14. Flash Fiction by Andrés Eloy Martínez Rojas
Quantum Bustle
Margaret herself still clearly remembered the previous events that she had experienced for just a year and that triggered a series of events that were about to change the history of science forever. Like that recurring lucid dream with images of intertwined particles that seemed to dance exchanging patterns of shapes, colors and rhythmic sounds, which undoubtedly influenced her to bring her to the doors of a surprising and potential discovery tonight from her laboratory and if so . . .
Suddenly a series of beeps and electronic sounds interrupted her thoughts, causing her to glance quickly at the main monitor of the next-generation quantum computer, Quantum Bell 1, displaying a series of numbers and a 60-minute countdown.
“Dr. Margaret, the main antenna is already aligned with the TRAPPIST-1 star and ready to receive the signal and process it,” exclaimed Dr. James, who from the beginning of the project had expressed a total commitment to it, only comparable to that of Margaret herself.
“Okay, James, it’s time to start receiving those photons that have traveled so far,” Margaret replied, “link the antenna to the computer.”
James slid his fingers across the control screen and the photons began to arrive at Quantum Bell 1, which immediately began to perform a series of calculations to confirm Margaret’s theory. On the screen you could read a series of numbers and graphs that changed incessantly. Margaret eagerly watched this whole number show, as she remembered the first time she had the big idea that had led her to this moment.
It was an accidental discovery while tracking TRAPPIST-1 39 years away from Earth months ago, of a pattern of sounds induced by light from the star, when photons from it touched a new test circuit placed in the observational telescope. The pattern of sounds went unnoticed by the rest of the research team, but not by Margaret, who among her many hobbies was that of musical composition.
At first, she thought it was just her imagination, but after a thorough review of the equipment, she ruled out that possibility. She then did another test, but now she pointed the telescope at a different star, without getting the same results. She tested yet another star and then a different pattern of sounds was produced as well.
After repeating this process with several more stars, she discovered that these different noise patterns were randomly repeated from various stellar points, but not in all stars. The sounds generated did not seem to correspond to some known physical process, and so Margaret was tormented by a single question: what information was hidden in that sequence of sounds? And she proposed a theory to explain the strange phenomenon that she had discovered, it was a quantum entanglement product of some unknown astrophysical phenomenon.
With all this evidence in her hands, she decided to make her discovery public, which has since been known as the Margaret Effect, without anyone being able to explain the origin of it or verify the theory until tonight.
So absorbed was Margaret in her ideas that she was a bit startled as the observation alert sounds increased as the countdown approached zero, while Dr. James read aloud the last observation settings, “Target set right ascension 23h 6m 29s declination -5° 2′ 29″ optimal observation conditions.”
“Proceed with receiving the TRAPPIST 1 signal,” Margaret said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Immediately the photons of the star captured by a telescope and the pattern of sounds generated began to be analyzed for the first time by a quantum computer and the results were astonishing. When Margaret looked at the computer monitor, she was stunned with the information that began to flow, there was a series of artificially generated numbers, but also an apparent melodic sequence, yes, some of the sounds corresponded to known notes, it was music, a strange music.
Her intuition had been correct, but it exceeded her wildest expectations, it was undoubtedly a quantum entanglement, but of artificial origin, which implied that it had been created by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization on one of the planets that are part of the planetary system.
From TRAPPIST 1, using photons of light from their star, the aliens were transmitting information into space.
Amid shouts of joy and amazement among the members of Margaret’s science team, everything turned into chaos as they focused on information partly deciphered by the computer, the first human contact with another intelligence in the universe. Data was rapidly accumulating with more mathematical sequences and new rhythmic patterns.
“Now let’s try another of the nearby stars,” said Margaret, “from which we have also
received that effect – how about Helvetios in Pegasus?”
Immediately the telescope began its movement towards the constellation located very close to TRAPPIST 1 and the result was just as surprising, another different sequence of numbers and rhythmic sequences that unequivocally denoted the existence of another extraterrestrial intelligence.
During the following hours of the night and until dawn, Margaret and her team carried out a preliminary scan of dozens of stars from which various extraterrestrial quantum messages were captured.
“The starlight whispers that we are not alone James,” exclaimed Margaret at the end of the exhausting night’s journey.
“The messages were always there, hidden in the brightness of the stars,” replied James. “We have a lot to think about.”
Andrés Eloy Martínez Rojas
Andrés Eloy Martínez Rojas lives in Mexico, where he enjoys the observation and study of the universe as a citizen scientist. He made the adaptation and transmission on the radio in Mexico of The War of the Worlds in tribute to Orson Welles, causing panic among their radio listeners. The asteroid 6159 Andréseloy bears this name in his honor.