chapter seventeen

She spends the rest of the night and much of the next day going over reports, talking to engineers and analysts about this last signal. There has to be some manner of coded information in the brevity of these 'shouts,' but the computers haven't cracked them yet. Historical research continues to come up empty. Interviews have come up with nothing. There is a massive black hole in the middle of their data, casting doubt upon everything else they have. How many other gaps are there? What other surprises wait?

It takes a meeting with the Executive Administrator to calm things. "We must not lose our composure," he asserts. "We cannot get caught up in counting this miss, when we have a thousand years of hits sitting behind us. We have done our jobs well for a very long time. Our error was in hubris. Now we are humble, and we will work diligently from here forward." Small breakout groups discuss ideas. Kitsune listens, then drops the connection so she can think in silence.

Review: Four signals from North America, Boston, varying in power and direction. Signals return an echo, building a map. Trigger unknown. New signal from Hakodateyama with the same characteristics. Trigger unknown, but almost has to be a return call. Echoing, map-building. They're finding a way to reconnect. Physical connection? Unknown. Embedded data in the signals? There almost needs to be. Simplify: A baby cries in a dark room. Once, nothing happens. But the baby cries again, louder. Nothing. Again, this time louder, different pitch. Then louder still, yet another pitch, or tone. As this is happening, the un/subconscious brain is recording information like room size, ambient sounds, temperature, light level/direction... And at some point, the sleeping parent will hear and recognize the cry, finally roused to action when the cry hits on enough markers to elicit a response (volume, pitch... emotional tone?) Can these 'shouts' be so basic as carrying emotional information? "Here I am, I'm alone and hungry!"

This causes a shiver in Kitsune, as she considers to what lengths these to signals will go to try to reconnect, and then what will happen if and when they finally do. The reconnection of Oni and the Oni spirit-force was not a frequent occurrence, the records were slim on that account, but what was written was dire. The reconnected Oni often rampaged for weeks or months in an effort to rebuild its strength and standing, and if the Oni were a powerful and foul demon of an unknown Ainu heritage... She must make sure that it does not happen.