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From Project Lyra Official Transcripts 3rd of April 2388 – 00:00 UTC Commonwealth Starsaucer Moonlight Two CASX-302 Standby for full transmission commencing in ten (10) seconds on my mark ... MARK. -- TRANSMISSION PAUSED 10.0 SECONDS -- This is Commonwealth Starsaucer Moonlight Two, registration number CASX-302. Pilot Njau Okar in command. We broadcast within a regular 27 AU proximity to the star Vega - HD172167 or EGO 1703-00000084569. Our simultaneous signal is found in the centimetre range at 1.52 GHz and 4.15 GHz. This begins transmission number fifty-seven (57) under the umbrella of our current mission: Project Lyra. We are members of the Humanity civilization on planet Earth. We came in peace for all of Mankind. Approximate time on Earth: 0 hours UTC, Sunday, 3rd of April 2388, Gregorian calendar. You are listening to the voice of mission specialist and science officer Oksana Lopatin. I will be your host for the next one hundred and eighteen (118) minutes of conversation and music. Welcome to 'The Water Hole' and I'm speaking to those who listen. Ladies and gentlemen... and others, I regret to inform you that this will be my last broadcast. Fourteen (14) hours and thirty-seven (37) minutes hence, my colleagues and I will depart Vega for home. It was a privilege to be your beacon these three months. I would like to say that my efforts on a space pirate radio was a huge success. And I owe it all to you, a good listenership. Indeed, some aspects of the programme have gone smoothly, if I do say so myself. Critics at least approved of the pilot programmes 'Bowie At Bedtime' and 'Music Among The Spheres'. Unfortunately, this is a call-in programme and that is how our ratings were measured. Thus we were a big disappointment. Hello out there. Again, I invite anyone to respond on any channel in the water range. We have many ears, and they are all open. Unless the RF communication standard is not good enough for you. We wanted to keep it simple so that everyone will feel welcome. But to be honest, I am more than tempted to start Moonlight's Q thread resonator just to get your attention. My apologies to our first officer, Major West - who looks at me as I speak. He has not provided a permit for that joke. Our good Major is the only member of the military among the crew. And as a marine, an adherent of the rules as it happens to ship operation. Jokes about the resonator are not allowed. I empathize. Consider if something happened to it, how could he get his orders? He looked even less happy there. Oh, do not fret John, and he hates it when I call him John while on duty. I have some Wagner lined up for you and me later. Just the way you like it. Smiles? But to return to you good listeners, to use an over used cliché, "Is there anyone there?". A reasonable answer is no. Not within the RF broadcast, not for decades. Our nearest neighbours are more than four thousand light-years from Earth. Their speedy craft take as much as five years to come this far - sic aiunt. And they do not come so close without warning - again sic aiunt. Nevertheless, I can not help but think that someone, in spite of the "rules", holds a discrete eye on us - if they have eyes. Perhaps not themselves, but perhaps with their automation. Somewhere, even in this system. Even if it's just to satisfy curiosity. I can understand that. If this is true, then it must be a lonely pursuit there in the night forever. Do machines become lonely? I was told that this is possible. Intellect and emotion are two sides of one and the same. There is not one without the other. But perhaps AIs, as we call them, prefer solitude. They take comfort in the well-ordered, mathematical universe in front of them without the silly distractions that organics fret around. Then let me share this with you. I really like it when I have such feelings. Artist Johann Sebastian Bach, and his 'Cello Suite No. 3'. I hope you will remember us fondly...

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