FREQUENCY ZERO

 

The dials glowed muted yellows and reds beeping green flashes flickered around his cloak of black solitude

The metallic hum started, the clicked click and purr of soft machinery coming to life
The ancient transmission station glowed and pulsed again under his worried brow.
Yellow lights pulsing in tune with the static rhythms,
An ambient beat syncopated by the of humming machinery. Soft machinery.
The Music of mystery was in the air like slow static.
The boys openly played they’re hands across the switches and dials the hum of an new world
Another place was out there somewhere, and something else someone else was out there too.
They could all feel it’s dank eyes distant and waiting.
“I’m not standing out there.” It was Tomah a rather round Delphi 3 rank
He always wanted to be part of things but had to be pushed.
“Just outside the door Tomah, we can’t hear anything with these machines running
You and Tain just be outside the doorway to give us a minutes warning if someone comes.
Tain was a big quiet boy but not stupid he ‘reviewed and surmised situations’ it was what he was bred to do.
“Why do I get the feeling there’s even chances this is going to be a what and not a who?”
Silence.
“So… That is a possibility huh?”
Silence …
“Ok T lets go wait for the ‘thing from outer space.”
“Hell that is not even funny at this point,”
Two silhouettes grey on black framed against the cypress trees by the doorway of the transmission shack,
Slip out of sight in the growing darkness. “Ouch!” “C’mon”
Two heads turned starring at a soft metallic console, yellow lights pulse with an atomic glow.
Beating…
Beating a dull steady pulse. A grey signal looming just out of reach.
Slowly Jacob turned the knobs while Malcolm flicked switches,
All breathlessly awaiting the tiniest inkling of a blip a beat or a pulse in the stream of interstellar noise.
White noise hissing likes a lover in a tiger’s ear. Soft endless ceaseless calling into a vortex of mind melting sound.
That’s when the voice boomed shattering everything.
“That’s far enough Units!”
“What the…”Malcolm stood and Jacob looked up.
He stood black on grey
Silhouetted against the dark line of cypress trees framed by the black on black rectangle of the door.
Behind him was a tangle of black as Tain and Tomah tumbled onto the floor.
Two other broad shouldered men were behind The Voice now.
“This is the part I like Gentlemen… The explanation.”
A mild guffaw and movement from behind him.
“Attention all units! I am here to shut you down. Close this operation before it gets started.”
Not a cloud was wasted on that tranquil night
Nor a breeze to stir the silhouetted row of cypress trees that lined the gravel drive.
No distant train to smote the silence, not any beep or hoot or croak.
Grey on black as soft as silk the deep night crept into being.
A quiet blanket of black drips across this remote place.
The dials glowed muted yellows and reds beeping green flashes flickered around his cloak of black solitude
As the stars spun onto centre stage framed by the cracked window.
The metallic hum started, the clicked click and purr of soft machinery coming to life
The ancient transmission station glowed and pulsed again under his worried brow.
A tussle of hair and a cock of the head at each static noise warmed up the old radios.
He was now broadcast a white noise, pulsing to the beat of the hydrogen atoms atomic weight
Converted and displayed as musical notes.
The history of man in a symbolic language of universal understanding.
“Listen we are going to get bam/slam for sure”
A face leans out of the shadows and whispers in an almost squeaky voice
“I’m telling you it’s worth It.” busy with the dials Jacob just shakes his head.
“Besides we could be arrested just for the goddamn tee -shirt you’re wearing!”
"Now shut up and listen …listen."
Yellow lights pulsing in tune with the static rhythms, an ambient beat syncopated by the of humming machinery
Soft machinery.
“They took the whole group that was operating 87.3"
Again the face leans out from the shadows caught highlights in the yellow glow accented with flashes of blue.
“Took them all in too…Hell half the troops couldn’t spell Anarchy so the shirts a safe bet at night.”
His smile wasn’t anything to be proud of but he was a techno god when it came to repairing almost anything,
The history and aesthetics of it all, the very concepts; were lost on him. It wasn’t his fault; he wasn’t stupid.
