Transmissions: Voices from Nowhere

[brennalarosa]

Agent Jasmine Echo-12 fiddled with her radio, searching through station after station of music and news, looking for a sound she'd heard the other day. She was well aware of the fact that Agent Narcissa Yankee-6 was glaring at her. Being a Sixth Tier, she was a very busy Angel and didn't have time for the hysteria of a Baseliner.

"A glitch, Miss Yasmina," said Narcissa. It wasn't a question.

"No, wait!" Jasmine crowed, "Here it is!"

There was a brief data burst, a series of odd sounds and sharp snaps, then three bars of an old folk song in Hebrew. Silence. Was this a computer error that they shared? Some programming fault on the station's part? Maybe it was simply a bunch of teenagers, horsing around with an old station.

Then...

"Alpha, Bravo, Six, Six, Two... Alpha, Bravo, Six, Six, Two... Alpha, Bravo, Six, Six, Two..." The pattern was repeated ten times, in a mechanical voice, similar to Jasmine's own. "Papa, Romeo, Whiskey, Victor, Echo... Six, Nine, One, One, One... Romeo, X-ray, Zulu, Golf, Five, Nine..." The transmission ended with a sudden blast of jaunty brass horns and a stammering voice, proclaming to the lower classes, that that was all. The station went dead.

"See? See?" Jasmine was ready to burst. "It wasn't a glitch! I wasn't lying!"

"I see," said Narcissa, "That you have tuned into a youth club music station that isn't functioning properly. You are dismissed, Agent Jasmine."

And, yet... Narcissa had the oddest feeling she'd just missed something.

More on Number Stations here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

More coming soon...

[tatterpixie]

I LOVE number stations <3333

[brennalarosa]

I'd never heard of them, until I was researching Alice in Wonderland, believe it or not. In the Hallmark version of the movie, Alice sings "Cherry Ripe" and I went from there. Before long, I have a new facet of Vegan underground culture. More, if you consider the new fragments of info in the Flavor text.

[tatterpixie]

I can't remember who, but there's a trance DJ who uses them in mixes, which is where I first heard them. XD So the club music ref isn't far off at all. (I wish I still had some of that stuff -- it was lost when my external hard-drive crashed a couple years back... ;_;)

[brennalarosa]

I wouldn't be surprised! I'll have to look that up, because it sounds like the kind of thing that needs to be mixed with James Bond soundtracks or electronica. Sadly, my knowledge of actual DJ names is limited.

[tatterpixie]

Mine too. XDDD They're deeply cool, though, and well worth the search!