Topic: Scientists have picked up a radio signal ‘heartbeat’ billions of light-years away,” reads an article headline published by NPR last Thursday from a report that astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology picked up radio signals that repeat in a clear periodic pattern similar to a beating heart from a galaxy billions of light-years from Earth. The discovery could help researchers determine at what speed the universe is expanding. Write a piece inspired by this headline in which you explore the metaphorical and literal ramifications of a “heartbeat” billions of light-years away.
***
The radio crackled impatiently, until a thud was faintly belted out from our micro-sensitive speaker.
Lup- dup.
Lup-dup.
Lup-dup.
It rang out, almost auspiciously, three times. It was the sound of a beating heart. But who was to hear?
***
I hadn’t had my coffee yet, and sleep tugged at my eyelids. The intergalactic signals for this week were uploaded already in the google drive. I groaned as I sluggishly plugged in my blasted earphones and began with the usual satellite reports.
An hour passed, then two as I carelessly chalked out the weather reports, fuel signatories and data, and general system compatibilities. The newest audio signal was encrypted twice over, and as I laboriously verified the source, date and space time in the catalogue. At first, I spilt my hot Americano all over my lap. There was a distinctive heart beat. I heard the audio once, twice, thrice and once again. It resounded through my eardrums, and seemed to resound through the room as well. The question just seemed to hang there, I thought. How would you document an intergalactic lup dup?
***
I looked at Freida, square in the face, over a glass of lemonade. She stared back at me, befuddled.
“A heartbeat in space?”
My heart was still racing, recounting what I had heard.
“Get this- there has never been a pulsation in space for as long as we have been monitoring satellites at a 75,000 kilometre radar from the Earth’s own atmospheric levels.”
“You know I hate it when you talk science, Bon”.
“They say there has been an expansion in the universe- a growth of a couple million kilometres.”
“Couple million? Heartbeats? This is a right load of bull.”
I wasn’t staring at Freida. I was staring at ignorance, right in the face.
***
Ramsey’s eyes were glued to the radio broadcasting channel. They had been as soon as he had heard the beat for himself.
“We won’t hear anything for a while yet, Rams, leave it be.”
His voice cut through my detoxifying pop music, but his eyes remained where they were.
“Let it be? Let it be? Bon, you don’t realise how revolutionary this is and the quantum of possibilities. It’s practically the biggest development in space exploration we’ve had in decades!”
“But surely sitting here-”
“But Bon, sitting and researching is what scientists have done since the beginning of, well, space. Don’t you dare downplay this one.”
***
I stare at the ultrasound machine as the intern slowly rotates a sensor down the length of my stomach. It takes her five minutes to pull out a clear cut image of the uterus, and another five before she’s able to take measurements. Slowly, a resounding, periodic beat is audible.
It was the sound of a beating heart.
***