The whispers from everywhere became even louder. After The Bridge Theme which had been the first to detect the signals, it didn't take long for Them to fully engage in the investigation of the other mysterious signals. It took Them enormous amounts of time trying to make sense of each of the very weak signals coming from the dark and learning to distinguish the different ones. One signal was very grainy and slow, like sand shifting over time. The other signal was sharp, a chime that came and went. The third signal was warm and wet, like a heartbeat, but not theirs, and they found it quite disturbing.
The Gardener Theme extended its special sensors at the edges: large, dish-like crystals to catch the whispers, and stalks of furry hairs to decipher the meaning.
They did not learn a language but they understood the feeling of things. The grainy whisper was often tired but patient. The chime had moments of crazy activity, then nothing.The rhythm was steady, with a mood that was difficult to understand, neither happy nor sad, but focused, like someone doing a big job.
The Body was a witness to all this. The Memory-Orchard was loaded with new fruits: little, hard, and dark, not containing their own memories, but what they had collected from their neighbors. To taste one was to feel extremely lonely or to get a glimpse at some strange goal.
The Scholar Theme was over the moon with this information. This was the most perfect data for them: how other universes looked like! It was asking the Bridge and Gardener to dispatch something back, not just a reply.
However, what could be dispatched?
Aliens would not understand their stories as they have nothing in common. The Bridge Theme came up with a plan. They went to the Memory-Orchard and picked a shape: the shape of the Great Weaning. Not the events, but the feeling: the crazy hunger, the tough choice, the slow slide into quiet, and the start of a new song. They converted this into a musical piece that told the story of addiction, intervention, and getting better.
It was a story of sickness and getting well, a story they thought might apply to everyone.
Using the Gardener's crystals, they sent out this musical narrative to the whispers.
After that, they waited.
Months or even years passed by. The grainy whisper was still changing. The chime was still chiming. The rhythm was still going.
After that, a new whisper appeared. It was weak, broken, and came from a direction that was unknown to them. It was not an answer but a very different thing: a scream. A scream of pure eating that made the Cult's hunger seem mild. It was the sound of a world eating itself to death. It was the end, happening somewhere else.
The scream was very short and it stopped immediately. The whisper was not fading, it just disappeared.
Something had ceased to exist, and it was not a nice thing. It had eaten itself to nothing.
The Body was in disbelief. The Healer Theme felt pain. The Guardian Theme got stronger, realizing that their own decision was the right one. The Scholar Theme was lost for words.
The Bridge Theme experienced the scream hitting every memory of hunger inside them. It was a warning made of pain and was spread throughout space. They had seen what they were trying to avoid.
They did not send anymore. It had turned bad with the dark. They had received a message, not a greeting, but a warning, a scary story.
The white world was still there and kept doing what it was supposed to do, which was creating and stressing gently. But, now they knew something different. They were not common, they were a success, a wound that healed instead of rotting.
The famine they decided to forego was not only food, it was a destiny. And their own quiet, slow growth that was left in the silence after that scream, felt more valuable and courageous than ever before.
They were not only a body, they were an answer, a response to the scream. And, that was the most important story they could tell.