An Extraterrestrial Reaction

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Prologue

A constant sound echoed through the room as fingers typed furiously against a keyboard. A sense of serenity settled around her, prolonging the tension that her body was about to harbour. This was finally it. It took her most of half her lifetime to get the response she was looking for. Ten long, long years to get an answer.

The message was sent out, sent through space by a tantalising sound wave that she hoped would return to her. She had faintly heard the buzzing at the sound left the computer and transmitted itself to the outer galaxy which did not hold Earth in the least. She had picked out random coordinates, ones that felt right, and as her computer sent it out, she soothingly sipped at her herbal tea, feeling as though fate was going to come as a puzzle and put itself together. She had hoped if it had reached somewhere, that who, or whatever got the message, would be able to decode it easily and send one of its own back.

It had been a friendly message, one full of curiosity, and she hoped other life would see it as she had put it, that they would understand it and not feel threatened. She would never put a life in danger if she could help it.

And now, now as she had gotten home and had faintly heard the ringing echoing from the home-made transmitter she had programmed onto her laptop, she knew she had gotten an answer. She had gotten an answer from a world, a species unknown to Earth. She had finally done it.

And she was absolutely, equitably terrified.

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