It was played across the entire galactic alliance. On the emergency frequency on every ship it was picked up. For many it was a slight annoyance but for the humans they riled in pain an old memory of the collective mind. The med teams across the alliance didn’t know what to do since it affected the humans on the team as well. The frequency was picked up by a group of translators realizing it was an ancient language the humans spoke. Within a matter of minutes they got a message they can read, “Never gonna give you up”. -- Anon Guest
It was Human music, and it somehow hurt Humans. A broadcast boosted by unknown technologies across all of Alliance space. Through every speaker, into every screen. A mixture of synthesizers and drum machine. A young Human in a ridiculous pompadour gyrates on the screens that show the transmission.'
All Humans know what it is, instantly. The reactions vary, but most of them center in outrage. Some scream. Some cry. Some flee. Many attempt to block their senses from the onslaught. Every Human, all across the Alliance, was incapacitated, but only for a moment.
Companions across the Alliance were baffled for the handful of minutes, running translators on the transmission, monitoring it, attempting to trace it to its source.
We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I... The words held no answers. The video held no answers. So they collectively turned towards tracking down the malevolence that had struck their Humans to the pain. They were almost there when the song ended and old footage of a plasticine effigy played with a logo replacing its face.
"You have been submitted to the worst punishment known to your kind," said the synthetic voice, a reproduction of an ancient entertainment star. "Gather up five Centuries in anonymised hard currency and deliver it to the asteroid in the Veleth star system marked with this transmitter frequency. You have two months. Deliver, or the punishments will continue."
The Humans and their allies exchanged glances. There was a near-telepathic moment in which all present shared the same thought:
Like flakk is this anatomical waste-vent getting a single Second of their money.
Never before had the Alliance agreed on something so completely, so quickly, and so silently. There was no comms traffic, just a series of crew following a lead and others following to help. If anything was communicated, it was at the speed of Gossip. In bars, in gardens, in eateries, in shopping malls, in customs gateways, and most importantly in person.
The enemy couldn't anticipate action by listening in to comms chatter if there was no comms chatter.
Therefore, when the small vessel went to collect a container that could easily contain five Centuries worth of hard currency, they were very startled to find out that every other asteroid in the belt around them, and some nearby planets, had been concealing a significant portion of the collected Galactic Alliance fleet.
Weapons ready. Laying down the law. Fully prepared, as the Humans themselves would say, to throw down.
Of course it was fully investigated and found to be the actions of one lone cogniscent with too much time on their hands and a complete lack of thinking ahead. Security on comms systems had to change, of course, to prevent anyone else enacting a similar idea.
However, the Alliance response to the incident was plenty for most people.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / AnsonLu]
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