There’s another reason Cleve is driving Cor and the others over the ridge. He’ll return with the excavator we shed on our recent return so that Tenoch’s team has it for their part in the defenses. When Cleve gets back from his little trip, we spend some time in Tenoch’s workshop as their team preps. Cleve will be loaning out his siege worm summoning device, and it behooves the pass team to understand its function as well as they can. To that end, I let them look over my brooch as well. Takuto takes the lead on this project since he has been deciphering more of the Progenitor database he downloaded from the prison block. (Roze has been looking at the database too, but as far as I can tell, they’re mainly having fun with data visualization approaches, rather than digging into the meaning of anything.)
Takuto’s gotten a copy of the data Dr. Citali collected when I reset the bones in my left arm, too, since I was using the aggregator then. The more I’m outside doing whatever it is I can do, the more it seems to me that something more than just miasma is at play when I influence the environment. Miasma might have elements in common with what I manipulate, or it might be a transmitter of that, but the reality is more complex. Takuto finally gives me some official terminology to apply: resonance field. With the reminder that he’s not a biologist or a physicist, he tells me, “It’s like a magnetic field… but something else. Miasma interferes with the resonance field, whatever that actually is. But there’s also a lot of this resonance energy stored in the miasma.”
I summarize, checking my comprehension. “There’s some kind of energy stored in miasma, and that is what my boutonniere and I are somehow accessing?”
“Somehow, yeah,” Takuto agrees. “But this miasma stuff is just blocking all of it. That is, until something can control it.” We know that miasma blocks most electromagnetic signals. This resonance energy isn’t exactly the same, but that conclusion makes sense. I ask Takuto to write up his findings as clearly as he can so that I can share the report around. I don’t know if there will be physicists at the Stepdaughters of Chiron settlement, but there are definitely scientists of other kinds there. Someone might be able to take this research further. Cleve takes an interest in all this as well. I don’t know that he cares terribly much about the science, but since he seems to keep stumbling across Progenitor objects, he wants to be more prepared to deal with them. The three of us work together on the document, making sure it has the most important plots and graphs, as well as explanations of the Progenitor symbols Takuto has figured out. Top on that list are the ones that indicate resonance fields. Never did I think I would have my name on a scientific paper, but there it is on the title page, right after Takuto and Mr. Cleve, published by the Data Haven Progenitor Lab.
One other thing we take care of before departing for the Stepdaughters of Chiron is a new cane for me. Cleve had helped me locate a sizable growth of shelftop, the fungus that Shilp recommended, and while Takuto is busy with his Progenitor tech research, Tenoch and Arx do the crafting. I provide sketches of the old one, since I do quite like the L-shape, and Tenoch takes precise measurements. They’re also able to give it a similar metal core, reinforcing it in a manner that can be useful in any number of situations in which one might find oneself. The old cane was a black lacquered wood; this one is the slate gray of shelftop, so I’m going to have to think about working some more subtle blues into my outfits once I’m back to dress shirts and blazers. The black was neutral enough to go with anything, but this color will require some consideration. I’m really happy with it, though. It’s professionally done and looks Earth-quality. Not to be a snob or anything, but some of the hobbled-together items around Data Haven are pretty slapdash. Functional, but not art. This… this is nice. And there’s something more… it feels connected to Chiron on some level. I might be able to work with this, in a different way than the boutonniere, but still…