This is the story I wrote for a contest, tell me what you think.
First Sign of Light
Being the head of the recently created Extra-planetary investigation division of the Global Research Institute is not as great as it seems. In fact it is becoming a real headache. Sure, you get a cushy office and labs filled with high-tech equipment for sounding out various different phenomenons. We are also staffed with the most talented scientists one can find in the entire world. With all our resources, it should be easy to begin to make headway into finding out what lay outside our world. We were so optimistic to begin with; it makes me want to smack myself for being such a fool. I am starting to wonder whether this is a fool’s quest and that we may be seeking something that Vons are not meant to touch.
Thinking back, we proud Bavons have already mapped out and thoroughly explored every mountain, ocean and every sub-terrain cavern available in our world. As the intrepid explorers we are, we decided to investigate what lies outside. We know of the existence of meteoroids, chucks of rock that fell from the sky, hence it is highly possible that there are other worlds out there. Hence, the project began.
The first obstacle to our goal is the fact that we don’t know what pattern of sound we should be listening for. We are able to focus on specific sounds and ignore others; yet the background noise on our planet is such that it is all but impossible to pick out the right sound. Sounds coming from above could be from birds, aeroplanes or all manners of things from within our own planet. We solved that by meticulously selecting a place situating our auditorory in a remote region outside of any flight paths, on top of a mountain too tall and inhospitable for wildlife. We then built tall sound buffers around the auditory, leaving an open top. This will hopefully remove the possibility that the sound we record coming from sources within our planet. Hopefully we will end up with sounds that are extra-planetary in origin.
We also realised that any sounds coming from distances so great as to lie outside our planet would be very weak, hence the need to develop a far more sensitive microphone. It needs to be an instrument capable of sounding out sounds from incredible distances without being obscured by the background noise. It is impossible to eliminate sound from an area and still be able physically detect anything as Bavonians naturally emits navigation buzz from our saf. That buzz which is so essential to our daily perceptions will obscure any weak signals coming from above. Hence we also need a way to remotely collect our data since there cannot be any Bavon within the facilities themselves as their navigational buzz will mess up the data collected.
After 3 years of building work and research, it was all finally ready for testing. We sent out a signal upwards, waiting to see if there is any echo coming We did not expect immediate results, it should take time for meaningful data to come in but the resulting findings are devastating. We would have never imagined such a thing but it turns out that there is no air a certain distance from our planetary surface, how is this possible, it is inconceivable.
The idea of vacuums; places with no air, hence no way of perceiving anything in it, has been toyed with by philosophers for ages. It was thought to be impossible, air gets into everything, how do you keep such an invasive substance out? However, with there being no air out in space, it seems that there is no way in which to hear anything. None of our 4 senses are going to be of any help. We can’t hear without vibrations in air particles which transmute sound, touch requires close contact and there is no way to travel through a vacuum, any forms of flight we have developed relies on differences in air pressure so there is yet no way to travel through it and it is unwise to travel out there with no way of perceiving anything anywhere. Smell relies on air particles and one cannot imagine what one can do with taste.
This was 6 months ago, we still haven’t come any closer to finding a solution and the stress is beginning to kill me. The Institute is considering closing our department and in a way, I agree with him. However, since I am the department head; the public will have my head; I have wasted millions of segs from the taxpayer’s money on a hopeless venture with absolutely no benefit coming from it. I should probably hide somewhere where I can’t be heard until all this is over.
I shake my head to clear my mind off of these depressing reminiscing and try to put my focus back on my paper work, running my fingers over the page; doing my best to think of the here and now and have hope that one of the tech boys down in the lab can think of something. Who am I kidding, it’s hopeless. Maybe I should go around the labs and see what our boys are doing, who knows they may be able to cobble together something useful which may soften the blow from the masses.
I got up, paced through the door and headed towards the main lab. I followed the textured line etched into the ceiling leading to the main labs, though I have been through here so many times that I could get there in my sleep. On the way there, I passed many people who sounded stressed, their faces are all crinkled and I don’t blame them. I probably sound the same. Everybody gives me terse nods as they pass, part of being the Director; though I may not be that for much longer with the lack of any progress being made.
Soon, I came to the large reinforced double doors of the main lab, punched in the code on the keypad and the door hiss open. I opened the door to the sound of scientists bustling about mainly doing busy work. I walked over to Dr. Mosquez; the head of the research section.
“Any progress?” I asked, not really expecting much, “Or any successes in adapting the equipment into something useful.”
“We have adapted the new microphone to the study of micro organisms,” Mosquez replied, “the observatory on the Higamayam Mountain could be adapted as an experimental weather observatory, being that high up, one could easily hear the different thicknesses of cloud layers and it could help us refine our understanding of the formation of our weather patterns.”
This is about what could be expected, no actual breakthroughs, just barely adequate attempts to justify the huge amount of segs spent on the project and to make something useful out of the equipment. I thanked Mosquez and continued on my rounds of the facilities.
While I was on my way to one of the smaller labs, I turned around a corner and bumped straight into young Swatzer, small lad, works in one of the minor labs, a good worker, not remarkably talented. However, today he looked far too exuberant for having just fallen down on his rump.
He sprang to his feet and exclaimed, “Director, Director! I was looking all over for you!”
“Calm down and tell me why you are looking for me.” I said.
“I think I have finally found the key to extra planetary investigation,” He said.
“You are serious? You are pulling not my leg,” I doubted.
“Yes, I am serious.” He responded, “Everyone knows that heat comes down from above and warms the surface of Baven during warmtime. I got the idea that maybe we can get an idea of what’s above us by studying that pattern of heat.”
“Heat needs a medium to travel as well,” I argued, “That’s why we keep places are warmer with a closed door.”
“I thought that too but we were at the stage where it doesn’t hurt to try.” He explained. “I experimented with small fires, trying to record the fluctuations in heat and to develop a way of mapping using heat as a guide.”
“Today, I discovered that there is another way for heat to travel, there seems to be some form of energy emission that comes from some heat sources,” Swatzer continued. “This emission comes from above as well and seems to be capable of travelling through a vacuum.”
“Hence, we could explore outside the planet by tracking these emissions!” he clamoured.
“This is brilliant, what wonderful news; I will see to it that we will have you promoted.” I exclaimed. “By the way, have you thought of a name for this new energy emission?”
Swatzer contemplated for a moment and replied, “I think I will call it light.”
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