“Okay, but what does this mean?” you ask Alex, folding your arms in protest. “Have other people been spying on us?”
“I don’t think so,” they say slowly. “We’ve been careful. And anyway, I’m quite certain that no one else has had access to Dr. Valentina’s journal except for us – there’s no record of it anywhere on the internet or in the Archives that I could find.”
“Then what?” you say. You don’t know why, but you feel defensive, bitter; like something pure and wonderful that belonged just to the two of you has been sullied now that it’s out there.
“Well, we’ve been so focused on Dr. Valentina – on the journal, and the puzzles from it, and our contact directly with the Spinners – that we haven’t been paying as much attention to what’s going on around us.” They’re right, of course; you’ve been phoning it in during class if you even bother to attend, neglecting your other friendships, barely taking care of yourself.
“I don’t think that everyone has been working on the same thing,” Alex says. “But I think there were definitely others.” They hold out their phone, open to a January 27 post from the Waterloo subreddit. “Has anyone else been hearing weird music when they’re outside?” the writer asks. There are questions about string theory, discussions of how climate change has affected the region, a request for blueprints of campus buildings. “Maybe this is just students being weird,” they say. “But maybe other people have been given problems to solve too.”
And then something happens you do not expect. You are far from the field, far from the ship, but that disembodied woman’s voice suddenly fills the room.
FOOLISH CHILDREN, the voice says, and you could swear there is a touch of gentleness in it. DID YOU THINK YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONES? DID YOU THINK THAT YOU ALONE COULD SAVE US? COULD SAVE YOURSELVES? IT WILL TAKE MANY KINDS, OF MANY GIFTS, TOGETHER. YOU MUST CONNECT.