I think you've hit the nail on the head with your analysis of the four measures of !%!. They refer to the 9th, 26th, 44th and 63rd tones in the sequence, which would seem to translate as 'time is 9 time- units, time is 26 time-units, time is 44 time-units, time is 63 time-units'. Sort of an interstellar "At the tone, the time will be..." I think your analysis confirms my conjecture that "!-!" represents the TC unit for measuring the "thing" that comes between the '!' tones. With respect to '!Q!' I think the corrected transcription of Message 4 now reads: G V !Q! V G G W !Q! P QBQ P !Q! W G I would read this as saying "1 is the unit of numbers," just as (I strongly suspect) '@' is the unit of distance, '%' is the unit of time, and '$' is the unit of velocity. I can't wait for Message 5.