DISCLAIMER: The Scope cannot verify the veracity of this individual’s account of events and their opinions do not represent the opinions of the Scope. We trust that our readers have the capacity to decide for themselves what is an appropriate degree of skepticism to apply to the following narrative.
My decisions often begin life as they exit my mouth, long before they have made their way to my brain. By that time the opportunity to avoid any particular outcome has long since passed, freeing me of the need for any pretense of foresight. Yet as I was marched through dark corridors, flanked on either side by the augmented faces of Deathless agents, a thought did occur to me without first being voiced. The thought that perhaps my actions do have consequences.
Broadly speaking, the missives I forward to you have engendered two equally powerful yet opposite reactions in Zarzakh’s residents. The first and most surprising of these is delight. Strangers calling me “the Report lady” desperately thrust free beverages into my hands. While I may not cherish the name, the drinks themselves are appreciated. I find this reaction is most common with the newly embodied clones that have recently begun pouring into the Fulcrum. Their former lives haunting Upwell’s skyhooks were drab enough that reading the Scope qualified as entertainment. Since they began arriving, I have been introduced to a wide array of drinking songs that demonstrate great poetic skill entirely focused on identifying dirty words that rhyme with ‘Consortium’.
The second and more predictable reaction is violence. Luckily I am an expert in avoidance and have managed to pull off enough unannounced exits to retain almost all of my teeth. I was debating the risks of my continued residency on this knife’s edge when I came face-to-chrome with the aforementioned Circle agents.
Few are invited to delve beneath the neon crust of the Fulcrum’s more populous areas, and I have always been glad not to be one of them. The agents had no interest in my protests. Hiking through the unlit halls of this fallen kingdom has a way of making a person feel about as significant as a mote of dust, not to mention the unmistakable paranoia that radiates from every dark corner. It is like being at once both inside the belly of a whale and between the eyes of a tiger.
Eventually, we emerged onto a grand platform that spanned a far grander chasm. At the far end atop a simple throne sat the king of nowhere himself, The Deathless. I, like most who live here, had never seen the man in person before. It is not an experience I would recommend.
In place of a crown, he wears a wreath of tentacles that rise up from his back into the metallic guts of the Fulcrum itself. His face is like chipped ice, save for those eyes that burn right through you. As he stared at me I began to fear I had only been brought there so that he could watch while his followers tossed me into the vanishing abyss below. Instead, he asked that I come closer.
As I reluctantly approached he spoke. He told me the Circle did not come here to “build a kingdom of secrets”. That he was glad that my Reports had been published, and that the people of New Eden needed to be prepared for the truth. In my experience truth is a mirror, it has as many faces as there are people looking.
I asked him why he didn't just tell people this ‘truth’ himself. “Declaration is the folly of empires,” he replied, “and silence the hubris of tyrants. Only discovery sparks understanding.” As he spoke I felt it resonate through my very bones.
“Is that why you brought all these infomorphs here?” I asked, my mouth deciding on the question before my brain had a chance to intervene. “It is one reason,” he responded, and as he spoke the chasm below creaked out a discordant note. The Deathless twitched, and I was reminded for a moment that I was speaking with a human being, or at least something close enough to one to still be capable of flinching. “We have no purpose if our purpose is not guidance,” he said, perhaps to me but perhaps not.
He told me that the Fulcrum was “a home for New Eden’s lost, broken, and abandoned”. I wondered if he counts himself among that number. He continued, “The path we walk must be built by many hands and many minds. Those who have seen the failures of what is have been invited to build what will be.”
“Even if it means the Consortium comes gunning for you?” I asked, “Rumor is they’re lobbying CONCORD to explode anyone caught with one of their infomorphs.”
“Material desire has locked them into a single dimension of thought, trapped on an axis of rising profit. They slam the door shut, but we are already on the other side.”
“Pretty cryptic for one so interested in speaking the truth.”
“I have witnessed much. Now, meaning must be condensed. Three worlds will not balance on the tip of a meat tongue.”
“A strange message to leave the people of New Eden.”
“Only a statement. My message is this; You are not safe. Though the air lies still, pressure builds unseen. The storm will break. When it does, thunderous silence will echo throughout the cluster. Be skeptical, be prudent, but be ready.”
I returned to the bright surface waters of our Jovian colossus only to wash up on the shores of a bottle. The more time that passed and the emptier that bottle became, the less certain I was that I had not dreamed the entire encounter. Truth is a fickle lover, and subjectivity a willing accomplice.
This will be my last submission from Zarzakh. Not because I am being chased out, because I’m not. but because if a storm really is coming I need to speak with the people it hits, not stay cooped up in here. Maybe I’ll see you there.
News In Brief
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Rash of equipment thefts reported across Equinox workforce colonies, coordinated operation suspected.
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Equinox colony administrators' appeals for supplementary security denied by Upwell as deemed untenable.
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Upwell lobbies CONCORD to declare physical infomorph transportation as a violation of embodiment statutes in Yulai Accords.
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Core Complexion Inc. CEO Enoksur Steidentet announces launch of Sebiestor Promising Youth outreach program.
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Caldari Mountain Faction proposes tougher internal security sweeps.
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Gallente Electorial Commission reluctant to set date, says reasons are classified. Rumors of FIO involvement in postponement.
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SOCT commissions new spacetime anomaly tracking research project.