Short Stories Probably?

1

Lackey stood in the control-room alone. Carefully adjusting the frequency with two fingers. Slowly turning his wrist to increase the frequency. If he were to mess it up now, he would have to wait another fifteen minutes for the satellite dishes to reset. And by that time he would have already lost a once in a lifetime frequency.

He looked over at the coordinates once more to check he was doing the right thing. His eyes read lines of numbers that were being carefully but quickly calculated by the computer. He tapped the dial ever so slightly.

"74.02...74.1... 74.25... 74. 20!" Lackey lifted his hands away from the dial. He flicked his wrist as he felt a cramp coming on. He looked at the display monitor once more, let out a breath, and pushed the button to run the command that changed the direction the satellite dish faced.

He heard the bathroom toilet get flushed from the other room, but kept his eyes glued on the display monitor as he patiently waited for a signal to come through.

After three minutes passed the satellite dishes were now in the direction Lackey had set them to. There was no immediate signal that was being picked up. He waited a few more minutes and then a few more and then a few more. Until eventually he started to doubt himself.

"Perhaps it's a few degrees off?" Lackey yawned as he stretched in his chair. He looked at the paused calculations and compared it to the display monitor. Everything was identical down to the tenth decimal.

A few seconds after questioning his expertise, the control panel started to beep.

"Eureka!!" Lackey shouted excitedly.

"I swear to god Lackey, if you got my hopes up for dwarf. I'm going to break this fu-" John said gruffly as he walked closer to the desk with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"No, it's not a star!" Lackey said ecstatically. He pointed his finger toward the top of the screen.

SIGNAL

STATUS: SIGNAL AVAILABLE

RADIO TELESCOPE

STATUS: DETECTED. . .

SIGNAL SOURCE :

?

PLANET TYPE :

?

SIGNAL TYPE :

RADIO SIGNAL

"You lucky bitch!" John punched Lackey's arm.

"Hey we both have our fair share of Unknowns, don't pretend that I'm just naturally lucky." Lackey reminded him.

"Lucky Lackey." John snorted. The two of them chuckled for a second and then settled down and stared at the monitor as it decrypted whatever message this once-in-a-lifetime frequency has brought to them.

~ ~ ~

The Message

There were two brothers. They were born onto a planet that was not too close, yet not too far from their system's star.

Born into a family with a large enough household, a few ways of transportation, and the right amount of money to sustain a stable life. We have our own terms in describing these sorts of individuals, but I think for you would be "Meh" or "Middle-class"

These boys were born four years apart. Each one gave their own rooms that were adjacent to each other. Their parents didn't know what they liked yet, so for quite some time the walls were just a solid pastel color.