(POV The Old Man)
I remained in front of the files that I had carefully hidden, but this idiot still destroyed the archives; it is because of this kind of crazy person that we no longer know much about the past.
– His jealousy, therefore, knows no bounds.
The system continued to display this strange anomaly, but no new information was added to the file. Yet I had spent a large part of my life studying these archives, observing different generations of subjects, and memorizing protocols whose existence most current scientists were unaware of.
all my work…in a thousand pieces
An external connection would have left a trace in the logs. An intrusion would have triggered the network's protections. A transmission would have produced an identifiable stream.
But there was nothing there.
How could she? I don't even have any proof to accuse her.
– demon
I had no other choice but to go back down and solve his problem.
I scrolled through the data again, then opened the new host's biological parameters. His brain activity was gradually increasing, but his body showed no signs of waking up. He was breathing regularly and his heart rate remained perfectly stable.
I zoomed in on the neural curves.
I had seen them before.
This alpha is terrifying, a true parasite; even such a dominant host gets merged with it.
I felt my hand tighten around my cane.
– at this level it's no longer an EMOTIONAL...
I then tried to immediately check the old Sigma-0 data, but access was denied.
That didn't surprise me.
All searches that could touch on its origin in the archives were modified; the system returned several incompatible results.
I selected the old scientific notes associated with this signature. The majority of the documents were incomplete, some had been deliberately corrupted, and several names had been replaced by codes.
Nevertheless, I continued; she had accustomed me to these complicated stories.
After several minutes, I finally found myself face to face with her.
She looked me up and down.
She had dismissed all the researchers who were studying the evolution of Roum
I breathed softly.
– Still as…
I got a little excited
- bad
She straightened up and towered over me, and I, an old man with a stooped back, was forced to lower my head.
– (the moment is coming, soon)
No reaction.
I placed my hand on the cold surface of the tablet.
Her lips moved very close to my ear.
– Is...
He stopped.
I felt his breath.
– You what?
Her eyebrows furrowed as if she were searching for something in a dream.
– you mustn't…
She stopped again and simply turned around.
I was expecting her to say a name.
She simply asked:
– You already want to leave us
I remained silent.
I pretended not to have heard that question.
I approached the console and checked its constants.
– You will need to rest, the host is disturbed.
She looked at me as if she didn't understand.
- How long ?
I slowly raised my eyes towards the ceiling.
– 120 hours should be enough