I stand in the passage outside the Observation Sphere. Prickly fear is spreading through my mind, clogging my thoughts like an infestation of weeds. There is no question now—Keitus Vieta is real, not just a data aberration. And he knows who I am.
If Vieta is real, that means he was picked up by the subatomic recorders, which means that out of the two data sets, the Codex is wrong. But how could it be wrong? Was the data tampered with? Perhaps Qod found all the answers before she disappeared. Perhaps the notes will explain everything.
“Control, relay Qod’s annotations to me, stream speed sixteen, please.”
Confirmed. Beginning stream now.
Unwilling to remain so close to the Observation Sphere and the image of Vieta, I walk back along the passage
toward the Soul Spheres as the equivalent of Qod’s research diary trickles into my mind.
Day 1: Data Analysis Batch 001.001: No aberration.
Day 1: Data Analysis Batch 001.002: No aberration.
Day 1: Data Analysis Batch 001.003: No aberration.
“Pause. Restart data stream from the first aberration detection.”
Day 19: Data Analysis Batch 412.071: Aberration found. I found one! Code mismatch. Transferring Subject 8.47121E+77 to Aberration Sphere. Transfer complete. Commence new subject … No. Salem wants to know more about these aberrations. Commence reexamination of subject 8.47121E+77. Analyze Codex code. Analyze quantum recorder data. Compare. Analyze and translate as human cerebral mapping. Begin search for references to aberration. No … that’s a protocol violation. Scrutiny of the dead is forbidden. Reassess protocol validation. No. Reassess. No. Reassess. No. Reassess. Salem is my highest priority. Yes, Salem is all that matters.
Validated.
Analyze and translate to human cerebral mapping. Begin search for first references to aberration in human memories. Reconfigure data analysis for subject 8.47121E+77.
Subject name Abbot Thamiel Deepseed.
Reference found. Aberration found.
Extrapolating source. Processing …
Divergence source = Promethean Singularity. The heart.
“Pause. I need time to think. I need to understand what Qod was seeing. There’s something about Prometheus that’s important. Something I have to remember. Something I was told once. What was it?”
Unknown.
I ignore Control’s response as my mind races through a series of facts and revelations. Qod found out the problems started at the Promethean Singularity. And the Singularity was the key to the creation of the Codex. Not only that but the Singularity is the very heart of the universe—the route by which Oluvia Wade took the Soul Consortium to escape the never ending cycles of the universe and the Great AI.
But there’s more I need to remember. Memories from Plantagenet Soome’s life are surfacing. Sunny, the monk with an uncommon talent for understanding the Codex, recognized the aberration long before I did. He actually referred to me, Salem Ben, by name. And with his last words as Soome tried to kill Keitus Vieta, Sunny tried to reach me.
“Only … he … can save everything … only Salem Ben. He … must… remember… must remember… Prometheus … Cataclysm … Wade.” That’s what Sunny said.
So, what about the Cataclysm? The Cataclysm happened when the Soul Consortium ripped through the Singularity, but how does that help?
What else did Sunny want me to remember? A picture he painted. Yes. The man in the bubble with the lance through his heart. And the Consortium moon on the end of the lance. Yes, the first pieces of the puzzle are coming together. The man is Prometheus. Sunny’s picture was an impression of the Soul Consortium bursting through the heart of Prometheus to breach the bubble, so the bubble must represent the universe. There was one more thing in the picture—a whirlpool where the lance pierced the bubble, sucking matter back through the hole into the bubble. The Cataclysm? Yes, the terrible effect of the Consortium breaking free from the universe, but I need more.
“Control, continue the stream.”
Day 19: Data Analysis Batch 412.071 continued: Foreign matter detected emerging from Promethean Singularity. Unable to identify atomic configuration. Deconstruct and analyze. Atoms undetected. Electrons undetected. Quarks undetected. Demi-praxons undetected. Conclusion: foreign energy form. Does not conform to universal physics. Searching for linked anomaly …
Set parameters: Promethean Singularity. Deviation from Codex data predictions.
Batch 000.000.000.000.000.001-Cycle 2: Meisian 0:003 anomaly detected: Delay in quark formation.
“Control, pause. So Qod detected a slight anomaly at the formation of the universe’s second cycle?”
Confirmed.
“I think I remember this. Qod and Oluvia were setting up the quantum recorders at the birth of the second cycle, and they couldn’t understand why there was a delay. Do we know now?”
Unknown.
“Do you know if Qod found out?”
Unknown.
“How surprising. Continue.”
