Golden record
Mel'Aad was surprised when captain Hayes sat down next to him. While he had talked to the captain on numerous occasions, it wasn't often that the man innitiated conversations this directly.
"Say Mel'Aad, I have a weird question." The captain spoke in a hushed tone, clearly not wanting to draw too much attention to this conversation.
"Well, this is unusual," Mel'Aad answered, not paying any attention to the athmosphere captain Hayes wanted to create in their corner of the lounge.
"So, the thing is." All crewmembers in the lounge could sense the awkwardness of captain Hayes, but as usual human emotions went over the aliens head.
"A long long time ago, when humans first started entering space, there was this one organisation that lead lots of missions and one of their ideas was to send two interstellar probes into space. First they would go by planets in our solar system and then they would be send into the rest of the galaxy." Mel'Aad nodded, he indeed had read about unmanned human spacecrafts that had been discovered and it made him curious to the actual question captain Hayes was going to present.
"Well, humans have lost contact with those probes a long time ago and I was wondering if they actually found life or that they just at some point broke down."
"Oh! Yes, captain. These have been recovered by the Hiknoids and dismanteled to be studied. I believe it is widely known that that was "Human's" first contact. One is now on display in the Hiknoid university, I could look up where the other is, if you would like?"
That seemed to quickly calm down captain Hayes.
"Nice, good to know. We might visit that some time then, tell me if we are somewhat close to there so we can go on a field trip. Now for the real question, those probes both had a golden disk attached to them, did you manage to translate that data? I've always thought it weird to put a record on it, but it was the best technology they had back then."
"Let me have a look," Mel'Aad said as he picked up his personal data slate and quickly went through the general knowledge base. "Hmm, I'm sorry captain, but it seems there is no recorded data of these disks. But if I may be so bold and ask, what is on them?" Now it was captain Hayes who picked up his data slate.
"There are records of it within the human data base so I will have a look." It didn't take long before captain Hayes had pulled up the records on the data slate that was on the wall near them.
"So, first there is a message from the president or something of an earth collective at that time. There is also lot's of different music from all over the world, it includes a lot of weird stuff. I believe this was an attempt to make sure there was something in there other lifeforms could understand as we had no clue what language you would speak and such." Mel'Aad listened with wonder to all the different sounds that were bombarded through the speakers, some of it sounded like music whilst other parts sounded so aweful that he couldn't comprehend it.
"Oh!" The wall slate changed to now show images. "There are images as well. We have formulas and diagrams of earth and the solar system, but also pictures of humans working and learning and stuff." Quickly the wall slate moved through various pictures, none of which matched with Mel'Aads preconsveed notion that γ-F5-23 was a C7 planet.
"This doesn't look like a C7 planet, these people look all friendly and happy." That note made captain Hayes laugh.
"They censored out all the awful stuff off course, no need to scare potential alien lifeforms. It was ment as a peace offering. Ah, lastly it includes messages in all kinds of languages of earth. Here, this is my favorite one: 'Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time.' So, have you eaten yet? I believe it's time for lunch."
"Say Mel'Aad, I have a weird question." The captain spoke in a hushed tone, clearly not wanting to draw too much attention to this conversation.
"Well, this is unusual," Mel'Aad answered, not paying any attention to the athmosphere captain Hayes wanted to create in their corner of the lounge.
"So, the thing is." All crewmembers in the lounge could sense the awkwardness of captain Hayes, but as usual human emotions went over the aliens head.
"A long long time ago, when humans first started entering space, there was this one organisation that lead lots of missions and one of their ideas was to send two interstellar probes into space. First they would go by planets in our solar system and then they would be send into the rest of the galaxy." Mel'Aad nodded, he indeed had read about unmanned human spacecrafts that had been discovered and it made him curious to the actual question captain Hayes was going to present.
"Well, humans have lost contact with those probes a long time ago and I was wondering if they actually found life or that they just at some point broke down."
"Oh! Yes, captain. These have been recovered by the Hiknoids and dismanteled to be studied. I believe it is widely known that that was "Human's" first contact. One is now on display in the Hiknoid university, I could look up where the other is, if you would like?"
That seemed to quickly calm down captain Hayes.
"Nice, good to know. We might visit that some time then, tell me if we are somewhat close to there so we can go on a field trip. Now for the real question, those probes both had a golden disk attached to them, did you manage to translate that data? I've always thought it weird to put a record on it, but it was the best technology they had back then."
"Let me have a look," Mel'Aad said as he picked up his personal data slate and quickly went through the general knowledge base. "Hmm, I'm sorry captain, but it seems there is no recorded data of these disks. But if I may be so bold and ask, what is on them?" Now it was captain Hayes who picked up his data slate.
"There are records of it within the human data base so I will have a look." It didn't take long before captain Hayes had pulled up the records on the data slate that was on the wall near them.
"So, first there is a message from the president or something of an earth collective at that time. There is also lot's of different music from all over the world, it includes a lot of weird stuff. I believe this was an attempt to make sure there was something in there other lifeforms could understand as we had no clue what language you would speak and such." Mel'Aad listened with wonder to all the different sounds that were bombarded through the speakers, some of it sounded like music whilst other parts sounded so aweful that he couldn't comprehend it.
"Oh!" The wall slate changed to now show images. "There are images as well. We have formulas and diagrams of earth and the solar system, but also pictures of humans working and learning and stuff." Quickly the wall slate moved through various pictures, none of which matched with Mel'Aads preconsveed notion that γ-F5-23 was a C7 planet.
"This doesn't look like a C7 planet, these people look all friendly and happy." That note made captain Hayes laugh.
"They censored out all the awful stuff off course, no need to scare potential alien lifeforms. It was ment as a peace offering. Ah, lastly it includes messages in all kinds of languages of earth. Here, this is my favorite one: 'Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time.' So, have you eaten yet? I believe it's time for lunch."
Eternal story
The golden record was made by "Humans" to be sent into space as a first contact and peace offering. According to the "Human" database, the record, a disk of approximately 30 centimeters in diameter with groves cut into it, was made of gold-plated copper to ensure it could survive its trip into space. Sadly the diagrams put the surface of the disk were not able to be translated into a proper data format, but now that contact has been established with "Humans" the contents of this disk is made public.
The contents of the disk include both visual as auditory messages, specifically curated by "Humans" to show a wide variety of information and hope that at least some of it would be understandable if the disk was to be intercepted by other lifeforms. The auditory messages contain mainly music of all different parts of the world as well as a series of greetings made by various people in all kinds of different languages. The visual messages show various workings of γ-F5-23, earth, and of "Humans", both in a scientific sense as in a cultural perspective. It is to be noted that the Golden Record does not include any evidence of the dangers of γ-F5-23, earth, being a 1-C7 planet as, according to my "Human" contact, this has been censored out of the selection to make sure the message was not seen as a treat or a declaration of conflict.
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