Fractals unfold before her eyes as Rei finally completes the repairs to her computer. It is nearly two weeks since the journey began, and much has happened, and very little has happened. Sea voyages are like that. Two weeks in, and she finally fixes the computer, boots it up, and observes the spinning Stochastic fractal imagery.
And there it is. The eye-watering, stomach-wrenching visual language of the journal of Inase Spark. An angle. An intersection. A pair of sweeping lines.
The command prompt.
Her hands fly across the keyboard accompanied by the sound of rapid typing. On the screen, the message appears, though not in words: Father, we need to talk.
8 comments:
Yes, Mikomi. We should talk.
Why haven't you found me yet?
I have.
I found you.
We talked, face to face.
You'd given up. Gone to ground. I think you were a little unstable. You were trying to re-engineer sexual reproduction into a test population made from your own DNA. You hoped that the cataclysm that's coming would pass you by in the wreck of the Bosphorous.
...Nero found you about the same time that I did. It didn't go well. He told me... things. Things about me, and about him, and about the Enemy. Things I need answers for.
We talked?
Then why hasn't the project been fulfilled? Why haven't you arrived at your potential? Or have you? I am blind here in my mathematical maze.
I was... sexual reproduction? Never mind. I must not focus on things I cannot possibly influence.
Everything I know is Project Scion and you, Mikomi, my hope.
Ask your questions.
Arrived at my potential? Do you mean the strange abilities? Summoning fire, making shadow-figments of myself, cloaking myself in darkness, DisLocating without ever having used a DisLocator?
Is that what you intended to make?
Nero said that we were made out of the Enemy. That we were at least half Enemy. Afterwards, after I escaped, I gained access to the ship's network and a hologram you'd prepared helped me to perform a scan of the planet for Enemy signatures. In addition to the large number of signals scattered throughout our cities, there was a large mass in orbit, and two signals in the wreck of the Bosphorous. One of them corresponded to my location. And then later, Kiyoshi's First Mind sword, Keibatsu, showed the final proof. It has a hunger that comes out when it's used against the enemy, and its hunger came out when I touched it.
Tell me this isn't true. Tell me there's some other explanation. Or tell me why you made me out of... Them. Why would anyone do such a thing?
Strange abilities? I suppose such things are possible. We are in territory that has never been mapped my child. But no the abilities are not what I mean by your potential.
You are like a key, Mikomi, to unlocking the mystery that is the Enemy. Unless I have failed. Within your blood you have their nature, so from you it should be possible to learn what they are like. Perhaps, it is even a distant possibility, that they would accept you as one of their own, if you revealed yourself.
It is true. I knowingly made you of a substance with the Enemy. But only because I believe it is the best hope for our species. The Enemy will find us, eventually. No matter how we hide. I had to try something...
Their nature? What do you mean by that?
I've seen them. Fought them. Unless Nero's right... unless there's more to the Enemy than just the Oni and their Eyeless. Mokuzai says that they're...
*there is a long break in the text here*
I don't remember. He was rambling and I wasn't paying attention. The First Minds in Kiyoshi's dream, they described them as the beginning and the end of all malice.
... Just what did you intend, Father? How do I find their nature within me? How do I know which parts are Cheldrun, and which parts come from them? Why would I want to pass for one of them, to be accepted as one of them? They kill... innocent people, and worse than kill them.
It has always been the way with science that no significant advance is made without risk. It is even more true that no effort for the betterment of a species is without a cost. Seeking to save our species and advance our knowledge I took great risks and unfortunately there are great costs, which fall to you. I know that it is unfair, but none of us ask to be made.
Why would you want to pass for one of them? To learn, Mikomi. That which is known can be defeated. That which is unknown cannot.
They do horrible things. Yes. But you are one of them, by nature. At least... at least partially. If anyone is capable of understanding it will be you.
Or perhaps you are just an extension of a failed experiment. But I cannot see that far. Everything I know is Project Scion. Perhaps the me you met had learned something I do not know. Perhaps my optimism is misplaced.
I see.
I see. ... Because it is so clear, it takes a long time to realize.
I have also done horrible things. But I'm sorry for them. I don't think they are.
But I understand why the Questions are so important. Why they need to be answered. Who is the Enemy? What does it want? ...
I'll find the answers. Somehow.
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