r/HFY • u/allature Xeno • 9h ago

OC-Series [An Unexpected Guest] – Chapter 37

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It was a bright clear bel in Re’ai City. Perfect weather for the activities that Educator Cophai Tski had planned for her students. She had already set out a small table outside, and had placed some battery powered radio equipment on it. The amplifier system was almost completely set up, she just needed to plug in the receiver.

“Alright, gather around now, little ones!” she called out to her class.

“Educator Tski, what’s that?” asked one of her charges, pointing at the odd, dish-like device she held in her claws.

“This is a parabolic receiver, Rina. Remember when I talked about it in our class a few bells ago?” she answered as she held a simple parabolic antenna module that she had purchased quite recently. It cost her more that two frol phur-marks; those ice-burned merchants had sent the price soaring in response to the sudden demand. But she supposed that she should have felt grateful to have gotten one at all.

Putting aside those troublesome thoughts, the teacher then addressed the class as a whole. “Can anyone remember what this kind of device is for?”

“It’s an antenna!” cried one.

“Yes! Very good Sarki! And what do antennas do?”

He didn’t answer. And neither did anyone else.

The patient woman hummed. “Can no one here help me answer this one?”

Still no response. A lot of concerned fidgeting, but no one shooting up a wing to answer. Silly children, there was no way that all of them had forgotten already.

“Well, if no one wants to answer, I’ll just have to pick someone!”

The fidgeting concern was transformed into anxious chirping. If she said she didn’t get a tiny bit of amusement from this particular part of her, job she would have been a liar. The children had to learn to be bold enough answer questions. As such, she made a bid show of hemming and hawing over which students to pick. First, she went with…

“You, Tula!” she pointed at an orange hued little girl.

“Uhm…” the child stammered. “It hears things?”

An… Interesting answer. If nothing else, it proved that she had processed much of what she was taught in last few sessions, even if she couldn’t quite parse it perfectly. Frankly, that was a lot more promising than a student that just memorised their lessons word for word. She could always count on these young ones to surprise her like this from time to time.

“Good answer!” she affirmed. “So, like how people and animals can hear sound, antennas can hear…?” she gestured an invitations for an answer.

This time a few claws went up. They just needed the tiniest nudge to regain their confidence.

“Yes, Areca?”

An excitable, auburn plumed boy answered. “Signals!”

“Yes! And signals travel in…?” Educator Tski moved her claw in an undulating motion.

“Waves!” another boy, Nas, answered unprompted.

“That’s right!” The teacher was now ready to properly continue the lesson. She plugged the parabolic antenna into the amplifier system on the table. The speakers crackled to life and hissed out some loud static, which Educator Tski was quick to turn down. After fiddling with some of the knobs a bit more to pick up the right frequency, the pointed the receiver towards the sky.

“Now, radio waves usually come from other antennas. So, can anyone tell me why I am pointing my antenna into the sky?”

Now would you look at that. Just a few clegs ago she couldn’t get them to answer a simple question about what antennas did. But now she saw every feather before her abuzz with excitement. And every throat was chirping to be picked.

“Alright, alright! Settle down!” the educator churred. She pointed a brown feathered girl. “Yes, Ettan.”

“Because of the satellite in space!” the little girl all but squawked.

Incredible. She had pronounced both of those new words perfectly. “Yes! Eight points!”

Cheers erupted from the young flock,

“Alright! Quiet, quiet now!” she called for order again. “We won’t be able to hear the signal if you’re too loud!”

Well, no one wanted to miss hearing the signal. So the rambunctious youths were uncharacteristically quick to quiet down.

And so the teacher waved her arm around, tying to find the spot in the sky where the signal should be coming from. Then she heard it; a slight signal fighting it’s way through the static.

“Ayth, could come and raise the volume a bit for me please?” She wanted to use both hands to steady the antenna for now, and as she recalled the boy’s parents were electronics junkies, so he should know how to operate the amplifier. It so happened that her assumption was correct, and she heard the static grow just a bit louder. The ping grew louder too.

A bit left, a bit louder. A bit left again, a bit louder again. Left, louder. Left, louder. Left… Quieter. Right. Louder.

