🌘

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 that pathway through the network, if you can extend your perception far enough.

But Zeta thought of that. Each of these images is simultaneously projecting the same command to render each of the others. In fact, all of them are being rendered and commanding the rendering of each other one, a symmetrical chain. You scan them each for any difference, and you realize the commands are occurring in a regular pattern each frame. The pattern is temporally stable, and theoretically you could trace it back to an origin point if you know the moment the program was cast. The processor log and some simple math should be able to tell you.

You also notice a pattern in space as well as time. If you drew a line tracing the order of action between them, it would not be evenly distributed like a regular star, but it would be weighted toward one end, tending to jump between the images on that side to the far side and back. You think Zeta might subconsciously order the pattern this way centering itself, but it might also consciously create this pattern to distract you.

“Time’s up, Aydan, where am I?” all of the Zetas say in perfect unison.