Transmission

Ted watched as Dr. Levin came up, able to get through now that Ted had gotten the guard to back off. “You were coming to check?”

Dr. Levin nodded. “I was hoping that Phil might be willing to realign things quietly. The trick is getting there.”

“I can handle that,” Ted said. “I’m just supposed to be here to wrap things up, but I still have full access.”

He took out a keycard, letting them into the building. Some of the people in the lobby stared at them as they came in, but no one said anything. Kevin guessed that had a lot to do with Ted’s presence and that of Dr. Levin.

“We should move quickly,” Ted said. “Someone will tell Professor Brewster that you’re here soon enough.”

“Just so long as we have the new messages by then,” Dr. Levin said.

She led the way down toward Phil’s office, with Kevin, Luna, and Ted following along behind. Kevin saw the looks some of the people gave him, heard the muttering as he passed. They hadn’t forgotten what had happened before. Kevin just hoped that Phil would be willing to help.

Dr. Levin knocked on the researcher’s door, and Kevin watched his face as he saw them there. It moved from recognition to surprise, and then to a kind of worried understanding.

“No,” he said, holding up his hands. “Whatever it is, no.”

“We haven’t even asked you anything yet,” Dr. Levin pointed out.

“But you will,” Phil said, “and Professor Brewster will hear about it, and—”

“Do you care what David says?” Dr. Levin countered.

Phil shrugged, then sighed. “What do you need?”

“We need you to point the telescopes at some new coordinates,” Kevin said, answering for them. “I got another message.”

“You want me to… do you know what you’re asking?” Phil said.

“Look at it this way,” Dr. Levin pointed out. “If you do this, you’ll get to be the guy who proved that Kevin was right all along.”

Phil swallowed, then nodded. “Okay, but we have to do this quietly. Come on.”

He led them through the facility now, taking them down to a lab space equipped with monitors and screens. A few taps on the keyboard from Phil, and it started to show the data from one of the telescope arrays.

“Okay,” he said, “it looks like we’re set up here. We just… oh, there goes my career.”

Kevin looked round. Through the doors of the lab space, he could see Professor Brewster approaching, a thunderous expression on his face.

“What are they doing here?” he demanded as he advanced. “Stop what you’re doing at once!”

Kevin guessed that it had been inevitable that someone would tell him that they were here. He’d just thought maybe they would get a little more time before it happened.

“Looks like we’re done,” Phil said.

“Not if we do this quickly,” Kevin replied.

“Not even that quickly,” Luna said. She ran over to the door, shutting it and wedging a chair under the handle. “What?” she demanded as the others looked at her. “It’s just the obvious thing to do.”

“Only to you,” Kevin said with a smile.

Outside, Professor Brewster hammered on the glass door. “Open this at once! I shall call security! Anybody assisting that boy will be treated as a criminal!”

Kevin looked over to Phil. Without him, they wouldn’t be able to realign the telescope, so if he decided not to do this…

“Okay,” he said. “What are the coordinates?”

Kevin breathed a sigh of relief and recited from memory. As with the first set of numbers, these felt almost burned into him, there when he shut his eyes so that it was almost more like reading them than remembering.

“You’re sure?” Phil asked.

Kevin nodded, opening his eyes. There were more people outside the door now, gathering around to watch what was happening, or trying to help Professor Brewster get in there.

“Here we go then,” Phil said. He pressed another button, and Kevin saw the numbers on the screen shift as the focus of the radio telescope started to change. They shifted little by little, the numbers getting closer to the ones he saw, and closer, until…

The moment they matched, a signal came through, clear and strong. Sounds started to come from the system. They had a familiar feel to them, but at the same time they seemed different from some of the ones Kevin had translated. Less precise and mechanical, more flowing.

Even so, he found himself translating them automatically.

“If you are receiving this, beware,” he translated. “You are in grave danger. The last messages you received were a trick.”

Kevin could hear Professor Brewster continuing to hammer on the door, but he kept listening, and now the translation flowed from him.

“Their transmissions were a lie, designed to make you open the capsule. It is no time capsule. It is a weapon. It has destroyed us completely. This is our final transmission, to warn others not to make the same mistake we did.”

Kevin frowned, not sure if he was translating it right, but the message wasn’t done.

Brewster and his team burst through the door.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded—but stopped short as he listened, too.

“Do not make the mistakes we did. Do not open what they send to you.”