Dr Ellie Arroway was intrigued. The first sets of signals really could be translated to something intelligible, and word has got out that this could be first contact. But, her colleagues who reached the first site reported nothing extraordinary, and secretly, she was glad they didn’t. The ensuing brouhaha would have gotten the government involved and who knows what would happen to her project? Putting on her headphones once again, she turned the telescope to the same location in the constellation of Vega.
Poring over the previous output, while holding the headphones close to her ear, she muttered, “Yes, it’s still the same”. She continued listening, and the signal kept pulsing on…
It was just before 3:15 am that very night when the computer signalled that something had changed. Something was amiss. Ellie stood up, snatched the headphone from the console, pressed it to her ear and listened. She held her breath as each pulse came through, and with a pencil, she matched each pulse with the previous output, but, alas, every one of the hundreds of signals was exactly the same as before.
She sunk into her seat, nearly resigned to the fact that it was nothing but a false alarm. She clasped her hands and listened to the beats that she has come to know so well. Then, something struck her, there was something odd about the sound of the signal… it just didn’t sound right, as if there was another signal else interfering with it. She ran to the next computer terminal, and filtered out the original frequencies from the pulse. There was the expected silence, but… there was a faint crackle. Scarcely believing what she heard, she ran the signal through the amplifier and there it was… an unmistakable second set of signals, more complex than the first. First, there was a long signal, lasting for several seconds, followed by five shorter pulses. Could this be another message?
Long signal:
Pulse 1:
Pulse 2:
Pulse 3:
Pulse 4:
Pulse 5:
Cache notes:
The terrain for this one is rather more difficult than your standard roadside cache. Some slope climbing and bushwhacking required. You will want to have proper shoes, long clothing, and mozzie repellent.
Also, please be very, very delicate with the cache. Do not remove the container from the host, just extract the logsheet, sign it and return it to the container.
16/05/2016 update: The final has been changed due to the possibility of a compromise of the solution. The new location needs a little more bushwhacking than the first, but all the warning above still holds
Much time and effort is spent by Mystery Cache owners in designing and setting up puzzles, so offering the coordinates to mystery caches (especially where an FTF is concerned) without the CO's permission is generally frowned upon. Non-spoiler-y hints and nudges for the puzzle are permissible, but do not offer the final coordinates directly unless the owner consents to it.
Have fun and happy hunting!