Temporis XXIX - The Epicenter

Reminiscences and half-truths

1

- Demn?

- Yes, Lailah!

- I need your help!

- I know. That's why I'm here. Well, I need you to tell me everything you know and saw that day.

- Ok. Well, it was an ordinary day like any other, suddenly Shadow received a strange signal and Pote sent me to check it out.

- When I got there, it took some minutes for me to synchronize with the robot. It was weird because I couldn't figure out all the information that was stored. I tried all unlocking codes I knew, but they didn't work. One of his eyes was still working. He was at about six hundred meters away from the main wreckage. One was his arm was still operational. Initially I thought he had only his torso, but then I realized he was partially buried in the ground, probably due to the fall and climate conditions of the planet.

- Did you see anything, anything I could use in my research?

- Nope! I remember the wreckage. The movement of his arm. Wait a minute!

- Go ahead, Lailah. Give me something I could use.

- Wait! I saw a symbol on his arm. It was a circle with some starts crossed with lightning bolt. There was something written, but where I was standing, I couldn't read it.

- Great! It's a promising start. We'll talk again in two days.

- Wait, Demn. How can I remove this thing from me?

- Slow down, Lailah. One problem at a time. The most important thing now is for you to stay away from everybody and every public place until we figure out what you had found.

- Got it! Demn, am I in big trouble?

- I don't know, girl, but you can bet we'll find out! I need some time. My advice to you to is to keep away from everything and everybody, especially Pote and Shadow. You can find me again at the virtual room SEF3232 in two days.

After ending contact, Demn became silent for some minutes. He knew that symbol very well. He spent years in space working for Viper - Transportation and space mining. He couldn't curse. He knew this moment would come. He thought he had the contact of one or two guys (obviously he was one of them) that could help and identify the spaceship, his content and specially when it disappeared. He never knew Viper had operation in a place so distant. He shook his head in disapproval and came back to the arena.

Lailah had omitted some important information in her conversation. She's been having a strong headache since that day. The drugs relieved the pain, but during the day she hallucinated and partial loss of vision and conscience.

She didn't like the idea of depending on Demn. She couldn't trust him completely. He had a lot of secrets and conspiracy theories and scared everybody.

She knew he spent most of his time in Xeol than in the real world. He was a greedy and bitter old man.

As soon as she finished extracting the information, she turned on the procedure of self-destruction of the robot.

2

After the safety and bureaucratic procedures, Dipper used to have with the military, order of the memory and Tianlong, he was finally authorized to enter the building where Qi's office was located.

It seems you're familiar with my office.

- Yes, I know it. You're very perceptive. This used to be a school. I know this office very well. It was the school's principal.

- I imagine, with all due respect, that you caused a lot of trouble as a child.

- Laughs. You're right. I've always been a troublemaker. I spent a lot of time in this office and what I liked the most when I was here was to look outside that big window while I waited for my parents to come and pick me up. As you can see, originally there used to be a park behind that fence over there. What caught my attention besides the green stuff was the old windmill they kept that gave nostalgia to the park. I never got tired of looking at it and imagining a giant alien made of iron coming out the earth and threatening the city and its inhabitants.