They not be natural phenomena. Directional said that they did not come from Mars or Jupiter or Saturn. Neptune and Uranus and Pluto were not nearly in the line of the signals' travel. Of Venus and Mercury were to of Earth, which them out, since the only on the night of mankind's world. Nobody guess, as yet, where they did originate.
Burke sat still, every tense. He was so that in the moonlight Sandy saw it. She was alarmed.
"Joe! What's the matter?"
"Did you—hear that?" he asked thinly. "The signals?"
"Of course. But what...."
"I them," said Burke, in a that was somehow despairing. "I've like that every so often since I was a kid." He swallowed. "It was like that, and what with them, that has been the—trouble with me. I was going to tell you about it—and ask you if you'd me anyway."
He to a little, which was not at all like the Joe Burke that Sandy knew.
"I don't under—"
"I'm I've gone out of my head," he said unsteadily. "Look, Sandy! I was going to to you. Instead, I'm going to take you to the office. I'm going to play you a I a year ago. I think that when you've it you'll decide you wouldn't want to me anyhow."
Sandy looked at him with eyes.
"You those from something special to you?"
"Very special," said Burke. "They the question of I've been crazy, and am sane, or I've been up to now, and have gone crazy."
The radio to music. Burke cut it off. He started the car's motor. He backed, around, and for the office and of Burke Development, Inc.
Elsewhere, the minds of the the that came to Earth from a place where men not be. A message came from something which was not human. It was a to make cold up and any spine. But Burke tensely, and the road's surface toward the car's and under them. A warm and around the windshield. Sandy sat very still.
"The way I'm acting doesn't make sense, it?" Burke asked. "Do you like you're with a lunatic?"
"No," she said. "But I that if you did around to me to you, somebody from space would the banns! Can't you tell me what all this is about?"
"I it very much," he told her. "Can you tell me what the are about?"
She her head. He through the night. Presently he said, "Aside from my private on the matter, there are some about this business. Why should somebody out in space send us a broadcast? It's not from a planet, they say. If there's a on the way here, why us? If they want to be friends, they can't be sure we'll permit it. If they to be enemies, why away the of surprise? In either case, it would be to send on ahead. And any message would have to be cryptic."
The car along the roadway. Soon lights appeared among the trees. The small and larger of Burke Development, Inc., came into view. They were dark objects in a large empty space on the very of Burke's home town.
"And why," he on, "why send a message if they only wanted to say that they were space travelers on the way to Earth?"
The from the to Burke Development appeared. Burke off the road and into the four-acre space his small and did not to up.
"If it were an offer of communication, it should be and simple. Maybe an of dots, to say that they were beings and would like the on if we had brains, too. Then we'd know somebody was and wanted to ideas before, if necessary, bombs."
The car's over the in which the work of Burke Development was done and on to the small house in which Sandy the books and records of the firm. Burke put on the the office door.
"Just to see if my is right," he said, "I a question about those signals. One doesn't send a long message to emptiness, repeated, in the that someone may be around to catch it. One calls, and sends a long message only when the call is answered. The call says who's wanted and who's calling, but nothing more. This isn't that of thing."
He got out of the car and opened the door on her side, then the office door and in. He on the lights inside. For a moment, Sandy did not move. Then she slowly got out of the car and entered the office which was so familiar. Burke over the office safe, the tumbler-wheel to open it. He said over his shoulder, "That special will be on all the news broadcasts. You've got a little radio here. Turn it on, will you?"
Again slowly, Sandy the office and on the radio on her desk. It up and to make noises. She it until it was audible. Burke up with a of tape. He put it on the office recorder, used for the of the day's log.
"I have a sometimes," said Burke. "A dream. I've had it every so often since I was eleven. I've to it was a freak, but sometimes I've I was a telepath, some message from unguessable. That has to be wrong. And again I've that—well—that I might not be human. That I was planted here on Earth, somehow, not it, to be of use to—something not of Earth. And that's crazy. So I've been of being about anybody. Tonight I'd managed to myself all those wild were absurd. And then the came." He paused and said unsteadily, "I this tape a year ago. I was trying to myself that it was nonsense. Listen. Remember, I this a year ago!"
The to on the recorder's face. Burke's voice came out of the speaker, "These are the of the dream," it said, and stopped.
There was a moment of silence, while the silently. Then came from the recorder. They were notes, from the tape. Sandy blankly. Disconnected, came out into the office of Burke Development, Inc. It was to call them elfin. They be as plaintive. They were not a melody, but a have been from them by rearrangement. They were very like the from space. It was to that they were the same code, the same language, the same of and durations.
Burke with a on his face. When the ended, he looked at Sandy.
Sandy was disturbed. "They're alike. But Joe, how did it happen?"
"I'll tell you later," he said grimly. "The thing is, am I or not?"
The radio muttered. It was an hourly news broadcast. Burke it up and a voice boomed:
"... one o'clock news. Messages have been from space in the century's most news event! Full will a word from our sponsor."
There an of the social advantage, personal and that must the use of a particular regulator. The ended.
"From space," the announcer's voice, "comes a mystery! There is life in the void. It has with us. Today—"
Because of the to give the later of a cafe-society case, a and a in a large city's budget, the from space not be in the five-minute hourly news program. But fifteen were for a sample of the from emptiness. Burke to them with a expression.
"I think," he said measuredly, "that I am sane. I have those tonight. I know them—I'll take you home, Sandy."
He her out of the office and into his car.
"It's funny," he said as he toward the highway. "This is the of the most event in history. We've a message from an that can travel through space. There's no way in the world to what it will about. It be that we're going to learn to make old Earth a paradise. Or it that we'll be out and a will take over. Funny, isn't it?"
Sandy said unsteadily, "No. Not funny."
"I mean," said Burke, "when something happens, which will Earth's whole future, all I worry about is myself—that I'm crazy, or a telepath, or something. But that's human!"
"What do you think I worry about?" asked Sandy.
"Oh ..." Burke hesitated, then said uncomfortably, "I was going to to you, and I didn't."
"That's right," said Sandy. "You didn't."
Burke for long minutes, frowning.
"And I won't," he said flatly, after a time, "until I know it's all right to do so. I've no for what's me from to you up to now, but it's not nonsense. I did the that came in tonight from space and—I've always those didn't on Earth."
Then, through a warm and night, he told her why the were familiar to him; how they'd his life up to now. He'd the story, anyhow, and it was well arranged. But told as fact, it was preposterous.
She in complete silence. He the with his car the in which Sandy with her sister Pam, they being all that was left of a family. If she hadn't Burke all her life, of course, Sandy would have him and his together. But she did know him. It did why he tongue-tied when he to be romantic, and why he recorded a of notes on a tape recorder. His were to an unreasonable, experience. His and a mind trying to with the inexplicable. And now that the from space had come, it was that he should as if they were a personal for his attention.
She had a picture of a place where trees long and under an sky. Still ...
"Y—yes," she said slowly when he'd his account. "I don't understand, but I can see how you feel. I—I I'd the same way if I were a man and what you've to me." She hesitated. "Maybe there will be an now, since those have come. They do match the ones you recorded from your dream. They're the ones you know about."
"I can't it," said Burke miserably, "and I can't it. I can't do anything until I out why I know that there's a place with two and trees...."
He did not mention the part of his Sandy was most in—the person for he such and such when she was found. She didn't mention it either.
"You go on home, Joe," she said quietly. "Get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we'll more about it and maybe it will all clear up. Anyhow—whatever out, I—I'm you did to ask me to you. I to say yes."
