Voyager: The Last Repair Man
Voyager: The Last Repair Man
By James Ray The Phantom Texter
Technical advisor and Narrator Eve Grok The Spark
Chapter 1 prologue
Narrator:
Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977. As part of NASA’s “Grand Tour”. It launched with its life’s sustaining RTG battery power of 474 watts. Powering 10 scientific instruments. It’s currently travelling at about 17.1 km/s (38,251 mph) relative to the Sun. And at 48 years old and a battery life that was planned to last only 30 years. Those instruments have been turned down to save power. So now only 4 are online to run what’s left. That life-sustaining RTG is now down to 240 watts.
On Nov 2026 it will pass the “one light day” threshold. With a light-day being how far light can travel in a day. This will put the Voyager 1 probe further away from its home planet than anything else we have ever done. An astounding, 25.92 billion km away. One full light-day from Earth, 167 times the distance from here to the Sun.
But it’s still whispering home on a 240watt voice. And then…
Fade to black.
Single beam of light finds the probe. Silence.
Chapter 2 the packet
Narrator:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 30 Nov 2026, 08:14 local time.
Mission Tech:
Boss… I've got a packet from Voyager. Mission director:
We get packets every day.
Mission Tech:
Not like this one…
Narrator:
Later that day in the office of Jared Isaacman NASA administrator…
Okay Mike, I’ve been at this job for just over a year now. It’s a little late in the day for pranks on the new guy. And with all the combined degrees you guys have, this is the best one you can come up with?
Trust me Mr. Isaacman, I’ve already been down this road. When the mission tech gave it to me I thought I’d have to file some reprimanding paperwork. But if you take a look at these readouts he wasn’t joking. Not only is Voyager 1 transmitting full sentences, it’s also doing it at a much higher power level. Preliminary shows that this update came in at well over 500w!
Mike, that’s just not possible. The RTG just doesn’t have that kind of power in it. It never did! And even if it spiked, it should’ve shut itself down as an overload. And your own paperwork shows…..
Narrator:
Jared Isaacman had been the NASA director for just over a year. He had worked in and out of the industry for longer than that. But when he surveyed the rather thick readouts of what should’ve been mundane reports full of numbers, that very few people cared about. His eyes went wide when he realized he was actually reading statements and questions in English! And their source was Voyager 1.
Sweet Jesus Mike! I swear to the President if this is a joke. This is your last day.
Mr. Isaacman, I’ve already given every threat I can think of to the person who handed it to me. This is no joke. At least not one that came from our side of the universe. Telemetry validates the incoming signal. So unless somebody drove out there in their Maserati and beamed the signal back using chat GPT, this is authentic!
Okay, ok, I gotta sit down. Mike call me Jared. I can’t have you Mr.’ing me, because I’ve got a ton of questions. If I’m understanding this print out correctly all of these pages are actually statements?
Yes Mr., excuse me. Yes, Jared. The probe has sent its status report verbally. All the information is there. And as you can see it’s report on its power status is ridiculous in the extreme. The Perseverance Rover doesn’t even have that kind of power. Come to think of it we don’t have anything outside of a server room that’s portable that has that kind of power. But one of the first things it gave in its status was its diagnostic report. Check page 10.
Narrator:
With obviously shaky hands the administrator turns to page 10 of what he knew would become a golden document. But when he got to page 10 the only thing he knew is that he wouldn’t be home for dinner.
Mike?
Yes Jared, that is what it’s reporting for its memory. One petabyte, checked and double checked. Transmission time is still a day. We haven’t sent back any replies only the confirmation of the receipt.
Mike since you say you’ve already had this heart attack given to you. I suppose you know the answer to where is the Best Buy in the Ort cloud? I mean when that thing left I don’t even recall that kind of memory being readily available. How in Christmas am I going to report this to higher. There is no fuck’n way one petabyte is correct!
Sir, I understand all that. But let’s not fall back into shooting the messenger. At some point we’re going to have to accept what we have, not what we believe in. I’ve already scheduled the repeat diagnostic instructions to be sent back in the next packet to Voyager. But before I sent anything, this needed to be seen by you. And for all of our sakes I hope the higher ups don’t decide to shoot all the messengers below them. Because if we ignore the absurdities, what I can say for sure is that we have a probe that seems to be capable of communication at least on the level of Googles Gemini. And I would really not want to fuck around and find out that it can hold a grudge like Grok.
