Voices in the Void: Broken Silence: Voices in the Void, #1

By David Mauzy

Having received a distress signal from deep space, the world will have to overcome internal strife as well as technological hurdles to mount the largest rescue mission ever. While the project progresses, forces array against the humanitarian effort while others wonder what's really happening on the far side of the Moon. Broken Silence is the first book in the Voices in the Void series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Mauzy
• Release date: Feb 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781540187093

David Mauzy

I've been an avid science and science fiction fan since the Moon landing. Then, as now,  the media didn't matter: film, print, games etc. were all fair game. I began in the sciences, but have come to coginitive studies through anthropology and computer programming, with some work in historical archaeology. It has led me most recently to gaming and how it impacts cognition and how that can be utilized.  The psychological and computer worlds combine to inform the areas such as artificial intelligence and speaks to what it means to be human.  This is something I believe science fiction also explores. 

Book preview

Book One - Voices in the Void

­Prologue: The Silence Shattered

On a cliff overlooking the North Sea, about a mile from her home in Durness, Scotland, a girl sat contemplating the two oceans before her.  Often she would come here to gain further inspiration in the vastness of both, for both offered her the potential for limitless possibility while at the same time speaking to a great emptiness. It was a way for her to keep herself grounded in reality. Just as the blue ocean depths created a rift between landmasses that had begged to be overcome by science, so too was the pull to overcome the vast distances she saw in the clear night sky.  On nights like these her only companion was an old radio, which she had rebuilt from scratch when she was seven years old. There wasn’t much for it to pick up but even the steady hiss, echoing the waves crashing on the rocks below, comforted and yet confirmed just how alone we are in the night.  When the radio burst to life she nearly dropped it on those rocks below. That gulf of empty, inky blackness was about to be filled in ways she couldn’t imagine.

Brianna grabbed her bicycle and headed back to town as fast as she could manage clutching her rebuilt, ancient radio whose hiss had taken form.  Heart pounding, she couldn’t wait to share this seeming miracle with anyone who might listen.  She was not alone, as she would soon discover. The broadcast was on every channel, every airwave and practically anything with thin, electrified wires that could resonate to form sound. Where the receiver allowed there was image as well. The image showed what looked like a tall lithe humanoid covered in short, mottled fur with a soft lizard-like appearance. Intense wisdom and intelligence shone in their eyes as they spoke flawlessly in various languages for the camera. At the end of the transmission pictures of schematic designs, language charts and images flew by faster than most people could follow

The message was simple, and to the point. 

People of Earth, we the Tarceri extend friendship and ask for your help in evacuating our world. We are facing an Extinction Level Event with which we cannot hope to cope, even in the score and a half of your years that we should have left by the time you receive this message.  We are sending you what should be the means to get to us. As the only other non-extinct, technologically advanced civilization of which we are aware only you can help us by completing the Spatial Conduit and assisting in our evacuation.

Following each time that transmission played, there was a burst of compressed data that many receivers could only play as a squawk, but which proper equipment decoded as a stream of video and audio information.  The message broadcast for a full hour in five languages; English, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese.  Government facilities, scientists and tech-nerds all went nuts scrambling together computers to collect that data stream and Brianna was no exception.  Before the fifth repeat she had her computer set up to collect the compressed stream and was praying she had enough space for it. Burning in her mind were all sorts of questions but three plagued her and would continue to do so for many years to come.  How could they have hit Earth so directly, how could they know our languages so well, and how could they have sent a data stream that was perfectly compatible with our systems? In her mind any race that could do this, could handle an extinction level event. The stream of data filled drive after drive and she wrote new compression and storage routines on the fly, by the last transmission she had finally managed to get it all so far as she could tell.

What in the heavens are you doing there, child? her mom asked as she typed furiously.

You know how this computer can stream tele? she asked.

Yes, you’ve mentioned it.

Well, it is streaming this right now from the radios and tele as well and I am trying to store it, but it’s massive

It’s five minutes, how large can it be? her dad asked confused.

