Another Music

“Scientists on Theta discover how to communicate with aliens” read the telepaper headline.

Rol smiled, ”Its not really quite as simple. In fact we do not even know if we are communicating or if there are aliens out there.”

“You spoil it all” grumbled Gail “The laboratories in Theta require all the publicity we can get.”

“But we have just now discovered traces of Auroral Kilometric Radiation. That too only from Theta. There are chances that this phenomenon can be observed from Creola, Xeon and Scopa. Even from Creon maybe. But we do not have conclusive proof. In fact statements like this will only raise false expectations and we do not have the technology to set up an inter-world telephone” Rol chided gently.

“Professor Rol, the telephone, that will be a possibility… some day” Tik was wistful.

Rol smiled, “Tik, it will not be quite like a telephone, more like a series of radio receivers. Do you know what it is that we have discovered?”

“A series of sounds that Theta emits. But I do not quite know how”

“They are not sounds per se, just radiation. Technically every long wave radiation can be heard. You just have to build an instrument sensitive enough to detect it. High, high above Theta, charges particles from Talis collide with the Thetan magnetic field.”

“So.. we should be able to hear them on Theta itself”

“Yes, Gail, but , Theta is protected by the charged Ionosphere layer high above our atmosphere. And so they do not reach us. They are very strong bursts of radio waves- far stronger than all our communication devices here. They are also reflected off Creon, Scopa, Xeon and Creola- by their ionospheres. And so we have not ever detected them from these planets either. But the receiving station in space, when tuned in- much like tuning in a radio station, has been able to receive them. We were not looking , rather hearing for them, just checking to see if the instruments worked- and we found this series of strange noise- it is not very noise like either. And the scientists from Dr Dees lab figured they came from Theta. Then we went further out- on the non- Creon side of Theta and found the entire planet emits them- so..”

“… we are in the center of a pond, creating ripples, which reach out in all directions. If the frequency does not die out we can reach ever further and further and somewhere receivers can receive this” continued Gail

“and so we can communicate all over the universe” completed Tik.

The team went back to their calculations. Telepapers and news and instant fame- not that scientists ever got the contingent notoriety or the money that accompanied it- notwithstanding, they had work to do. Sure enough news of the alien-communication was replaced by news of elections in Creon, corruption in Scopa and other things of vital importance. Dr Rol and Dr Dee found out that Creon, Creola, Scopa and Xeon had their own vibrations- each distinctly different from the other. Since Talis had no other planets, there were no other sounds to be heard.

They also discovered a strange screech – faint but very persistent . Tik and Gail and Dr Dee’s graduate student Xip got to work on it and discovered it was from a world eight light years away- the Farplanet. . The team had another brief burst of Telepaper fame, but the news died out even faster than the previous.

“After all the aliens are not saying, Hi Creonians, just sending forth a series of unintelligible sounds” Dr Dee consoled the graduate students.

There were a few other developments, Rol and Dee, discovering common interests besides Auroral Radiation and resonating frequencies set up a joint laboratory and household. Tik, Gail and Xip affiliated to the new lab just as well. That was eight years ago.

Wek was born. And it is ironic indeed how the child of researchers who could hear interplanetary sounds ,could not hear those of his own world. He was stone deaf.

“Wek wrote down these notes. He was playing near the radio receivers and said, he could hear these. Played , they sound like the screech from the Farplanet. ” Dee and ROl were beside themselves. Wek could not hear. Ever. It was beyond cure. And this had to be some sort of a cruel joke. But Wek persisted in his claim. Of course he knew nothing about the research- just what he could gather from the five adoring adults who made up his world. And he was as deaf to the sounds of Creon and its satellites as they were. Perhaps his illness had made him sensitive to some frequencies. But no one could really say anything about it.

Meanwhile on Farplanet , it was the year 1810. A wild haired young man woke up from a troubled sleep. She had married someone else. He was losing it. He could hardly hear what people said- his friends were rifting apart because of his temper. He heard it again. That sound. It was right, complex and beautiful- he shook his head. It stayed. The valet came in and murmured a good morning. The composer, took out pen and score and started writing down what he could hear. The good morning went unanswered. The valet was used to it. At least his master was not skulking in a dark rage, but was joyously transformed. He wrote and wrote and with a flourish titled it. The Ink ran over the title as he cast it aside.

Later the transcriber copied out the title as Fur-Elise.