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During the Wayfarer encounter, the unfamiliar ships transmitted patterns the Terran crew could record but not translate. The exchange remained a subject of sustained scientific investigation after the expedition returned home.
When similar vessels reappeared nearly two decades later, a matching transmission again reached Terran instruments. The signal’s recognizable structure could not resolve its meaning. The gap between detection and understanding helped shape the crisis that followed. The Encyclopedia should not treat an unknown message as evidence of either a threat or an offer of peace unless the narrative establishes the speaker’s meaning.