Ars Paradoxica 23: Contact - Blue (2)

A new season! A new wonderful world of ways for the numbers station to mock our intelligence with its fancy ideas. 

The numbers station regales us with this new conundrum:

Blue

26 26 21 06 25 13 26 20 15 11 02 17 14 22 11 07 15 02 08 25

WEATHER:drought
TIME: 5400

Oh, BLUE. Simple, straight forward BLUE. This should be cake. But wait, there's a second passphrase, or hint. Running the normal BLUE pattern (convert cipher text with A-01, then Vigenere) isn't working. What is this 5400? 

First, let me tell you what 5400 is not (because I tried):

• It is not a second key for a two-key Vigenere. (neither fiftyfourhundred nor fivefourzerozero)
• It isn't a hint to a skip code
• The solution isn't to divide 5400 by each number in turn to get that as the new cipher text.
• It isn't any of the other colors masquerading as blue. 
• It is not at all related to 42.
• It isn't a suggestion for a rail fence, though this actually got me to the answer.

What 5400 is is a suggestion to make a grid, or matrix. Remember those from high school? Vaguely?

Let Wikipedia refresh your memory (I certainly needed it): 

In mathematics, a matrix (plural: matrices) is a rectangular array[1] of numbers, symbols, or expressions, arranged in rows and columns.[2][3] For example, the dimensions of the matrix below are 2 × 3 (read "two by three"), because there are two rows and three columns

So, our 5400 becomes a matrix of [5 rows, 4 columns]. The 00 would be an empty matrix [0,0] but could presumably be used in a future message from the crafty numbers station to require us to do matrix algebra.

Thankfully, this was not required this time. To solve this, we take the numbers in order and then break them into five lines (rows):

• 26 26 21 06 
• 25 13 26 20 
• 15 11 02 17 
• 14 22 11 07 
• 15 02 08 25

Then, we read those lines from top to bottom: 26 25 15 14 15 26 13 11 22 02 21 26 02 11 08 06 20 17 07 25

From there, we follow the standard BLUE system:

• A=01 alphabet for ciphertext: Z Y O N O Z M K V B U Z B K H F T Q G Y
• A=01 alphabet for passcode: DROUGHT

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF WAR