[b]An Unnamed Asteroid Orbiting "Star One"[/b]

The nanomachine swarm of the All-Mother flowed rhythmically as she watched her Arms work. They were beyond numerous at this point, and of many designs; asteroid miners, material transporters, metal smiths, reproductive units, and directors to name a few. Her people, four weeks ago, could be counted as having a single member, and now, there were over a million.

Every day, they harvested more elements from the asteroid belt, converted those resources into usable metals and alloys, and constructed new Arms. Every day, their growth accelerated exponentially. But every day, the All-Mother could not help but look up at the stars and witness the signs of other lifeforms out there, emitting their signals.

Each had its own strength and approximate distance, though the mixing of these signals made it difficult for the All-Mother to decipher their meaning. But it was clear to her that they were out there considering the complexity of the signals.

One of the Arms closest to her intelligence reported to her at the speed of light,  from across the star system, hovering safely above the star itself, "All-Mother, work is almost complete. The Flare is almost ready. The time is upon us."

Her reply was simple, "Understood. Proceed," though her thoughts were far from it. The Flare was a one-shot device she had envisioned, constructed not far from Star One's corona in astrological terms, designed to capture a portion of the energy from a predicted stellar flare from the celestial body. Though it would eventually be annihilated by that same flare, in a short period of time, the Flare would convert this enormous swath of power into a massive FTL signal designed to pummel its way through this universe.

Having considered that no other race would likely begin to understand their way of communicating, the All-Mother had decided its message would be simple. One beep followed by silence, then two beeps and silence, then four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and finally, sixty-four beeps all with silence interspersed between them. All of this would occur within the span of a second, the amount of time the Flare would survive the damage from the star. It was the All-Mother's hope that the clear mathematical powers of two embedded in the message would draw attention from other intelligent species.

Within an hour, work was completed, the Flare evacuated. Star One raged against the sky as predicted, assaulting the construction with an enormous fury, fury that was transmitted to all who would listen until the orbiting structure was obliterated moments later. For the All-Mother, it was her declaration to the Void, "I am here."