I’m not sure, as I store it is keeps getting larger, I can barely keep up.

Will you get it all?

Not sure the streams of data are pretty compressed already but I am trying some storage compression tricks. It would be easier with a few more drives. she spoke while furiously coding. And what is this? Dad, check this out all three radio sets are picking up something and the signals are different.

Well then, glad I had three ears listening then, he smiled.  I told ya, when it came, it would be across all three bands.

That you did. she laughed Whoa, interesting ..

What’s that? her father asked.

Part of the data stream seems to be about half empty space but it is refusing to compress, it keeps restoring itself on the fly. she scowled.

Virus? he mused aloud.

Perhaps. It certainly seems to be making sure it remains intact. Ah, well, it isn’t that large an amount anyway. I’ll leave it be. Besides, it probably means something.

Hmm, her father said while watching over her shoulder. That bit is also synched over all three bands as well. And the three pieces together refuse to compact. Yes, leave it be, it definitely looks important. It could be a marker if nothing else.

Pity you’re missing this. her mom said.

That’s the point ma; I’m trying to NOT miss any of it.

I think I have some more drives for work out in the car, her dad offered as he left the house. He returned with four more two terabyte drives.

Thanks Dad, she smiled, "this will have to be enough, although it may take me years to reconstitute it.

But it’s just like a TV show, her mom asked even more confused than her dad, why is it so large?

It is that part at the end, the flash of images so fast and the squawk in the speakers. It’s some kind of info burst, and it’s huge. she explained. There are several data streams all coming in at once and while I want to compress them to get them all I also have to make sure they’re able to be untangled from one another later on as well. And, admittedly, I want to get it more than once. The sheer size makes no sense, the burst is quick, but it’s creating a massive file. It’s almost as if it is coming in as an almost completely compacted block of information, with a key stream that is reassembling and uncompressing it on the fly.  That would help to make sure the whole message hit the Earth from such a distance... broadcasting this uncompressed might take so long we’d end up not hearing half of it.

Well the government is likely to get it, don’t you worry. her mom smiled.

It is THAT reason alone, that drives me to get my OWN copy, she smiled while finishing her work. At least I don’t have classes in the morning.

HALF THE WORLD AWAY a young Asian woman was frantically typing on her own keyboard.

I can’t fit it all! she said, the disappointment obvious in her voice. I need access to the home server, Dad?

You KNOW that server is for business only. he chided

The governments will get it all, we needn’t worry. her mom chimed in.

An interesting thought. her father mused.

You see? she said what if only the governments get a full copy, would anyone ever truly know what it was? I’m picking up three simultaneous broadcasts here on the hydrogen, oxygen and carbon bands.

We can trust in the government, her mom looked at her just get as much as you can.

Her dad looked at her and back at the screen.

Yes. he said thoughtfully We can trust in the government to do one thing.

He walked over to his workstation and started typing.

We can trust them to bury anything they can get away with burying. You should have full access. You’ll need to chop up that stream of data, the way things are set up, put tags on it as you go so you can reconstruct things.

Thanks, Dad, and anything I have ever said about you being weird for having your own supercomputer  ... I take back.

He smiled.

Breakfast will be ready soon. her mom called from somewhere deeper in the house.

AT THE SAME TIME THE world governments were in the near-blind panic one might expect from an event of this nature.  Somewhere in a control center at NASA, Doctor Kolder and officials were trying to figure out what was going on.

The president in on his way and on the line, an assistant said.

What the hell is going on? a voice came over the line, We tried video conferencing with you but the broadcast has completely taken over the video feeds. Only the emergency system is left silent.

We’re not sure, Mr. President. Kolder replied, At first we thought it was a signal bouncing back from possibly the moon, because the data stream is essentially ours, it is as if WE sent it, but from all indications it would seem to be coming from deep space. We are working out where it came from now, but we have a good idea that is came from an area about 41 light years away.

