by S. E. Weir
>>For most languages, each word or set of sounds has a meaning attached to it, which is how the computer knows to translate the words. Just add what each word means, and the translation is automatically given. This language is different.<<
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Phina smiled, but she thought about his words. “What makes this different? Is it just that it’s music?”
>>I don’t believe so. The music seems to elicit an emotional response from you, which also translates into pictures in your mind from what you’ve said. There is no way to quantify an emotional response, and currently, we have no way to easily translate pictures into words since they require context and subjective evaluation of their meaning.<<
“Hmm.” Phina moved a little as she listened, thinking about the different notes and how she responded to them.
“ADAM, I don’t know much about how music works, but there seem to be three sets of notes within the music. What do you think about separating them and seeing what response each gives me?”
>>It’s worth a try.<<
Within seconds, only the low notes were playing, throbbing through her with a tug. Basic emotions and pictures entered her head as she opened herself up.
Help us. Help us. Come and see. Help. Help. Come. Help. Help. Come.
She was pulled into the words, and she repeated them until the music stopped. Staggering a step, she plopped onto her bed, bracing herself on her hands. “Whoa. That was intense.”
>>You seemed to be caught in the music. Stuck.<<
“I felt stuck. There must be some sort of compulsion attached to it that the rest of the music mitigates. How did you know I was stuck?”
>>You didn’t answer me.<<
Phina cringed at the power of the sounds she had heard. “I didn’t even hear you.”
>>That appeared to be the case.<<
Letting out a breath, she tried to shake off the chills and focus. “Ok, so we know that part of the music and the language are basic messages that try to take root in us and can turn us into zombies.”
>>I don’t think it would have gotten that far.<<
“What do you mean, ADAM?”
>>You might have gotten stuck within the message, but you weren’t doing anything. You were standing still.<<
Phina slowly nodded. “Ah. A different thing altogether, then.”
>>Yes.<<
ADAM’s matter-of-fact answers calmed her and gave her the courage to move on. “All right. So, lower notes are the wake-up call to pay attention, and they convey the basics of the message. Let’s see what the middle notes convey.”
Within seconds, emotion overwhelmed her, and she collapsed into a ball on the bed, tears streaming down her face. Still, she knew she had to speak.
“Don’t stop…ADAM. Give me…time…to process it.”
Agony, heartbreak, elation, and hope intertwined to convey a complex mix that changed every so often. Once she thought she had the flow of it, she waved a trembling hand.
“That’s enough for now, ADAM.”
The music stopped immediately.
>>Are you all right, Phina?<<
Choking with sobbing laughter, Phina wiped her eyes. “Just like a man, ADAM. Thanks for that.”
>>Should I call Alina?<<
She rubbed her chest and inhaled and exhaled slowly to calm down. “No, but that’s better, thank you.”
>>Of course.<< Though ADAM spoke with a stoic sound rather than the natural cadence of a human, Phina detected a note of concern in his voice. She closed her eyes as she lay on the bed and just breathed for a few minutes.
“So, the middle tones are all emotion, designed to elicit an emotional reaction to the message given through the other tracks.” She stretched out her arms as she thought, trying to loosen the muscles that had been pulled tight in her distress. Gradually, she loosened up the rest of her body.
“ADAM, do you think we could just use the last track for the translation since those two seem to be more visceral?”
>>It’s a possibility. Ready for me to play it?<<
After one last stretch, she shook herself, then breathed deeply. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Higher tones wove through the air. Please, we need help. The land is dying. We have very little food and water. Our people are starving. Our children are crying in pain. Can you hear? We need help. Won’t you please help us? Even just our children—please! Why can’t anyone ever hear us? We need help!
The melody was on the thin and thready side, but without the bass and mid-tones, it was a basic message and didn’t pull at her or give her the emotional response.
Bingo!
“ADAM, I think we’ve got the first piece!”
>>So, the program first needs to strip out the mid- and low tones.<<
Phina was happy to have figured it out. Taking away the other tones would help keep everyone from being hypnotized. She shuddered when she realized she hadn’t been in control of her body, although she was elated to have figured out how to program the translation.
“Yes!”
Her mind turned to the next step, and there she drew a blank.
“What if…no, that wouldn’t work. Perhaps… No, that wouldn’t work either.”
Phina shook her head and fell back on the bed, bouncing slightly on the mattress. After several more minutes with a lack of thoughts and direction as to what the next step might be, she gave up.
“ADAM, any thoughts?”
>>Perhaps, since this involves music, we should invite in a professional?<<
Phina’s face cleared and brightened with her change in mood. “Of course! Awesome suggestion, ADAM!”
She knew just who they needed.
Chapter Nine
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Training Room
“Again!”
Phina dodged Maxim’s fist, and the blow flew past her face. After returning the punch and having it blocked, she brought up her knee, which was blocked as well. It caused a burst of anger to ignite within her, giving her more of an edge as she whirled to the side, backhanded, and punched, then kneed him in the groin.