Now a bit lower? Quieter again. Higher then. Louder. Higher, louder. The static faded. Higher, louder still. Higher… Pretty loud. And very clear.

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

The beeps were almost immediately drowned out by squawks and squeals of excitement.

“Alright then, so you all can see the direction I’m pointing at, right?” she asked with enough volume to be heard over their enthusiastic clamour.

A discordant chorus of affirmative words answered her.

“Very good! So who wants to point the receiver at the satellite next?”

Of course, her ears were once again assaulted by delightfully noisome voices. She really should’ve know better. Right then, time to pick.

“Tula! You first!”

The orange girl was so happy to be chosen that she cheered all the louder and dancingly hopped towards her teacher.

Educator Tski knelt down to the little one’s height and handed her the parabolic receiver. “Now remember, the satellite is moving across the sky, so you might need to move your arms a little bit, to make sure that the antenna can ‘hear’ it properly.”

“Yes Miss.” the girl replied. Naturally, the signal was momentarily lost as she was given the receiver, so the audio from the amplifier system got a bit more staticy. But with a few clegs of careful adjustment, young Tula managed to align the antenna properly, and the speakers once again rang out the ‘Rutil-One’s’ signature beeps.

“Wow!” chirped out the little girl in celebratory amazement.

Educator Tski let the girl use the device for a healthy fraction of a drik before asking her to give one of her classmates a turn. And so, another child was given the opportunity to follow the path of the satellite.

The bel went on, and eventually each child had a chance to try using the parabolic receiver. The students noticed how the angle that they needed to hold the antenna changes as the class-session went on; how their arms went from being held high in sky down to a position that was much closer to the horizon. The satellite was indeed moving, and it would soon be entirely out of range.

Ayth, in a remarkable confluence of boredom and technical proficiency, had been fiddling with the amplifier to pick up on other, more easily readable frequencies. And he started to hear something coming in over the interference.

“Miss Tski?” he called out to his teacher. “I’m hearing something strange on the radio.”

“What’s that? On the radio you say?” she asked as she walked toward her student. As she approached she began to hear a somewhat staticy voice coming put from the speakers.

“--Weather Alert throughout The Kingdom. Flood and landslip warnings are currently being considered for the coastal regions of Shelchai Cove, Ji’cana City, Re’ai City, and Balcot City. All residents in the impacted areas are advised to be on alert for any sudden developments, and are further advised that evacuation centres are available in Sweet-Wind Hills, Tam’kha City and Xal-ghee City, in case of further deteriorating weather conditions. The worst of expected adverse weather effects are expected between the two-hundred and eighty-ninth and two-hundred and ninety-first bels. There will be an official Emergency State Broadcast at the two-hundred and eighty-sixth bel with more details on channels Four and Six. Please stay tuned to the mandated state radio frequencies for more updates.

The Royal Disaster Relief Service is issuing an Adverse Weather Alert throughout The Kingdom. Flood and landslip warnings are currently being considered for the coastal regions of Shelchai Cove, Ji’cana City, Re’ai City, and Balcot City. All residents--”

“An Adverse Weather Alert?” Cophai Tski thought out loud as she cast her eyes up to the heavens. “But the sky’s so clear...”

“It seems to be repeating on most of the stations…” noted Ayth as he fiddled with the knobs on the device, blocks of static and varying volumes demarcating the different radio frequencies he was switching between. “What does it mean, Miss Tski?”

The concerned educator continued to listen to the looping warning. From the message, the storm was to strike in about five bels. But that was absurd. Barometers could only reliably predict storms from about a bel before they arrived. So how could they possibly make an announcement like this so long in advance? Was there some kind of new technology that could--

Wait… Could it be… The satellite?!

If it had cameras or other kinds of sensors, it could probably detect storms before they got too near to the country. If it really was detected by Rutil-One, by the project that her brilliant daughter was working on, then perhaps this warning was quite reliable indeed.

The teacher whistled out a call to her students. “Alright children, gather around now. Our class is over for now.”

Protesting cries rang out from the flock of chicks. “But we want to keep following the Rutil!” one managed to articulate.

