章節 61: In Respect Of Reticence
She watched him take his leave, and the two exchanged nods before disappearing behind the door. Her first instinct would be to follow, but she wasn't of a high enough rank to go with him. She was still at the bottom rung, while he was already at the apex. It amused her to think on that; how many others knew the Prime Beacon in a personal capacity? It couldn't be that many, aside from the few she knew.
It took her longer to realize than she needed that her hand still ran back and forth through the air. After letting it fall, she leaned against the backrest and clasped her hands. The coolness of her new left fingers interlaced with those on the right, providing a strange contrast.
Though she felt light haptic feedback from the artificial nerves on the fingertips, the left arm was a dead zone of sensations, alike with the legs suspending her there. To think of these clumps of metal, refined, stylized, and as advanced as they were, were as much a part of her as her HUD now, was unfathomable.
She closed her eyes. "Is there anything I need to fulfill today?"
"Notice: Obligatory sessions with assigned medical staff already attended." The HUD whispered into her ears. Compared to when she'd run for her life in the tunnels, it was softer in tone. "Addendum: Further attempts to acclimate with cybernetic replacement limbs within next seventeen hours deemed detrimental. Advisory: Recreational activity."
Her fingertips made smooth rotations over her eyelids. Yes, kicking back and relaxing would be wise. It would form no fault upon her, and withhold no consequences. On all accounts, that should be what she aimed for at the moment. But she was afraid to relax. The past week since that meet, she hadn't found the courage to allow herself the chance to stop moving.
When under the supervision of her medical staff, she placed everything she had into the physical exercises. With the counselors, she danced around what topics she could and relied on omission for the ones she couldn't. Because if she thought about it, it would stick to her like a combustion orb. It would burn at her like one, too.
She kicked the bench. A dull clang rewarded her, bouncing around the hall. What was she doing here, standing around? That was it. Busy herself; don't get bored, don't start thinking about…that. What could occupy her? There was pain. The spar was fresh in her mind and on her body. Even while her breathing remained under control and balanced, her heart thumped beneath her skin, desperate for more oxygen. She humored it with deeper breaths, though she remained careful and prevented them from becoming gasps.
Those deep breaths expanded her ribcage. Stretched it. That stretch pressed the brittle bones and cartilage away and out; she winced. If she were to lift the flap of her skinsuit, her skin beneath would look like a mocking patchwork, a paltry imitation of the correct color it should've embodied. Black, blue, and sickly yellow composed the majority of her surface area. Like small pinpricks of light, unblemished skin shone through here and there, though she didn't know in actuality.
She stared at the side of the bench he had sat on. Their discussion near the end didn't sit right. Something about it nagged at her, unwilling to rest and let itself slide from her mind. She couldn't claim to be the finest-tuned servo in humanity's kit, but she could count herself as part of the contention.
She was positive by that point that she hadn't suffered hallucinations. Well, that wasn't correct, not in an absolute sense. Without doubt, there were things she had seen or heard that weren't there; with so many clashing drugs in her system, that not being the case was impossible. Still, there was plenty of supporting evidence that the purple-fur she'd encountered was real.
Disregarding how it acted on her, the disruption it performed on the tunnel environment remained after it disappeared from her vision: its steps left punctures on the cavern floor, and whenever its body brushed against a low-hanging stalactite or loose boulder, cracks would form and they'd crumble.
And it would not run--no, flee, from nothing. She knew this. After telling him, she wanted to ask what he'd thought of the oddity. He shushed her twice and refused to explain himself following it. He knew something. And unfortunate for her, he wasn't willing to share. That, or he couldn't.
She accepted this, but not the lack of information itself. What was the figure? Who was it? What were their blades made of? Why was it there? How had she, her HUD, and the Aud failed to notice as a collective their presence until they revealed themselves? They had to be within the vicinity of the pursuit, and well within the range of her WAV's sensor array. Something that offered so many queries at a single glance demanded investigation.
She stood, her mind settled. Whatever happened, the Prime Beacon himself declined to explain, despite holding the relevant information to do so. She didn't fault him for it but had to adjust her line of thought with respect of it.