He just wasn’t designed to have any imagination. Blueprints and schematics where in his DNA
He had a natural understanding and inclination towards the restoration of machinery with the tools at hand
The l-742-A was modified from the Engineer series K for long-term maintenance
Specifically to live on mineral barges and take care of them.
Imagination flair and creativity or not something one wants on a 30-year voyage.
“Hear that?”
The ambient strains of cackle and pitch sort through the inner ear in a haze of white noise.
“Listen careful like a song listen Slow.
Two heads turned starring at a soft metallic console, yellow lights pulse with an atomic glow.
Beating…
Beating a dull steady pulse. A grey signal looming just out of reach.
“It could be feedback interference.” But the ugly thin face stayed in the light of the console
No listen for a minute it doesn’t just repeat at intervals, it’s off somehow “
Malcolm turned the knobs and tilted to the warm touch of metal
In his gnarled hands the terminals slowly changed they’re rhythm moved they’re cadence
As the series of noise signals were discharge from the output.
Cleaning the sweep of particles of noise in every possible frequency Sorting through the background debris.
“Every night?” Malcolm asked a hopefully raised eyebrow and on that unkind face a twinkle came
It was a shinning of the birth of an idea, which made Jacob grunt a laugh.
The l-742-A was modified from the Engineer series K and not given to imagination.
But one was looking out the window at the stars fortressed in the night
The silhouette of cypress tress dark on dark until the horizon.
“Threes something out there man.” Was all he said, how prophetic thought Jacob?
“Yeah and they’re talking to us.” Jacob leans back to swallow in the perfection of his moment.
Just then Malcolm covers Jacobs mouth with one hand and tosses the stiff blanket across the console,
Slipping his hand underneath it to shut the power down.
“No I mean threes someone right outside!”
Still as still black on black the night frozen to the sound of ambient nature,
The very sound of silence pounding into the inner ear.
The stars framed by the window streak across the blackness and their own ragged breath burns with control.
Minute’s turn longer and longer as the night until they forcefully relax.
“There was someone out there.” Malcolm pulled off his tee shirt and turned it inside out.”
“Spooky I just about soiled my pants.” Neither wanted to move or get up
They both felt it there was no need to talk about it they had both felt it
Someone had seen them, someone who might report him or her.
As they walked out of the transmission building they saw a set of lights disappearing down the long gravel road.
Malcolm kicked the stones
“We didn’t bring flashlights!” He scuffled the stones and started to walk.
The l-742-A was modified from the Engineer series K and was not given to imagination or humour.
The scariest part is they knew they would be back regardless
Malcolm spoke to break the sound of crickets “You know we’ll get caught for sure.”
“Yeah”Said Jacob” Sooner or later we’ll be caught.”
Malcolm tossed a stick and they watched it spin off to land in the dark grasses.
“Will it be worth it …do you think?”
“Either way we have to know. I do don’t you?” They stopped and faced each other.
Jacob was ashen and tired. Malcolm beyond exhausted,
The adrenaline has worn off now
They were 2 hungry young men in a kind of shock that they’re youth couldn’t recognize.
“Yeah, and I don’t even know what it is I want to know any more it’s just that…well.”
Uh huh “ Jacob scuffles the stones at the roadways shoulder and continued walking.
“Threes something out there we know that for sure.”
“Yeah that much we know.”
Jacob leaned forward.” What operation we’re trying to find a…”
He moved quickly into the room and his face was right up to Malcolm’s
It glowed yellow with blue and red blotches flashing
A dull green slash of colour fading in and out across his eyes.
“There is no SIGNAL unit”
His anger was so finely honed and intense it actually hurt to be in the proximity of such malicious hatred.
It made the boys cower on the floor.
It was like a repelling force pushing them crowding them, weighing down and down on them
Until the sheer gravity of his will suppressed them all better than any chains could.
“We sent that signal Unit 702"
" I gave the order to send the signals I gave the order to have a certain boy tell you of this place.
” He halted to let that sink into Jacobs mind.
“It was I who had your aunt hit by the bus on the day your precious girlfriend was away
So that you would have nothing better to do than come up here and snoop around.
