The two men sat in front of the desk, equipment spread out in front of them. A large, bulky TV monitor was mounted on the stone bunker wall in front of them with a graph displayed on it – constantly shifting as the feedback registered at different levels.
They sat there, late into the night. The stars rose overhead, and the warm spring breeze slowly died. The tropical palms which grew around the bunker sat, silent and still. An occasional car passed on the highway which ran near the bunker, but the people in the cars did not notice the inconspicuous satellites hidden in the undergrowth, which were the only sign of the structure which lay beneath the surface.
The men in the bunker listened to calm music while they worked, occasionally speaking a few words to each other before falling silent again. The line on the graph smoothed out, slowly, until it became a just another line on the graph.
And then it jumped. The graph suddenly spiked, and one of the men, who had been dosing off, was shaken awake by his companion. They stared at the graph in wonder. It had never behaved like this before. And then, a small radio on the table, which had been playing music throughout the night, suddenly stopped. The men watched it and wondered, excited. A voice, hesitating at first, crackled through the radio. The men jumped up, and responded with their microphone, excitedly speaking to the being on the other side.
And they took turns writing down information as they asked it questions. There was so much to find out. And they asked more questions and wrote down more information. And finally, when there was a lull in the questions, the being posed a question to them. They looked at each other, nervous at first, but growing bolder, they accepted the proposal. The gave it the information it needed.
Crack. The radio, after several moments silence, began playing music again. But the men were not interested in this. They rushed outside, excited to meet their new friend. Excited to meet their new discovery. And as the sun rose in the morning, they watched the sky.