Broken: A Plague Journal

“Paul,” she choked through wheeze, “it’s not true. I swear—”

And the sky opened up: incoming Judith fleet. They slammed into the Enemy horde, strafed the upload generator. Sam dipped down, tipped his nacelles. He swam back into the fray.

“Don’t believe me, Author? Who’ll you trust? Why don’t we ask Hope?”

Maire spun and wasn’t there. Wasn’t there, but she was. Not her, but her. The voice was different, the body splintering to a form West had etched behind his eyes long before they’d brought the author in, a form he’d met after re-birth from the Forever Dust: Hope. The body fell, meaty slap on non-pavement, but she wasn’t dead. Couldn’t be dead, because she gasped an inhalation.

Alina: “Don’t touch her! Jesus fuck, it’s not her, it’s—”

Paul, more lips and tongue than sound: “Hope?” He went to her, cradled her head in his lap.

“Paul—” Alina pleaded. Hands to fists to hair: frustration, weeping. “It’s not her. Don’t touch—”

And Benton spoke, if such a ruined form could speak. Paul’s mouth moved over the impossibility of sobs. She spoke.

“You’re letting your hair grow out.” Semblance of a smile. “But I liked it short.”

“Hope—”

“They’re all dead here.” Fingers interlaced with his. Her voice was becoming echoes, static, and “What’d you do to her? Why’d you write? Why…?” Two tears, more blood than water: “You’ve killed us all.”

Such ferocity barely contained in the sky: the upload generator shattered; a thousand vessels carved the earth.

He stroked her hair. “Hope, I—”

“There’s no Hope anymore. No hope. Nothing. But she’s with me.” A smile so bright from assemblages of flesh and muscle: impossible. “She’s saved me.”

“I’ll save you. We’ll save you!”

“Paul…” She pulled him closer, whispered. “The Purpose will be completed.”

He hatcheted an inhalation. Her eyes were silver.

He threw the body to the ground, clambered away and to his feet. The body shattered into blood and silver rivulets, dissipated with haze and static. Where Maire had been, where Hope had been: nothing.

The wind picked up.

Sam appeared above again. He folded from his vessel form, all shivers and digits, landed with a few stumbling steps as his human form.

“Allie? What happened? We got a beacon and…”

She didn’t answer. Wasn’t talking, wasn’t moving, just stood there beside Paul looking at the place where Maire had been.

“Paul?” No answer. “Adam?”

Silversens registered negative. West shifted to normal. “We found Maire. And Hope. And—” He shook his head. “I don’t fucking know.”

Alina looked up at the author. Caught his gaze down. A small hand grabbed a large hand. Just for a second, West could have sworn he had seen a merge in those hands.

HEILIGENSCHEIN

[login]: query((?))

[username]: Hocking, Peter: [variant trace: lock] [password]: ******* [verification]: [sample approved.]

[login]: success. [/login]

[search]: query((?)) [search]: [[Paul + Hughes] + [silver]] [search]: [run]

[/run]

?

[run]: [system: override] [run]: [command: interject]

[/run]

?

[run]: [read]: author: la biblio[“o]mnitheque universelle agent 66.14.7.050. title: of loss, of ruin: An Introduction. publication: Ein Journal des Instituts fur die Erforschung des Heiligenscheineffektes.

[full text]:

Thank you, [Hocking, Peter], for your interest in [Hughes, Paul].

As you know, la biblio[“o]mnitheque universelle is still recovering from the effects of the Forever Dust. As such, results to your initial query may be incomplete or irretrievably lost. We are working to refine our recovery methods, and we assure you that the best teams of quantum-X string theorists are making valiant efforts to contain the loss of our database and re-integrate the mind-essence of our host soul caches.

[Hocking, Peter], your inquiry regarding [Hughes, Paul] presents several unique difficulties in that access to biographical elements of that particular string are severely restricted due to [[security + protocols] + [threat + matrix] + [containment + Forever + Dust]]. We hope, [Hocking, Peter] that you will understand our concerns when [(excerpts are expurgated due to aforementioned security concerns) + (incomplete data retrieval prevents total output of designated inquiry elements)].

We hope that you find [(designated output): [Hughes, Paul]] helpful and informative.

Sincerely,

agent 66.14.7.050 primary avatar re: [Hocking, Peter]: [inquiry #77.75.140] la biblio[“o]mnitheque universelle

[/read] [/run]

?

[run]: [read]: author: la biblio[“o]mnitheque universelle agent 66.14.7.050. title: of loss, of ruin: An Introduction: technical specifications [re: search results.] publication: Ein Journal des Instituts fur die Erforschung des Heiligenscheineffektes.

[full text]:

[Hocking, Peter] [trace:(lock: 68.166.235.153)], your search re: [Hughes, Paul] was generated [Q3:07.14.2064] by temporal servers [B.0-B.6] [Sedna Core Information Archive: tight-beam encrypted transmission] outside of the plague zone quarantine demarcation [refer: Forever Dust]. la biblio[“o]mnitheque, in conjunction with des Instituts fur die Erforschung des Heiligenscheineffektes, maintains quantum computing facilities [Omega-point hyperthreading techbase reverse-engineered from target Whens (salvage law compliant)] utilizing the best semantic web search engines available [B-LGoogle @ 147zettabytes/sec. (147x2^70mb/sec.) on MS/Halliburton™ dedicated a-zero servers].