"Are you okay?" Jax asked worriedly as Xaiden slumped heavily into the chair by the radio after pacing the room for the umpteenth time
"Nope." Xaiden said simply as he rested his head on the desk, his head turned towards Jax who was sitting on the mattress on the floor, surrounded by the sheets of paper from Xaiden's conversation with Nivra from earlier.
"Are you ready to talk about what happened?" Jax asked.
"Nope." Xaiden shook his head.
"Is it safe to assume she didn't show up?"
"Who knows? Maybe she did and I missed her." Xaiden sighed heavily as he sat up and tapped the desk lightly. "She's supposed to be back on the radio now, but I can't reach her."
"Hmm.. sorry man." Jax sighed and tapped Xaiden lightly on the back. "No worries though, at least we know Reader's still out there. It's kind of crazy to think that a cult based on that book is still thriving on Zenith all these years later."
"Mmhmm.." Xaiden laid his head back on the desk and responded disinterestedly while playing a game on his imprint. He really didn't want to talk or even think anymore after spending most of the day stressed out because of this.
"Based on these coordinates, she must be living off grid somewhere around the Great Tree, huh?"
"Maybe," Xaiden shrugged.
"I heard there were still people who refused to get the imprint, but 'everyone she knows has a radio'? Ha! That truly sounds archaic." Jax continued, tapping the paper he was reading from. "And here I was thinking I was cool for having so many."
"Hmm.." Xaiden murmured, then shot up in excitement. "Oh yeah, did you see the part where she was talking about the frequency or whatever?"
"Yeah, I saw that. She's probably right, I mean, I used the same information from the transcripts we found when I set it up and I believe it's using an old version of FHSS."
"Huh?" Xaiden scratched his head. "Explain it like I'm five."
"Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum" Jax explained. "Basically, this radio can send encrypted transmissions to the target receiver while hopping across frequencies. So when she looked at the frequency, it may have been one she recognized but others wouldn't have been able to access it unless they also had the encryption key and were using the same FHSS code."
"Uh huh.. so basically, her radio is still special since it could receive your transmission? " Xaiden asked.
"For sure!" Jax nodded emphatically. "That was never in question. You know, that could be why you haven't heard from her yet." Jax added thoughtfully. "If she's trying to reach you by using the same frequency from earlier."
"She did mention she hadn't received any of the previous broadcasts until today. Is there a way for her to turn it on or off on her side?"
"Yeah, she has to start out on the same frequency as our device. It should stay synced, but if she's manually changing it, you'd have to wait for it to reset. If she's using the radio as frequently as she implies, then it's no wonder that she never got our broadcast." Jax explained thoughtfully. "The reset is every 12 hours, so who knows when we'll reach her again."
"Man, I really blew our chance of finding the other radio, huh?" Xaiden sighed.
"No, at least you were here when it happened." Jax replied. "And hey, we still know more now than we did before!"
"I guess so." Xaiden shrugged. "Well, I'm going to head home. I'm exhausted."
"Same, still this was fun!" Jax smiled, "Thanks for calling me, sorry I was knocked out during the most interesting parts!" He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, the papers from Xaiden's earlier conversation scattering in the process.
"I'm glad you're feeling better now." Xaiden replied, standing to grab his own bag. "Be sure to get some rest at home too!"
"Yeah, yeah," Jax nodded as he walked up the metal stairs to the cabin above. "I will." Xaiden followed a few steps behind.
Click. Churrr. Bzzzrt.
Jax spun around to lock eyes with Xaiden, both still unsure of what they heard.
"Hey, are you there?!" Nivra's excited voice unmistakably crackled over the radio receiver.