The voice backed off and the oppression in that dark din lifter ever so briefly.
But he caught his breath and leaned back hand placed on the small of his back
Right arm gesturing as though a general addressing an army before a great battle,
And so it was that he saw himself.
A leader a crusader for the humanities, man’s last hope for a better tomorrow.
“I seduced you all here and look what you have done.”
He gestures broadly across the glowing boards.
“Subversive bastards!” on the back hand swipe he caught Tain as he tried to get up.
“But all we…Jacob ventured seeing as he was out of range for now.
“YOU that is the problem unit
We build you to perform work for us tasks
Requiring more dexterity that a robot and more power than a human.
You ungrateful bloody savages look what you do gathering in groups
To subvert the very Bureaucracy that feeds you.”
Christ get in here and arrest them before I vomit!”
“Arrest?” It was Malcolm he was snivelling
“Yes arrest it’s a polite term we use when dealing with your scum pseudo race
It means take them to the junkyard and dismantle them
Grind up the organic bits to feed the next generation.”
“NO I don’t believe you!” It was Jacob come to his feet and leaning over the glowing panel.”
“I know I'm human. I feel it!” Jacob looked at Malcolm who was quickly falling to pieces.
“I 'll prove it to you!”
It wasn’t at all normal to have any one question anything. He was intrigued by this unit.
“All bio clones are imbedded with there shut offs set to frequency zero
It’s an emergency failsafe in case of rebellion so I couldn’t be a subversive of any kind.”
“That’s only a myth Unit. Nice try though “ he grabbed for Jacobs sleeve.
“But “Jacob slid over and twisted the knob”
“If what is really happening here is that it is I who have lead you here to terminate your position
You are in fact a bio clone a
I am in fact a bio genic sent to terminate renegade bio units that have malfunctioned.”
The Voice just looked at him unflinchingly, and then chuckled.” Impossible idea little.”
“Yes!” Jacob jumped up right into his face.
“Impossible isn’t it…for you but think only a bioclone would KNOW something was an impossibility
A human would always have doubt. You didn’t have any doubt though.”
Jacob turns the knob one last time.
“This is what we really want Malcolm” and he cranked the dial over in a split second of revelation “Frequency Zero.”
“Set Frequency Zero” and all bio clonic units will implode isn’t that correct UNIT?”
The hideous squelch as the dial climbs to a place beyond any human hearing
And framed by a rectangle of black the shadow of the voice does not vanish, does not poof or pop and explode.
The body of the Unit once called The Voice slowly became transparent and faded into non-existence.
It took a few minutes for the smoke to clear,
After the crowding of the shack it seemed almost pre dawn light by the time they were all on there feet.
“Your not really some robot catchers are you.” Tommack looked Jacob up and down.
“Nah Just the bio clonic son of a unit designer.”
Malcolm sat looking at the carnage of the melted wires and dials.
Tain just stared off in the distance. I Internal intelligence. A little overworked if you ask me.”
“So?” Malcolm motioned across the burnt out display.”
Tain and Jacob shook their heads.” So there's no alien signal.”
Malcolm raised eyebrow and on that unkind face a twinkle came
It was a shinning of the birth of an idea, which made Jacob grunt a laugh.
The l-742-A was modified from the Engineer series K and not given to imagination.
But one was looking out the window at the stars fortressed in the night
the silhouette of cypress tress dark on dark until the horizon.
“Threes something out there man.” Was all he said, how prophetic thought Jacob?
As it turned out there was nothing out there but it was trying to make something of itself.
A bureaucracy trying to pretend it controls a flame
when there is really only a bed of warm ashes left.
Our humanity dwindles and we devolve in our quest to evolve. Pretentious beasts we human’s
Kicking the stones lining the darkened edge of the road Malcolm moans.
"We simply have to remember the damn flashlights tomorrow night."
The slight exchange of knowing smiles like weather on a child’s face, the ‘knowing’ you are not alone in what you think you are experiencing the belonging to a thing and the sharing of it with another. is
what really makes us human after all.