Bedd Taliesin Part 3

 

The weeks passed, the stick he was making for his step dad was duly finished and handed over, Dewi loved it, although he never used a stick when he was walking, he had a small collection of sticks and was always looking to add to the collection. The jobs came and went, cold days outside in the rain, warm days inside the old dusty barn he was helping another builder friend and colleague fix up for a lecturer at the university. His friend, well work mate really, Duncan was also an English incomer to the area like himself, but unlike him he was not interested in the developing news about the ET signals. He had remarked on it briefly, the first time they had been working together since the news had broken, but it was in an offhand and jokey way, showing he just wasn’t really interested. Duncan liked drinking and going out “on the pull”. His conversation was very limited, but he was a good worker and they got on reasonably well enough to do the jobs they did together.

Duncan insisted on Radio 1 being on pretty much constantly when they were working. They had had arguments over it in the past.

“I seriously don’t know how you can listen to this shit.” Toby said.

“It beats Woman’s Hour and The Archers.” Duncan replied.

“But this is just mindless drivel, the music all sounds the same and the presenters are just brain dead morons.”

“Takes my mind off the boredom of working with you, you don’t drink, don’t go out, don’t do anything. Just ramble on about the sodding aliens. No wonder you never get a shag.” Duncan mumbled past the rolled up cigarette he was smoking.

“Some of us like to use our brains to think with mate, not our dicks or our pint arms.” And with that he carried on measuring the wood that was going to form the massive wooden lintel over the fireplace they were currently building.

It was pretty much like that all the time between the two of them, good natured for the most part, but with an understanding that they would never truly understand each other’s lives, nor really want to.

The wet spring passed into a glorious summer. The sun shone through the windows of the barn they were converting, shining on the motes of dust as they floated about in the still and oppressive air. The old barn was up in the hills at the back of Bont Goch, remote and pretty and also pretty wild. Set in its own valley, it was the sort of place that Toby dreamed of owning himself. You could be self sufficient here, there was a small wood on the hill side, about four acres of scrubby but relatively flat pasture that could be turned over to growing veg and most importantly there was a stream that flowed down from the Cambrian Mountains at the back of the house. It was quiet, remote and just how Toby liked it. There had been a couple of days recently where Duncan had been “off ill” he knew what that meant, recovering from a heavy weekend. He had no sympathy with him, Duncan was the one losing money not him and he enjoyed working on his own up there.

But now Duncan was back and they were doing some pointing outside, Duncan was complaining bitterly about it as usual.

“I hate pointing, it’s so sodding boring!” He said, throwing his pointing trowel onto the plank of wood they were both sitting on, about eight feet off the ground.

They were both working with their shirts off in the summer sun, both of them were brown and lean. Toby had one of his manky old hunting caps on, a really old real-tree camouflage cap he had had for years. It was more ingrained stains and cement dust than fabric these days, he worried if he washed it, that it would fall apart.

As usual Radio One was pumping out the latest offerings from the chart and once again, Toby was not paying attention, trying successfully to blot out what was to his mind, mindless repetitive drivel.

It was nearly time for what passed for the news on Radio one when they cut the song short.

“Sorry we had to cut in on Jason Derulo there, but we’re going over to the BBC news centre early for an important news update…”

“What’s happened now then?” Duncan said.

“If you shut up, we will find out won’t we?” Toby said.

“Get you you stroppy sod.” Duncan replied.

“Just shut up will you!” Toby Snapped.

“… Increase in the strength of the signals and now from multiple points.” The voice on the radio said.

“Woah. Wonder that means.” Toby said. There had been little development in the news on the signals. People had almost forgotten them. Toby had kept an ear out for the news and always checked the reports online when he got home, but other than speculation as to the origin and meaning and endless debates about the source of the signals, there was nothing really new. The space and ground based telescopes were all pointing their lenses and antennae in the direction of the signals now, but there was nothing close enough to earth for the signals to make sense. They were coming from a relatively empty patch of space and there were no stars within thousands of light years in the direction the signals were coming from.

“… We’re not quite sure what this means, it was only by accident we found the other signals. One of our receivers was out by not even a degree, and if you extend that into space, that’s hundreds, if not thousands of light years that arc of coverage can be off. Anyway, the signals we picked up are of the same type, but obviously from a different point source in space. And they are stronger. Whatever is broadcasting them is either a lot closer than we thought, bigger or more numerous.” The unnamed scientist said.

“What are the implications of this latest discovery Dr Henk?” The interviewer asked.

“We’re not sure, we’re quite baffled to tell you the truth. There are a number of possibilities being discussed at the moment. The original source is still broadcasting, the signals are stronger again from those too. The wealth of material we’re getting is huge, but totally unfathomable. At the moment, the only way I can describe it, is we’re like chimps trying to comprehend human speech. We can hear the sound, we know it’s some form of communication, but it’s just noise at the moment. We have no earthly idea what they are saying to us, or now it appears to each other.” Dr Hank Said.

“To each other?” The interviewer pressed him for more details.

“Yes, we’re quite certain that the signals we are getting are some form of communication between point sources in space. There are, as we said numerous sources now, and there is some sort of pattern. We get a signal from one, then a short delay, then a signal from another point, followed by signals from the other points. Then another longer signal from the first point of origin we discovered initially. Some of us have postulated that it is communication between some sort of galactic civilisation and it’s from such a distant galaxy and it’s taken so long to get here that we’re getting it through now in bits and pieces. There are other more wild speculations, but we’re really going through all the possibilities and calculations at the moment. We are after all at a very early stage though, so we ask for your patience in this matter.”

“What other speculations Dr Henk?” The interviewer asked.

“I can’t possibly say at the moment, just that there are a lot of top researchers working on this and we will bring you the results of our work as and when they come out. This is a very exciting time for mankind. The implications are massive, not only are we not alone in the universe, but quite evidently, there are a lot of them out there. We’re part of a big universal family after all.” You could hear the excitement in Dr Henk’s voice as he spoke.

“That is phenomenal!” Toby said.

“What is?” Duncan asked.

“Weren’t you listening? There are more signals!” Toby replied.

“I got that bit, but big deal, more whale song. Woopee.” Duncan said, obviously un-interested.

“You have no imagination Duncan, just imagine what they are like! They have had thousands, if not millions of years to develop. They may not even still be functioning as a civilisation; it's been so long for the signals to get here.” Toby said.

“So what’s the big deal, dead ET’s that are sending us their whale song. Even less exciting.” Duncan said.

“You really are a dull person mate, this is staggering for humanity. How many religions are going to have to re-think what they have been saying.  Mankind was created in the image of God after all, and God created the universe, so these aliens should be in God’s image too. If you believe the bible. I bet they are going to be having fits at this news in religious circles.” Toby said, getting quite animated now.

“Calm down mate, it’s not important. Getting this sodding pointing is important. I don’t want to be doing this for the rest of the week.” Duncan said.

“Mate, you really have no views other than Friday night and the Inn on the Pier do you?” Toby asked, knowing the answer already.

“No Tobes, there are more important things like Stella and young fit students to worry about.” Duncan said grinning.

“You are about the shallowest person I have ever met!” Toby said grinning up at Duncan who had stood up to go and get another bucket of cement to carry on the pointing.

“I take that as a compliment from you Tobes. You are the dullest person I know, walking, fishing and Radio Four.” With that Duncan climbed down the ladder.

Bont Goch