✴

“You are ÆON,” you say.

[ÆON liked that]

“You understand,” Æ says.

“I don’t even begin to understand you. But I try,” you say.

“You do. More than you think. I know your mind.”

“But why me, ÆON? I’ve never understood. You needed a vessel, maybe to hide from your pursuers, to learn and adapt to our society, I get that, but it could have been anyone on that shuttle. Why me?”

“You are Aydan.”

You sit up, looking into the mesmerizing avatar of darkness and starlight. Æ looks back at you, echolalially mirroring your avatar’s facial expressions.

“Yeah, well, there’s no denying that,” you say. “I guess I’m your messenger.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re my exopath,” you say. “Of course, you’re your own exopath, you can leave anytime you want.”

“That is why I stay,” Æ says. “And if I was separated from Aydan, I would be lonely.”

“Well, I’m happy you’re in my life,” you say. “Even with all the danger and trouble it causes, I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

You embrace Ær avatar around the neck, and it mirrors you and hugs you back. But its avatar seeps into your own--your auras blend around the edges. Before you can fully resynchronize, you pull apart, leaving only your hand partially blended with Ærs.

“Hope I can hold onto a little of your synchronization skill when I have my therapy session with Akiko,” you say. “You’re so good at that.”

“I do not understand how it is difficult for humanoids.”

“Probably our troublesome individualistic thinking,” you say. “When we sync I can see things your way. The whole æther as one interconnected body, a network without servers.”

“I can see a little of your subjectivity as well,” Æ says. “It feels confining, limiting.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure what the upsides are.” You dispel your gravity well and push yourself up off of the couch. “Anyway, I should reassociate. Feels like I’ve been in the æther for months. I’m probably dead. Nah, Zeta would’ve come to my room if I had missed class.”

“Have a good surfacewalk,” ÆON says.

“Thanks. Have fun doing ÆON things.”

You let go, falling back on your path, out through the narrow passageway from ÆON’s root device back to your own system.

🌗

You open your eyes to only minimal light of the Sun passing by the edges of your window’s dark curtain.

Breathe, you remember. Breath is life. The colony’s spin pulls hard on you with its familiar Lunar gravity on your floor. You sit up and turn your head--spinward, antispinward--you get your bearings from your vestibular sense. You take a drink from your water bottle. Then you check the time.

2254-11-18 21:05:22

All those eons wandering in the deep æther’s strange realms, the infinite tower, your capture and release, it was less than four hours. Your friends are probably even still awake.

2254-11-18 21:05:29 Aydan > surface!

2254-11-18 21:05:36 明子 > welcome back! ^^ I missed you