The Signal
Loosely based on some recent news headlines
It began with an unusually high rate of communication lapses and near misses in one month at airports around Country C. Two months after that Country X experienced a nationwide blackout, attributed to atmospheric radiation. Scarcely two weeks after that the missile detection system of Country R, famed for its reliability, failed to alert on a rocket fired by insurgents from Country S.
Our routine data mining operation flagged a commonality between these disparate incidents: each was directly preceded by seismic activity originating in the ___ Sound. Our goal is to collect more detailed geological observations as input to an advanced prediction model. We reached the location by boat 6 hours ago.
Once he stopped typing he realized that something was terribly wrong. It was dead silent on the ship, no familiar hum.
The engines were off, in open water.
The needle on his compass started to spin.