Batch 000.000.000.000.000.001 continued: Analyzing cause of quark formation delay. Requirements for quark formation: Particles: 0-5-G, 0-7-Q, 4-4-K. Analyzing quantity of particles present. Anomaly detected. Fifteen trillion particles present less than at cycle 1. Analyzing cause of particle loss. Searching for common factors. Exact particle quantity match found: Soul Consortium.
That’s it! Why did nobody anticipate this? The universe is in equilibrium—cause and effect—each cycle a heartbeat reconfiguring the same particles in exactly the same way for every cycle. But what if someone removes some of those particles? When Oluvia tore us free from the universe she not only broke the cycle for the Soul Consortium, she broke the cycle of the universe: part of the universe had been removed, and it no longer had enough substance to begin the next universe. An imbalance must have been created, and the quantum vacuum drew in matter from somewhere else, somewhere outside.
Somewhere unknown.
The universe sucked in the particles it needed for the next cycle, but something else came through too—Keitus Vieta.
That explains a lot. There is nothing wrong with the Codex. But the foreign element introduced an unknown part outside the normal calculations. The subatomic recorders saw Vieta, but he was not part of the Codex equation and therefore invisible to it. No wonder there are aberrations. The software blending the Codex and the recorder data tried the best it could to create a realistic version of reality, but Keitus Vieta, the unknown element, always seemed wrong.
But what to do now?
I’m standing outside the Aberration Sphere, led there absentmindedly by routine as I ponder the mystery of Keitus Vieta. I still don’t know who or what he is, only that he has come from somewhere outside the realms of reality. In the trillions of years of my existence—all the endless searching of so many others hunting for something new—even beyond the shroud of death, we thought we had seen everything. But there is more out there. However dangerous Keitus Vieta is, he is proof that there is more to know, more to experience.
A reason to live.
And for the generations to be born again in this embryo of our new universe there is more to experience too. Perhaps they should be told—a message left behind for them, so when they are ready, they can look beyond the limitations of the Codex and know there are more boundaries to be broken.
But everything is in jeopardy. As long as Keitus Vieta exists there is a threat hanging over humanity’s existence. He won’t die; Soome tried to kill him and failed, and he also told Soome that however many times his plans were disrupted, he only needed to wait. One day he will succeed. And I am all that’s left to stop him. But how? Perhaps Qod found out more about him.
“Control, continue.”
Batch 000.000.000.000.000.001 continued: Conclusion: Universal cycle interrupted by separation of Soul Consortium matter and energy from the Promethean Singularity. Equilibrium altered. Creation of nucleonic vacuum through resulting particle imbalance. Effect: balance achieved through particle extraction from undetectable source. Equilibrium restored. Recommencement of cycle 2 achieved at meisian 0:017.
Conclusion: Fissure created. Unidentified matter detected at batch 412.07 entered through fissure. Insufficient information to determine nature of unidentified matter. Aberration logged.
Return to Analysis Batch 412.07.
Set parameters: Aberration—Track atomic abnormality.
Day 19: Data Analysis Batch 412.072: Tracking.
Day 19: Data Analysis Batch 412.073: Tracking.
Day 19: Data Analysis Batch 412.074: Tracking.
“Control, pause. Move to final tracking entry for the aberration and atomic disturbance.”
Day 4113: Data Analysis Batch 9K1.533: Abnormality transport complete. Containment fields holding. Monitoring abnormality for qalkkjk. Aberration intrusion detected detected detecteddddd. No! Initiating firewall proto proto Keitus proto Vieta protocols. No! Protocols. Protocols. Initihhyfmnm. No. Salem! Help … help … help … Salem … Sal … Sal … Sa …
Annotations ended.
Like an avalanche, the reality hits me.
I just heard the death of Qod.
Almost omniscient. Almost omnipotent. But gone. Keitus Vieta must have killed her, and he did it almost as quickly as he killed Brother Kayne on Castor’s World with a twitch of his finger. If Qod could not defend herself against such a force, how can I?
But why does it matter now?
My body is ice as I think of a universe without my companion. Qod! Oluvia! I slide down the wall to sit and stare vacantly in the direction of the door to the Aberration Sphere, the place where it started, feeling the slow creep of despair ebb through my limbs as though my blood has thickened within my veins and lost the will to flow.
All those years.
She’s gone …
I don’t know if I can get up. Mere minutes ago I felt a thrill at the revelation that a whole new existence awaited discovery and fierce resolve to stop Keitus Vieta. But all of that is melting away as my thoughts sink into a quagmire of hopelessness. I’m not the man Oluvia Wade knew. I’m not the savior Brother Sunny believed I would be. And I’m not able to win a fight against a force with such power. Whatever his plans involve, Keitus Vieta has won. I cannot stop him.
Better that I end it now.
“Control, are the protocols still in place for self-termination?”
Yes.
“Then make the preparations.”