Fire Opal: Scene 13

Db Major Freddezza

I'm sitting in a small cafe in the free space under the incredible dome-like covering of the city of Iaonin. I'm drinking tea (what else?) with Zyrenak. He's unusually quiet, almost like he's sulking. I want to ask him what he meant but I don't want to piss him off. Of course that's never stopped me before.
"What did you mean, sister?"
He looked up. He had been nursing that cup of coffee since we got here.
"Would you like anything more?" The wait staff individual came up to our table.
"A fruit ice, please." Gah. It's not like I could order that rich chocolate-cheesecake confection they were showing in the glass case.
"We have lychee, pomegranate, apple, plum, or orange."
"Pomegranate, please." I was kind of sick of lychee and plum. I had to admit, this was a nice cafe. I liked the way the tables were spread out under the plum trees, and not housed in a building under the dome.
"Representative Zyrenak? What did you mean, sister?"
"I meant that your father and my father are the same person."
Uhhh. Huh?

The wait staff individual brought my fruit ice. Ahhh crap, I forgot it would be pink. Oh well.
I looked at Zyrenak. The same father...? What about mothers? Different Mothers?
"But different mothers?"
"Yes, my mother died long before you were born. My father purchased a new Flower much, much later. Your mother."
"How do you know this? Weren't you part of my family in Dryft then?"
He smiled.
"I am much older than you seem to think. My father didn't purchase your mother until after I had moved into third academy research."
Freaking hell! He was REALLY old.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"At first I wasn't sure. After you had been here for some time, you looked and acted so much like your mother that I knew for sure."
"You knew my mother?"
"Yes. Your mother was one of the principle founders of Drar and Associates."
"That's her shortened name, correct?"
"Yes. Do you not know her name?"
"No. Wait, how was my mother, a Flower, able to found a company?"
"Do you not know anything about your mother?"
Uhhh. How the hell do I answer that? "No?"
"Interesting."
That's it? That's all he was going to say? Interesting? The fact that I knew jack squat about my mother is INTERESTING? I don't even know her name!
"I'm sure Khyte had his reasons for not telling you."
"I uh... I learned from Drendyn that there wasn't even a trace of information about her anywhere. Apparently he went searching across the uh mesh-x and she wasn't to be found. Nothing about mother, father, anything."
Zyrenak looked at me in horror. "What do you mean nothing?"
"I mean he searched, he connected to other regions and nothing. Not a single trace of our family nor of any Energy individual."
"I will be right back."
He went over to the scanset mesh-x access point for public male use and put the pads over his ears. My collarbone itched. Does that mean there had been information available at one point? How much information? Dune had found the brainscans of Energy individuals from the point that they died scanned in... so what had happened? Could he get those anymore? Did they even exist? How could someone have high enough permissions to wipe out those archives? I thought the whole point to the mesh-x was to share and save information, not destroy it. I watched Zyrenak take the scanset off of his head and just look at it. I knew what he had found. I drank up the last of the fruit ice which had completely melted in the heat of the city. He came back to our cafe table.
"It's all gone. I looked on all of the controllers. There isn't even a scrap of a reference to any Energy individual that existed." He looked horrified.
"Is there any way we-you could find some kind of archive that hadn't been touched?" I thought about the Water mesh-x controller.
"Oh there's an archive that cannot be touched, but it's not reliable." He looked straight at me.
Huh?
"Now you know why we were researching living metal so fiercely, well, until the lab was destroyed."
Ewps.
"If I could just find the correct formulation, I could pull all of the information out of my head. I have the information archived, but I can't retrieve it, and brain matter is not the best medium for storing data."
Uhhh. He stored the data in his brain? Was his brain outfitted with some kind of storage network? He can't possibly be talking about regular memory.
"I injected myself with a living metal structure encoded with archived information and organically-encrypted it away. The problem that I didn't foresee when I did it is that I would no longer have access to living metal to decrypt the information. I can't decrypt it, I can't remove it, and it's all resting on the grey matter that deteriorates as I get older."
Uhhh. And I thought I was crazy.
"It's ok, I know you don't understand any of what I just said. It's just bad."
Asshole. I did so understand it. I just didn't respond because I was trying to think of how to solve the problem! Why had he used a living metal formulation that rested in his brain? Could Dune help?
"But that's not the point at the moment. All of the information is missing from the controllers. It's not even archived."
"How is that possible?"
He gave me a patronizing smile.
"Theoretically, it's not."
I know that! Krietsit! I'm not a stupid fluffy Flower! I swear if I do nothing else with my life I will change how I am talked to! Let's try this again.
"Forgetting theory, how could any individual remove information from all of the mesh-x controllers?" Hellfire. I have to remember that I'm not supposed to know that much about the mesh-x.
"You pick up concepts quickly."
No, really? I only studied them most of my life. Answer the freaking question!
"The process would be simple, once an individual had access to remove. The mesh-x controllers work by a principle of open redundant file distribution, or, ORFD, which means that if an individual were to change some information in a public archive, the other controllers would propagate the change to their public archives as well."
Ok. I'm looking for a stick to beat him with. I KNOW THAT! I WANT TO KNOW HOW SOMEONE COULD EVEN GET ACCESS TO REMOVE!
"How would an individual get access to remove?"
"Theoretically, they wouldn't."
THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M ASKING NIDJIT! ARE WE SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE? DO I NEED TO SPEAK SLOWER AND LOUDER?!
"So how did the removal happen?"
"I don't know."
THAT'S ALL I WAS EVER ASKING! I can't believe how hard it is to get a simple answer. I need to carry around an electric shock device that would shock these males everytime they treat me like I don't know my ass from my elbow.
"What can we do about it?"
He gave me a funny look. Crap.
"Well, there's nothing you can do Flower."
I knew it. I knew he would say that. ZAP! ZAP! That's me shocking you! I drank the last of my tea.
"Would talking with my brother Dune help? He's a first research acadaemian in neurology."
Because that way, Dune would tell me what's going on in your head.
"You can remember what your brothers study?"
You've got to be kidding me. So not only am I supposed to be pathetically unintelligent, I'm not supposed to have any kind of memory either? Zap. Zap.
"He is the brother that's closest to me in age, and so we talk a lot."
Gag. There, it's only my short term memory I'm pulling this from, happy? Zap. I'm allowed to have a short term memory, aren't I? Hellfire.
"I doubt he's studied racial neurology, but yeah, I can talk to him. How did you know neurology had to do with brains"
Just keep your mouth shut. I'm trying. You can do it. Keep it shut. Don't say another freaking word. Don't hit him either. Just picture zapping him in your head. There. That's better isn't it? Yeah, that's better. Zap. Zap. Zap.
"I just assumed that's what it meant, because he talks about 'grey matter,' and you had referred to your brain as grey matter." I'm going to cause myself to puke.
"Interesting."
I'll show you interesting. Zap. Maybe I should also picture stabbing? Stab. Stab. Yeah, that's nice too.
"I should probably get back to my suite. Arcson Tryst Suiryoku informed me that he would be sending me a message today, and I wouldn't want to miss it." Lie. Lie. You're lying an awful lot these days. I know. I can't help it! Hmmm.
"Oh of course Flower. Do not worry, we will get the information back."
Yeah, I won't worry my pretty little head about the big stuff. Grrrrr.
"Of course Representative." I picked up all of my stuff. I bet my lumentext was heavy enough to give him a good welt on his head. Some day.
I walked back to my suite. What I need is coffee. These males are driving me crazy!