So what you are asking me to believe, the president continued is that an Alien intelligence some 41 light years away sent a message powerful enough to reach us, they matched our frequencies and sequencing, not to mention talked in five of our world’s languages AND somehow their message was strong enough to hijack most of the airwaves? How is that even possible?

Well, Mr. President, Kolder responded, we aren’t sure, because it really shouldn’t be possible. The broadcast had to be very precisely timed and had to hit us more-or-less directly. That, alone, denotes intelligence on the other end, and while tricky that is still the easy part. While it is possible our broadcast noise can be heard if they were listening they would have to have far superior reception technology than we do since we can only hear out to about half that distance, so barring that we are not sure about the language thing. We are reading a number of anomalies in a few broadcast satellites, however, and we think that might be the key to the airwaves being hijacked. We expect that the carrier wave hacked and re-programmed a few satellites to act as broadcasters. How an alien race would manage to do something like this to a system that should be incompatible with their own is beyond us at this point, not to mention the broadcast power on whatever sent this signal had to be in the terawatt range or higher and, literally, pointed directly at us.

I want answers before I hit the ground, doctor! I have Moscow, London and Paris on the line asking if this is our doing, and the UN is talking about some damned conference! the president exclaimed.

We’re doing our best Mr. President. Kolder said, We’re just as confused as you are.

A handful of minutes later, with the broadcast still repeating and people working away at collecting and processing it, the doors to the control floor burst open and a middle-aged man in a suit strode through. His short black hair was liberally dusted with the snows of time; wisdom scars he called them and he was simultaneously concerned and cool. This was a man who got things done, and who was accustomed to having answers, as the second African American president the last thing he wanted on his watch was some international incident. With him were two men in nondescript suits that screamed secret service and as he approached, his security detail hung back and Doctor Kolder turned to greet him.

Mr. President, welcome to the facility.

It’s a good thing I was already on my way here for a talk. the president scowled, Ok Kean, what have we got?

Well we’re still not sure, Mr. President, Kolder answered.

Give me something, I have a lot of government heads getting all crazy over this, the president stated.

Well ok this is what we have so far. Kolder started, We are pretty sure the signal is coming from Rho Cancri, about forty-one light years away. Due to that, and arriving at the strength we’re receiving, it would have to be at least a terawatt at the source.  We did find an exoplanet there a bunch of years in the past; however, it was too large to be anything but a gas giant, even if it WAS in the habitable zone.

Ok, the president said, so it could be from a moon then we haven’t discovered yet.

That would be correct, sir. Kolder said.

Isn’t that one of the systems to where we beamed messages a few years back? Could it not be a response to that?

You’ve done your homework, Kolder smiled.

I read a briefing, the president stated.

Ah, well. Kolder continued, pushing back his white hair from his face while thinking how he should have gotten that hair cut yesterday, It would be way too soon for that sir. This message took forty one years, give or take, to get here.

So it was sent at us, prior to our even knowing a planet was there? the president mused.

Indeed so. Kolder confirmed.

Ok, what do you have and what DO we know? the president asked.

We have the full data burst and it IS, in fact, a data stream at the end.  We are working to decompress it; whoever put this together was a genius in data compression algorithms. We’re learning a lot just from that alone. Initial reports seem to think the data contains information on building a device of some kind, a language lexicon and perhaps solar system data. Even a set of numbers the think tank thinks are latitude and longitudes in part of the stream mentioning a core. The stream somehow directly hit us and then has been tracking us. Of course anyone that could have set up the stream to directly hit us could also adjust for some time as well.

Any way this was perhaps NOT meant for us? the president asked.

Not a chance. Kolder said. If we’d just received a powerful incoherent mess, such as the wow signal, we could chalk it up to perhaps an accidental stream passing serendipitously through us.

I thought that turned out to be two comets, could this be similar?

