The Relic
The mystery of an object from another galaxy is unraveled...
The following has been translated from its original language.
My dear fellow citizens. I have been asked to update you on the latest news regarding the that famous disc we call “The Plate”. As you know, it was uncovered from the Thyluzian belt of space debris seventeen years ago. And it took many of those years to understand what the object was and how we might devise architecture and systems to decode the mysterious markings it bore.
We have kept everything under wraps, but it is time to reveal our findings with you all. We reviewed the puzzling contents of The Plate. It bears 116 analogue images as well as various audio clips. We believed the collection was most likely meant as either a time capsule of some sort or, due to a few explanatory elements, perhaps a calling card cast out with the hope of discovering other forms of life from far off. It seemed odd, since some of the images clearly show the senders had achieved interplanetary travel. But perhaps such travel was limited at the time, as they were a fairly undeveloped society.
The plate describes the many types of creatures that lived on Earth (which is the name they gave their planet). They all had different life carbon-based forms, and all made a wide variety of vocalizations. Some created other sounds via tools that they used to create collective soundscapes they called “music”. They had some rudimentary understanding of mathematical and physical metrics as well as some universal physical constants.
As you all know, based on the information they provided on the location of Earth, we organized a mission to attempt to make contact with the Earth beings, despite knowing time was against us: that the people who sent The Plate were long gone and the fate of their descendants unknown. But we remained cautiously optimistic.
Sadly, it is my duty to inform you that, unfortunately, it is quite clear that these beings have long since perished. It appears their planet became uninhabitable at some point and, while our science team is working diligently to excavate evidence to help explain why, all we currently know is that that the planet’s protective atmosphere layer failed for some reason, allowing their sun’s radiation to create a planet-wide extinction.
Having served its purpose, and with no further scientific data to be extrapolated from the disc, we are turning it over to the national museum where it will be available for all to see. It will be in the Hall of Relics along with all the other remnants of lost civilizations.
I thank you for your attention and wish you a good night.
David Attenborough would sound great narrating this.
I am already loving how everyone is handling this prompt!