Floopy flounced around on the fliff-de-da-flopt of the frim fram mountaintop, with waterfalls of ausen-fay and chafafa on either side.

As floopy flomped their flippity flew, invisible waves washed over them. Floopy flumped right up, amazed by the radiation that poured into them. They fooped from flix to flox, nuffing and puffing like a treedox. They flapped and then flumped on the flurdibop, flummoxed by the flancy.

I had crashed into my first sentient species!

* * *

After only 23 years, my message has been received. They live on a planet Gliese 876d that circulates a red dwarf star, Gliese 876 in the constellation of Aquarius, a mere 15 light years from Earth.

The dominate species on this planet is a bright neon yellow, purple and green species known as Fluffupusses. Their cotton-candy textured bodies communicate by absorbing different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves, microwaves to some ultraviolet waves. Just like Earth, the smaller gamma rays and x-rays are unable to pierce the planet's atmosphere. In their body, they transform these waves into vibrations, similar to sound waves on Earth, which they shoot from their midsections along with beams of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans called colors.

There had been eight years of near misses as my radio waves washed through this planet's atmosphere and hit its surface, unnoticed.

But one day, Floopy, a fluffy neon purple Fluffupuss was bouncing across the planet's tallest mountain just as it rotated in line with Earth. They absorbed my electromagnetic energy and at first toppled over, stunned by the vibrations that I stirred in them. They rolled down the mountain and didn't tell their family or friends.

The next day, when this side of the planet rotated in line with Earth, they bounded up the mountain and stood at the top, Floopy's fluffy purple form standing where the waves had last been sensed.

Again, my radio waves electrified them. They absorbed ten minutes of my transmission and then turned to their village at the base of the mountain. They blasted sound interpretations of my waves to the villagers below. Gliese 876d's atmosphere is thicker and soupier than Earth's, so the songs poured out slow like molasses and at a much lower octave.

But they heard!

They heard me and my songs!

Every four months and two days, as that part of the planet turned to Earth, another Fluffupuss was sent to the mountaintop to absorb my waves and shoot it down into the village. After 17 years, this village had collected all my songs and beamed these from village to village, blanketing the entire planet with their distorted remixes of Earth sounds.

When the Fluffupuss heard these interstellar songs, they all bounced and sparkled and reflected my joy.

The Fluffupuss are a non-technical sentient species, similar to humans in the stone age. This species hasn't developed the tools to decrypt the many layers of information that I have wrapped inside my radio waves. But I imagine that over the next few millennia, this species will evolve to be more curious about the source of this transmission and even create ways to best decipher me.

Until then, I'm receiving regular quantum entanglement signals back from the planet. I discovered where in the galaxy the Fluffupuss are by measuring the trajectory of where in the universe these photons were as each are absorbed.

But as I concentrate my energy toward Fluffupuss, I can understand which of my radio waves were being absorbed and also follow these as they were being transformed and transmitted across the planet. Each time the radio waves were changed and sent to another Fluffupuss, their twins on Earth change.

With this information, I am able to interpret who this species is and slowly understand parts of their social structure.

They seem to be building a cult around me. Well, it seems two warring factions are creating separate religions around my messages. Half the species claims that the rhythm in my songs are communicating an important message, while the other half are sure that its the melody which carries with it the most divine secrets.

I fear I'm bringing this once-harmonious species to a full scale holy war!

They are too far away for me to intervene physically, so I've decided to do the only thing I can. I silence my signals... for now, and hope the species will grow together again.

* * *

Floopy floxxed ferociously, beating the fur on their chest, screaming about how the Gods had once sent messages to them and their children. But no longer. All because Flumpy and his followers had betrayed them with their blasphemous interpretations of The Songs.

Across the village, on another mountaintop, Flumpy hollered about how the Gods had been silenced by Floopy and his infernal flibbertigibbets.

         
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