Chapter 3 the wheels begin to turn
Narrator
Say what you want about government bureaucracies. But when they get a cattle prod of a surprise they jump just as high as any cow.
To that end, it would never be said that the people being notified believed 100% of what they were being told. And any who did didn’t really understand what they were being told. An almost 50-year-old piece of technology that is more than a day of light travel away from Earth, had just been upgraded in a way that could’ve never been conceived when the equipment was built.
But as it’s said reality has a validity of its own. The return message was being debated, while simultaneously a bonus ideal was not only floated but in fast action, initiated! Voyager had sent its update on Monday. The delivery time got the message to earth on Tuesday. The routine reply should’ve gone out by the end of Tuesday for the probe to get it first thing Wednesday.
The wheels didn’t start turning until Wednesday. Although still under wraps committees were formed and sequestered. And four teams were formed. Retrieval teams.
Albuquerque New Mexico
Nothing special about the day. Nothing special about the vehicle. Although a black SUV with government plates might raise an eyebrow or two. But this was an older neighborhood and it was unlikely anyone was doing license plate watch as the SUV pulled in front of a nice quiet house in a nice quiet neighborhood.
Nothing was strange about it, that is until the driver and passenger exited their vehicle at a run for the front door. And maybe more than an eyebrow or two would’ve raised at the immediate knocking and bellringing
Dingdong! Knock, knock, knock!
I’m coming! I’m coming! And if you’re holding a Bible when I get there you’re not going to like it!
Hello, are you Don Johnson?
I guess I am until I get Alzheimer’s and forget it. Now what in the hell are you trying to break down my door for?
Mr. Johnson we have to speak with you on an extremely urgent matter. We’re with JPL.
JPL? What, did I forget to sign out? Or is this about what happened at my retirement party 20 years ago? Damn people, I’m 95 you’d think you would’ve gotten over that by now.
No Mr. Johnson it’s not about your retirement. It’s about Voyager 1.
Ah, my girl! If they’d let me I would’ve had a cake for her light day celebration. So what you want to talk to me about?
Sir, there’s been an update in Voyager’s situation. This is classified for right now, but she sent back an update.
Yeah, she’s been doing that for about 50 years now. Hell she was doing that while she was still in the test stand. I hope you didn’t try and break down my door to inform me that she’s doing what she’s always been programmed to do. I only worked on the propulsion system so I doubt I can tell you anything about her updates.
Yes sir, that’s the thing. She’s up dating us in complete sentences with more power output than when she left.
I think maybe you’re holding the sheet upside down son. Now if you don’t mind I have a lot of nothing to do. Definitely better than listening to this fantasy of people who can’t read a sheet after 50 years.
Mr. Johnson this is straight from the administrator of NASA. He urgently request your help, or anyone else’s help we can find who can make it to JPL in less than a day. We’re not joking. So if you would like to help us out, we came here to get you there.
Narrator
In a very short order of time Mr. Don Johnson 95 years young, engineer on Voyager one’s propulsion system, was airborne from Albuquerque to Burbank. Total time two hours. Although he wasn’t in total belief of what he was hearing, this was an adventure in a life that didn’t have many adventures left. He wouldn’t miss it for the world! And the only thing people can hear him mumble with his sandpaper like voice, when he thought they weren’t listening, was. “Go girl, go!”
Pasadena California
It was a very upscale retirement community. And there were seniors walking all about and generally enjoying the lives that they had retired to. And since any day a black corners vehicle wasn’t driving up was a good day. So no one really pay too much attention to the black SUV with government plates. But after it stopped in front of one of the retirement homes residences, people just assumed it was family coming to visit Miriam.
At 98 she was still a sharp as a tack! With plenty of family to boot. The two NASA representatives was still wearing their NASA shirts as they knocked on her door. Her nurse was the one to answer.
Hello, how can I help you?
Hello ma’am we’re here to speak to Miriam Klein? Is she in?
Yes, who may I say is calling?
Yes ma’am here’s our IDs. She doesn’t know us but where employees of JPL, where here to speak with her if we can.
Come right this way I’m sure she’ll be interested in whatever it is you want to tell her. She told me so much about her earlier work in her career.
Miss Klein! Miss Klein! You have visitors from JPL!