One of her blows got through, though she was certain Maxim wished it hadn’t. While he gasped and cringed, Phina took advantage of it by grabbing his arm and sweeping his legs out from under him. Since he hadn’t adjusted himself after the last strategic blow, he toppled over nicely, allowing her to twist his arm up behind his back.
Unfortunately, Maxim had regained his senses. He tensed and flexed his muscles, pulling back on his arm while his tight muscles weakened her grip. A sharp lunge to the side powered by his loose arm and core muscles allowed him to pull out of the hold. Knowing it would be much harder to escape after he grabbed her, she sprang into a backflip to get some distance.
Sensing her moment had come as he pushed himself upright, Phina ran forward and jumped, bringing her legs up into a pike around Maxim’s neck. She grabbed his shirt, then flung herself around to use the momentum. Since he hadn’t had a chance to steady himself or adjust into a stance that could keep his center of gravity upright, he overbalanced with her, tumbling to the floor with her on top.
Phina had meant to move before Maxim hit the floor, but his hands had instinctively come up to grab her ankles. Which is the danger, Phina thought with disgust, of doing flashier moves. You can’t compensate for everything when you are flying through the air. Still, she wasn’t about to give up. Not yet.
Since she had landed on her back on top of him, with her head toward his feet and her feet by his head, her position wasn’t ideal.
Especially not with the boyfriend of her best friend.
Moving as quickly as she could, she tensed her core, exercised her flexibility and the muscles she had been training to achieve, and pulled herself up so that she stood on top of him, with him holding her up. Maxim pulled his hands apart to throw her off-balance, but although she wobbled and her core muscles protested, she managed to keep herself upright while doing a split.
Thank you, g
ymnastics.
Unfortunately for Maxim, this brought his head in reach of her hands. Flattening her palms, she brought them in on his ears with a quick blow, causing him to let go in shock and begin cursing in Russian. Her body sprawled on his chest.
Awkward.
Wanting to remove herself as quickly as possible, Phina jumped up into a crouch with her legs on either side of his chest, then dove into a roll over his head that turned into a twist so she could see what Maxim would do next. She froze.
“You’re laughing at me again.”
After a few more chuckles, he rolled over and pushed up, causing Phina to stand as well. His eyes met hers with amusement.
“Of course! That was one of the best sequences you’ve run, and best of all, you didn’t hesitate, you didn’t question, you just reacted.”
Phina blinked and relaxed her stance. “That sounds like a good thing, so why are you laughing?”
“Because you are still acting like it’s not a big deal.” He shook his head and crossed his arms as he looked at her questioningly. She shrugged.
“I’m assessing and problem-solving. It’s more fun with sparring.”
That thought caused her to freeze while she ran through an assessment of her body. She felt good—loose and relaxed, not like she had been working hard. Her brain was focused and came together with her body to move as she needed to. She felt really good, like she could keep going. Her eyes widened. Fighting had begun to feel like fun. She enjoyed getting her body moving. When had that happened?
“Maxim?”
He looked at her curiously.
“There’s something going on with me. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I could run and fight for…a long time. Hours, maybe, before I got really tired.”
He stilled, and Phina could see his mind working. She didn’t bother trying to sense his emotions or intentions. She was already bombarded with them now that she wasn’t focused on fighting. Over the last couple of days, her sensing had gotten worse. She hadn’t been able to sleep well, either. She absently wondered if she would still have the endurance to fight for hours if she failed to get sleep for a few days. There had to be a limit somewhere.
“That’s it.”
Phina snapped her head up to meet Maxim’s gaze again. He looked excited.
“What’s it?”
“We need to test your limits. If you want to figure out what’s happening to you, you need to know what you can do.”
Well, that made sense. “Were you reading my mind?”
He looked confused. “What?”
“I was thinking that there had to be a limit, and you just said we needed to test my limits. Was that a coincidence?”
Maxim’s brow furrowed, and he looked at her in concern. “Phina, you said that out loud.”
“I did?”
“Yes. I definitely can’t read minds.”
Phina could, sort of, and her senses were telling her he wasn’t lying. That was always a good thing. Definitely a good thing.
“I would say so. I would hate to hear what people are thinking all the time. It would drive anyone mad.”
Argh! She had spoken out loud again. Since Phina could sort of read minds, was she going mad? She didn’t want to. She clutched her head, feeling like there was something wrong. Arms wrapped around her and patted her back.
“You aren’t going mad, Phina. Don’t worry. We will figure it out.”
When she lifted her head, she saw he was serious about the offer, so she nodded. “Can we just fight for a while so I can forget everything that’s going wrong at the moment?”
He grinned, though it was strained with concern for her. “Of course.”
They circled each other, then fell into their stances and began to move. Phina gloried in how her body felt, occasionally flipping and tumbling but mostly blocking and fighting. This was what she needed. It felt good. It felt right.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Addison Stone’s Office
“This is amazing!”
