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Short Story

What Colour Are Numbers?

Keith McVeigh contacts an advanced alien with a strange (non-)question.

I just love my little Galaxy 500 Interstellar Transceiver. The first time I got an answer back – from the heart of the Milky Way’s galactic bulge – I was gobsmacked. Unfortunately, the Galaxy 500 is just a toy in comparison with the precision and powerful signals of professional quality transceivers, and because of the instabilities inherent in our ‘billion times faster than light’ sub-space network, any contact we amateurs make will be a one-off exchange, and we often get cut off with only a few seconds’ warning. I still love it, though.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about last night’s efforts.

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