I said there is a purpose to this all, just dig a little deeper, feel it (part XXXVIII)

(Roleplay entry. Written by Miss Justine! Continued from part XXXVII.)

JUST PICK A REALITY AND STICK WITH IT

Rusty and Justine were cuddling on the loveseat in her parlour while he decompressed from his evening show, when her wrist-com beeped. Idly she looked at the screen, expecting a goodnight message from Emilly. Instead, her eyes widened as she saw an alert from the Fringe Lab in Tannhäuser. Cursing herself for taking the night off she leapt up.

"I need to go to Tannhäuser." Looking back and seeing the confusion on his face, she added, "Do you want to come?"

"Yup!" he replied with a smile. "What’s Tannhäuser?"

Laughing she took his hand and pulled him up, "I'll tell you on the way," and headed for the shuttle.

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MESSAGES

"STAN, silence the alarms." Justine pulled a lab coat over her dress as she entered the Fringe Lab. "Lights up." Heading to the Quantum Containment module, she swept a hand over the console, waking up the display. Rusty followed nervously behind, looking a bit awe-struck, arms folded across his chest as if he were cold.

Justine threw the data from the console onto a holo display that quickly surrounded her. She'd left the local Hiro-instance in the quantum containment cube "live", systems set to monitor for activity in the neural net consciousness or evidence of further quantum data transfer from Hiro Prime. A frown spread across her face and she cringed guiltily, seeing evidence that local Hiro-instance had awoken and suffered a moment of severe panic before the safety protocols cut in. She chewed on a fingernail, chastising herself. "I should have been here."

The data scrolled by until she reached what had triggered the alert notice.

STAN: Messages.

From Hiro. Hiro Prime.

Justine felt the world disappear around the edges as she read,

Em - I am not sure how this is getting to you. I know it is. I feel a presence when I focus. It seems like it is me or a version of me.

This timeline corrupted deeply. I fear that our adversary (the serious one, not the pirate princess with a taste for pork) has captured power in a very early stage of this civilization.

I am going to use the Cryogenic units salvaged from the Gray Area to try to sleep until you find me. It is only three thousand years. I will have to awaken multiple times to recharge the units. Perhaps move the vault but luck and Magick, I should see you very soon.

I have some downtime so I have been composing some texts that maybe influenced this time line? I will send a copy of the text soon. Love as always -

your Hiro, Duke of Gearhaven, Archduke and Caliph of the Sphinx Hegemony, First Consul of the United Civilizations and Timelines.

P.S. In the library, I left a short translation of “Thaumaturgic Dynamics and the 21st Century Economy” by Jean-Pierre Kalifa. Might be helpful.

Justine read the message a dozen times, her ears ringing. At some point she realised Rusty had come to stand behind her hands gently rubbing her shoulders. "Adversary?" he asked.

"I need to talk to Emilly," she murmured, then more loudly, "STAN, locate Emilly. Has she been sent an alert? I need to talk to her."

"Emilly Shatner-Orr is not present in this reality," the mechanical voice of the Sphinx-Templar Automated Network replied.

"I'm sorry, what?" Justine asked, that familiar sensation of not knowing what the hell was going on washing over her.

"Emilly Shatner-Orr is not present in this reality," STAN helpfully repeated.

"Well...which reality is she..." She paused to take a deep breath, let it slowly back out. "STAN, spawn a process and find Emilly using all available resources."

"Acknowledged. Engaged."

Justine turned back to the holo-display and moved to the next message. Her eyes filled with tears as she saw it was sent to her.

Justine - By now you will have surmised that something has gone wrong. Hopefully, part of the Gray Area will be home. Knowing the engineer in you, you will have found some items are missing. Power systems, Cryonics. The quantum Mechanical drive is destroyed. I am going to attempt to use the Cryogenic Tech and make it home.

Love you,

your Hiro, Duke of Gearhaven, Archduke and Caliph of the Sphinx Hegemony, First Consul of the United Civilizations and Timelines.

P.S. Jung and Pauli were friends. See the transcribed article.

Choking back a sobbing laugh at the gross understatement of that she forced her eyes to focus, reading the brief personal message again and again before turning her attention to the longer postscript.

"Classic [f*cking Hiro," she muttered with a small smile, "can’t say anything without making an academic treatise out of it." She knew better than to dismiss it, though. If Hiro took the time to send it, it was important. Now if only she could figure out HOW it was important. For the hundredth time, she really wished Emilly was there.

She downloaded the messages and accompanying quantum entanglement measurements to her datapad and turned to Rusty. "Let's go home, I need to do some reading." Then she paused, seeing his eyes aimed over her shoulder.

"What?"

"Justine, there’s another message," he said, pointing.

On the screen, text scrolled.

"57.) OsF., or Voso.-The Fifty-seventh Spirit is Oso, Ose, or Voso. He is a Great President, and appeareth like a Leopard at the first..."

The two of them stared at the image of the Seal of Ose in silence for a long while. That doesn't look like anything to me," Justine said, an itching ache forming behind her eyes with the struggle to remember something she wasn't sure she knew in the first place.

Rusty’s eyes narrowed in concern. "Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?" he whispered, watching her face for a reaction.

"No," she whispered before shaking herself out of her reverie, "STAN? Is Lina present in this reality? Can you locate her and ask her to meet me in the Steam library?"

"Lina Rodex is present in this reality," STAN replied with more sarcasm than was really warranted. "Message sent."

Justine took a deep breath reminding herself again of the futility at getting frustrated at a pre-sentient AI and downloaded the third message to her datapad as her wrist com pinged. Answering it she heard Lina's cheery voice, "What’s new, sis?"

“Lina, I need you to search the Gearhaven library for a volume titled 'Thaumaturgic Dynamics and the 21st Century Economy. It's in there somewhere."

"I can probably find what you need a lot faster through Memory Alpha, boss," Lina replied.

"Sorry, no, has to be the actual physical book. And it’s in the library. I'll be there in a bit."

"Roger that, sis. I'll find it." The call dropped.

"Ok, now I think we can go home," she said to Rusty. She paused for a moment, crouching beside the quantum entanglement cube housing the Hiro-instance. She leaned her forehead against the cool metal, thoughts swirling and she felt dangerously close to losing her grip on all the threads again. "Hiro," she whispered, thumping her forehead against the box gently, "I don't understand. I can’t do this. And where the [f*ck] is Emilly? Why can't you two just stay in the one reality? Honestly." Drawing in a shuddering breath, she took Rusty's hand and led him back through the station to the landing dock.

(Continued in part XXXVIX.)