The Strange Signals
It was the pleasant morning of late February.
Dr. Atharwa Prasad was taking a sip of his favourite Masala Tea. He was in deep thoughts of how he started his job as an Assistant Scientist and now he is the fully trained Astronaut of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, which is a rocket launching station of ISRO.
He usually kept his phone on silent at night and early morning. He used to believe that we should avoid technical gadgets just before sleeping and early in the morning. Sometimes his friends doubt his job because of his behavior towards gadgets.
Suddenly he realised that his mobile phone was vibrating. But he ignored it. His face didn't reveal the reason for this ignorance. It seems that his face was saying,
'' Vibrate as much as you can! ''
After taking his last sip of tea, he stood up and went to the living room to call back all the missed calls. He reached the charging point and disconnected his phone from its charger. He unlocked his mobile with the help of his most protective and strong password which was,' 1234'.
He checked call logs to know the name of the caller.
It was Dr. Ram kant Parameswaran. Professionally he was a senior of Dr. Prasad as he was Chairman of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, but personally he was a good friend of Dr. Prasad.
Dr. Prasad called back Dr. Ram to know about the reason for his sudden call.
Dr. Prasad, '' Hello Dr Ram, What's going on? ''
Dr. Ram replied in a friendly way, '' Leave Hi-Hello! First tell me why weren't you picking the call? ''
Dr. Prasad replied, '' Calm down! I was busy. ''
Dr. Ram asked him , '' Leave it, just tell me when are you coming to the centre? ''
Dr. Prasad replied, ''Just in 45 minutes. But, why are you asking?
Dr. Ram replied with a friendly anger, '' Reach here in just 20 minutes, otherwise I will ban your entry in the centre! ''
Dr. Prasad replied with a laugh, '' Ok, Ok, I am coming. ''
Phone Disconnects*
It wasn't the first time he witnessed this curious behavior of Dr. Ram. Dr. Ram always behaves like this whenever he sees something new and amazing related to
space. And this was the only reason Dr. Prasad was in a little suspense.
He wore his formal outfit and took the keys of his car from the drawer. Then he started driving from his home to the centre. He always uses his scientific brain in daily life. Just like he calculated the speed he should drive so he can reach the centre on time.
With the help of modern roads of Sriharikota and his calculations, he reached the research centre on time.
Satish Dhawan Space Centre is located in Sriharikota, a spindle-shaped barrier island on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh.
He entered the centre with a hurry. There was Abbas at the entrance of the centre who was a security guard there for the last 9 years.
He saluted Dr. Prasad and he replied with a great smile upon his face. Then he went upstairs and entered the control room. The sight of the control room shocked him.
There was an image of Wormhole on the monitor.
Dr. Ram was explaining about the Wormhole to the other scientists. He said, ''A Wormhole is a speculative(unproven) structure which connects the two points in space time. A wormhole can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in spacetime (i.e., different locations, or different points in time, or both). A wormhole could connect extremely long distances such as a billion light years or more, short distances such as a few meters, different universes, or different points in time.''
Suddenly Mr. Prakash, who was the Department Head of PSLV Propulsion System, stood up and asked Dr. Ram, '' But how is it possible that a distance can be shortened in space? ''
On this Dr. Ram replied, ''Good question Mr. Prakash! We can illustrate it by drawing a square on a paper. You would observe that the shortest distance between its two opposite vertices is its Diagonal. But, if we fold the paper, the vertices meet each other and the distance will become zero. '
This explanation was enough for Mr. Prakash. Now Dr. Prasad said to Dr. Ram, ''So this is the reason why I am here before time. ''
Dr. Ram nodded his head and said, '' No! Dr. Prasad, the real reason is more interesting and important. We have received some signals from the one end of the Wormhole. ''
He added,'' Due to the frequency of signals being weak, we have decoded just these lines.
Dr. Ram stood up and started a recorder*
SOS... help….. 2..45…..plea...elp…
There was a pin drop silence in the control room. This recording was the strong proof that we are not alone in this universe.