The main note to keep close was that it wasn't something known in common circles. The figure might be a known factor in the upper ranks of the military forces, or among the headmen. It wasn't anything dangerous, since he had done nothing to her after she revealed her knowledge of the figure's existence; that eased her, though only to a mild extent.
It could be a secret project of the Sixth, she reckoned. Though she was still beyond the Last Beacon's walls for that meet, she overheard clusters of aides discussing the home interest's retaliation against the First and Sixth for obfuscation of Directory activity.
She didn't have an opinion on the issue itself--what would she do, condemn him?--and instead marked her intent over the fact that it happened at all. Could it be an enhancement program? Was the figure she encountered the first of a line of prototype experiments?
Her new legs led her out of the training hall and to the stairways. She marveled at the smoothness at which her legs responded to stimulus input and further found herself pleased with the efficiency of movement they executed her will with. The stairway brought her further up, close to the limit of Ardiseg Hall's great height. Almost on the top floor, she left the stairs and approached the side, leaving the transit space.
This floor had a different feel to it. The fifteenth level devoted the majority of its floor plan to the First's needs, which was why its primary demographic of employees originated from that same ray. Acting as humanity's military, the First implemented regulations and micro-legislature that served to toughen the atmosphere and give everything done and said a more somber, imperious nature.
Because this floor belonged to the Sixth, a ray within the Directory of researchers and theoretical scholars, there was much less need to ingrain a harsh attitude and stiff conduct into everyday proceedings. The right word to describe the change she experienced wasn't "lax", but…try "mellow."
The first room to her right was an information desk. This was where runners and aides from different rays would stop and exchange whatever physical items or information too sensitive to transmit over the communicator or screen. But she was here for herself this time, and that was fine. So long as she asked nothing over a sensitive matter--though she couldn't be positive this failed to count as one--she should receive answers in the form of a report or sheet of some kind.
"May I help you?" The serviceman behind the desk looked up at her, chin wrinkling.
"Is it possible to access the Sixth's isolated archives?" Though the Third performed strong work to keep information and data deemed unsafe for public or even government viewing off of the publicly accessible version of the archives, from how matters sounded, the Prime Beacon and the Sixth Headman hadn't approved of that as security great enough to ensure the Sixth's projects remained behind a black wall.
She was wearing her band, so her identification as one of the First's was on full display. That saved time and spared them both the immediate round of questioning. Outside of the First and Sixth, the other rays wouldn't step further than there, even those among the militarists. "Do you have specific data you wish to access?"
"...experimentation and enhancements on the human condition."
She waited while the serviceman tapped at the screen built into the desk. He looked up, nodding. "I found a few matches, please follow me." As he stood up, moved around the edge of the desk, and led her deeper into the floor's layout, she chewed her tongue.
She hadn't expected something so specific to deliver several results. It wouldn't be improper to call the description she gave a shot in the dark, considering she was still undecided on whether the figure that saved her was the product of one of the Sixth's projects.
"Please wait here." Her led her into one of the larger rooms on the floor, with desks running in bisecting lines all across its length. Behind them at the far side of the room was another door. "I will bring you physical copies to peruse."
Her guide left her side, and she sat on one of the empty desks, doing her best to stay free of those rushing past or relocating to different seats across the room. One of them brushed by her and knocked her shoulder with a flailing elbow, attached to an arm clutching a cluster of microchips.
She winced and reached up to massage the soreness, forgetting that her arm was what supported her leaning body. She slid off the edge of the desk before she could catch herself. She clenched her eyes shut as her back rocked against a corner. As if she were struck with a metal beam, she groaned and curled into a fetal position while willing the pain away.
No one else came by to trample over her and add to her misery. Once the obliterating, stabbing throb faded to a quiet moan, she uncurled her hands and lifted her head. She realized her left was clutching a thin slate; she must have grabbed at something in a panic, and that was what her hand found. Plenty of welfare it brought her, the useless thing.
Consuming a few more seconds before returning to her feet, she rolled the slate between her fingers, revealing the other side. She froze, finding a rough sketch on the other side.
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