Chapter 1153 — Another Shift in the Wind
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
At dawn, the tower keeper Glyn awoke to the low droning hum of machinery. Sunlight was pouring through the crystal-glass window on one side of the tower's rest chamber, and the ornamental iron filigree on the window frame cast alternating bands of light and shadow across the floor. Far off, the sky was vast and cloudless, and the mechanical antenna dish atop the Luan Hub was swinging through another angle—its jagged, soaring alloy skeleton drifting slowly past the window, slicing the sky into a few cunning geometric patterns.
"Not bad. Fine weather... The mages' forecasts get more accurate every year."
The tower keeper squinted at the sky outside, muttered softly to himself, then let out a deep sigh. He pulled on a loose, cool thin shirt, tidied his appearance a little, and turned to leave the room—the mechanical turntables and interlocking mechanisms of the upper level humming their reassuring low note. Accompanied by that familiar sound, he passed through a short corridor and a brief flight of steps to the nearby equipment room, where a fair-haired young man in a brown shirt sat before the arcane-net terminal, wholly absorbed in the flickering figures on the holographic display, while beside the printing apparatus lay a neat stack of freshly trimmed newspapers and periodicals.
The young man's name was Ron, Glyn's colleague and the tower's other keeper. He had only been transferred here recently, but his steady, diligent, and likable nature had already left a deep and favorable impression on the tower's "old hands."
"Ah, Mr. Glyn," the blond young man at the arcane-net terminal heard the movement at the door and, recognizing the newcomer, broke into a smile. "It's not time for the shift change yet—you're up this early?"
"A regular routine is good for the body—especially for a middle-aged man like me who's no longer young," Glyn said, greeting the young man with a smile. "Vixen isn't back yet?"
"He came back a little while ago, but he headed out again soon after with two technicians—the readings at the secondary hub over in Kosen Township are off. A factory nearby reported they've been unable to receive any signal from Luan since yesterday, and Vixen thinks that thunderstorm yesterday may have damaged the secondary hub, so he wanted to see the situation himself. Oh, and he took the gray arcane-drive cart."
"Sounds like that thunderstorm was stronger than we thought," Glyn said offhandedly, stepping over to the arcane-net terminal, where he immediately noticed that the neatly trimmed papers fresh from the networked printer had already been leafed through, and that someone had marked up one of the pages in red ink. "Anything interesting in the papers, Ron?"
"Ah, I was just about to mention it," the young man named Ron said, his face lighting up with a smile that mixed delight and mystery. "You remember that 'listening project' Vixen's always been so keen on? The one with a listening station at every regional hub? Well, it seems they've suddenly made some tremendous progress—they say they've picked up a mysterious signal, and the scholars have been devoting whole columns to discussing it! And that's not even the only paper—"
Glyn hadn't really been following that listening project, but Ron's excited tone had roused more than enough interest in him. Before the young man could finish, he had already picked up the stack of printed sheets, which still carried a faint whiff of ink.
The first thing to meet his eye was a strikingly bold headline: *Among the Vast Multitude of Stars, Could There Exist Beings Capable of Rational Thought Like Ours?*
What sort of... question was that?