Pivoting Species by Been

Earth's interstellar receivers pick up signals from somewhere in the solar system; stimulated by strange noises. Zips and crackles blast through open channels. Overwhelming amounts of audio and electromagnetic data stream in. SETI postulates that the signals are of intentional alien origin. The coordination, rates of decay, frequency usage, and intentionality denote conscious intent. Ground controls for satellites, space probes, cosmic listening devices try to interpret codes received. It isn’t long before intelligent alien communication becomes undeniable.

Programmed signals create sequential delineation. Triangulated data is spliced together to identify and track the “devices” or whatever the origin of these transmissions might be. Over the next ten days all telescopes, terrestrial and orbital, are pointed in the direction of the signals. Scientists begin to speculate that Neptune’s atmosphere is being siphoned away after viewing an infrared telescopic image from the direction of the transmissions. Working tirelessly to wrangle data on the devices which are, perspectively, from earth, smaller than a grain of sand sitting on a coffee table a football field away. More data confirms that Neptune’s atmosphere is being extracted into a point in space.

A couple of days go by, data continues to etch an image like acid on glass. What's left of ground control's benzedrine supplies are dwindling, Uranus is now being harvested. Anyone in the know begins to peel, their moods shift and cycle. Highs and lows in rapid succession, the gravitational pull of Neptune is completely different. The only thing the aliens left is a molten ball of liquid methane.

As Uranus’s gravity starts to decay, a signal intercepts all conscious frequency; a symbol appears in the mind's eye.


It carries with it the understanding of the situation. The aliens didn’t want us confused as to what was going on, nor did they want to give us enough time to mobilize and nuke their endeavor.

The dwindling gravity of the gas giants has a eerie effect on people. Life long lovers act as if they barely know each other, parents feel strange about their children, experiential reorganizing slips inside the human condition. New determinations spring forward. Over the next few months Saturn and Jupiter begin to fade. The symbol drips down in a pernicious hum that can be seen, felt, then heard.

“We are harvesting hydrogen, the drones are extracting and sending the resources to us lightyears away.”

This is what field mice must experience when the grain thresher comes and churns up their homes. You'd think it'd be easier to harvest gas clouds and nebulas of hydrogen, but the lack of concentrated gravity makes it difficult for the drones to funnel the material into the blackhole. There are little to no visible effects on earth to the loss of Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn. Just a slightly different orbit around the sun. Jupiter is still being harvested, turning it into an oblong dash in the night sky. A still reminder of a quiet reversal.

People feel as if they don't know who they are anymore. They’ve changed and don't have much to say about it. The symbol in its lossless compression told its receivers why they feel different. It let you know that you were going to be okay, materially at least. Earth is fine, a little colder, a little warmer. News, officials, experts weigh in with their guesses about the mass feelings of strangeness and self alienation, but over time they are revealed to be just that, guesses.

Some feel that desperate times call for desperate measures. one group even starts a drilling endeavor to drive humanity underground in a bid to “survive the harvest”. Other groups suggest sending out a probe, but the symbol made it clear that would end badly for us/be completely pointless. There was no stopping them. Some people take up the vacuum of power created by destabilized psyches to begin cults that worship the harvesters. “Why did they not visit earth?” the public wonders, unable to imagine a scenario in which an alien lifeform wouldn’t want to directly interact with humanity.

Massive human migrations take place. State officials lack the desire, even if it is to state detriment, to do anything about them. Even if they paid security officer’s handsomely, those officers would know why the migrants were moving and lack motivation necessary to do anything about it. Like the cold digits of a panic attack wrapping around one’s midsection, the knowing of the change in gravity, how it changed everyone, permeated the minds of every man, woman, and child.

Some observed that the symbol acts as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, in its directive to stop widespread panic it creates a channel for feelings, no high highs, no low lows. If the change in the gravitational force of Saturn means that you and your cruel lover finally come to terms with the relationship being bad for the both of you, there wasn’t a sense of elation that followed. Only a calm resignation to the path that gravity would carve for you. And vice versa, if the person you had loved for years turns into a total stranger in a matter of days, the resignation would follow. The crystalline reproduction of manageable feeling was as impressive as it was banal.

The global imagination didn’t prepare anyone for such cold and disengaged alien life. There was no domestic broadcast of the alien incursion, no struggling story arc with humanity at the center. In fact, they seemed rather accommodating considering the circumstances. They didn't want to know humanity, but they didn't want humanity to be alarmed.

They were exclusively here to harvest the hydrogen from the outer rim of our solar system. We all knew, we understood. They made sure we’d know that we’d feel very different but didn’t say why. That is what has stuck with people the most. Some speculate that the gravity shift of 4 solar bodies in the solar system is the root of mass affectual change. Just as much as material action would affect the thoughts and feelings of people, this event confirmed that there is gravity working just beyond sight, affecting everything one sees, senses, and feels.

Two months later, four celestial bodies are gone from the night sky over a world of people who don't recognize themselves. Widespread insignificance begins to take hold. The greatest question ever asked, “are we alone in the universe?”, shattered by faceless alien PR department

The drones vanish into an event horizon. The probe humanity eventually sent out wasn’t even close to reaching them by the time they disappeared. It’s still all anyone can talk about.