Addison Stone’s awe and excitement about Phina’s findings were infectious—and exhausting. Phina didn’t know what it said about her that she could dance and spar for well over an hour with little break and be ready for more, but fifteen minutes with this woman in her current state wore her out. After her revelation, Addison had become a raging fangirl.
“I can’t believe the progress you’ve made!” Her teacher’s face had lit up, her smile widening as she grew more excited.
Or perhaps Phina just didn’t want to think about what her fatigue threshold said about her.
“Thank you, Ms. Stone,” Phina repeated for what felt like the twentieth time.
“Of course, of course.”
Normally, her music teacher was cool, collected, and had an interesting teaching style. Somehow, Phina’s news had turned her into a fangirl every bit as excited and intense about music as Alina was about men. Or had been. Thankfully, since Maxim and Alina had admitted their feelings for each other, the verbal enthusiasm for random males had condensed to just one. Phina thought she could handle that.
She wasn’t sure she could handle much more of Addison’s fangirl routine, though. She needed to get the woman to focus.
“So, what do you think the next step should be? We separated the tones and narrowed it down to just needing the top melody for verbal translations. It won’t carry the same impact, but it will get the point across.”
Addison Stone’s lined face crinkled in thought, and she was silent for a few moments. Her skin was lined but clear of other signs of aging, aside from the mix of gray and blond in her hair. She sat still, without the buzz of energy she’d had earlier, which was a relief.
Addison finally stirred. “Why don’t we see how many notes it takes to form each image? That way, we can see how much of this language can be broken down to individual notes and phrases.”
Phina shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
Meredith played the music over and over, one additional note at a time until Phina received the first message, then the second, until she finished. When she opened her eyes and looked at Addison, she saw that her teacher didn’t appear to be paying attention but had been looking at her tablet. It was rude and confusing since Addison had been excited not that long ago.
“May I ask what you are doing?”
Phina tried to keep her voice even, but she didn’t think she succeeded. Her teacher looked up in surprise, which made Phina think the woman had forgotten she was there.
“Oh, I’m just plotting the notes here on my tablet, marking which ones are grouped into which messages and what they mean from your interpretation.”
“May I see?”
“Of course. Just give me a moment to finish.”
After the allotted time, Phina studied the tablet in her hand and looked at the dots, lines, and squiggles in confusion. She had never learned to read music, which made her abilities a lot more difficult to utilize in this instance. Sighing, Phina turned to her teacher.
“Would you be able to give me a quick music lesson? I need to understand the basics to know what I’m seeing.”
Surprise and pleasure lit the woman’s eyes. Yes, she loved being a teacher. “Of course.”
After explaining the musical scale and showing Phina the markings on the score sheet that aligned with the notes she heard, Addison’s eyes widened.
“Do you really understand everything I just taught you? Enough to recall it and apply it?”
Phina tilted her head and pursed her lips, considering. “It works that way for what I read and often what I hear, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be the case here.”
Her teacher looked intrigued and speculative, and she fired question after question at Phina about what she had just learned. Finally, she shook her head in amazement. “That’s extraordinary.”
Phina shrugged and moved on to the next step. Now that she had the basics of understanding musical notations and how her teacher had recorded the melody, she could
see the sequences and patterns. They really had to come up with a name for it soon since it was driving her batty not to have one.
After several moments of running through it in her head and matching it to the sounds, Phina sighed and put the tablet on her teacher’s desk, then leaned forward to rub her face.
“Long day?”
She looked up to see her teacher gazing at her sympathetically. That was nice. Phina still wasn’t used to letting people in, but this situation was weighing her down. And the more she thought about it, the more scared she got that they would be too late, and the angrier she got that it had happened.
“I see dead children in my head. I see emaciated and starving people because they don’t have enough to eat. We need to figure this out because otherwise, these people will die if they haven’t yet, and there will be nothing left of them. It’s not right! There’s just so much going on, and I don’t know what to do with all of it.”
Addison sat stunned for a moment, then blinked and gently took Phina’s hand in both of hers.
“Phina, we don’t know why you have the ability to understand this language or the burden of the knowledge conveyed. We just know it’s something we need to do. If you hadn’t figured it out, they definitely would all be dead. Now we have a chance. Don’t give up or despair. Believe that we can do this.”
Closing her eyes tightly, Phina acknowledged that Addison’s words made sense. However, part of what made this difficult for her was not knowing why these changes to her body had happened. She needed to have a sit-down with ADAM soon and see if she could wheedle some answers out of him. Whining was for those who were weak, and she had never been weak.
Nodding, she gave Addison a small smile. “Thank you.”
The older woman returned the smile and squeezed her hand in encouragement before letting go. Straightening, she turned her gaze to the tablet on the desk.
“Did you get any further?”
Phina shook her head. “Some progress, but not enough. It feels like we are missing something that will help it make sense—a connector of some kind. I know when it changes because I hear it, but the translator won’t hear that change. It will be like all the words condensed together with no spaces. There’s just nothing to anchor it.”