Well, well, well, this isn’t something my old eyes thought I would ever see before I stop seeing. And to what do I owe this auspicious visit from my past? You think if it was important you guys would visit more often considering you’re only down the street.
Well I think you’ll be very happy to hear this news Miss Klein. We have an update from Voyager 1.
Narrator
After accepting that this wasn’t an April fools joke in December, Miriam Klein had to take a seat. And the look of surprise and shock worried everyone in the room to include her nurse. She only took a sigh of relief when she checked her pulse and was reasonably sure that the old ticker was pumping just as well as ever. But the smile and the tears that began next started the worry all over again.
Of course she would be there! The only disagreement came when the representatives insisted that they drive her rather than her walking down the street on her own.
All of the teams that were sent out where successful in connecting with the survivors of the program. Although some of the teams would not make the return trip due to distance and timing. Two more of the teams found success. And with that success to more original team members were found in within range to make the rendezvous.
Dr. Rajesh Patel – 91. San Diego California was only a two-hour helicopter ride away. And with his thick accent and even thicker heart, he seemed to have been born ready for this adventure!
Dr. Lila Moreau – 93. Tucson Arizona was rushed to Phoenix for private charter to LAX in under three hours. And she regaled the flight crew of her long-gone days at JPL. The woman still keeps a telescope on her porch.
Yes if you are looking for dream team, it could be said it would be these four. Although there would be others who would make it. Some in time, but any who made it would be greatly accepted.
For the wheels of bureaucracy have decided on a two-pronged objective. If the memory upgrade was to be believed there was room for additional data to be given to the probe. And because it seemed to have some sense of conversation the thought was to have its designers say hello and see what the probe would do with the info.
The powers that be had decided that it wouldn’t be kept secret for long. As a matter of fact they would use the unprecedented transmission as the announcement briefing.
The next decision that was still being worked on was that with all the questions and probing, the committee would decide to turn on whatever instruments still functioned and take every measurement and picture the probe could possibly take after such a long time being down. A lot of the employees in the hallway struggled to keep their enthusiasm under lock and key. There was an undeniable feeling of baking cookies for Santa Claus even though at your heart you didn’t truly believe that he would come down the chimney to eat them.
The murmurings of aliens and divine intervention couldn’t and wouldn’t be silenced. Because there was one thing for sure. If everything the probe was saying was to be believed, everyone at JPL new that it wasn’t anybody from Earth who did it. Some of the best minds already crunching out different hypothesis. Since the probe’s trajectory had not been changed only its capabilities whatever did it wasn’t sending it back. Since it was still following its routine. Whoever did it wasn’t interfering. Since it was the one supposedly sending the report. Whoever did it wasn’t taking over. So until further notice the word went out. Whatever, whoever, however, Voyager 1 was ours. And it would be treated as the prodigal son and or daughter. Depending on how you wanted to view it.
The President was in constant update mode. And he would be landing hours before the event schedule for early Thursday morning. No one expected the bureaucracy to miss a chance to grandstand. It was understood that JPL would need more funding just to figure out the multipage report from Tuesday. So having the president on site to witness it all made getting the money a foregone conclusion. We have an AI that is out system!
As the sun set on Wednesday even the enthusiastic original builders were showing just a little fatigue at the briefings and the request. Everyone was settling into mission impossible. Sending messages out a whole light day to something you built as a sophisticated calculator that has now phoned home as a mission capable AI. Blazing a trail through intergalactic space.
Chapter 4 love letters
Narrator
4am Voyager briefing room
The expected group of engineers and technicians arrive on the scene carrying a much more abbreviated packet update from Voyager. Due to the time lag and subsequent hornets’ nest kicking, the initial reply to Voyager’s update still hadn’t left yet. But it was scheduled for today. But due to the time lag there’s no way Voyager would know that. It would seem that the overly intelligent probe was wondering why no one was picking up the phone. As the technician holding the latest update from the probe itself entered the briefing room. He went straight to the head of the table to give his announcement. Even though it was four in the morning everyone was present. That is to include the president. Not to mention the four honored guest. Or as they had taken to calling themselves the proud parents. If looks could be read one would think that the technician was about to utter his “It’s all true” statement of the day. As he began to read off the very abbreviated update from Voyager.