"Last time I checked, Mr. President, comets didn’t speak. First there is the obvious audio stream in earth languages. The video feed of the reptilian humanoid is no fake either, from what we can tell. It would appear to be some form of evolved species not unlike what some people have hypothesized the Troodon might have become if a few things had happened differently in Earth’s past. It hit our satellite network and reprogrammed it from the looks of things to use it as a broadcast repeater. This really should have been impossible, as I said on the phone. Lastly, and more confusingly, is that the information in the stream is hyper-compacted, but it has been designed to be easily pieced back together."

Kind of makes sense. the president said.

There’s no sure guarantee, Kolder explained, that the way we think, our thought processes, our technology and the ways we present and store and access data would be remotely similar. This data was made for US to parse. Granted, any intelligent race capable of receiving it could probably pick it apart, but between the language broadcasts and this, the message was designed for a human mind, which means, either they know a whole lot about us, or there are certain procedures, thoughts and methodologies that are universal.

I certainly hope that it’s the later, the president frowned, but I think you might be over-thinking things a bit.

Maybe. Kolder mused.

Anyway we can be sure it is originating from space? the president asked.

Yes. Kolder said, That is fairly simple to determine. Believe me; our first thoughts were that we had some kind of possible, world-wide terrorist event in progress. That doesn’t seem to be the case, but all evidence is pointing to this being an event with equally powerful implications and consequences.

You think we can vanish this? the president asked.

Unlikely., Kolder said Reports are coming in that this broadcast is hitting practically anything capable of translating the signal.

Dear god, the president sighed, practically every man, woman and child in the developed world will be hearing this.

Indeed. Kolder said, Earth just got its wakeup call, we’re not alone. Now the question is, what are we going to do about it?"

You’re going to rip that data apart! the president exclaimed.

By the time the signal had stopped, some information was coming through and Kolder would find the president in the lounge slamming coffee and anti-acid tablets.

So what do we have? the president looked up.

We have a lexicon, a solar system map, and we have some device that my experts tell me might be a way to get there. We have a plea for help against some unknown Extinction Level Event from a race capable of this feat and yet incapable of saving themselves. We also have a set of numbers that would seem to be latitude and longitude but no indication if they are meant to be applied to Earth or the Moon, or anything else for that matter.

Suspicious, the president mused. What do you think? Prelude to invasion? Send a distress call, give the plans for a door and if the race can create it, come through and wipe them out?

Wow, Kolder thought aloud, you guys ARE paranoid, and who’s over-thinking things now?

The president just shot him a look.

Oh, Kolder said, I gotta work on my inner dialog.

Well, Kolder said, it is a thought; however we have no way of knowing. Of course caution should be exercised.

The UN is calling a meeting to discuss this. the president stated, rubbing his temples with a hand, They are holding it under the jurisdiction of UNOOSA; The United Nations Office for Space Affairs, and working as a part of COPUOS; The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

I am familiar with them. Kolder replied.

Good. the president said, I want you and your top people there, Kean. They have called for this meeting to take place tomorrow; your plane is taken care of already.

Very well, Kolder sighed, I will gather a team and get ready.

They’re talking about forming an International Space Commission to deal with this. the president sighed, Guess I’ll cancel dinner with the family and see you there.

With that the president took his leave and Doctor Kolder set about picking his best people to go to the meeting. A check of the satellite system showed nothing wrong, and no further events happened. 

They confirmed that the broadcast did, in fact, hit the broadcast network satellite system directly and somehow managed to act as a broadcast repeater even though the satellites returned to full normal status once the hour was up.  Lastly, they were able to pick apart the final data stream and discovered a full language lexicon, solar system information, complex plans for building some kind of gateway described as a spatial conduit and a series of numbers, just as they suspected from the preliminary analyses, and yet there was no information to be found concerning the supposed extinction level event that was being faced.

Nothing new was discovered that evening so Kolder sent his team home early, left word to be notified in the event of anything new being discovered, and retired in the face of an early morning flight.

The flight to Vienna was remarkably uneventful and the next day he was sitting in a giant meeting auditorium with hundreds of others, all trying desperately to stay awake.  The coffee and tea vendors made a killing that morning, even with the provided continental breakfast.

