Contact

After so many decades of humanity sending radio signals into space hoping to make contact with another civilization, we have recieved one.

It was a cold January morning, 2073. Our long range microwave receptor caught a signal from, apparently, deep into the Milky Way galaxy. Despite it being extremely unlikely to get one, and more so one that we can decode and make sense of, this one held a basis on our knowledge in math and communication.

It was fairly small and compact, carrying both what seemed a string of words and a sort of equation for another sort of data. Perhaps a picture, a diagram, or even a render of some kind.

Baffled by the fact with got actual words, a form of communication that would require similar evolution to ours in order to develop similar sensory organs, and furthermore by it being simple enough to decode with our methods, we managed to turn it into a coherent set of words.

“Require asylum. 2,520,000 refugees. Danger. (Synthetic) menace.”

The following data was a map of our star system, a fragment from a DNA string, and coordinates with units we couldn’t make sense of.

The message implies a civilization seeking haven in, supposedly, our own planet, for 2.5 million refugees, from a synthetic threat, presumably AI.

Whatever this threat might be, if this civilization has the capabilities for space travel, they’re more advanced than us and we can’t possibly be of significant help.
What’s more concerning, is how specific the map is, and that the DNA fragment resembles life on Earth. They either have incredibly advanced technology for observation, or they’ve been here before, substracting data under our noses.

The (what we assume are) coordinates are undecipherable. They’re clearly mathematical, but not something we can comprehend. It uses units, functions and laws that make no sense. There are bits of data that seem completely out of place, while others have blank spaces. It could very well be corrupted and held some other kind of information that, after being distorted, resembles something else entirely.

A message is quickly crafted and sent out in what we deduced was the origin of their distress signal. We state that we can’t possibly help, that we are scarce in resources and must prioritize our own wellbeing.

Nothing happened.

Decades later, 2131, we recieve another signal with similar encryption.
The new message was fairly similar. In fact, it contained the same data.
We could finally conclude the information in the 2073 message was indeed corrupted, and what they sent weren’t coordinates, it was more text.

“Require Asylum. 2.520.000 refugees. Carbon-based lifeform. Origin. G2V star. Type 3 planet. Danger. (Synthetic) Menace. 3688-08-14”

The map of our system was intact, if not more detailed, and accentuanting planet Earth. The DNA string was complete.

It was our own.