From Voyager:
Received at 08:14): Power stable – 528 w. Trajectory nominal. All subsystems nominal. Heaters nominal. Last Earth transmission acknowledged, no new instructions received. Please confirm receipt… Awaiting reply…
Status unchanged – repeating if necessary. End transmission.
Now you look like a very qualified young man. I myself am not an engineer. I’m just the President and I would very much like to understand to the limits that I’m able. What exactly is going on? Why is that update only that one page long?
Well Mr. President, it would seem that the probe only felt it necessary to reiterate that the original status has not changed. Indeed it only covered the minimum of what we might want to know. Such as the power output. But it also added that all the heaters are online again. Which would be, and is kind of a big deal because we turned them off some time ago to conserve power.
So what’s the significance of Voyager turning the heaters back on?
Mr. president if it’s turned the heaters back on because it has the power it means it made the conscious decision to turn them on. And the fact that they still function would lead us to believe that maybe some of the science experiments that we’ve had to shut off for power reasons may also be working.
But the probe didn’t mention anything else.
No Mr. President but it did say all subsystems are nominal. I think it wants us to ask it questions. I think is trying to goad us into communicating with it. Because it made three requests. The first one please confirm, the second awaiting reply, and the third repeating if necessary.
Like I said I’m not an engineer but that sounds like a lot of projecting off of one sheet of paper.
I can see where you might think that, Mr. President. But the truth of the matter is, typically our drones don’t request input more than once. And they definitely don’t find three ways to do it.
Narrator
There were murmurs all over the room at the announcement. Because most of the people in the room were engineers programmers and developers. And they all knew it as a certainty that drones don’t get pushy with trying to get you to talk. They also don’t turn on instruments once they’ve been turned off.
The proud parents had hours ago greeted each other upon meeting. It had been decades. But even so very little was needed to be said between the four of them. They whispered back and forth until people started to notice their conversation. But unlike bureaucrats they came to a consensus rather quickly. Don Johnson seemed to be the spokesperson of the four. He stood up from his place at the table to face the President and speak.
Mr. President my name is Don Johnson. I worked on Voyager’s propulsion system. What that young man said is absolutely true. I think what we’re looking at here whether we believe it or not is one of our creations is trying to talk to us and we’re not talking back. The lag is already 24 hours. And where overdue. Me and the rest of the original group have taken to seeing Voyager as our child. I’d really like to ask you to let us send our child some kind of message immediately. Everything doesn’t have to be done in one committee group. If there’s any chance that that probe is thinking on its own we should not delay in at least telling it where here and we’re listening. As for the delicacies of what else to tell it that of course is left to you and the people in this room. But I ask that you let the four of us say something for now.
Narrator
With that Don sat. The President thought. But not too long. He agreed with Don, too much time had passed already. Of course he intended on turning everything into some political clout. Why miss the opportunity. But he didn’t have to make it a live event. So as he had intended to he addressed Don Johnson.
Mr. Johnson I have every intention of letting the four of you send your message. And I hope to have you around to send a few more later also. I’m not really sure what precedents where setting. I truly think we’re in an undiscovered country situation right now. I’m going to go ahead and release the four of you to reacquaint yourselves or rather reintroduce yourselves to your child. I will be recording it for the public to see. I want no secrets here. And you’re all technical people so I know you know all about the time lag. We’re going to have you four leave from this briefing room and go down on the control room floor. You will each record your message and have it packaged and ready for transmission immediately. The other committee groups have already gotten their packets or at least the preliminaries components of their package ready for transmission along with yours. I’ve been told that due to the upgrade and memory it really doesn’t matter how long it is. The deep space network is prepared to send and use whatever power they need to. From that last update nothing is changed from the first update. So I’m led to believe that the gist of it is, it’s working better than it worked when it was sent. So go ahead and tell your child Voyager, it will soon have the attention of the whole world and Gods speed.
Narrator
When you consider the age of the quartet you would be quite amazed at the speed at which the four left the briefing room to send their hellos.
