//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Ping 
// Story: The Unknown Daughters Reunion: Bequest 
// by Disembodied_Pony 
//------------------------------//

"Mutchelle! Mutchelle!!"  A man came barging through the door, yelling.

Nearly jumping out of his clothes, the man he was seeking spun around answering;

"Yes Delek?  What, in all of the stones of the rivers, has you scaring the life from me??!"  He answered the cries.

"You have to see this at once!  Come on!"  Delek said, grabbing his arm gently but firmly.

Coaxing him to follow, they made their way to the northern part of the village on foot.

When he asked, all Mutchelle could get from Delek, was 'You have to see for yourself to believe it'

Along the way, more and more people were coming together.  Already congregating around the familiar black stone, there were hushed murmurs bandied about.

Finally having arrived, the black stone looked like it always had, since the beginning.

"Why did you drag me here?  What is everyone mumbling about?"

Coming around to the far side of the monolithic onyx landmark, his eyes widened in surprise.

There, where there was nothing but smooth unblemished stone before, were words.  A single phrase, accompanied by an image.

The new message wasn't chiseled into it like the originating one was.  These lines sparkled and reflected the suns light as if they were made from clear quartz, embedded into the onyx as if they had formed naturally and had always been there.

Bending down, Mutchelle read the words to himself;

"We look forward to and welcome that coming day"

To the side of the phrase; Was an outline of a creature with four legs, extended wings, and a horn.  Small specs of the shining crystal halo'd the creatures horn tip, and trailed to the the phrase written in their own tongue.

"What is it?  What are they called?"  he wondered.  His mind never conceiving the possibility that other intelligent life might have more than two legs.

Getting back up, he asked aloud to anyone who was listening;

"What day, do they mean?  And how long has this been here?"

The one who dragged him there, just shrugged in bewilderment.

Stepping up to him, Stapeqe told him;

"Its not been here very long.  I keep the grounds here, and something this obvious would have caught my eye.  I expect, days at most"  she said.

Falling into silence, the wheels turned in his mind.  Another, to the gathered group, made the supposition;

"They, who-ever...what-ever they are.. Must have gotten our transmissions?"

A sea of slow comprehending nods spread across the crowd as they put it together in their minds.

For a few years now, they had begun transmitting signals into space.  The carrier frequency, getting ever higher, year on year as their transmitters were refined.

In the coming next few years, the first orbital transmitter was to be launched.  Propelled by solid fuels, it was their first planned foray into space.

Now, it seemed that the transmitter was merely a stepping stone into a much wider universe.

And by this simple appearance, their imaginations were also being opened to a much wider scope.