As the room filled up, he was thinking about what this all meant for the future of the world. It was at once amazing and yet terrifying. For weeks the world would be buzzing over this event.  Calls would be made, meetings arranged. The widespread nature of the event would be impossible to cover up.

The meeting itself was a chaotic scramble of questions before it was determined that anyone worthy of attending already knew everything there was to know. That discovered, the rest of the meeting was fairly simple and to the point. Those assembled would need to reassemble in a year to discuss the feasibility of attempting to render assistance and what may or may not be the next step. Meanwhile, the world was shocked. We were no longer alone in the void.

Part One: Ascension

Chapter 1

World governments parted to decide what could and should be done. Within a couple months most governments had come to the conclusion that due to the widespread nature of the event, the fact that even amateur radio astronomers had managed to download and work out some of the data, and mounting pressure by a concerned public, that it was simply too big a problem to tackle alone or vanish.  The relatively quick UN summit that was called under the leadership of The United Nations Office for Space Affairs had decided that each country would put together a special team of scientists, their best and brightest, for the purpose of doing a feasibility test and theoretical assessment of what would need to happen, should it be decided to build this device. One year was the time given to this task.

A year later the event was still very much still alive in the public eye, which fully removed any notions of trying to ignore the event, or covering it up as something that never happened.

In a big comfortable office each participating country sent their team leaders to further discuss what could, and might be able to be done.  The United States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and India all sent representatives.  France and Spain had teams but within the first couple of months they had worked with Germany and it was decided, for whatever reason, that Germany in conjunction with the ESA would collate all the data for the EU. While they had sent people to this particular meeting, they then pulled their scientists back to whatever projects they had been on. Of the representatives that showed, The UK, US, Russia, Germany, and Japan were the most vocal. The US, Russia, and UK also had military leaders present for these talks. Chinese and Japanese military delegates were extended an invitation, but Japan declined seeing no point in sending their military personnel and China declined to send anyone, without giving a reason. It would long be hotly debated as to why they declined but the truth of the matter was never fully discovered.  

Dr. Hendricks and Dr. Kolder had both gotten to the area early and had some time to catch up before enough people had filtered in to begin the meeting. Dr. Kolder was dressed in slacks and button-down but he’d left his tie at the hotel. He had an old, but serviceable blazer with patches on the elbows, as was the style when he’d purchased it. He still needed to cut his snowy mop, but he had mused in the bathroom that he was more kempt than Einstein had been many times.

Dr. Hendricks wore a navy blue suit and her hair had been straightened and tied back in a fashionable broad tail. She wasn’t wearing very much makeup, and hardly ever did, as a rule. Between her natural beauty and her extremely dark complexion, she really didn’t need much. Her dark eyes locked with Dr. Kolder’s as she arrived.

Good morning, Kean. Hendricks smiled as she came through the door and made a straight line toward the coffee. I see you had the same idea as I did.

Morning, Carolyn. he smiled, his green eyes twinkling, Yes, I intended to get fresh coffee before it sat too long or was long gone. How have CABM and New Jersey been treating you? 

Not bad, Hendricks said while pouring and fixing her coffee, how’s NASA these days?

Oh, you know, Kolder said, pouring another coffee after she was done, we’re still being funded, which is a plus, but we’re going to need to step up the game if this is to work. I heard there was a ruckus up near you?

They’d both brought in their own travel cups and filled those, selected a few things from the foods available that wouldn’t hospitalize them immediately and settled in at a table where they could monitor people coming in.

Yes. she explained, The past year has been a real awakening for many. While we were trying to figure out what we’d need to do to accomplish this, and then what we’d need to succeed, groups outside the science community also had their meetings.

I heard something about the rise of pro-Earth groups? Kolder asked.

Wow, you’ve really been locked away, haven’t you? Hendricks scowled. You need to get out more, read the papers.

The papers are how I know what I know, Kolder said defensively, and yes, we’ve been analyzing the data over and over and over, building models, running tests and talking with engineers.  Just the logistics involved in figuring out if we could do our part of this took the year.

