Sphere (Page 47)
"Let him stay that way," Barnes snorted, "if it helps him to crack this code."
"I’m going to try, too," Ted reminded him.
"That’s fine," Barnes said. "You try, too."
TED
"I’m telling you, this reliance on Harry is misplaced." Ted paced back and forth and glanced at Norman. "Harry is manic, and he’s overlooking things. Obvious things."
"Like what?"
"Like the fact that the printout can’t possibly be a discharge from the computer."
"How do you know?" Norman said.
"The processor," Ted said. "The processor is a 68090 chip, which means that any memory dump would be in hex."
"What’s hex?"
"There are lots of ways to represent numbers," Ted said. "The 68090 chip uses base-sixteen representation, called ‘hexadecimal.’ Hex is entirely different from regular decimal. Looks different."
"But the message used zero through nine," Norman said. "Exactly my point," Ted said. "So it didn’t come from the computer. I believe it’s definitely a message from the sphere. Furthermore, although Harry thinks it is a substitution code, I think it’s a direct visual representation."
"You mean a picture?"
"Yes," Ted said. "And I think it’s a picture of the creature itself!" He started searching through sheets of paper. "I started with this."
001110101110011100111010100000 111101011101
11110110110101 100110101010100101
100101111010000 11010010100010101100000
111011111110101 1001010110 1001101010101101
1000111101000010101100101 10000100
1000111101000010101 1001010110
111111011011101100100000
001110101110011100111010100000 111101011101
11110110110101 100110101010100101 10010
1111010000 11010010100010101100000
111011111110101 1001010110 1001101010101101
1000111101000010101100101 10000100
1000111101000010101 1001010110
111111011011101100100000
001110101110011100111010100000 111101011101
11110110110101 100110101010100101 10010
1111010000 11010010100010101100000
111011111110101 1001010110 1001101010101101
1000111101000010101100101 10000100
"Now, here I have translated the message to binary," Ted said. "You can immediately sense visual pattern, can’t you?"
"Not really," Norman said.
"Well, it is certainly suggestive," Ted said. "I’m telling you, all those years at JPL looking at images from the planets, I have an eye for these things. So, the next thing I did was go back to the original message and fill in the spaces. I got this."
? ?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301521? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033008? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18?
"Uh-huh …" Norman said.
"I agree, it doesn’t look like anything," Ted said. "But by changing the screen width, you get this."
Proudly, he held up the next sheet.
? ?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321?
?04261037? ?18? ?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005?
?1822? ?042610134, ?0830162137? ?1604?
?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?032629? ?301321? ?04261037?
?18? ?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822?
?04261013? ?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621?
?1822? ?033013130432? ?00032125252632?
?032629? ?301321? ?04261037? ?18? ?3016?
?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013?
?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621? ?1822?
?033013130432? ?00032125252632? ?032629?
?301321? ?04261037? ?18? ?3016? ?0618082132?
?29033005? ?1822? ?04261013? ?0830162137?
?1604? ?08301621? ?1822? ?033013130432?
?00032125252632? ?0326294, ?301321? ?04261037?
?18? ?3016? ?0618082132? ?29033005? ?1822?
?04261013? ?0830162137? ?1604? ?08301621?