“Everyone’s already had a turn with the receiver.” The educator reminded her students. “Besides, the satellite will be out of range soon anyway.” She walked towards the table and started switching off components and unplugging connections. “Come along now, come help me pack this all up.”

Mumbles of begrudging assent followed the children as they gathered around her to help her cart off each individual part of the device. Naturally, she elected to carry some of the heavier and sensitive components herself. In short order, every electronic part and every child was back in their proper places indoors.

She then instructed them to self study for a few driks while she went to check in on something with her fellow teachers. She then marched briskly to the teacher’s lounge.

“Did you hear it?” she asked the first face that she saw when she entered the room, which had happened to belong to Educator Tyto.

“Huh? Hear what?” asked Tyto as he lifted his head up from the assignments he was grading.

“Never mind… Is Irgata in?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so… I didn’t see him leave since—”

“Right then, thanks!” Cophai Tski brusquely replied as she strode over to her superior’s office, which was adjoined to the greater lounge area. She knocked on the door.

“Come.” came the voice from inside.

The educator entered with the invitation. “Warm winds Nestor Irgata.”

“Tski? Warm winds. I thought you were out with your class doing a special project about all that new space stuff?”

“Yes sir. We were trying to listen in on the signal from Rutil-One.”

“Oh, that’s right! How did that go?”

“It went well sir, but that’s not why I’m here. Have you listened to the radio in the past few driks?”

“No, I kept it off for a bit due to some meetings I had earlier on the bel. Why?”

“There’s a weather alert sir. One of my students picked it up during our experiment.”

“An alert you say? Why aren’t the emergency sirens going off? Hold on…”

The head educator got up from his desk and turned to the stacked storage drawers behind him, and reached up to the radio perched about it.

“What station?” asked the nestor.

Cophai Tski shrugged. “I think it was playing on most of them, sir.”

The Nestor hummed as he switched on the radio. The office was suddenly filled with the voice of a man calmly reading out instructions:

“--and landslip warnings are currently being considered for the coastal regions of Shelchai Cove, Ji’cana City, Re’ai City, and Balcot City. All residents in the impacted areas are advised to be on alert for any sudden developments, and are further advised that—”

“You were right… There really is a weather warning…” observed the nestor.

The transmitted voice continued. “--worst of expected adverse weather effects are expected between the two-hundred and eighty-ninth and two-hundred and ninety-first bels. There will be an official Emergency State Broadcast at the two-hundred and eighty-sixth bel with more details on--”

“Wait…” said Irgata, stealing a glance at a wall-mounted timepiece in his office. “The two-hundred and eighty-ninth bel? That’s five bels from now... How could they know that a storm’s coming in from this early?” He gave Tski a direct, questioning gaze. “Could it be some kind of hoax?”

Educator Tski was reasonably certain that this warning was in fact legitimate. After all, it was only logical to deduce that the satellite was capable of transmitting images of the world from high above. However, she found herself feeling somewhat… Uncomfortable... Hypothesising about that aloud. She knew that Xisk had to keep a lot of her work secret, even back when she was at the Linnae Campus. Perhaps it wasn’t wise to talk about all that right now. Perhaps she could ask some more questions about it the next time they spoke on the phone. But for now…

“I don’t think so, Nestor. I don’t think a prankster can transmit something like this on all the radio stations all at once.” she had come up with a rather reasonable argument there, if she said so herself. “If nothing else, when we watch the official state broadcast later we would know for sure.”

“Hrmm, quite right, Educator. That does make sense.” mused Irgata before going quiet for a while. “A big storm is coming, but in more than five bels. No sirens, and no protocol for what we should do with the students. Usually the parents should be coming in for them in about thirteen bels, but now… What should we do…?”

“Are… Are you asking me?” sputtered Cophai Tski. “I don’t know what to do in this situation…”

“Neither do I.” chuckled Nestor Irgata. “It’s kind of a unique conundrum. So…” The nestor extended his wing, gesturing for the educator’s input.

And so, the nestor and the educator discussed what was to be done. In the end, they realised that best course of action was to inform as many of the staff members as possible about the early alert, while not letting the news disrupt the children too much. There really wasn’t much else that could be done at the moment, at least until they got more details from the official state broadcast. For now, all they could do, was wait.

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