2254-07-18 (Lunar Traditional Calendar™)
A month has passed since your æthereal encounter with Unas, NULL, and its unidentified host. Through the best efforts of Zeta, Akiko, and yourself, you are still no closer to identifying...
“What do they say?” you ask Ida.
“Well, some say she’s the daughter of Admin Vanitas, and she was trained from a very young age to be a powerful technopath, so of course she’d be better than any of us contractors...”
“Is that so?” you say, looking up...
Running some ObTech and SysTech programs, you generate an archive that outwardly matches the parameters of the target file, but contains a script to manifest an æthereal construct at your command. Then you try to put up a convincing show of defending...
“You don’t look so good,” you say. “It’s okay to rest sometimes.”
[7 liked that]
“I...guess so,” she says.
“Class is nearly over, regardless,” Professor Haze says, standing behind you and looking æthereal with their flowing sheer black skirt covering...
You leave 7 alone and head to the opposite elevator. The Obfuscation school building isn’t far from the Administration building and your meeting spot on its roof. You step out just as the shadow of night falls on the academic block. By the time you...
“Sure, sounds great!” you say.
[Zeta liked that]
“Great, great,” it says. “My Obfuscation’s pretty good, been obfuscating myself a long time.”
You hear someone ascending the ladder. Akiko climbs up onto the roof. You and Zeta both wave excitedly.
“Report...
“Their help would be invaluable, we should…in case something happens during the test,” you sign. “But, no, if we did it now and failed, it will only tip off the NULL people that I’m onto them…so, I have no idea what we should do…”
“Unusually indecisive...
You try to reach ÆON. Your sensory input is being blocked, but maybe you can get a signal out.
The static flooding your vision turns to a shimmering gold light. You feel ÆON’s protection surround you, and the world around you starts to reappear. You...
“I don’t like being threatened and stalked by several cults!” you say.
“You don’t understand anything Aydan,” Synth says.
“Because you don’t tell me anything!” you say. “And then I see you with this Unas, creating an exopath to hunt me down…”
They...
“Who is the vessel of NULL?” you sign.
“Getting right to it I see,” Synth signs. “You won’t like my answers, but CommSpec here should be able to scan me and detect if I’m lying, right?”
She nods.
“Okay, so the vessel…I have no idea,” they sign.
“Really?...
“Tell me more about the Admins,” you say.
“Even after two years, I still don’t know much more than anyone else,” Synth says. “There’s Crypta, Astra, and Vanitas. They rarely interact with the students directly, and when they do, they usually speak as...
“I’m concerned that I’ll be attacked during the midterm exam,” you say.
“Yeah, that would fit the Chosen of ÆON’s pattern,” Synth says. “Still, it would be very difficult. Only you and the professors and Admins will know the time of your exam, and when...
“I’d feel better if I understood why you’re so sure ÆON is such a danger,” you say.
Synth thinks about this. “I can’t make you understand something outside of your experience with words alone. Maybe a CommSpec could. But the EvoSpec way would be to...
After your not-so-secret meeting, you join Zeta in the Evocation School tower, the tallest structure in the colony. It led you here to an elevator with little explanation.
“We’re going to practice Obfuscation in the Evo building?” you say.
“Best...
You take Zeta’s hand and release your electromagnets. Following its lead, you gently push yourself off the floor to drift slowly away from solid ground. The openness of this place is nothing like being in microgravity in a cramped spacecraft. Your...
“I have a younger sibling, but, well…I used to have a younger sibling, I mean,” you say. “I don’t actually know for sure.”
“Oh no,” Zeta says. “I’m sorry.”
“It was years ago. He just vanished one day. Got separated from us and that was that…”
“That’s...
Relying on your awareness, you try to perceive what lies beyond the echoes. Every æthereal projection in TLA originates from the core processor, and from there it originates from a command sent from a specific source. It should be possible to trace...
You decide to place your trust in math, and let the core processor log guide you back to the first command in the chain. Then it’s a simple matter of tracing a path along the pattern through space and time. You find the first instance, and pinpoint it...
"Wow, you're really good at ObTech! I'm impressed," you say.
“Do you think so? Maybe I should specialize in it,” Zeta says. “But I also like SysTech, especially interfacing with unusual or outdated system architectures. And I want to learn how to...
“Sure, why not?”
[Zeta liked that]
Before you can even finish your sentence, Zeta pulls up on the handle and turns it, causing a sudden hiss of depressurization. It pulls the hatch in.
You’re near the “top” of the tower, where an enormous steel cable...
You don’t feel the need to say anything. It’s quiet up here on top of the world, or rather in the middle of it. Soon enough you’ll start doing microgravity training, and eventually EVA training, and experience situations like this more often. You...