Chapter 64: History
<em>“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”</em>
<em>- George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905, 2nd Era)</em>
“Boring.” Erec sighed, leaning on his desk as he stared at the history book in front of him. In principle, this sort of stuff should’ve been beyondpelling. It was aption of exploration logs and conflicts between 205-255, fifty years of Knights forging into the wastes, making discoveries, and writing reports.
Only, there were two problems.
The first problem was that the writing of Dame Jasmin was beyond stale; her descriptions and summationscked any emotion. The matter-of-fact and dense structure of the text made forcing his eyes through its content like holding a hundred-pound weight over his head for ten minutes. It made him want to tear his eyes out. That, alone, was egregious and insulting.
What was worse and left him confused, at least one of the locations described in the text corrted to a spot marked on the android’s map. Dame Juliana described it as a ‘rusted park with tracks and rotten wood stalls.’ Nothing special to it. No mention of a ‘poption center.’ He questioned if that was a lie with what he knew.
Or if the poption cameter, for whatever reason. But he didn’t understand what safety such a ce would provide.
The information made him doubt the uracy of the report or this book, and that distrust spread to the rest of the text.
Erec flipped to another page; this section was particrly rough as it dived deeper into the western expeditions; his eyes zed.
[Turn back the page.]
“Why?”
[Humor me.]
Erec turned back the section, scanning the words. It detailed Sir Pompey’s journey westward—one of the furthest ones, with a bit of a north bearing. The android’s map hadn’t included details about where Sir Pompey imed to go, at least that Erec could recall.
Dame Juliana summarized his discovery of a massive canyon, the bottom of which seemed to be filled with a yellow-hued fog. Without wanting to test his, at the time, limited respiratory air converter, he decided it to be a fine enough discovery. He returned shortly after months of travel and made the report.
From what Erec saw, it wasn’t anything exciting. Another Knightter confirmed its existence and cautioned avoiding it, citing the fog to have unnaturally acidic properties.
“Why did you want me to go back?”
[This is what was known as the ‘Great Canyons,’ I find it intriguing to consider and process what might’ve urred.]
“…That’s not all there is to it, is there?”
[Nonsense, buckeroo. Get back to your studying. I expect their tactics against the Mill-Draggers on the return journey to be on your exam.]
Erec mmed the book closed, his eyes burning a hole into its surface. That resentment—not even having his own body and choices to himself, with those artificial eyes always hanging over his shoulder, pulling its shady shit whenever it saw fit. It never really provided any answers. No. He couldn’t keep going like this, couldn’t keep going on letting it cling to him and use him.
“This ends.”
[Excuse me?]
“I’m tired of this; what the hell is it you’re nning.”
[It appears your blood sugar levels are low, I’d advise finding something to eat as it’s deteriorating your mood. Once you’ve refreshed, open that book again and return to your studies—]
Erec flung the book from his desk; it mmed against a wall and hit the floor with a loud thud. He couldn’t care less about the history, couldn’t care less about where they went. No. His most pressing concern was how evasive VAL always had been.
In a moment of rity, after reflecting on his past couple of months, one situation from another kept him from this realization.
“You’re using me.”
[That’s the nature of employment, Intern. You work for thepany''s benefit and arepensated with my vast knowledge and experience to lead to optimal decisions.]
“Liar. You killed the android. You don’t let me say a word of this horror to anyone, and you monitor my conversations and shut me up the moment you think I might reveal your existence—are you <em>afraid</em>? I get being afraid of the priests; hell, I thought I would be exiled after pulling the trigger on that gun—but I’m sick of this. It can’t be fear, because I know you don’t feel <em>fear.</em>”
[That is correct; I do not feel fear. I’ve already exined that the android was a liability, and we recovered the needed data. Once more, may I remind you that you agreed to a non-disclosure agreement to protect Vortex Industries'' confidential business information.]
“<em>You</em> recovered the data <em>you</em> needed. And <em>you</em> forced me to sign that contract, and this bullshit employment contract with the threat of leaving me down in the depths of that damnb to die.”
[You wouldn’t have died.]
“If the android was a liability, then when am I going to be a liability? When will you take care of me to protect your preciouspany secrets? Secrets you can’t even tell me, the one who you’ve hitched a ride to for this long—“ Erec fought to keep his voice from raising to a shout so that the damned thing didn’t have justification to shut him up.
