Kard Arfken was a dedicated SETI astronomer. He believed in the possibility of ET life, but not that they had visited Earth. So he did not let rumors that alien artifacts were routinely found bother him. Until, that is, one evening he mistakenly received a classified communication that his peer astronomer had sent to the authorities.
"Composite signal in the 21 cm band from the direction of
Eta Pylori", it said,
"Horizontally polarized component AKNL GKBM JOEP BMJC EJBM JOEP BMJO EPBM JCKH BOEO EPBO PCEP
Vertically polarized component ALCE JHBM JCKH BMJC KHAL CEJH BOEO EPBO NPGP BMJC EJAF EOEJ"
He stared at the paper for a while, then feverishly doodled into the night. When he was finished, he had a stunned look on his face. He grabbed his coat and drove out into the city.
He hasn't been seen or heard from since. But rumors of strange lights hovering over the city that night have persisted from that day on.
Day 5
During investigations, some of Arfken's colleagues told investigators that he was given to playing connect-the-dots in his work time. "Sure, I'm a fan of Jodie Foster", said one barely hiding his contempt for Arfken "but Ellie Arroway???"
Day 16
"Kard Arfken is a rag man!!!" screamed a tabloid, devoting seven column inches to the story. The page three article mentioned that a Hex was placed near his home shortly before his disappearance.