This post was inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Worldbuilding Prompt #875 - Signals
Enjoy !
Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio
A cold, dry wind blew endlessly across the plain funnelled by mesas and valleys as the ship came down on a tail of fire.
Inside the Exploration Cruiser 'Wandering Star' the antigrav system hummed as it worked to compensate for the rapid deceleration. The crew were strapped into their gel-couches, but that was really just precautionary.
"This had better be the right planet, Junior Infomancer Wallin !" the captain said with a grin. She actually had huge respect for her passenger, the leader of the science team, but the two of them had the kind of close relationship that played on the traditional rivalry between the two branches of service.
Wallin grinned back. "Well, you're the one driving, Captain Paduraki ..... but yes, it's definitely the place the signal came from, desolate as it appears."
The scientist fiddled with his console, tapping a number of places on the smooth-topped display.
"I'm still picking the signal up. It's very faint, but the structure and code is still consistent. My system continues to identify it as Proto-Risian. Possibly the most ancient signal we've ever detected. I can't wait to get down to the city and investigate !"
An hour later, Wallin and a gaggle of his scientists, escorted by Captain Paduraki and a couple of crew, approached the derelict ruin of the alien city. Very little was left of it; collapsed buildings mostly covered by sand, broken walls eroded by wind and dust.
Everything was the tan colour of the desert, and any paint or colour had long since been blasted off by sandstorms and time. The place had a roughly circular plan, a single massive unitary structure with a few outbuildings on the periphery. None of it had an identifiable purpose or gave any clue as to the physical appearance of the original inhabitants.
"What reading are you getting, Kardulat ?" Wallin asked one of his team.
"Based on the hardness of the sample I inserted, I'm getting a reading of at least a million years of erosion, sir."
"No wonder the signal is so broken and faint ! Well, it seems to be originating from the centre, so let's see if we can get to it."
It was clear to Wallin that if the signal was still broadcasting despite it's age, there was a good chance that once they found it's source they could find some kind of data archive. If they did, the information it could contain might re-write ancient history, or at least clarify some gaps in the timeline.
They spent two hours clambering over tumbled ruins and rocks before they approached the centre.
"Direction finder shows the signal should be coming from behind that next door," Wallin said with a hint of triumph in his voice.
The two crew put their shoulders to the door and leaned on. Imperial muscle and the ravages of time caught up with the ancient structure and it crumpled inward. The room revealed was large, with debris and large boulders around the edges from a partly-collapsed ceiling.
In the centre of the floor was a simple rectangular metal cabinet. A light blinked on it, weak and faint.
Wallin and his team entered, every instrument and recording device pointed at the cabinet. Too late they heard movement as two masses rose from behind boulders, one on each side of the hall.
"What the.... !"
"The plan from Command appears to have been effective, Subterfuge Unit DFOY45=!!*4," one squat, drum-like machine said to it's companion.
"Yes, Subterfuge Unit DFOY45=!!*5. Einheriar Command's plans are always effective. Reducing the number of Imperial scientists with a deceptive false signal is an efficient way to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome in the current war."
Around the two war machines, the bodies of scientists and crew lay charred and scattered throughout the hall. Two more identical machines were away eliminating the exploration cruiser and those crew who had remained with it. They would all be long gone by the time another ship arrived to investigate what had happened.
Imperial muscle you say? Hehehe.