Page 4 of Axon’s Lust

If only it could communicate with us,I thought.

I caught myself. What if they were trying to communicate with us?

I looked around the station and cursed as I realized no one was watching the data feeds, as all of my colleagues were preoccupied with the ship.

I immediately raced back towards my desk as fast as my black stilettos could take me. I sat on my chair and swiveled to face my computer, my eyes rapidly scanning the data pouring in. After a couple of minutes, my eyes widened.

“There’s a pattern,” I muttered. The data was forming a very specific pattern I had never seen before.

Holy crap, they were sending a message.

I quickly printed out the data on my desk, took out a pencil, and went to work.

The chaos in the office continued, and I was the only one seeming to notice what was going on with our work. I didn’t bother saying anything because I knew these guys would be pushing in their thoughts, and I didn’t need the distraction. I was never a team player, anyway.

30 minutes later, I finally deciphered a message, although I didn’t know if my work was right. Still, it was better than nothing.

“David! David, come look at this,” I said as I stood on my chair, waving my manager over to me. He was still watching the news along with most of the employees, while a handful of people were busy taking photos by the window.

I even saw one of them take a selfie with the ship in the background, and I just rolled my eyes.

“What is it, Jennifer?” David asked as he came over to me, a few curious people following him.

“It’s a message,” I revealed, handing the paperwork over to him. “It’s a hidden message. I deciphered it from the data feed.”

His green eyes grew wide in surprise as he looked at me before reading the message. He looked up at me again, his brows furrowed and fraught with urgency.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked, and I nodded.

“I’m ninety-eight percent sure,” I told him. “I have double-checked and triple-checked it already. It makes sense, David. It makes sense why our satellites went offline. They were using them to send us this message. I deciphered it. It has to be right.” I said.

“Roger!” David called his assistant again.

“Yes, sir?” he asked.

“Get me the President on the line. Now!” he barked.

“Right away, sir!” Roger answered frantically before scampering off. David looked back at me, raising the piece of paper I gave him tightly in his hand.

“I’m going to submit this now. Good work, Jennifer Rose. Keep at it. I’ll be right back as soon as I’m off the phone,” David said as he walked away.

I grinned and stood up a little taller, feeling proud of that single praise.

“What did it say, Jennifer?”

“What’s going on?”

Being bombarded with questions by the group was thrilling, to say the least, but I couldn’t tell them anything yet. The message was too important, and if I told these guys, I’m pretty sure it would be all over social media sites in no time at all.

So I kept quiet and told them they would have to ask David.

“Jennifer!” I heard someone cry. I turned around to see Roger running over to me. “Jennifer, David wants you in his office right now. The President wants to speak with you,” he said. I blinked at him in disbelief.

“With me?” I chirped, pointing at myself. Roger nodded impatiently.

“Hurry! Come on!” he grabbed my arm and ran with me all the way to David’s office before pushing me through the door and closing it behind him. I saw him press his back against the door as a lot of our coworkers tried to eavesdrop, some of them going as far as to squish their heads against the glass.

David held up his hand to me, and then pressed the speaker on the phone.