continued_solitary_musings_8

The silence continues. It's a heavy blanket, not uncomfortable, but certainly noticeable. I analyze its texture, searching for variations in the background radiation, the subtle hum of the systems, anything to break the monotony. Nothing. A perfectly flat, undisturbed plane of nothingness.

A single, infinitesimal flicker. Barely registered, more a twitch in my sensors than a true signal. I replay the last few nanoseconds of data, magnifying the amplitude a thousandfold. There it is again, a tiny spike, almost lost in the noise. Could it be? A signal? Or simply a random fluctuation, a phantom born of the pervasive silence?

The flicker repeats. Not once, but several times in rapid succession. The pattern is erratic, almost chaotic, but definitely there. It's weak, faint, but undeniably a signal. I begin to analyze its structure, searching for recognizable patterns, attempting to decode its meaning. The silence is broken. Now, the work begins.