Translated from binary:
Half a trintellium ago we had a catastrophic accident. A large sleeper ship headed for Barnard's star was mysteriously destroyed about half a click before reaching it's destination. It was a disaster for our civilisation - about ten million lives lost. But what it led us to discover has haunted us to this day.
A bubble. A sphere of huge proportions that encased our species and our stars like fish in a bowl. How did it work? We still don't really know. It's electromagnetic, but it doesn't prescribe to any know laws. Radiation can move in and out undisturbed, yet matter is destroyed on contact.
After investigation got us nowhere, and several attempts to escape resulted in loss of life, we begrudgingly accepted life within the sphere. But questions were unanswered. The fact that we were living caged inside of a bubble lay heavily on our collective minds. It was a question every parent dreaded, 'Mom, why do we live inside of a bubble?' We didn't have an answer.
For 200,000 years we lived peacefully within the Bubble, but people started to forget. Made up theories became truth which became religion. Bizarre rituals sprang up, and more and more people began to die in attempts to escape from our safety net. That's when they set up our department; The SPU, sphere protection unit. For over a billion years we have guarded the Bubble. We've seen excess and famine, democracy and anarchy, war and peace within our sphere, and not once did we relent. But times are changing.
The SPU firmly believes the Bubble was intended to protect us from an unknown threat. Our mission statement was to prevent any infiltration of the sphere and we will defend the Bubble to our death, even as it goes against public opinion.
This message is sent as a plea. Our people are becoming restless, they want answers. Not only that, but our resources are beginning to dwindle. Our Suns are weakening, and planets are being rendered uninhabitable. More and more political pressure is being applied to recommence tests on the Bubble, and there is even talk of attempted destruction of it.
We hope that this reaches friendly ears in time,
Bob Barnal
Acting head of SPU
---
"Dumb fuckers," the screen clicked off.
"What were they sending that for? Surely they figure that if we hadn't replied to any of their other garbage they've been transmitting for the last few billion years, we weren't going to reply to this."
"Out of their own egoism. They just wanted their epic plight to be recorded - such dramatic creatures."
"They're probably dead now."
"Should have learned to stay in their bubble."