Hmmm. she mused, That kind of bureaucratic waste of time is something that must change.

Agreed, he sighed.

Yes. she continued, There is a group called Earth First or just Earthers, for short. They were small, at the beginning, made up of the typical racists one might expect to find in groups like the Klan. Then suddenly, after being silent for months, the entire radical Christian population jumped on their bandwagon.  Suddenly they were less concerned with whether or not some people should be able to get married or what bathrooms people used, and more concerned that aliens were of the devil, and wanted to mess with our bodily fluids or some nonsense. There is even a small core of people within the group calling themselves ‘The Chosen’. Total recipe for disaster.

Makes sense, Kolder mused, I mean these are the people that deny the age of the earth, the possibility of other life in the universe and even evolution. Seeing not only another technologically advanced race, but one that resembles something our own dinosaurs may well have become, not only shows them that humankind is not unique in the universe for its intelligence, but that there are Earth-like worlds on which humankind failed to evolve, but other life did.

Yep, she nodded in agreement, right now they seem to be trying to leverage their members’ various ties to try to enact legislation to prevent US helping them. There is a lot of money and propaganda being spewed forth on this.

I suspect the usual media outlets are acting as their mouthpieces? Kolder asked wearily.

Yeah, she explained all the usual suspects there; both in media, and behind the flow of cash. You should check out the satire shows, they will help you catch up, and not piss you off as badly.

I’ll have to do that. Kolder smiled.

How much you think this will play on the elections? Hendricks asked.

Well, Kolder sighed, I’m no politician, but the president should win re-election. The world has been kind of waiting on this meeting and they delayed it, probably on purpose, so that it is close to the election. So while I can imagine the Earthers are poised to pounce, even IF we green light this, which is very much up in the air, they won’t have time undo the president’s stances and the fact the other party fielded nothing but truly insane people yet again. It’s what could happen, if this project is green-lit, in 4 more years when he cannot be re-elected, and we stand a chance of getting someone in who is against the project, that is most on my mind.

Perhaps the UK or EU should be the core. Hendricks suggested, IF we make the UN or ESA the overseeing body, we can work where we are for as long as we are allowed and not lose everything should we get a nut-job in office.

I suspect the UN will see to that. Kolder smiled.

We can suggest it, if it doesn’t come up. Hendricks suggested.

By now they’d seen a couple important types head into the meeting room so they decided to go in and get decent seats. Turns out they were all arrayed in more or less a horseshoe, with a screen, projector and the UN heads at the open end.

A tallish man with the dress and aura of a soldier walked up. He was ruggedly built, with blond hair and blue eyes. The uniform he wore marked him as a member of the RAF. This was Lieutenant Marcus, of the UK, and he had been given the pleasure of being the lead for this particular meeting and so once everyone who’d been invited had arrived and were seated he opened the floor.

We have all been over this for a year now. he stated, Thank you all for coming so now we would like to know from you all is, is this feasible and if so what would need to happen in order for this to succeed.

Dr. Kolder from the US spoke first, well, for starters the very way we work together currently will have to change. We will need an international body dedicated to this and I, for one, suggest the UN create and oversee an International Space Committee or something along those lines and I think most, if not all, of my colleagues agree. This can’t be a project of parts; we will have to work together as a world to stand even a chance of making this happen. And things will have to be able to be done far more quickly than currently, we cannot sit on the typical governments’ take three years to do a six month project mentality. Furthermore, this will NOT be cheap, the costs will prove to be staggering, and yet the potential for payback in wealth and technology is equally staggering.

There were numerous nods of agreement and no one spoke against the idea as Dr. Hendricks, also of the US, continued, In preliminary meetings we all have come to the conclusion that we have the technology, or that it can be developed in time to make this work, provided, as Dr. Kolder suggested, the world can join forces and work toward this goal with minimal governmental interference.

General Graffton of the U.S. spoke, "Ok, assume for the moment that the military and governments will offer the least possible resistance, while affording