As she flew down the streets, Nova constantly checked her handheld radar for any signs of the strange turquoise return. The chill winds bit into her fur and she turned down a side street, hoping the building would offer some protection from the cold. Her handheld showed the clutter that was so familiar: all the pylons and structures that constantly showed up as echoes and could be turned off at will: she had decided to leave them on. A thought struck her, and she stopped, hovering about twenty feet above the ground. Nova pressed the scan button and watched as it searched.
The communicator in her ear buzzed and clicked on. "Nova, have you got anything?" said Sprx's voice over the radio, crackling with static in the cold metals of her ears.
"No, not yet," she replied, sweeping her eyes over the small street. "I'm hoping that it'll come up after another scan…" Nova stopped short, suddenly alert to the handheld.
There it was. The turquoise return had shown up, still faint, moving back and forth in a far corner of the screen.
"Nova? Are you there?" said the voice over the communicator. "Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong…" murmured Nova. She disconnected the transmission over her radio and boosted power to her jets, streaming down the side street and onto the main street, moving ever closer to the return.
---
Surprised, Sprx looked down at the communicator. "She cut me off" he remarked to no-one in particular. His tail twitched, only slightly annoyed with Nova, but he couldn't stay mad for long. Sighing lightly, he closed the communicator and took off, watching his radar intently.
---
Back on the other side of the city, Nova raced down the streets, narrowly missing buildings and power lines in her rush to find the return. It was fading in and out of radar range and at times she would fly for minutes without any signs of it. Finally she was in very close proximity of the signal, and landed. Curious, she looked up at the building before her…
The library?
"Why would it be coming from the library?" she murmured slowly. Thinking no more of it, she walked up the long marble steps to the front door and pushed on the heavy oak portal. Upon entrance she sighed deeply: the inside was larger than she had thought. Nova's mood dampened to the lowest point of the day and she moved into the shelves to search for the return.
---
"Almost there…" came the voice from behind the computer.
"Otto, remind me again why we've returned? I'm afraid I don't see the point" Gibson dully stated, watching his companion's tail twitch on the floor.
Otto answered him, muffled behind the metal paneling and wires. "I figured if I could boost the signal again the returns might show up better… There!" He crawled out from behind the machine and stood, wiping dust from his fur. The turquoise returns were now slightly brighter, but were flickering rapidly.
"Now what's going on?" groaned the blue monkey. As they watched, the flickering became a shifting and jumping of the picture, then the screen suddenly went blank.
After about a second of black, a downloading window appeared. The loading bar advanced rapidly and soon the screen flashed a simple word: DONE. The radar reading once again appeared, with the returns in full view. Suddenly, they had signals: each with a word and a one-digit number. Only one monkey team member was close to one: the faintest return, Jotunheim 6, was in her close vicinity. Gibson stared in amazement.
"Otto, my friend, it seems you've found some useful information here. Let's send this along to the others" he said, standing at the keyboard and sending the latest readings to his teammates. Otto studied the screen for a moment.
"Is there something amiss?" Gibson continued after the readings had been sent. Otto shook his head.
"No, it's just… It seems like I've seen these names before."