No one knows when the Voices began.

Some theorests say that they have been audible since the dawn of time. To those peoples’ hypothesis, the Voices originate from beyond Earth, and began as the accidental outpourings of transmissions from a distant planet.

It was only later, when the originators of the Voices realised we were here, did the transmissions grow in intensity, for now that distant civilisation wanted to be heard.

Long ago (by Earth standards) before the Voices put effort into their communications, it was easy to ignore them, or to miss them altogether. The Voices held no message for us, though if we had listened we would have been confronted with the realisation that we are not alone in the galaxy.

But such a stupendous realisation, encountering the conservative cultures of this planet, fit no world view, and so any fortuitous penetration of the Voices into a human consciousness was dismissed as hallucination – perhaps the impression of someone quietly saying your name.

But eventually more and more people on Earth head the Voices, the Voices which penetrated minds at every waking hour. Controversy grew over theis pandemic of mental illness. People died for being the first in their community to admit to the sounds in their head.

It was only due to the small number of humans who – consciously or unconsciously – reciprocated the messages that the distant civilisation grew in confidence and volume, initiating a conversation across the light years.

But life on Earth grew hectic and monolithic, and denial and purposeful ignoring drowned out the Voices. Only those who took themselves away from civilisation, who cleared their minds from all distractions, could hear the messages clearly. Many of these people folded the conversation into theor upbringings, deciding that they were hearing the voice of God or Allah.

But these self-directed illusions were just the final layer of distraction, and one that needed stripping away before the Voices’ true message would come through.