December 23, 5:23 PM

-70° 05’ 22.20” S

12° 00’ 0.00” E

Darkwall Station, North Pole

I look at the clock again and the hands seem to be stuck. I glance at the picture on my desk next to my computer, a photo of my family: my two sons, Jack and Antony, and my wife Emma. My chest aches with longing.

My name is Michael Tower, I’m 45 years old, and I’ve been a researcher for just over 20 years. Until two years ago, I worked at a small research station in northern Florida. But due to some scientific advances I made there, the head of EDW invited me to join a new project.

The problem was what we would be researching: signals from another society that one of our satellites had accidentally captured. I couldn’t pass up a discovery like that, but when they told me we’d be spending months at the North Pole with almost no communication, I declined. However, my beloved Emma encouraged me to go, saying it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So, after some reflection, I accepted.

It’s been five months since I last saw my family, and I can say it’s killing me. The cold is driving me crazy, and canned food makes me nauseous.

“Hey Michael, are you listening?”

Denny said, staring at me.

Denny and I have been friends for many years, and we were lucky enough to work together again (this time without the chaos of Kharkiv). Besides being a friend and roommate, he’s also one of the developers of the project and has been excelling.

“Hey Denny, sorry, man!”

“They’re calling everyone to the meeting room,” Denny said.

“What? There are less than 30 minutes left for all this to end, why didn’t they hold this meeting earlier?”

“I have no idea,” Denny said, scratching his neck.

I got up from my chair and adjusted my clothes while he waited for me. We walked down the corridor that connects our research area to the others and to the meeting room. On the way, we met other colleagues who, like me, didn’t understand the reason for all this.

When we arrived, we quickly found some empty seats and sat down together. We chatted a bit while waiting for the meeting to start. After a while, I noticed that Denny was unusually quiet, which was strange since he usually talks and I listen.

“Hey man, are you okay?”

I asked, looking at him, trying to figure out his silence.

“I’m fine, just a bit tired,” Denny said, blatantly lying.

“You can’t fool me, brother,” I said, looking seriously at him.

A silence fell over us as he stared at me with eyes full of worry.

“I think I went too deep,” he said in a serious tone.

“What do you mean—”

I was interrupted by the crackle of the microphone.

It was Harold Dowerson, a legend in my field, with several discoveries that changed the way we saw many things. He’s also my boss.

“Good afternoon, how are you? We decided to hold this meeting to show our latest discovery. Throughout these months, we’ve been trying to develop a machine that could decode the signals sent to us, and while attempting this, we managed to capture a few more messages. I’m pleased to say that one of our developers has figured out how to decode these messages. Please give a round of applause for Denny Johnson!”

I stared at my friend in surprise and watched him walk heavily to the stage. How could he hide something like this from me? And why was he sad despite being a pioneer of a technology we had worked so hard on?

“Good afternoon, everyone. Last month, I discovered how to decode the messages and have been working hard on them,” Denny said.

“Let’s hear what the universe has to tell us!” Harold said.

I saw my friend whispering something in Harold’s ear, but Harold didn’t pay much attention. Then, Denny connected a device that looked like a Walkman to the speakers.

When Denny hit play, the room fell into absolute silence. At first, there was only static, but then I heard something I’ll never forget:

“You searched so much that you found us! We are coming.”

And with that, the entire room went into shock, and Denny said what we were all thinking:

“God help us.”

Chaos erupted as the emergency lights began flashing and the siren blared. I immediately looked at Denny, and we ran towards our area to check the computers.

“Why didn’t you tell me anything?” I said, running.

“I couldn’t,” Denny said, swiping his card to open the doors.

“Why did you continue?”

“They wouldn’t let me stop. Do you really think I didn’t try to warn you?”

I turned on my computer and saw that something had entered the atmosphere. I looked at Denny, and he said no objects had been orbiting near Earth before we went to the meeting. I looked back at the computer, watching as it rapidly approached the ground. I tried to gather more information, but when I turned around, I saw Denny staring out the window at the sky. Before I could say anything, I heard a loud impact and everything around me shook. I tried to run under a table, but the shelf beside me fell, hitting me, and I lost consciousness.

I woke up a short time later, my vision blurry, trying to find Denny amidst the rubble. I saw him in a critical state, trying to say something to me. He gathered his strength and finally spoke.

“It’s much worse than Kharkiv,” he said with a smile.

I laughed with tears in my eyes.

“Listen to me, Michael. There’s a folder on my computer with the project’s name. The password is D4Fs1. Are you listening?”

“D4Fs1. It’s all there. Don’t let them get it. Delete everything and burn the folders in my cabinet.”

“Them who?” I asked, crying.

But Denny couldn’t answer, and he rested in my arms.

I got up and saw the security team, the infamous Red Faces, heading towards a huge machine.

Honestly, I’m in deep trouble!