Alien: Echoes From The Void

By Gareth Von Kallenbach

Antarctica is hardly the ideal assignment thought Xavier Howard as he logged into his desktop. Sure it paid well and the lack of distractions allowed him to save money and concentrate on his writing, but it did not offer much variety from day to day.

His job monitoring inbound communications was routine and not very challenging but Xavier figured a few years of this and he would be able to move up the ladder to a better location unless his writing took off and then the sky was the limit.

His days were usually welcoming incoming ships and assigning them rendezvous coordinates so their cargoes could be received and their crews can make their eagerly anticipated disembarkations for Earth to be reunited with loved ones and to celebrate after a long journey.

New boosters had recently been deployed which allowed communications to travel faster than the speed of light using some clever workarounds that mimicked wormholes that could allow a communication that would otherwise take decades to be received in a fraction of the time.

Checking the schedule Xavier noticed that it was looking to be a slow day as there were no arrivals or departures scheduled for his shift so he enjoyed his morning coffee and thought about what he would do with the next chapter of the story he was writing.

Xavier was jolted from his daydreams by a flashing light and beeping sound coming from his console. Acting on instinct he flipped the necessary switches and turned up the dials  as the signal seemed to be distorted. “This is commercial towing vehicle Nostromo…calling Antarctica traffic control” came over the speakers. While there were gaps of static the vessel identification was very clear. In a flash Xavier was on the line to his boss and before long there was a group of supervisors praising his attention to detail as he not only had a clear record of the call but was able to determine the location and distance of the signal origin.

Xavier was very little when the news of the missing Nostromo flooded the news nets so the voice of what he later learned was Officer Ellen Ripley causing so much interest was thrilling.

Xavier was promised good things would be coming for his future as long as he signed and followed the specific Non-Disclosure agreements which he was more than happy to do since it came with a hefty raise and bonus and promise of an assignment at a more ideal location.

Earthside at a towering complex found Zachary Bastille working his way to a secluded area of the complex. His arrival amongst a group of older and very nervous individuals. “Special Order 937” has been our dark secret the past coupe of decades as the failure of the Nostromo to return with a specimen has made us work hard to cover our tracks as the financial costs have been steep and we cannot let anyone, even now know of our failure. However we have a chance to come out winners and retire in style thanks to this little gem. Zachary then played the mission and outlined his plan to dispatch probes to the origin point of the transmission and follow the likely paths that the ship would have taken to find anything that might be of use. When asked how they might find the needly in a haystack; Zachary smiled and played one more message “This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo signing off”.

Deep Space:

The probe began the process of powering up as it slowed down as it neared the debris field. After extended searches by numerous probes, success was finally achieved as the target wreckage had finally been found.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.