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Aydan > I guess it’s only fair to let you decide that for yourself, or else am I any better than the cult?

[ÆON liked that]

ÆON > Decide for myself...then, I want to come with Aydan and confront the unknown myself.

Aydan > okay. from now on it will be up to you what risks you want to take. Synth may not like it but whatever

ÆON > Thank you Aydan.

Aydan > of course! you’re my friend

Your elevator reaches the wall and opens to the residential block. You’ll have to cross the entire world to reach the Administration building. The 0.3G environment doesn’t bother you much by now, and the path through the garden shines a vibrant green today.

After a journey of many sunrises and sunsets, you reach your destination. Last time you walked in here, it was with an armed escort. With a deep breath, you step inside. In the entryway, walls of thick glass blocks surround you, filtering the ever-drifting sunlight and moonlight and casting geometric patterns across the white tile floor. The thick glass insulates the room from all sound outside--you only hear your own footsteps as you approach the console mounted on the far wall.

Scan your ID to begin

You reach out to scan your hand over the sensor.

Welcome Aydan. Admin Vanitas would like to see you in her office.

The door to your right slides open. Where even are the Admins’ offices? The directory screen on the wall lights up as you pass, pointing you to the elevator. Each screen you look at flashes an arrow to guide you--the entire building watching your every move.

You arrive at the top floor of the circular tower, in a slightly reduced gravity, just enough to feel off. Only four doors surround this central hallway--the elevator, and the rooms: Admin Crypta, Admin Astra, Admin Vanitas.

You can’t see through the blackened windows around Vanitas’s door. But once you approach and the door opens for you, bright light flashes in your eyes. You step inside.

“Aydan of Luna. Come in,” she says.

The door closes behind you. The light was just the Sun passing through the windows behind her desk. Their glass darkens itself to compensate.

The Admin sits facing you, in her long white coat, her face inscribed with the server’s pathways, connecting to the long black braids of her hair.

“Have a seat,” she says. You feel no choice but to comply. Sitting across from her, you glance around her office--vantablack walls like space in the sunlight, displays showing abstract artwork that slowly morphs like a viscous liquid as you observe it. Metal-filled inscriptions on the glass top of her desk trace out the TLA server’s architecture. Speakers fill the room with soft ambient music.

“Um, I’m here for my--”

She slides your terminal across the glass to you. “Of course.”

You pick it up and examine it.

“We had a full diagnostic done, but found nothing wrong with it internally. Though we did confirm your reports of a loss of connection, we have not determined the cause. But the device is safe to use.” Her calm, professional voice is unsettling after the intensity of your last encounter.

“What about what happened in the interrogation room?” you say.

“I was getting to that, yes. The terminal’s logs showed no record of such an encounter as you described. Though there were gaps in the connection log, they are consistent with the moments the door opened and closed, isolating and reconnecting it to the network. We also had a full inspection of the room itself performed and found no evidence of sabotage there. The faraday cage is perfectly intact and no foreign devices were found.”

“Did you learn anything at all?” you say.

“Finding nothing wrong is learning something, nonetheless,” she says. “But there is no trace of this rogue technopath Unas in this device, nor in the physical environment of the encounter. That leaves only one possibility: the other critical component of your system.”

“You mean...” Slowly you lift your hand to point at your own head.

“In your first encounter with that æthercultist, they could have implanted something deeper than your digital components.”

“Oh...”

“Fear not. This is hardly the first time we’ve had to deal with something like that at TLA. For now I’m ordering you to visit Counselor Xi for a full psychological examination,” she says. “Within the next month.”

“Yes, Admin...”

“You may go now.” The door opens. You leave your borrowed terminal on her desk and leave with your own. Once the room is behind you, back in the hallway, your memory of the time inside seems like a dream.