The Voice from Beyond

Chapter 1- New Beginning

Earth, 1st of September, 7:31 am

Phil grunted as he sat the last bag down in the hallway. He could hear the helicopter that brought him here turn and fly away, leaving him in his new, very isolated home, no one around for miles and miles.

The government called it a promotion, a chance to prove himself, but he knew better than that. They were pretty much exiling him here, sick of his constant talks about alien life somewhere out there in the vast plains of space.

He doesn't understand why it's such a problem. The universe is so infinitely large, it would be more surprising if they were actually alone. But apparently the Professionals have more important things to do than listen to his rambling while working with him, because shortly after they started to complain he got moved here.

It's not like Phil was constantly talking about it, or neglecting his work. Not at all. He was quite efficient and was barely ever required to do overtime apart from the usual longer shifts if there are general problems with systems or something like that.

But through all his loyal work and trying to form some sort of friendship with his coworkers, this was not how he expected things to turn out.

The blonde stared at the building that was now his home, barely able to hold back the growing sense of dread and disappointment. It was gray and blocky, concrete walls dirty and uncared for, thick vines of ivy covering more than half of the walls. The inside was no better. Gray walls, black floors, barely any windows and dust everywhere.

There were two rooms specifically for him as living quarters, the rest was used for equipment, servers and storage. The bigger room held his bed in the corner, a small desk with a chair, a tiny kitchen area and a window. The second room was a small bathroom. That was it. At least they made the effort to at least make it somewhat livable, with every furniture that a person really needs.

He shouldn't complain, really. There were people in the world who would kill for a living space like this, who had it much worse when it comes to housing and tiny apartments. But he can't help but stare at the space with frustrating sadness, already missing his apartment back in the city. He had lived there for nearly ten years, with loud neighbors and constant traffic noise. But it had been home.

This wasn't home. This was a prison. Exile. And for what? Talking about a very common theory. He should have quit when he had the chance.

With a last, steadying breath, he accepted his fate and began to work.

He didn't bother unpacking his bags after moving them to his quarters, only taking his laptop, phone and charger with him to the main room. Monitors and controls crowded the large desk, barely leaving him space to put his laptop down. His phone was plugged in to charge before he began turning on all the different systems. Most of the equipment was familiar to him, having worked with it at HQ. The ones he didn't understand, he had manuals for.

For being abandoned for so long, the general station and systems seemed to be in good condition, though in dire need of a cleaning. He will get to that once he got the main servers up and running, hopefully able to run a system diagnostic to see how much damage years of stillness have done to the whole place.

Analyzing and documenting signals he manages to detect from space. He should be happy about this chance, it could lead to the discovery of other life! But he wasn't thrilled about the complete isolation... or the way that they have no hope for this station to actually detect anything. Would explain the state of this place and why it had been abandoned.

"What have I gotten myself into..."

He turned on the speaker system and connected it to the signal alarm. That way he can start cleaning this place while still keeping watch. Finding the small closet with cleaning supplies wasn't that difficult, but the layer of dust covering everything definitely showed how long it's been since someone had entered the building.