Alien Augments

As Jason drove up the rough road leading to the mountain observatory, he wondered if he was making the right career decision. At 25, being asked to lead a whole data science department for the Extra-Terrestrial Search Association, or ETSA, sounded like it was too good to be true! He'd heard so much about what ETSA had done over the past decade to advance the technology needed to hunt down alien life throughout the galaxy, even if they haven't found anything it seemed that the techniques to analyze interstellar radio signals only kept evolving at a rapid pace, putting ETSA's data processing systems on the cutting edge. Why would anyone pass up a job opportunity like that?

Jason immediately understood why when the muddy, snow-covered road he had been following finally came to an end in front of an ancient-looking building, one that needed some serious structural work. Tarps covered patches of the roof that wasn't buried under snow, the paint looked like it was peeling off the side of the building next to an observatory telescope that looked like it had seen better days. The trek up to the observatory hadn't been easy, so fetching materials for repairs likely took more effort than anyone wanted to invest, so the buildings all looked like they were moments away from total collapse.

No wonder he was able to land the job so easily. This place belonged in a garbage pile or scrapheap! And yet, Jason had been boneheaded enough to sign on for a six-month contract to live here and work with the 'lead astronomer' on searching a region of the sky that faint radio signals might be more easily detected if there was a good way to attenuate all the noise out of the radio signals in question, which was now a responsibility that landed squarely on his shoulders.

As for the lead astronomer? The lone car in the little parking lot quickly signaled to Jason that she was likely the sole astronomer. And the IT department, and maintenance, and the janitor, and...

And it was starting to add up to a very bleak picture.

Fortunately, the one bright spot stepped out of the doorway. A blonde woman roughly Jason's age waved eagerly at Jason as he grabbed his bags from the back of his SUV. She wasn't very tall, but she had a cute face with blue eyes, and looked to be pretty fit, although her body was hidden under multiple layers of fleece for warmth. Oh no, did that mean the heat was broken inside the building too?

"Hey there, you must be Jason," the woman said in a peppy voice as Jason approached the front door with all his bags. "I'm Carrie Roswell, I guess I'm in the one charge of the Mount Rega Observatory. Good to meet you, I'm thrilled to have someone else around?"

"Roswell?" Jason asked, squinting at Carrie.

With a giggle, Carrie rolled her eyes. "It's just a name, don't get any weird ideas about it. If anything, I got into the alien hunting business because everyone makes the same joke about me and my family being the ones hiding aliens from the public."

Jason chuckled as Carrie led him inside. "Well, if you're hiding them then I suppose you're not really doing your job, are you?"

Carrie just laughed nervously, choosing to change the subject. "The bedrooms are on the second floor, follow me. And before you ask, the answer is that it's broken."

Confused, Jason looked at the blonde astronomer while they walked down the worn-down hallways within the observatory, which still had the same paint job from when the moon landings occurred. "What's broken?"

"It. All of it. Everything." Carrie turned down a hall and past an old kitchen, or rooms filled with boxes of tape backups of the data the observatory had collected over the years. Tape! You seriously hoped someone figured out how to hook up an SSD to whatever machines were still operating in the observatory itself. "The hot water is intermittent, the furnace is in serious need of some upgrades, and don't be surprised if nothing happens if you try to use half the light switches around here. The wifi's pretty decent, though, so that's something I guess. We've got a pretty decent pantry stocked up from the last supply run, but you'll have to get pretty creative with instant ramen and canned soup if you want to make a gourmet meal."

Jason frowned as Carrie stopped in front of a doorway, which appeared to lead to a small but functional bedroom. "And it's really just you here? I thought a place like this would have dozens of scientists."

Carrie sighed while Jason set his things down atop a table within the bedroom. She leaned on the doorframe, but not for too long when it sounded like it was going to crack and splinter away. "The ETSA isn't exactly the best-funded scientific endeavor," Carrie said, as her hands fiddled with the velcro on the sleeves of her jacket, like a nervous habit. "A decade ago, this place was definitely filled with scientists, but ETSA is a nonprofit with a CEO that's getting suspiciously richer every year, so the money we make in donations or government grants isn't exactly going to where it needs to go. This observatory was slated to be closed, had I not found a way to tune the observatory's sensors to detect signals in a part of the sky that is clearer on this mountain than anywhere else on the planet. We might be able to get things really moving again around here, which is why ETSA hired you to come in and work on the data I'm generating now. If you can help clean up the data and spot patterns that might be otherwise missed, then we might be able to make discoveries that show this place deserves some money for repairs. Until then, I hope you're handy with a hammer."

Jason sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes for a moment to see if he would wake up from this apparent nightmare turn his dream job had taken. "Well, if I look on the bright side, at least the traffic's good around here. Any other surprises I should know about?"

Carrie bit her lip, seeming to struggle with what she wanted to say next. "Um, there's one more thing, but I don't think you're ready to hear it, not today at least. It's not bad, just... very unusual. You'll find out about it sooner or later, though I can tell you in a couple days after you've settled in and know where everything is. At least, unless you just find out about it sooner." Carrie rocked on her heels for a moment, before glancing at Jason. "I'll let you get settled, you can look around all you want today, just don't move any papers around if you go into the observatory itself to look at the telescope. And the far storage garage needs to remain locked for now, so I can't let you in there at the moment. Good? Good."

Before Jason could respond, Carrie had already turned to walk away. Jason watched her go, taking a moment to admire Carrie from behind before falling backwards onto the lumpy and slightly musty bed he now called his own. What was all that about? What surprise requires him to settle in first? If anything, Jason wanted to know everything right away so he could get a better handle on the situation. Maybe it was a personal thing for Carrie? He didn't want to push her, though, since they only just met and she seemed nervous to say anything about it. Jason would just have to be patient.