Lenn frowned at her screen. While different interpretations could be made of the subject’s vision, the gist was inescapable. Up until then, children who had undergone the HRS had been seemingly immune to the outbreak of the malfunctions. The leading explanation was that having the HRS in place from a young age, with greater neural plasticity, led to better integration of the HRS with the children’s brains. This may have protected them from the virus. But Keifern’s vision seemed to suggest that children were no longer safe from neural malfunctioning.
‘The malfunctioning was necessary’? What could that mean? She rubbed her forehead. How could any malfunctioning be necessary?
She eyed the algorithm before her, now newly updated with the data from the newest vision. Despite the pressured ball of tightness within her chest, she felt a glint of hope. Together with her team of AI and human data analysts, she had been mapping and tracking the occurrences of visions, to identify patterns in the occurrence rate, location, demographics and timing of the visions and their recipients. The Ether relied on digital platforms to connect with them, so she was sure that the Ether was using a digital algorithm to choose its recipients. Even if the Ether were choosing recipients at random, she was convinced that it wouldn’t be through true randomness, and that she would be able to identify the randomisation algorithm used.
After they had incorporated information from the previous vision, the fifth one on record, they had finally detected a pattern. They had developed a rough algorithm and made a tentative prediction of when and where the next vision would happen. When Keifern’s vision occurred, they were exhilarated to find that they were only slightly off-base. Their data and predictions seemed on track.
With the data from Keifern’s vision, they would be able to further fine-tune the predictive model. They actually had a decent shot at this, she realised, a thrill running through her body. She stared at the programme before her, still running the algorithm to identify the possible next location, recipient, time and date of the next vision.
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Excitement tingling her fingertips, she sent a message to the rest of the team, checking in on their progress. Once they had identified the next recipient, they would seek permission to be with the recipient before the vision occurred. With their neural monitoring technology, they would be able to observe the recipient’s neural activity in real time. When the vision happened, they could possibly identify some sort of neural interference or unique signature which they could attempt to trace. The neural activation patterns of past recipients had always been studied after the vision. With real-time monitoring, she hoped to get enough information to reverse engineer the Ether’s digital door into the recipient’s mind. So they could open a door into the Ether’s consciousness. From there, they could demand some direct answers from the Ether.
It was an ambitious hail mary of a project, but one which was finally okayed by her superiors. They were getting desperate, after all. Based on the increasing rate of infection, they had a full ten months before most of their past and current clients would experience neural malfunctioning.
She stared at the countdown on the algorithm programme. Another 4 minutes or so to the results. Lenn pushed her chair back, took a sip from her mug and forced herself to focus on the different sensations she experienced. She relied heavily on mindfulness exercises these days.
Her eyes sprung open at the first beep from the computer. It was done. She sucked in a breath, and read the lines displayed. The next vision would occur in three months or so, to a person called Pri. Lenn stared at the information, her mouth slightly open. It was done.
And this time, the data was precise. They had identified a specific recipient, on a specific date.
Her thoughts raced ahead. It might give them a decent shot at tracing the origins of the Ether. They could possibly seek it out in its own realm.
The messages started pouring in from her team members, who had been monitoring the programme as well. Lenn chuckled as she read the flood of messages. There were delighted congratulations, exuberant exclamations of victory, and cautious optimism. She allowed herself to use a few more exclamation points than she was generally comfortable with. “WE DID IT!!!”