Secrets of the Antiwave

PART 2 | Chapter 7: Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 0.666...

If our red blood cells had aspirations and dreams, how would we ever know? Furthermore, how would they know that their daily activities sustained gargantuan four-limbed beings?

The first universal constant to be discovered was suffering, or so we thought. Tracking the planets' rotations, we received a strong enough signal to separate each 'voice' in the playback. We listened to Earth and were horrified by what we heard.

Several seconds in, Stevenson feel to his knees and cursed vile humanity, for incurring so much suffering upon these helpless gentle giants, McGregor and Mitra theorised that we could redesign our cities to become painless for the planets, DeVille swore in French, Dimitriev swore in Russian and Winthrop simply rolled his eyes at the rest of the team. Rutherford and I both saw the potential disaster that would occur, were the public to find out.

Looking back, I can see why we mistook the clicking whale-songs of Earth as desperate cries for help. All of the voices attained an eerie and unnatural tone, when isolated from the collective. Imagine playing Tchaikovsky's 'Symphony No.6' with only a ninth of the orchestra. But a day later we discovered that the planets weren't too fussed about us. In fact, they didn't even know that we were here. Somewhere in the core of every planet, were strange and hidden beings, singing all together, performing notes that we had never heard.

Mercury was the theremin soprano, synthesised and sprightly, Venus alternated between icy windchime, and unexpected beat-box. Earth sounded like a sinking freighter making crisp staccato clicks, Mars was harsh and strident, and Jupiter: epic, colossally triumphant -- an imperial dreadnought made from blackened brass; Saturn hissed and crackled like a church-organ doused in righteous flames, and Uranus -- a million bells of every size, accompanied by Neptune's sea shanties and muffled thunder...

It wasn't Classical, it wasn't Alternative or Techno or Jazz -- it was everything put together, reincarnated into something greater. The emotions were raw, the emotions were there, and the music was soulmate-intimate. It felt like every tone was speaking to you, and only you, capturing every aspect of your life in a shimmer.

But the planets weren't the only voices.

From the very centre of the System came a deep and constant rumble, the basso profondo of world-sized Titan. When heard together, Sol's voice could barely be heard. When heard alone, it was austere and simple. But it was always there in the background -- an earthquake conducting the planets, harmonising their wildly different voices. And sometimes you could even hear the distant humming of the rest of the Milky Way.

The Solar System was singing and talking, the Universe was alive! But despite our best efforts, we couldn't get a word in. Our receivers could hear their endless performance, but our transmitters were the sound of one hand clapping. It was time to overhaul the CoAG, redesign it from the very ground up. It'd require an ungodly amount of money -- money that Rutherford no longer had.

* * *

Back in the day, Rutherford had inherited an astronomical amount of credits from her late father, along with all the corporations that he had once owned. Presiding over a dozen banks, pharmaceuticals, and mining organisations, she'd appointed CEO's to take her place, while redirecting a small cut of the profits into the SMO. Most scientific corporations at the time were either directly sponsored by governments or the sovereign megacorporations -- funding which came with a price. The SMO was the only facility of its kind: free of deadlines, adminitrative interference and warmongering interests.

But in July of 2087, Saturnian nationalists assassinated Governor-General Bantam Osir, proclaiming independence from the Jovian Alliance. Tensions had already been rising between its various members: the Alliance's 67 members were swimming in gasoline, and Saturn's rebellion was a Molotov thrown into the pool. The Terrestrials felt the Jovian War like the United States felt World War One (1914-1918). Only our Depression hit well before the war was over.

The Jovian Alliance was the heart of the inter-planatary economy. With Ganymede firebombed and Callisto's cities torn to shreds, the Multiglobal Financial Crisis strangled anyone left alive. Rutherford's riches had turned to dust.