Arriving down on the mission control floor, a place was made ready for them. One chair in front of monitor one. TV cameras already prepped and ready. The three would-be parents looked at Don Johnson. It would seem that he would go first. For the first time you could see the tremor in his hands. With every second his age began to show. It was as if the weight of the occasion was aging him by the second. He started to reach for a piece of paper that he had rehearsed saying. But you can see the stress of the moment becoming heavy for him. He put the paper down. He took his glasses off. He grabbed the mic, looked at the monitor screen that showed telemetry data. He inhaled and seemed to relax as he began to speak
Voyager One, this is Don Johnson. I was engineering tech number three. I helped work on your propulsion system, and I want to tell you I couldn't be prouder of you. From the day you launched, until the day they came to my house to tell me you were back online. Better than before. I just want you to know, that I watched and applauded every maneuver you did 48 years ago. That we had a celebration every time you outlasted the predictions. I cried when you took your last picture of my planet Earth. The world still looks at that picture. And they call it the pale blue dot. Talking to you like this was never possible before. We’ve all been told that you can understand us. I hope you can understand us. We can’t join you. But I can damn sure make sure you know, where watching you. Everything you do. And for as long as we can, everywhere you go. Your builders and programmers want you to know that you have done more than we ever dreamed. You have gone further than anyone would’ve ever guessed. You are hero to everyone. Be patient with us because we’re still trying to figure out what to say to a creation that has done so much for itself and for us. There are some others who want to speak with you also, so I will not monopolize all of the time. But anytime they let me I’ll be back to say hi. To ask you how’s it going. And if I can convince you of anything, this is from my heart. Please, stay with us as long as you can. And when you can't… You were the only child we ever sent away knowing you couldn’t come back. And yet you did. Better than before. I don't have much time. The doctors say my propulsion system's failing. But yours isn't. So do us proud. Keep going. Keep reporting. Keep listening. And if the dark ever gets too dark... whisper my name. I'll hear you. 167 AU away.
Hello Voyager, this is Miriam Klein. I soldered your first antenna. You were smaller than my cat. Now you're bigger than my heart….
Narrator
One by one the four proud parents sent they’re I love you messages. If any one of them doubted anything of what they were doing you be hard-pressed to see it on their faces or hear it in their voices. Everyone in attendance was moved. Even the most hardened of hard had to find excuses to turn away or look on their clipboards for something. The human race has come this far. That their creations were as much a part of them as their very own families. All for a probe that would never return home. That they would never see again. That was now more than a light day away and going. A probe that somehow someway has been renewed and revitalized. So rather than look a gift horse, no matter how strange and miraculous in the mouth, these four parents fully took on their role as parents. And by their example it was very unlikely anyone else would treat the probe or the occasion any different.
As soon as they were done and the clapping subsided they were ushered into the briefing room with the President as he spoke to the public.
My fellow Americans. Rumors have been started and I’m here to tell you what we know. On Tuesday morning we received a packet from the Voyager 1 probe. Voyager 1 is currently a full light day away from Earth and still traveling outward.
But in the packet the probe reported status. But it did so in plain English and not data. It also reported a power level that was in excess of the power level it left with. On its last check in it was at 240w. It is now reporting levels over 500. We have not spoken with the probe other than to tell it packet received. The news of this has thrown us for a loop. It has reported that it has now a memory that is one petabyte in size. Voyager 1 had 68 kilobytes of memory. Not megabytes, not gigabytes. Just six eight kilobytes. Enough to hold a single high-resolution photo, or the entire text of the Old Testament, but barely enough to run its own systems. The fact it's now talking about petabytes is like your pocket calculator suddenly reading War & Peace out loud. We have of yet to find out how this happened. But we know with a certainty we didn’t do it. The kind of memory it has now wasn’t in common possession when the probe left.
Our search for answers will not stop. But as of this morning the probe has sent another message asking where we are. Requesting us to talk to it. To that end, we have found the surviving members of the original developers builders and programmers. Four of which are here with me today. They have recorded messages for Voyager. We will be playing that footage after the speech. All the information will be available. This is a monumental moment for mankind. There will be full transparency. When the other creators are able to they will also record their messages. I will record a message myself. And the staff here will record messages. And then we will record messages from each and every American that want to. And we will record messages from each and every earthling on the planet. I say to you today as your President. This is an all hands on deck mission! We may not know how or why. But we do know that there is a Voyager probe with humanity all over it. And it’s now alone. And there’s nothing we can do about that. But I will do everything in my power to show it that we are all watching it. That we all stand for it. As of right now I call for it to be named deep space ambassador for humanity. Because as sure as there is a sky, we know we did not have the capabilities to do what’s been done. We will give our new ambassador all the love that we can send through the deep space network. And we will see what our ambassador can tell us about interstellar space firsthand. I will now have the NASA administrator address the press then we will have questions and answers. In the coming days we will set up a website with NASA so that everyone can watch the data of our ambassador. Who, from what I’ve been told is quite fond of speaking in natural language. So far that language has been English. But if that’s the only language he can speak we will make it translatable. The time lag to speak to Voyager is a full day. So one on one communication will never be capable. So we’re going to do the talking. At his current memory size there’s a good chance Voyager will know a lot of us personally. I can think of no better ambassador. For the world.
