[ WP ] American satellite started transmitting 46 years after being abandoned in 1967

When we first heard the LES1 transmitting a signal long after it was expected to be well and gone, no one thought of it as more than a good story to take home. I mean, what else would it be? It was fitted with a series of solar panels to keep it powered and since it certainly would n't be receiving any upkeep, we built it to last. You see, that's one thing we're damn good at, making things last. And the only reason the LES1 ceased transmission was because a fault in it's launch put it in an imperfect orbit, so honestly, had we know a bit more about which way it went, we could have told you that it could come back. That's not what surprised us. No, not the... It was n't the return, it's what came with it that surprised us. Again, when we got those signals, there were laughs and high fives and it was all just a good time, but then one of our guys, a radio astronomer, decided to look into the signals. 
 
 I remember when he came into my office. He had a look on his face, the kind you get when you know you have to spill the beans on something but you're scared of what'll happen to you if you do. He came to me, sat in the chair across from my desk and stared at the floor in front of him. Let me tell you, that lunatic sat in cold silence for a solid ten minutes, breathing real slow while I typed away at my computer waiting for him to gather his nerve against whatever had him so on edge. I knew his dad from back in high school and the kid was bright but always a bit of a nut, so I just let him be while I answered some e-mails, figured it was n't any big deal to me. But after a bit, I broke the ice for him. I said something like `` I've been hearing some funny things about that LES1.'' He seemed to tense up a bit but I kept pushing. `` A couple guys down in astronautical ran the numbers on the thing's movement based on the paths of all other bodies it would have come across. Apparently, they are n't able to track it back to even approximately were we lost it.'' At this, he was visibly sweating. `` They said that when you try and trace back the steps, somewhere along the way the path just... ends. Like, you get to a point where it would have to have been almost launched from this exact spot to end up where it is. Imagine that. The thing disappears on us and nearly 50 years later it just shows up literally out of nowhere.'' I think that broke him. He let out a deep breath and there was fear in his voice. Through quivering, icy breath he finally spoke to me. `` It's breathing.'' It's hard to imagine the face I gave him. I must have looked like I that we had two heads, but this whole thing was had honestly been kind of eerie, and that did n't help. Then he managed to say it again. `` Sir, it's breathing.'' I turned from my computer and said to him `` What in the hell are you talking about?'' `` The waves'' he said `` they are n't acting the way they should.'' He took a second to calm himself down. `` The LES1 was the first of a series of experimental communications satellites'' He said faster than he probably realized, even stuttering here and there, `` and even back then, the only signals they transmitted were static, radio nonsense simply intended to see if we could still here them as we tested various communication methods. But these... this thing the LES1 is transmitting... it's not irregular. It has patterns, regular, iterative fluctuations. At first I thought it was just interference from the sun, but then I tried to send something to it. I spoke to it.'' He looked away from a second, waiting for his words. `` And it spoke back.'' At this point I did n't care to hear him, I wanted to see. 
 
 I had him lead me down to his workplace and show me what he was talking about. He had me put on a pair of headphones and then, damn... the sounds he played... Tell me, have you ever been trapped somewhere? Like, stuck under an upturned car, or under the rubble of a collapsed building? The panic, the feeling perfect helplessness, your eyes feel like the size of baseballs as you frantically search for solutions, and your chest feels like it's caved into your lungs. And then there's your breath. All you want to do is breath heavier and heavier as if the last thing you have left to fight for is your consciousness. I wished I could have dismissed what I was hearing as broken tech or something, and for weeks after I prayed for something to make me forget what was happening. But all I heard was that breath, there was just no mistaking it. Before I could dismiss myself for what I would claim to be more important things, he showed me true horror. He adjusted his equipment, real old-looking stuff, probably the only stuff suited to communicate with the LES1. He told me to keep the headphones and typed something on his keyboard. He punched in some commands, turned some knobs, and then waited. He closed his eyes, as if trying to reject what happened next. I looked at the waves on the other screen, and it was like he said. The waves responded. For a moment, they broke from their pattern and took on a new manner. With stones in my stomach I listened to the LES1 speak to me, regular spikes and falls in the sound as if something really was speaking. It sounded what you would hear if someone called you from across the country on a tin-can phone line but the pattern resembled speech almost exactly. 
 
 A few days passed, and as the LES1 drew closer, the radio astronomer continued to research it, putting his conversation with it aside for a bit, probably for his sanity more than anything else. But as expected, it did n't take long for word to leak out and for someone to demand to hear what we were talking about. The poor guy was so hesitant, he knew somewhere deep down what a terrible idea it was, but he was eventually coerced. He put the sound over his speaker, and started typing. He seemed to be shaking, having a hard time hitting all the right keys. Again he clicked his last few buttons, turned his knobs and then waited. He all stood silence for a second, all except the LES1's raising and falling radio waves. Then, it responded, but not like before. It was so clear. `` FFSSSHHHFSSSHSAAUUSSDHSPP'' Over and over, the LES1 seemed to be yelling `` FFFFFSSSSSSSAAUAUUAAAAHHH'' The air felt as cold as hell is hot, and there was not a single easy heart in the room. But they were n't satisfied, and demanded he do it again. The guy had n't spoken to the LES1 since that one time with me, so when they asked him to clear it up, he was terrified by the fact that he actually could. Again they yelled for him to clear it up. His hands shook like maple leaves while he turned his knobs and flipped his switches. Then he sent his message again, and again the LES1 spoke `` STAAAAUU!! TEEEEYYKKAAAHHHHEERRRUUUU!!'' He readjusted his dials and tightened things even further until is was as clear as book. We stood there, in stunned horror, when we finally heard the LES1's plea. `` STOP! THEY CAN HEAR YOU!'' Over and over it begged us... they can hear you, stop, they can hear you. 
 
 After that, we went to our homes and spent the next few weeks acting like nothing happened while the higher-ups worried about it. We ate with our families, we played with our dogs, we just went on with life as best as we could. We tried our best to forget all about the LES1, and to this day no one really knows that story. But ultimately, as you can plainly see, whatever the big shots talked about did n't work out well for us. So here we are, living off the grub of rats, hiding under a low-hanging bridge and running from intergalactic conquistadors and automated purgers. All because one day someone became curious.
