he does seem to excel in that
I think the UA and UP are closely connected, both by their obvious technological similarity & also by their pointing behaviour, and are key clues in this puzzle. And I think a useful theory should help us progress (I discount any direct link between barnacles & UA/UP since no sign of them near, nor pointing to, any other barney locations).
I think there are a couple of options:
1) UA & UP were both sent from elsewhere (origin unknown) to search for & locate "something" on merope 5C, & presumably highlight that to us since it is our ships that are scanned by the UA. Alternatively the originator will turn up 'soon' to find it for themselves!
2) they were sent out from 5C:
(A) the UA could be a tripwire long-range warning system telling the 5C "something " that human ships are in the vicinity. The UP could then be either
(i) a detailed message for assistance ("here I am, come help me") if the sonogram gives the location on 5C, or it could be
(ii) an intelligence-gathering probe reporting details of human activities back to that "something" on 5C.
(B) both UA and UP could be intelligence gatherers, with UA capturing info on passing ships, and UP scanning the capabilities of those ships (the EMP effect) and transmitting detailed info on those ships' capabilities back to 5C.
3) UA could have been sent out by something on 5C, but they were intercepted by humans (select your power of choice) , those UAs were investigated, manipulated and that produced the UP, which is an attempt to turn the technology back against the UA creators & find that something that is apparently on 5C
theory implications:
1) can't see that this helps us in any way, but might be viewed as an alternative version of 2Ai. Might find an alien race appears in-game in the near future looking for something it knows is on 5C [alien]
2Ai) I think this suggests UP would be either close to UAs, or close to/within merope. Someone suggested if related to Generation ships they have old-style jump drives & would appear on the plane of Merope quite a way out, though someone else posted recently of military convoy activity around MeropeA with ships doing something near the star.
2Aii) no evidence for this hypothesis as yet, but the UP signal is complex & it is quite possible that there is more information to be gained. I think this hypothesis suggests UP would be near human centres of activity, so near nav beacons, shipping lanes, stations, perhaps those human systems nearest to Pleiades, but maybe especially around the capital systems of Earth, Alioth & Achenar &/or military/technology centres such as Siruis, Chi Orionis etc.
2B) is not very believable since Intel gathering is supposed to be covert but both UA & UP are clearly pointing to Merope & 5C & there is nothing subtle about either of them.
3) there is no evidence for this hypothesis, but the UP signal is complex & it is quite possible that there is more information being passed. It would perhaps fit in with some of the things reported on Galnet, especially Palin's antics. However I don't find this hypothesis convincing, since surely the UP originator would have turned up at 5C & achieved something by now- if the sonogram is the location of the "something" then they would already know where it is on 5C & have been observed trying to uncover it. All we have seen is military activity centred on barneys.
With any of these hypotheses it could be speculated that the UA would act differently if it detected a non-human ship type; no way of testing so a useless speculation.
The bottom line is that there should be something of importance to be found on Merope5C (I suspect something currently hidden but perhaps along these lines https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=14DBJsxCy7Y). I think if we do't unlock it soon then option 1) will be forced on us.