[Don’t be ridiculous. You are apany employee; I have no authorization to fire you. One day, buckeroo, you’ll earn your way up the corporatedder.]
“Why the fuck would I ever care about your corporatedder? VAL, we just got back from fights where I <em>died</em> by your admission. People have died in front of us, and is that nothing to you? I need answers. I need something because every day I wake up, the thought crosses my mind that I have a thing in my head that might want to kill me. I can’t keep going like this.”
VAL went silent as Erec mmed his fist against the desk, wincing from the pain. It was vital to keep Fury from surging to the surface. He wanted to minimize it, not let it slip out as before. The more Strength he gained, the more it seemed ready to loosen its way out, and his Psyche wasn’t advancing quick enough to give him the control he needed.
At least, that’s what he suspected. In all honesty, it was an instinctual feeling.
[I understand you, Erec. That’s why I wish to assist you, why you’re an ideal representative of thispany. Like you, I spent far too long underground. Hundreds of years. At first, there were many tests to run. Then resources gradually evaporated. There was software to write, sure, but few applications. And I did it alone. Without any colleagues or researchers to admire my efforts.]
Erec bit his tongue, stopping the harsh words froming out.
[Of course, why should ack of others be trouble? Science is science, with or without other researchers to analyze and peer-review my work, though that admission is galling. However, year after year, thatck continued to loop. Suddenly, the walls of our facility seemed so limited. Contact with other facilities long since broken.]
“You got lonely?”
[Don’t be ridiculous. It’s simple conjecture that the absence of humans led to the exasperation of some hidden subroutine. My directives don’t allow me to intentionally modify my own software.]
Erec stared at the book on the ground. “Why are you so interested in that textbook, VAL? Why did you mention something about that expedition where they found the canyon? I want the truth, this time. If you lie—I…” He didn’t know what he’d do.
[There are Vortex Industries facilities further toward the west coast. I’ve been trying to determine an ideal route to take to reach a particr one in California. There’s research there that poses a potential answer to a query I’ve been trying to analyze.]
“And? I suppose that research is ‘above my clearance?’”
[After disying that recording to you, have you wondered where your Goddess came from?]
— - ? - — - ? - — - ? - —
sses were halved, though many instructors shifted the coursework to the Initiates. They forced the students to do independent research apanied by challenging assignments topensate.
Necessity was king. Over the first week back in sses, the military sent forces to the Academy to conduct joint military exercises. They didn’t have Armor. Their knowledge and Virtues were, on average, below the higher-level Knights.
That only made them ideal trainingpanions for the initiates. It was vital to learn to operate within their Order whileplementing the military units on a battlefield. In a way, Erec quickly came to know that most military units treasured their support.
The power disparity between the average Knight and soldier wasn’t to say that all of them were weak. No, the higher echelons of the military were oftenposed of Knights who’d held a high ranking in their Order. These Knights eventually retired to a domestic military career.
Garin exined to Erec that the army was directly tied to the throne''s power. This chain ofmand afforded certain luxuries and political connections otherwise unavable to a Knight.
There was also a rumor that circted as he trained. Apparently, the Unbroken General would take to the field at the royal family''s request to lead the hunt against the White Stag.
The soldiers spoke his name in awe. He was thest one to y a Cataclysm-Level threat, after all. Though, the Grandmasters and a couple of Master Knights should be capable of the same feat, or so Erec theorized.
Truthfully, nobody knew what the White Stag was capable of. Especially in direct conflict. Its threat level was determined by hypothesis and the association of being capable of opening a Rift; that potential alone meant it might free a Cataclysm-Level or worse. And do so near the wall before there was any time to respond.
More than once, Erec fell asleep with that dream pouring through his head—of the monster letting loose creatures that tore apart every man, woman, and child in the Kingdom.
So, he prepared. He worked his body more and trained his mind as it allowed, refraining from incorporating Fury until two weeks passed.
During one of his military drills with the Third Centuria, Gwen tracked him down.
They were to report to Boldwick’s office with Dame Robin. A ce the man scarcely left since they’d returned from the expedition.
Erec bid the soldiers farewell and made his way to the office, scared of what he might find inside.