Flash Fiction: "These Are The Voyages"

By Michael Seese

So I've missed a few of the recent Indies Unlimited flash fiction contests as well. But this week, I managed to come up with something.

This is the picture.

And here is "These Are The Voyages"

The control room buzzed.

“Code red!” bellowed Dr. Smith. “Everyone, get to your stations!” Though in most situations the words “code red” connote an impending catastrophe, at SETI they meant something entirely different.

Contact.

After decades of sweeping the cosmos for even a hint of a cohesive signal suggesting an extra-planetary communication, the scientists at UC Berkeley had reason to believe this was “it.”

“It sounds like... it sounds like music.”

“Can you filter out the background noise, Will?” Smith asked.

“Give me a sec,” he said, furiously tapping the keys. “There.”

In an instant, the static evaporated, filling the room with the pure, clean timbre of a what sounded remarkably like a French horn. Eight familiar notes echoed off the sterile cinder block walls.

“These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It's five-year mission...”

“What the hell?” Will muttered.

“Some kind of feedback loop,” Smith spat out as he snapped off the monitor. “Probably due to the recent increase in sunspot activity.”

Had he waited just a few more seconds, they all would have seen it: video of a bipedal lizard wearing a perfectly replicated “Captain Kirk” uniform (including the hairpiece), reciting the words known around the world, and on at least one other exoplanet. And Dr. Zachary Smith would have be able to lay claim to arguably the two important discoveries in the history of mankind.

1. Intelligent extraterrestrial life does exist, and

2. They have a sense of humor.

Feel free to share your thoughts on "These Are The Voyages." Oh, and voting is tomorrow at this link.