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The Prodigal Son (part 2)
🕑 Added 2022-03-26 17:11:10 +0000 UTCPrentice took a seat, and waited for Ada to begin. Stood behind a small sphere set in to the floor of the lab, Ada raised a hand. Information filled the space between Ada and Prentice. Floating in air, projected by the sphere, data flowed. Prentice looked carefully for several minutes, before breaking out in a grin.
“It’s them?” He asked?
“It’s impossible to know for certain yet - but the signs are good.” Ada swept her arm across the space, and the ocean of data was replaced by four separate graphs.
“Firstly, the detectors placed the trace at 165 light years. Which definitely places it in the right sphere from Earth.”
“The signatures - not we’re using the plural here - are broadly in line with the Swedish ship.”
“At this distance, it’s difficult, but velocities seem to match the parameters of WF tech from the early to mid 23rd century. Which again, puts us in the right ballpark.”
“Finally, there’s definitely data encoded within the emissions.”
Prentice sat up straight. “Sorry? Data encoded within engine exhaust signatures?”
“Well, assuming we’re correct that that is what we are looking at. Yes. Somehow they are able to finely control the drive signatures to include data. Specifically, it’s probably a message. Although we haven’t managed to decode it yet.”
“What kind of message? What kind of encryption?”
Ada sat next to Prentice, and with another gesture brought up a display of pulsing, writhing, data.
“We don’t even know if it is encrypted - it’s simply astonishingly dense and complex. There seem to be multiple layers, perhaps thousands of layers, all entwined. We have a lot of processing power here on the station, but it’s struggling to make any headway.”
“Where can we get more processing power?”
Ada looked at Prentice. “It might not be raw power we need. It might just be more intelligence. I think I know where we might find that. I think we need to go to Sweden and have a chat with someone there.”
