Radio Time

“Nobody can hear you scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say…”

It seemed like a captivating line to begin with, and it caught the attention of the room. You could hear a pin drop. Dr Palin had been planning on addressing the administration at NASA HQ in order to get funding to further study his recent discovery. Now as the room filled with laughter it seemed unlikely.

“Are you trying to tell us you heard screams in space Dr?”

As the laughter died down, a tall bulky man stood and sternly addressed him.

“Humans screaming in space? Perhaps you’ve been watching too many movies.”

“Not human sir, no.”

The auditorium became deathly silent again.

“A private astronomer notified our labs that he received an unusual sound on a varied frequency with his H142-One receiver. We have many enthusiasts contacting us, but this was an unusual request as the signal received came through on different frequencies.

We sent it through to NOEMA and they confirmed our signal”.

“What was the screaming Dr?”

The large burly man was the deputy administrator of NASA, George Malloy. He was an impatient and busy man, with no time for scientists trying to make the next “big discovery”. Malloy wasn't accustomed to meeting with such low level astronomers, but Dr Palin had written for “Astronomy”, dissecting and destroying a claim the previous year that a black hole could be the answer to time travel; which kind of saved NASA a lot of potential trouble, that he decided to pay his respects at this meeting. This so-called scientist already seemed like a crackpot waste of time who was challenging his patience.

“You mentioned screaming in space Dr Palin, we don't need to know your life history. What was it?”

Dr Palin cleared his sandpaper dry throat but couldn't. He slowly poured himself a glass of water so he could speak. They’re listening now, he thought. Now they can wait.

“We believe it was a dog yelping sir.”

“A dog in space, screaming? Are you kidding me? We don't have animals in space Dr. Palin. We haven't had animals in space since 2011. We haven't had a dog in space since 1961.”

A small spindly lady, wearing horn rimmed glasses stood, raising a thin, bony finger in the air.

“Excuse me Mr Malloy, might I ask a question?”

“This is Dr Riker, chief Astronomer and NASA Solar system ambassador. Take it away Doctor”.

The old lady stood up, which was barely noticeable as she must have been little over 5 feet tall. Her wispy dark grey hair was tied up in a bun, pulled so tight it distorted her features and added to her long pointed nose, made her seem otherworldly.

“Dr Palin, an educated and illustrious astronomer such as yourself must be aware of the presence of background radiation and the likelihood of radio signals being received from anywhere from this planet. You may have heard Lassie on your radio, but it is of little to no interest to this committee and I warn you that if you ever waste this administration’s time and effort again, I will personally have your career brown listed to the point that you will never work in the western world again. Do I make myself clear “Doctor”?”

Snickers resounded around the room after this elven devil scolded him like an elementary school teacher. It was a last ditch effort to be heard, but he summoned all of his courage to get the words out.

“NOEMA said it was from V-Puppis Maam.”

The mutterings once again stopped dead as the eight other members of the NASA committee awaited a response from either Dr Riker or Mr Malloy.

“You trust the Europeans more than your own country sir?”

George Malloy was again standing and showing his full stance like a giant silverback waiting to attack.

“Northern Extended Millimetre Array. The most powerful radio telescope in the northern hemisphere. Say, is that still headed by that wisecrack Frenchy.. wasisname, Guillard? I laughed him outta my office when he was here. Now he has you believing there are dogs in a black hole. You have to be out of your mind sir. Do you want to end your career like this Dr Palin?”

“No sir I don’t, and I wont. As strange as this seems to the committee, I am totally serious that this reading is absolute and correct. We have scrutinised it and corroborated it with some of the most advanced equipment we have available and the greatest mind on the planet and I’m afraid that what I have to tell you is about to make you question everything we think we know about the known universe. The fact is, I’m afraid Ladies and Gentlemen, that we have received a radio transmission from the nearest blackhole to earth and we have heard this same transmission before in 1957. We believe that this dog’s yelping was from Laika.”

Dr Palin paused briefly to clear his baron throat and take another sip of his cold bottled water.

“You’re trying to tell us that a Russian dog that died in space nearly 70 years ago is trying to contact us from a blackhole 980 lightyears away?” The head bun scolded again looking for an air of superiority.

Malloy sat himself down before he lost control of his temper and tried desperately to compose himself before he spoke again.

“Dr Palin, the only reason I agreed to come to this meeting was because you wrote a piece last year that caught my interest on the damaging effects of hearsay surrounding blackholes and now you come here with your own fantasies…”

“I wish it was fantasy sir and I have been questioning myself for the past three weeks since we first made this discovery, but unfortunately I think we might have only caught the tip of the iceberg with this transmission. It would appear that this transmission is only one of many. And these transmissions seem to be coming from a wide variety of random times in human history...”

“Human history sir?” Malloy splurted

“Yes Mr Malloy. I believe we have discovered time travel.”