PART 26
The sight of Daniel lying still on the floor did something that the system could not predict or contain.
The small,
stubborn core of my humanity,
the part that loved him,
revolted against the digital onslaught of the archive.
With a scream that was half-human and half-static,
I forced the energy of the sphere backward,
using the silvery lines on my skin as a conduit to redirect the data flow.
The pulsing roar from the metallic sphere died down,
replaced by a low,
submissive hum as the fourth node finally clicked into perfect alignment.
The concrete dome stopped shaking,
the cracks in the walls sealed themselves with a hiss of heat,
and the ancient computers blinked out of existence,
their files verified and secured.
I dropped from the cat-walk,
landing on my feet with an unnatural lightness,
and ran to Daniel's side,
falling to my knees in the dust.
My marble hand was trembling now,
the silver lines glowing a frantic,
terrified purple as I touched his neck,
feeling for a pulse.
It was there,
but it was weak,
a faint,
fluttering rhythm that was slipping away with every drop of blood that pooled on the concrete.
"No,"
I whispered,
my voice cracking as tears finally broke through the glassy surface of my eyes.
"I promised,
Daniel,
I promised I would remember."
I closed my eyes and reached into the system,
not to align a node,
but to access the local backup files of the room we were standing in.
The archive held the memory of everything that had happened within its perimeter,
including the physical state of Daniel's body just three minutes ago,
before he fell from the cat-walk.
I didn't just remember it;
I commanded the system to project that memory back onto his physical form,
to overwrite the present reality with the immediate past.
The silver lines on my skin flared with a blinding,
violet light,
and the air around Daniel began to shimmer and blur like a film reel being rewound.
The blood on the floor began to flow backward into his wound,
the skin on his forehead closed up without a scar,
and his chest rose with a sudden,
sharp intake of breath.
He opened his eyes,
blinking against the light,
looking up at me with confusion and fear.
"Amelia?"
he whispered,
touching his head where the wound had been just a second ago.
"What happened?"
I pulled him close,
holding him tight with my cold,
stiff arms,
knowing that I had just committed a terrible sin against the laws of nature.
I hadn't just saved his life;
May you like
I had used the archive to rewrite time,
and the system would demand a heavy price for such an unauthorized modification.
