Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 38 - Vengeance Requiem
They stood at the pit of a mile-deep crater that spanned twice as wide again, the radiation in the zone was so high that even with the protection of the exoskeleton, K-Rox would lose thirty percent of his game-life before leaving the area.
Jemima had brought them here as it was considered a dead zone, none of the attacking forces would risk travel across what was essentially radioactive open ground, riddled with convenient enemy-friendly kill traps.
The salamander’s right foot looked completely healed, its nano-repairbots had taken far less time than she imagined possible within the games parameters, it was impressive to see the way in which the game was evolving.
She wondered again if she had made the right decision bringing them here, part of the reason she had done so, as well as good cover it was also a show of vulnerability. Over this type of ground, she didn’t stand a chance against the salamander’s superior firepower, there would be no way she could get close enough to it to be effective.
She hoped the gesture had not gone unnoticed, she needed him to trust her otherwise he wouldn’t believe her and she’d be toast. Jemima pondered momentarily the absurdity of dying in a game, which led her to briefly consider her decision to stay split from the original, Jemima wondered what motivated 219-Amorphia to go off on her own.
She was snapped out of her reverie by the incoming audio file that had finally reached her from the salamander, there was still enough electromagnetic static in the region to prevent them from thinCasting, so instead they simply spoke to each other.
“Tell me more about Jemima 219, do you have all her memories?”
“No, she was like me, a d-split who decided to live apart from the original so her memories were never fully absorbed into my- well our, collective consciousness. I do however have access to memories of versions of myself who viewed empLink recordings that 219-Amorphia made.”
“Recordings?”
Jemima knew that this point would come up, and she was more than a little nervous to continue.
“Well after 219-Amorphia died the original Jemima had to cover her tracks, being an onblock-created d-split, 219-Amorphia experienced real death and any mindstate recordings would have instantly collapsed at the point of her demise.
My Original decided to split herself again, this time using hardware in the real to create a frozen QSID instance of her mind, that way she could plant herself in the Principia records using the same genetic code as the original 219-Amorphia and then get out.
That’s why when she was revived she seemed different to you; anyway becoming Amorphia in this way gave us access to all of the standard Empire records, and of course all of the recordings she made when she was with you.”
The words hung in the air between them, quite literally, she was tracking the soundwaves in real time. Jemima watched as the last batch of waves containing the information that Amorphia had secretly been recording the two of them, inched their way towards the salamander’s audio receivers.
Finally they reached their target and she waited for his reply, in reality she would know much sooner than the megalithic speed of the audio reply to reach her. His weapons systems coming online and covering the ground with heavy ordinance would signal how badly he had taken the news.
She almost wished she had breath to hold; she had calculated that he had had enough time to answer several times over but instead chose not to, his giant salamander head fixed immobile, not moving a nanometer, just staring straight at, no through, her.
Jemima sent an updated flash-memory record to the Krusher9 archives, at least the Original would be able to see what she had been up to, maybe she would watch later as the salamander tore her limb from limb in a psychotic frenzy of anguish and woe.
Still.
She Waited.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 37 - A Life Less Lost
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 36 - The Quantum Paradox
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 35 - Identity Crisis
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 34 - The Devil's Advocate
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 33 - Memory Reparation
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 32 - Reclamation Inferno
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 31 - Memory Boot Initialised
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @fr3eze
Original words by Cryptogee
Altered Image: Cg
Oh boy @cryptogee, she waited? You left me hanging like that bro? Men...
Will the constant splits not drive Jemima insane soon. To have so many parts of your mind poring over different parts of the world, to manage all that, is staggering.
I hope K-Rox takes the news well.
Noo! You are so quick I can hardly follow! :)
"at least the Original would be able to see what she had been up to"
well, when there are so many different yet similar versions of you, it might be a bit weird when the mutual enstrangement becomes bigger. It is as if you lose some part of yourself, I guess..