Chapter 13 Summary

Aydan was abruptly reassociated from an ætherwalk when ÆON predicted an imminent loss of connection. Æ couldn’t determine what happened, only that it felt “cold.” Troubleshooting the issue, Aydan went to check if e was the only one affected. It went next door to 7’s room.

Having been experiencing the same problem longer than Aydan has, 7 agreed to help troubleshoot. They establish a hardwire connection between their systems to communicate better. 7 reported having this issue for some time, and at the moment couldn’t even reach her own familiar construct, 5. Aydan suggested looking at the local network relay, and 7, eager to get a look inside it, took her repair kit and opens up the access panel in the hallway ceiling.

A risky decision to partially disconnect the transmitter yielded no new insight, but did catch the attention of the academy’s security systems. The two quickly received an Admin warning and their magnetic boots were remotely activated to detain them in place. Third year students arrive to escort 7 and Aydan to the Administration building, where Admin Vanitas, mother of 7☆, confronted them both in an interrogation room for the act of tampering with Academy hardware.

Against 7’s wishes, Aydan tried to take the blame for the incident. Vanitas then separated the two, leaving Aydan alone. There, ze heard a familiar voice in hir head, and an avatar appeared before fær eyes--the technopath Unas, leader of Sector NULL--somehow appearing æthereally to Aydan from inside a Faraday cage. Unas taunted Aydan, easily overcame his resistance, and forcibly dissociated her in the æther as a show of power. Aydan resurfaced and Unas disappeared again as Admin Vanitas returned, and Aydan immediately told the Admin they were under attack.

Aydan told Admin Vanitas about the Chosen of ÆON, and of Sector NULL and the events that transpired at the gathering. She was aware of them both, and asked if Aydan had any idea who could be the vessel of the exopath NULL, but ey had no idea. Vanitas went to confer with the other Admins. When Aydan was alone, Unas appeared once again. In another display of power, Unas predicted Admin Vanitas would return in exactly 7 seconds, and then the spectre vanished again.

Vanitas returned, exactly when foretold, and took Aydan’s interface collar for a diagnostic, just as Unas predicted she would. Vanitas ordered Aydan and 7 to work for the maintenance crew for a month as punishment for unauthorized hardware access and sent them away, after telling Aydan not to involve 7 in the trouble a gets into.

Aydan received a loan interface collar from the Academy, but hesitated to connect it to ÆON’s root device. Instead, per wrote a chat program for the primitive device and re-established contact that way. Aydan and ÆON speculated that the connection issue could have been a trap by Sector NULL to allow a construct of Unas to be uploaded to Aydan’s system. They resolved to prioritize their defenses and to make sure to keep 7 from getting dragged into it.

Another day, while working with the engineering crew, Aydan encountered a girl in the elevator who gave xer a copy of the new album by Pulse. Skeptical of the gift, Aydan downloaded it into a quarantined directory and later consulted with ÆON Club. They decided to listen to the album together, with precautions.