Recovered artifact
First Contact
A translator pulled out of an intercepted file transfer. It speaks in chords.
The SAINTnet watch caught a file transfer on a band nobody had registered. It was not addressed to us, and it closed before we could trace where it went. We kept the payload: a small program and a table of tones.
After two nights of analysis, the signals desk got the program running. It is a translator. It turns text into chords of five notes, and it turns those chords back into text. We think this is how the senders talk to each other.
We are putting it in front of the whole crew. Type something. Play it. Point a microphone at it. Figure out how it works.
- Origin
- Unknown
- Band
- Unregistered
- Payload
- Program, tone table
- Status
- Running
- Clearance
- All crew
Field notes
- Every chord has five notes. The top three carry the message, one from each ring of the wheel. The bottom two are a bass pair.
- Type your handle and press Play. Each chord lights a path from the core out to its glyph.
- Play a message on one device and press Listen on another. It works across a quiet room.
- What you type is not what gets sent. Compare the glyphs under your text with the text itself.
Outbound
Transmit
Letters, digits, space, and | : _ - .
Standing by
Glyph - Chord -
Sound on. Turn up your speakers before you press Play.
Inbound
