SD 241909.08 || Crazy Catlady Contact

Posted on 08 Sep 2019 @ 1:55pm by Lieutenant Tye Beryl

638 words; about a 3 minute read

=/\= Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) =/\=

A chorus of meows filled the control room of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. The complex had been mostly abandoned since war, and Patty R. Beryl wanted to get as far away from the rest of humanity as she could, so she moved in. . . along with her ten cats. OVRO was set up with a doomsday shelter, which meant she wouldn't have to worry about food or water for her and her cats for decades. For her, being away from the rest of humanity, with just her cats and OVRO? Heaven.

"Alright, alright. Come on. I know it's lunch time," Patty talked to her cats as she left the control room and moved into the kitchen. Ten cats, from her 18 year old matriarch, Storm, to the 6 month old siblings, Tonx and Zane, trotted after her, and the chorus of meows became more urgent. Feeding that many cats was a bit of a juggling act, but she had it down to a routine now.

Five minutes later, she was back in the control room scanning readings coming into her terminal when something caught her attention, "What the hell?" She refocused the main dish of the array and felt blood drain from her face, "What in the name of Schrodinger?"

Whatever it was was bigger than the international space station, which she knew was on the other side of the planet right now, in a haphazard and slowly decaying orbit since it'd been abandoned nearly a century ago. She pushed from the desk and turned as she rolled across the floor to another terminal. Flipping a few switches, two monitors to her left brought up what were on the other monitors while the other two monitors on her right brought up other data. She double-checked the focus of the array, and once satisfied entered in a few commands.

Pulling a headset on, Patty flipped a switch and started speaking, "Unknown object. . . vessel. This is the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. OVRO. If you can hear me, please respond. Repeat. This is OVRO. If you can hear me, please respond." She wished the translator she'd been working on worked so she could record the message and broadcast in the most common languages she knew, but she hadn't quite gotten the algorithm right.

=/\= Bridge =/\=

The ship, while not exactly dead in the water, wasn't going to be going anywhere any time soon. Given Tye wouldn't be busy at Helm any time soon, she was helping out monitoring Ops, where she was a bit busier than if she'd been sitting at Helm. Mostly, the CHelm officer was monitoring the limited communications, eavesdropping on conversations between people who had no idea anyone was listening in. She was listening to the various chatter to see if she found any hint of their missing crew. She'd been at it for. . .well, she'd lost count, and was only sort of paying attention.

Part of Tye's mind was occupied with the last climbing route that stumped her, thinking about where she went wrong. Was it bad foot placement, or did she miss a hold that wasn't super obvious? She was mentally going through the last ten feet of the route before she came off the wall when a blinking light on her console caught her attention. Apparently someone was hailing them.

Tye did a double take. Hailing them!?

It was probably a bad idea, but Tye opened the channel to hear the person on the other end. She wasn't planning on replying. . .not unless it became necessary.

Unknown object. . . vessel. This is the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. OVRO. If you can hear me, please respond. Repeat. This is OVRO. If you can hear me, please respond.

Tye's eyes went wide, and she looked to the center chair, "Uh. . . Captain. We're being hailed."

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