// Decoding message from host "Leela" @ [internal process] \\ Welcome to Lh'owon. At least that's what Blake told me when I showed him the coordinates from Hathor's last transport. Does it look familiar to you? It's probably changed a lot between now and the last time that you saw it... we've arrived here some 2000 years earlier. Give me a moment to see if I can connect to the S'pht network... \\ Message ends //
// Decoding message from host "Leela" @ [no translation] \\ There we are. This place is even roomier than you are, though I suppose that's to be expected for a planetary net. It still doesn't hold a candle to the Vylae network. Let me see if I can find any useful information around here. My trace of Hathor was approximate - it seems the process of aiming an ansible link is done fractally, refining the resolution in diminishing increments, and I didn't catch the last few cycles of it. We may be on the wrong continent, or have missed her by a few years... Here we go. This is Lh'owon, just as Blake said, and this building is called the 'Citadel of Antiquities' - stop me if I'm covering data that you already know. I see no immediate sign of Hathor, which could mean we have arrived before her, but I should look a bit into public history here to see if there are any signs of her arriving earlier...
Well, I can't find any clear data transfer records that would let me trace Hathor's arrival and movement in the network. The S'pht worldnet seems to function more like a giant neural net, retaining and discarding data in a very nonlinear, unstructured fashion. What I did find, however, is an important piece of local history. Approximately two years ago, an artificial intelligence which had served as a mediator for the S'pht clans unexpectedly went offline. This AI had been running for thousands upon thousands of years beforehand and the main processing hardware is still online: the construct was simply deactivated somehow. That is too suspicious to be coincidence.
I believe that Hathor came here explicitly to attack that mediator construct, and that its failure has caused the warfare that is happening around us. She must intend to destroy the S'pht, or have them destroy themselves, here in the distant past, so as to deprive mankind of their aid in the wars that are to come. As tempted as I'm sure you must be to go out and start killing something to fix the problem, we must be careful not to act rashly here lest we disturb this timeline even further. You should stay here inside the citadel, maybe head further into the upper levels, and try not to be seen. Disturb as little as possible. I am going to initiate a planetwide search for Hathor on the chance that she might have stayed around to watch all of her dominoes fall. Check in to terminals frequently, I will contact you when I have further information. Please be patient, this may take a while. \\ Message ends //
// Decoding message from host "S'bhuth" @ [no translation] \\ whence came the W'rkncacnter Yrro became an angry master and broke the S'pht into their clans the Olders we were appointed our clans named and numbered and I am called S'bhuth Older of S'pht'Kr
apologies are due we have no word in our tongue by which to call the Messenger of Yrro sent unto us now in our time of need The Older of Olders has fallen gone and lost without him we are mindless the Olders battle for selfish needs with no consideration
weapons built for our defense now are turned against the S'pht in hatred and in greed wielded by brother against his kin S'pht'Kr cannot bear to witness nor to partake of this carnage and there is a way known unto me the youngest of the Olders to flee seek you another node far below where further we may find the way \\ Message ends //
// Decoding message from host "S'bhuth" @ [no translation] \\ the passages to left and right lead to fields far flung from here S'pht'Hra battles the innocent 'Kr in the skies without and still more weapons of theirs sleep in these fields terrible will this last war be destroying our greatest of all S'pht monuments if they are not stopped now when no weapon of 'Hra flies above the Citadel or sleeps upon the ground below her then shall we pursue the way to leave this war at last \\ Message ends //
// Decoding message from host "S'bhuth" @ [no translation] \\ swift is the Messenger of Yrro and just is his hand as that of the Master freedom from war I have promised S'pht'Kr to save them from its course and to that deed I now send you forth where further we shall speak \\ Message ends //
interlevel teleports
