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Jingling Posh
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I take a moment to look up at the crowds. "How about... outside?"
[Have something in particular in mind?] Sal tilts its head to look at me strangely.
"...where exactly do we get one of those tethers?"
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This isn't quite flying, nor is it free-fall, but it's close. Suspended at the end of several hundred meters of cable... the glowing crystal dome hangs above our heads, and below our feet there's only stars. The tether responds to a thought - allowing us to dive, swoop, and soar. We spiral around one other with our reaction packs, slowly circling inward until we find each other at arm's reach, the universe revolving slowly around us.
I reach out and take its hand and pull it close. With the other I fly through interfaces to disable my suit's communicator and anonymize myself again.
[Lyan, what are you doing?] Sal starts when I press my helmet against its head.
"I told you I was feeling paranoid. I don't think we can get any more secure than this. Just please, let me explain." Sal nods, and I begin to explain all the things I've been piecing together - my missing memory, the datapad, the hack, crashing out during my dream. I tell it about the Lethe Center examining of my state vector, the mysterious data on the sword, being locked away from my implants and unable to make a backup. Sal remains silent as I speculate about the sword's trip through space, why I could be hiding so much from myself, my apparent hesitation to create new backups, whether the trip to Lethe was really my own idea. Whether I actually died, and how it might have happened. Whether I'm nothing more than a spare copy.
It takes nearly a kilosecond, and at the end of my story I feel completely drained - resting my helmet against Sal as much for support as for communication. Sal gazes silently past me at the stars. It turns its head and stares at me for a long moment, as if seeing me for the first time, before finally breaking the silence with what passes for one of its sighs. [I'm sorry, Lyan. I truly am. But you can't do anything right NOW, can you?] I shake my head, slightly confused. [You're waiting on the Center, and until it finishes you can't accomplish anything. Let's do what we came here for and party.]
Well, I feel slightly better. I hope I did the right thing. Stay out here a bit longer, or head back under pressure to the main party?
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