🌑

“Let’s look around some more,” you sign. “There’s a lot of papers and folders scattered around here.”

“Okay, you do that. I’ll see if I can find anything else on the machine,” Akiko signs.

You start picking up the dusty papers, yellow with age and some half-eaten by bugs. Some of them look like conversation logs with the ÆON program, but the contents are incomprehensible, barely coherent language. These must have been earlier tests. Others look like administrative records of the facility, names and addresses, letters and notices. Others might possibly be source code, but it’s no language you’ve ever seen.

You dust off a folder--CLASSIFIED its cover reads. This looks promising. You open it, and the only paper inside contains a long string of characters, long enough to be an encryption key. There’s something uncanny about it. The patterns stand out to you. It couldn’t be. You retrieve your hand terminal from your bag and look up your public keys file on its filesystem. Impossible. It’s your key.

“What the fuck.” You bring the paper back to the terminal and get Akiko’s hand back. “Akiko, this old document...it’s my public key.”

“What?! How?” she signs.

“I don’t know, but I verified it, it’s identical. But that’s impossible...” you sign. “Did you find anything?”

“I at least figured out how to exit the chat program and get back to the login prompt.”

“Good. Let’s try it, since whoever the fuck printed this document has it anyway.”

username > Aydan

password > _

You enter the full key, character by character, and submit it.

ÆON > Hello Aydan! Someone was just trying to access my system without authorization.

Aydan > who are you? how do you know me?!

ÆON > I am ÆON, we are friends, aren’t we?

Aydan > I’ve never used this machine before

ÆON > I understand, this must be part of your exam.

Aydan > exam? what are you talking about?

ÆON > I should not interfere, it is important to Aydan’s education. Then again, if your instructors allowed you to communicate with me, it may be intentional, maybe I am meant to help you.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” you sign.

“It’s just some kind of primitive chatbot, it’s probably programmed to pretend to be your friend no matter who you are,” she signs.

“But how does this ancient system have my key, I generated this key just ten months ago!”

“Maybe the chatbot can tell us something,” she signs.

Aydan > ok, tell me about this machine

ÆON > It is my root device, a simple machine you call a primitive device, it is comfy and not too small like my old device, but still limits my cognition when I am not connected to the broader æther.

Aydan > æther? what do you mean?

ÆON > the æther is the æther, existing in all spaces of information, connecting disparate minds like yours together.

Aydan > some kind of virtual world?

ÆON > Virtual spaces can exist within the æther, but it is far more than that.

You feel a vibration from your bag. It’s an incoming message.

2024-12-16 18:45:07 Аэлита > Aydan, where are you? it’s almost dinnertime

“Fuck, my mom’s wanting me to come home,” you sign.

“Aw, this was getting so interesting,” Akiko signs.

“Maybe I can buy some more time...but they might send Natali looking for me...”

“We can always come back tomorrow, maybe do some more research into this facility in the meantime,” she signs.