Whilst Mel was somewhat unhappy with Bridg’s verdict, he had to agree with her assessment. Much as he hated to think it, Will seemed to have vanished into thin air. Once they had cleared the outer airlock, Mel reported back to Beth.
“Whilst you were cleaning yourself up, I thought that, as I’m here, I ought to give the equipment a quick check-over, and found a transmission on a frequency we don’t use. I haven’t had a chance to find out more yet. Maybe we could have a look into it together?”
“Happy to be of help.”
“OK, thanks. I just brought up the diagnostic software on the computer and it found the signal. It’s very weak, though. As there’s no sign of any kind of a break-in to the base, I can only assume that the signal is coming from the surface of the ‘roid. We’ll need a couple of highly directional receivers that will receive only on the transmitter’s frequency and have their sensitivity increased as we get nearer to the source. The signal is on 1,957.5 Megahertz. There should be something we can rustle up. It’s not as if we’re short of electronics in here” smiled Billy, as he moved across to his workbench.
As Will looked on, unable to assist, Billy started to build a collection of assorted test equipment, circuit boards and electronics components on the work bench from various parts of the room. “OK. I’ve found a receiver I can use but it doesn’t work on the signal’s frequency, plus gathered together some other bits and bobs so I can build a receive converter that will change the signal frequency so that the receiver can work with it. It won’t look pretty but it should do the job. Once I’ve built one converter, I should be able to copy the circuit fairly easily. Whilst I get to work on this, fancy making us another coffee? It’s going to take a while and I’m starting to get thirsty.”
By the time Will returned with two hot mugs of coffee, Billy had made a good start on putting together his modified receiver. The smell of a hot soldering iron and melted solder filled the air near to Billy.
“You seem to be making good progress” said Will, as he put one of the mugs on the bench near to Billy, before he sat down to Billy’s left.
“It’s been a while since I had to do anything like this but it seems to be coming back to me better than I thought. I might be able to give it a quick try in about ten minutes. While I’m working on this, could you have a look around and see if you can find another receiver? We’re going to need one each when we get outside.”
Twenty minutes later, he sat back, looking pleased with himself. “The moment of truth” he said, plugging the working prototype into the nearby portable power pack. To both their relief, it seemed to come to life.
“Let’s see what we have.” Despite making various adjustments with the volume control and the receive frequency, all they could hear was a sort of an electrical burble. “Looks like it might be scrambled in some way. Let’s see whether we can do something with it” he muttered, moving to the computer keyboard and switching on the computer screen. He opened a program and tried a few of the modes that the company routinely used to transmit information. None worked.
“Hmm, they’re not using any of the usual stuff. I wonder if they’re using anything a bit unusual” he said, looking to see if he could try any of the old modes that had stopped being used by commercial services. All of a sudden, the screen started to show a stream of images, although they didn’t make much sense. “Hah! Progress, nearly there. They seem to be using a mode used commercially but abandoned decades ago. It’s using vestigial sideband to modulate the signal.”
The images were now clear and were flashing through at a very high speed. “Right, nearly there. Let’s see if I can slow it down so that we can see what’s being transmitted.”
After pressing a few keys on the keyboard, Will and Billy were able to see a stream of images on the screen.
“Why on earth are they collecting this information? It’s all freely available anyway” said Will, surprised by what he was seeing.
“No idea but we need to know where the transmitter is for this thing. Now you’ve find another receiver, I just need to knock up another receive converter” said Billy, rising from his seat “That way, we can start to work out why it’s of use to anyone. Before I do, though, do feel up to going outside with me to check it out?”
“Now I’ve had some food and something to drink, I’m feeling much better, thanks.”
Half an hour later, the second receiver was built and both devices boxed and ready to be used outside.
“You’ll need to suit up. There’s a spare suit in the storeroom that you can use. It won’t be a great fit but it will be about right.”
Will collected the suit and put it on. It was a slightly different design to the one he was used to, so Billy helped him, to make sure it was fully sealed and that he could breathe properly.
Once they were both ready, they left the communications building and moved over to the collection of antennas and parabolic dishes used by the company to receive and retransmit the signals across space.
“The signal may be pretty hard to find unless we get quite close to the transmitter. The best way to hide it is to use an antenna hidden amongst our regular dishes, so we’ll start over there. It will need a clear view of wherever the signal is being broadcast to and should look newer than the rest of the stuff out here” said Will.
“I agree. I would expect it to be highly directional, so we’re looking either for a long beam antenna or a dish that looks different to the usual ones on the asteroid” responded Billy, as they reached the antenna “farm”.
“I suggest we split up and look at different areas, otherwise this will take ages” suggested Will.
“OK, no problem. I’ll go down this way, if you want to carry on a little way.”
As they walked carefully through the collection of dishes and antennas, Will was surprised how different it seemed to the area outside Commbase 3.
About twenty minutes later, Will called Billy. “I think I’ve found it. There’s a strong signal here on 1957 Megs and looks completely out of place. Unlike the rest, it seems to have a few external cables. All of the company’s are put inside trunking to protect them. The mechanism for moving it looks different, as well.”
“I’ll be there in a moment” replied Billy, who had been starting to wonder if they were ever going to find what they were looking for but realising, from Will’s words, that they might have had some luck.
When he arrived at Will’s side, he bent down and looked closely at the antenna and equipment Will was examining. “That’s odd. There’s writing on the side that’s unfamiliar. All the stuff the company uses has markings in English. I don’t recognise this” said Billy, pointing to the label in question. There was a white label with the words “Farita en Hispanujo” written on it, in red capital letters.
“That’s not a language I’ve ever come across” said Will.
“Me neither, even though we use stuff from all over the known universe” agreed Billy. “I wonder what it means. At the moment, though, I’m more concerned where this is currently transmitting, so we can work out where the signal is going” taking careful measurements of the direction the antenna was currently pointing. “Now I know where to look, we need to go back inside so I can see if there’s anything I can pull out of the computer to see what there might be in the way of its signal.”