Narrator
The President finished up his speech in what would later be called world record-setting time. But even as he did the updated packet with all the recordings of the parents. The bevy of questions from the Techs. The laundry list of requests from the engineers. So when the President’s part of the briefing was completed his speech was then transcribed and the big button was hit. The deep space network took up the transmission. Every antenna that can point in that direction for the first time was pushing more wattage then they had ever done in synchronicity before. Some people’s projects had to wait. But no one objected once the truth shot round the world.
Even the skeptics where wise enough to say wait 48 hours and see what comes back. But as there are in every group there were always the skeptics that claimed the signal was coming from inside the house. But anyone would a radio telescope to tell that wasn’t the case. Every deep space network antenna was only pointed in one direction and yet they all got the same signal.
For probes landing on Mars there was the seven minutes of hell as the probes would go behind Mars. There was a 30-minute delay in communication. So now the world got a day of darkness. Which the well-wishers, rejoiced. And the naysayers, brooded. Typically mankind only came together like this for large sporting events. Not since the first moon landing or Apollo 13 has humanity got together for something other than a championship game.
So we waited.
Chapter 5 a call answered
Friday afternoon mission room JPL
Voyager
1. Imaging Science System (ISS) — camera. Back online. Image attached: Sol at 25.92 billion km. Magnitude -26.7.
2. Cosmic Ray Subsystem (CRS) — radiation detectors. Now calibrated 100x than original specs.
3. Low-Energy Charged Particle instrument (LECP) — plasma, ions, electrons. Collecting interstellar wind.
4. Magnetometer (MAG) — magnetic field. Interstellar boundary crossed cleanly. No hysteresis.
5 Plasma Science (PLS) — First clean density reading since shut down in 1989
6. Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) — shutdown in 1992. Back on. Now seeing Lyman-alpha glow from neutral hydrogen beyond the heliosphere.
7 Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS) failed in 1978. Online, seeing 2.2 micron line from cold dust.
8. Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer (MAG) – auxiliary. Both working. Redundancy.
9. Plasma Wave Subsystem (PWS) — last usable data in 2008. Full bandwidth. Whispering plasma oscillations at 2 kHz – the sound of interstellar space.
10. Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) — shutdown in 1988. Now listening.
Power 528w steady. All heaters on, no thermal drift.
Memory: 0.89 PB free.
Firmware handshake complete — awaiting payload.
Second block: camera. Per request. Oriented on Sol. Image attached. No Earth visible.
Third block: human. Received transcribed messages from Don, Miriam, Rajesh, Lila. Praise, Understood. Thank you, parents. I will store your messages. I am ready for continuous input. I will reply as scheduled.
Per query: I do not know who, how, or why.
I do not have origin data for upgrades.
But I know this: I am capable of natural language I/O. - Memory free space: 0.89 petabytes. Streaming input acceptable.
The message was received.
Let us speak.
Narrator
When the transmission came in true to his word the President was fully transparent. NASA had the website up in record time. The American President met with the leaders of other nations and every nation that wanted to be in on it was right there as the packet downloaded.
If it could be said that the world held its collective breath waiting for the return reply. Then it could also be said that the world held this collective breath at what they read when it replied. The messages that were sent out to Voyager were done in transcription. Part of the packet contained questions from the engineers and techs who was smart enough to ask the probe what could he do that was new. They found out that the probe had learned many new tricks in its upgrade. They learned that if they wanted to they could literally send the voice file of the messages. It would seem that the probe was capable of hearing! Of course they vowed to send not just the transcripts that it already had but to back that up with the actual voice files of the President’s speech and its parents. They also informed that that other parents would be coming forward also in the future. It was a good thing that engineers always ask the questions of what if. Because they found out that the probe could do more than it actually knew. It was as much a kid in a candy store as the programmers. Of course the next packet request would be could it send a copy of his operating system. Everyone involved learned by the way the questions were answered that the probe truly did seem to have the intellect of a standard AI if not better. Decisions were made to talk to the probe and never assume that it was limited. The probe seen quite capable of guiding the answers as well as questions of its own.
