The Beacon: Hard Science Fiction by Brandon Morris (red white and royal blue hardcover TXT) 📕

those frequencies now. But what if some company nearby is experimenting with new frequencies? That kind of thing has to be registered, but we still have to check it out.”

“I might have an idea how to find out.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s measure one of the two yellow dwarfs that I couldn’t find in the WENSS data.”

“As you wish. But we don’t have time today for an extra object.”

“Then we’ll scrap my second-choice star, and I’ll email you the new coordinates.”

The diagram on the screen flickered briefly, then froze. It displayed all frequency ranges from 300 megahertz to 40 gigahertz. Right at the beginning, at 418 megahertz, a peak extended into the black sky of the screen background.

“Perfect,” said Thomas. “See, we just finished measuring the first object. It’s 2:10 pm. I’m now sending the telescope on its way to your new proposal. I’ll leave the spectrum on the screen.”

“One question. The data in the WENSS project is recorded at 325 megahertz. Is that correct? And now we have the maximum value here, at 418?”

“Yes, that’s normal, Peter. The measurement window always has a certain width. The 418 megahertz is close enough to the 325 to display that reading as well. If the WENSS had sampled the sky at 418 megahertz, your yellow dwarfs would have stood out even more obviously.”

Peter ran down the stairs in a staccato rhythm, making every second step creak. The house was quite warm. Now that Franziska was no longer home, he could simply turn off the heat in every room. There was also a radiator in the hallway that, to his knowledge, had never been turned off, but his conscience prickled if he even thought about closing the valve. He must have been avoiding it for years, after a long-ago chastisement.

The kitchen was neat and tidy. After all, he’d hardly used it in the last few days. Peter took a glass from the cupboard, filled it with tap water, and drank it in large gulps. The public water supply here was excellent.

He left and entered the study, where he saw the new diagram on the screen. “That was really fast,” he said.

“I told you it would work much faster the second time,” Thomas said. “Do you notice anything?”

“There is no peak to be seen at the beginning.”

“Exactly, and none is coming, either. We have the usual lines, no other abnormalities. Wait, let me re-normalize this.”

The diagram changed before his eyes. Small prongs stretched out and created a whole new pattern. It reminded him a bit of the barcodes from product labels.

“This is what the radio spectrum of a star ought to look like,” Thomas said.

“That means there’s no way the peak we saw earlier is coming from a secondary earthly source. Otherwise, it would have to be found here, too.”

“Slow down, Peter. The interference could have just stopped. The man who was by our fence talking on his cell phone could have moved on.”

“Then it’s a good thing we have one more item on the list.”

Peter bit into an apple as the third spectrum took shape. The diagram on the screen started with very high values that shot up to the edge of the display range.

“Ha, that’s it!” Peter exclaimed.

“Hold on. After the last measurement, I need to normalize again.”

The high mountain collapsed all at once. The beams shrank until they were barely visible.

“Uh-oh, that was probably too much correction,” Thomas acknowledged.

Again a mountain grew, but this time the value interval was sufficient. The back of his left hand hurt. Peter looked down and saw his right index finger scratching away at it. He couldn’t stop until he commanded himself to move his hands under his thighs, and they obeyed.

The chart grew to the right, but the readings remained low. Unless something else arose now, he had the proof.

“Looks good, doesn’t it?” he asked.

“I think so,” Thomas replied. “But give us five more minutes. I’ll add the last multibox, and that should be enough.”

The diagram froze for a few seconds. Peter caught his right hand looking for something to scratch and put it back under his thigh. New readings flowed in. They varied in size, but they were low compared to the peak from the beginning. The last few minutes seemed endless. He waited for a verdict to be announced.

“So, we’re through,” Thomas said.

Peter went limp. Acquittal! He was not crazy. The charges were dismissed on all counts. Only now did he feel how exhausting the wait had been. And he could do nothing at this point.

“What does that mean now?” he asked.

“Wait, while I compare the charts,” Thomas responded.

On the screen, the curves slid over each other. The second was altogether a bit higher than the first.

“The second object is closer, right?” asked Thomas.

“Yes, forty light-years instead of a little over fifty.”

“Good.”

The second diagram shrank. Now it almost completely covered the first one.

“It makes for a nice picture,” Thomas explained. “The two objects have a largely-identical radio spectrum. You would expect that, since they are main-sequence stars of similar size and similar metallicity. It’s just this pronounced peak at 418 megahertz that we find in both of them that’s not expected.”

“And that means?”

“Figuring that out is not my job. I am responsible for the measurements. Maybe you can find an astrophysicist who specializes in stellar physics and who would have an explanation. I can’t think of anyone offhand.”

“Don’t you have someone from your workgroup in mind?”

“Everyone here is involved in their own projects. And I can’t come along and say that I just circumvented the usage rules and obtained this data as a friendly service. If you do pass it on, I’d be very grateful if you didn’t mention its source.”

“I see. Yes. Thank you, Thomas. What do you think, yourself? Could it be an artificial signal?”

“I’m skeptical about that. You know the statistics. Intelligent life has been slowly dying out in the Milky Way for 5.5 billion years. And the greatest chances of encountering it would be in systems that reside eight