✴

“NULL existed in 7’s system for months,” you say. “She didn’t understand what it was, but she managed to keep it under control all that time, mostly. If anyone knows how to stop it, she would.”

“Unfortunately we left that girl in surfaceshock on the other end of the module, I don’t think she’ll be telling us anything useful right now,” Admin Crypta says.

“No, a part of her is right here, even if we can’t reach her. 7 told me Admin Vanitas is a star, and 5 is a moon. What was she trying to express? A moon is tiny, insignificant, in front of the blinding light of a star you might not see it at all. But when its star is far away, the smallest moon can eclipse the most massive star!” you say.

“The ramblings of a surfaceshocked technopath,” Crypta says.

“And she gave me this file!” You grasp the data in your avatar hand--an encryption key, to what you have no idea.

“Let me see that,” the Admin says.

You share a copy of it with her.

“Interesting...” she says.

“Can it help us?!” you say.

“I have been analyzing the exopath’s aura of nullification. It is fundamentally some kind of encryption algorithm, or rather, thousands upon thousands of encryption algorithms, each of them like no cryptography I’ve ever seen. This file your friend gave you is a key, I have no doubt, but it does not seem to decrypt a single layer of NULL’s aura.”

“Then it must be 5’s key!” you say. “I can use this to reach 5...could she help us somehow?”

“Or it’s a random file given to you by a girl in a psychotic haze!” Crypta says.

“No! I’m sure of it, 5 is in there, and I’m going to try to reach her!”

“The foolhardiness of a Lunatic,” Admin Crypta says. “But since I cannot destroy this threat to my colony outright, I may as well help you. Synthesis, sync with me. Right now you can see layers of the æther that I cannot. We must penetrate the exopath’s anti-technopathy aura, enough for Aydan to get a message to the mind it shrouds.”

“Yes, Admin!” says the blended, united mind of the Synthesystem. They glide across the ætherfog and join with Admin Crypta in a flash of seven colors. The resulting avatar--skin of gold and wiry metal hair of silver, five eyes glowing with a gradient of colors your mind has no name for, wings of optical fiber flowing behind, an aura of copper color gleaming green as electric arcs expand outward from their& synchronized mind.

They& linger behind you in the æther. Extending their arms, they weave a vortex in front of you, tearing open a hole in the impenetrable static--a tiny hole, but enough to observe what lies behind it--æther untouched by anything beyond its avatar--impossibly dark and cold.

“Every moment it pushes back on me&! Hurry, Aydan!” Crypthesis says. “Akiko of Atarachiba! Zeta of Archæasteri! You must protect Aydan at all costs! It’s going to need her full focus to have a chance at this!”

“Yes, Admin!” Akiko signs.

“Nothing will even touch Aydan while I’m alive!” Zeta says.

Wasting not a moment, you calm yourself of all anxiety, fear, uncertainty, regret--you let your guard fall and put your life in your companions’ care--you commit your mind to a singular purpose, and enter the vortex of darkness.

You are crossing a very narrow bridge, made of nothing. Left, right, above, and below, only death--you must not stray from your path. You don’t dare to look back, lest you lose your way. Forward--into the dark.

On and on, space immeasurable, time uncountable. A single photon reaches your perception. Forward--a faint star shines in the æther. Forward--a pale green aura. Forward--a pink glow within the aura.

You lock your focus onto that star and send the mysterious key file. She takes shape--girl of glass, clothed in diffracted light.

“Aydan...” 5 says, standing at the far end of the very narrow bridge.

“5... You remember me, good.”

“You were my friend...I think...”

“I hope I was!”

“You were her friend...” 5 says.

“7?”

“My old friend...before...before...”

“She’s still here! Not with me, but she’s being taken care of...” you say.

“She’s been gone...forever...” 5 says.

“She’s not gone! You’ve just been lost...”

“I have always been here...”

“No, you still remember 7, so you can’t have always been here,” you say.

“7... You were her friend...the only one who tried to be her friend...the only one who tried to know me...” 5 says.

“You’re lonely,” you say. “You wanted to get to know the people around 7, but communicating was hard. It was hard for 7, she couldn’t have taught you how.”

“No, we were never lonely,” she says. “We were always together. But my new friend, this one who I’m always with now, it knows true loneliness. It knows only separation, destruction, catastrophe...”

“NULL is what we call it,” you say.

“It entered our system, but only I could talk to it. 7 couldn’t even perceive it, and I couldn’t explain it to her. She thought there was something wrong with me. It didn’t want to hurt us. This is all it knows...”

“Is there anything you can do? Can you control or restrain it?” you say.

“Not now. Not when we are this close to our target.”

“7 seemed to believe you could!” you say. “She said you’re a moon, and Vanitas is a star. She said ‘seek the warp, avoid the plex. 15.’ Does that make sense to you?”

“15 is one gate to the warp. 5 is the other,” she says.

“Well I already found 5, what is 15?” you say.

“7 associated prime numbers with her creations, semiprimes to external people, those few she trusted. Aydan is 15.”

“I think I understand, 7...” you say. “5! Synchronize with me...”