Her intern, Leo, leaned over her shoulder. "Maybe it's a glitch. Cosmic ray hit the processor?"
And then she saw it.
She was the senior linguist at the Arecibo Deep Space Listening Post, a job that for twelve years had consisted of drinking bad coffee while the universe hummed its static lullaby. Then, three hours ago, the hum had changed. Her intern, Leo, leaned over her shoulder
S (ring finger), R (middle finger), T (index finger), Y (thumb?), M (pinky?). She was the senior linguist at the Arecibo
The screen flickered. And in the blackness of space, at the coordinates of the non-existent "M," a star winked into being where no star had ever been before. The screen flickered
It looked like a cat had walked across a keyboard. That was the first thought of Dr. Elara Vance when she saw the transmission: