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Episode 104 |
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“Roger me. Wilco me. Anything. Hello. Hello. Earth?” Jazz, Transformers the Movie “Big brother, this is little sheep, over.” Sarah sat back from the matte black radio, her hand
dangling freely on her knee. Around
her in the small enclosure, Eliot and Irene sat with Lisa, all of them waiting
on the response. Sarah waited for a
moment longer and held the receiver up again.
“Big brother, this is little sheep, over. I repeat, this is little sheep. Please respond.” Only the chilling emptiness of the background noise
came back over. “Why aren’t they responding?” Lisa asked, her hands
clutched together as she sat forward on the small rock before her tent. “I don’t know,” Sarah said cynically, looking thoughtfully
away from the others. “Maybe it’s the A97 order,” Irene suggested, a
half-eaten meal bar and a water bottle in her hands. “They said we were supposed to maintain
radio silence.” “They’d still be monitoring,” Eliot countered, leaning
against a rock, his fingers interlaced behind his head. “And they’d know if we broke the silence,
it was for a good reason.” “Let’s make it a little clearer,” Sarah said with an
angry tone. “Big brother, this is
little sheep,” she said aggressively into the receiver. “We have confirmed natives. I repeat, we
have confirmed natives. Please respond
and advise. Repeat, respond and advise, over.” The quiet hum of dead air was
her only answer. Sarah tossed the
receiver to the floor. “I don’t like
this.” “Maybe it’s the island?” Lisa thought suddenly with
blind optimism. “Jason and Emma said
it was bursting with power and stuff.
I always heard that the Aurora Borealis did weird things to
electronics. Maybe this is the same
kind of thing.” “Perhaps, but if that was the case, we wouldn’t be
getting a signal,” Irene said on the rock next to her. “We’d be getting static or something.” “We’d be able to tell if the signal wasn’t getting
out,” Sarah simplified to Lisa. “And
it’s getting out.” She stood and
pulled her black trench coat on over her combat fatigues. “It’s just no one’s responding.” The radio drowned out the ambient noise of
the night, filling the space in the camp around the four. Eliot’s eyes opened up as he listened to the silence of
the radio. He sat up and looked at the
small box for a moment. “Wait a minute,”
he said disbelievingly. He scooted
over by Sarah and looked at the radio for a moment. He began to move controls, the volume
raising. The textured silence of the
radio grew clearer. Eliot’s eyes
narrowed as he thought. Sarah watched for a moment, then stood. Rubbing the back of her hips, she walked
stiffly outside of the camp site passed the modest fire and into the
starlight. She stared up at the sky
and closed her eyes. She breathed
quietly, the tension draining from her body.
Rubbing her own shoulders, she turned back as Irene came to join her. “You okay?” the shorter girl asked. “Aye, just tired,” she said. “This place is doing a number on me.” “Yeah, me too,” Irene laughed, her trench coat blowing
in the sea wind. “You know, I keep
thinking about this whole thing. I
mean, we think this island was raised in connection to the Ivers’ books,
right?” Sarah nodded. “It seems like it might have been helpful
to bring the one we’ve got. I’m not
sure what good it would do, but it could potentially be useful.” “Unless something was to happen to us, then it’d be
gone,” Sarah retorted, staring into the sky. “I guess.” “I keep thinking about that knight,” she confided. “I can handle some shadowy group of
vampires or whatever that’s pulling on us from behind the scenes. That, I’m used to. But knights.” She shivered. “They worry me more than just about
anything else. And this guy, the Irene suddenly laughed.
“Well, hopefully not around here.”
Sarah broke a smile as well. “Sarah!” The two women both turned as Eliot waved them
over. They headed back into the camp
where Eliot was sitting with Lisa before the radio. Sarah knelt down, brushing her blonde hair
back as she wrapped it into a pony tail.
“What is it?” “Lisa was partially right,” Eliot reported, messing
with dials, the ambient sound from the radio shifting awkwardly. “Our signal isn’t getting out, but it has
nothing to do with the ambient magical energies of the island.” “Then what is it?” Irene asked. Eliot looked at the two women, then went back to the
knobs. “Do you hear this?” he asked as
the silence drowned out the distant sea waves. Sarah and Irene both listened. “Hear what?” Sarah asked. “That’s the usual white noise you get when a radio
station’s silent,” Eliot explained.
“And that’s on the broadcast channels.
But here.” He adjusted some
controls. “This is a commercial radio
station meant for people in the sea.” The same silence persisted. Irene looked at Lisa, confused. She moved to speak, but Sarah turned to
Eliot. “What’s causing that?” “I’m not sure,” he said. “However, I’ve got a theory.” Sarah began to look agitated. “Alright, Scotty. Anytime.” “I always liked La Forge better,” Eliot retorted. He moved more dials. The ambient silence played loud enough to
reflect off the walls of enclosure.
“This is the white noise.” “Yes, we’ve heard it,” Sarah bit. “But you haven’t listened to it,” Eliot
maintained. He turned some dials. “You’re listening for the sounds within the
normal range of hearing. You need to
listen to stuff outside that range.”
Sarah and Irene looked at each other, both getting annoyed. “Here,” Eliot said as he finished
manipulating the controls. “I’m
increasing the radio’s sonic range.
It’ll play sounds that normally we wouldn’t be able to hear. And this,” he said, flipping a switch, “is
what normal static sounds like.” The chaotic jumble of noises made the three girls wince
while Eliot smiled. “Get to the point,
Mr. Wizard,” Sarah barked over the static. “I’m sorry,” he said, turning the volume down, “but
this is important.” He turned a few
dials. “Now, this is the static found
in the ambient white noise on our broadcast channel.” A mathematical symmetry played to them. The carefully sculpted and constructed
background noise filled the cave in rhythmic harmony. “What is that?” Irene asked. “We don’t know,” Lisa was quick to say before Eliot
could. “What
we do know,” he said, turning the volume down, “is that not only is it
artificial, it’s intentional.” He
looked square at Sarah. “We’re being
jammed.” |
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