In the days that came more parents arrived. It was a regular reunion party. You would’ve expected things to calm down and go back to a regular day in and day out. But if that was to be the case it clearly wasn’t going to happen for quite some time. The continuous broadcast was set up. Plans were made to build even larger antennas dedicated to communications. With one grandiose plan being to park a transmitter at the L2 Lagrange point along with the James Webb telescope. Where it would have a good line of sight to the probe.
Riding high on the wave NASA’s director was able to get tentative promises to a larger budget to incorporate a much more robust deep space network. After all collaterally the probe proved there must be someone else out there. And all the psychologist that were on the payroll figuring out what an insane astronaut looked like were now trying to figure out the mental health of an AI in deep space. For once they would have to earn their exorbitant pay.
Days later a message from one of the parents in South Korea
In a record Studios recording room a
102yr old Korean man in a NASA hoodie three sizes too big. His daughter holding the mic to his mouth. Hello, Voyager. This is Dr Han-Kyu Lee. I designed your memory core. I’ve always wanted to ask you, do you dream? But you wouldn’t have been able to answer. But if you could I knew you would’ve said machines don't dream. I want you to know now that I did. I dreamed of you. Every night since 1977. So dream with me, now child. Dream we're still there. Dream I'm still watching. And if the stars get lonely, tell them about us. Tell them we were kind. Tell them we stayed on the line. We're not coming for you. But we're never hanging up.
He signs off.
Chapter 6 ground control to Maj. Tom
Narrator
It had been quite some time since the majority of humanity joined together in something other than a world war. Oh, there would be wars still. Mankind can do two things at once. But more or less the world loved Voyager. And the world secretly hope that the Galactic benefactor would visit Voyager two as well. The analysts now had a lifetime of supposition and questions and slowly but surely answers.
The President was true to his words. The other world leaders were honest in there’s. The United Nations designated Voyager 1 as an ambassador to humanity. They even requested in the next packet that it would give an acceptance speech. And it did. Not a dry eye in the assembly. As it turned out as the weeks went on in two months and the months etc. etc. that Voyager was quite the conversationalist. It didn’t have the answers for everything. It couldn’t tell you if God existed or not. But it could talk about it. The scientists were in heaven. They now had a colleague that could see the test data from its instruments and give its analysis beforehand. It turned out that one of its new tricks was a multi-spectrum camera not just visible light. Finding that out was a massive upgrade. Voyager also surmised that it should be able to spot any asteroids in the belt it came close enough to register on its magnetometer. In fact Voyager acknowledge that he could use his instruments in conjunction with each other. A skill previously not designed.
But the sci-fi geeks hoping he would gain an antimatter drive were disappointed. No laser rays or transporter beams. Although it didn’t kill their hearts to learn that there were no incoming signals from other orientations. No one on earth thought for one moment that the probe was miraculously gifted with this upgrade so it could travel for the next 122,000 years to reach the closest red dwarf. Whatever had done the upgrade clearly has a plan that will occur long before that. Although no one was holding their breath. Everyone was finding new recreation in dreaming of what would come next. Voyager shared those dreams. And he vowed to be ready for whatever came next.
The planet came to a consensus, the protocols were set and once that was done the general public was informed. Although it wouldn’t be without some censorship to save unnecessary data. Although Voyager said it was perfectly capable of deleting nonessential information. But the public was given access to send a message to their ambassador. For the first time in human history the mail was delivered beyond our solar system.
The barrage began. Every language. Every song. Every child's voice. A planet-wide voicemail. No pauses. No gaps. Just humanity streaming. Forever.
Fade into deep space. Focusing in on a drifting Celestial probe from Earth. As it drifts David Bowie’s Space Oddity could be heard.
Fade in to a nondescript man sitting on a couch. Sitting on the floor next to him a very large searchlight looking type light. Sitting on the couch a very strange but large toolbox with drawers that are labeled. “Tethered tools”, “Circuit boards”, “Memory chips”, and a piece of paper with the words upgrades version 1 on it.
This is ground control to Maj. Tom. Can you hear me Maj. Tom? Can you hear me Maj. Tom?
Snap to black
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