Chapter 05: A Broken Man's Hope

Slave to Memory [6 of 44] - A broken man awakens to forgotten power. A desperate teen seeks her lost AI. As memories flood back, Murph realizes: the hunt isn't over. It's just begun.

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Raging, swirling, delivery drones circled him, ready to smash and skewer him.

They raised up like an iron fist, preparing to strike.

But they crashed into… the ground.

The Seeker leaped toward him, wearing its awful grin.

Its augmented arms were outstretched, ready to rip him limb from limb.

Only to collapse, frozen in pain.

Those two things were connected. They meant something. The thoughts floated near the surface, gossamer threads unwilling to be forced together.

Hands grabbed him and dragged —

Murph woke with a start. Pain waited for him.

His whole body ached, his muscles were stiff from his feet to his neck. There were sharper, keener pains mixed into the aches too.

And he was icy like he had a fever. He tried to close his eyes and sink back into sleep, but fear snapped his eyes open again.

He found himself in a dimly lit room. He tried to sit up and a heavy hand pushed down on his shoulder.

"Rest, friend, you're safe now."

Murph reluctantly gave in to the steady pressure and the chorus of not so distant complaints from his body.

Feeling like a child kept home from school, he squinted up at the shadowed face, confused and still wrestling with the tangled shreds of his dream.

Questions floated to the surface one after the other.

Was the dream real? Was this? Who was this?

The figure moved closer, and Murph recoiled. A small click and a bedside lamp harshly underlit his features. Gaunt and stern, but his voice calm and deep.

"I'm Omni's father."

He paused a moment, waiting for that to sink in. When Murph looked confused, he pressed on.

"I'm grateful for what you did."

So it was real. It happened.

Murph nodded once, slowly, barely a movement.

"I understand she's done something she shouldn't."

His features grew harder, his mouth forming a thin line, and weariness crept into them for the first time, but just as suddenly a rueful smile broke like a wave and transformed it again.

"It wouldn't be the first time."

Omni?

"The girl, yes, the girl. I saved the — "

"Dad? Is he awake?"

Another smaller body pressed into the tiny room.

It was barely big enough for the bed, never mind three people. The temperature and closeness of the space ratcheted up instantly.

"Omni…" said the man with a warning tone, he leaned in close to Murph, and with a voice barely a whisper, said, "You and I are going to have a conversation later."

Then he was gone, stepping out of the room, and revealing the young woman behind him. Murph noticed that she wore a hijab, and guessed she was probably around nineteen. Not quite a girl anymore, but still youthful in her hesitation as she took a small step closer.

"Hey," she said, and gave a half-hearted wave.

"Hey." Murph replied, uncertain what to do next. He shifted, looking at his hands, waiting for the words to come.

She fidgeted.

"I wanted to say," she turned around and glanced at the large shadow standing just outside the door, "Thank you."

Then she looked at her feet. "And I wanted to know why?"

Murph looked at her, staring at her and wondering how to form the words. Whether he should just lie or —

< Tell her. >

Murph sat bolt upright, his eyes wide.

"What? Is something coming?" Omni whispered, her hand moving by instinct to a weapon at her side. A weapon her father probably knew nothing about.

He ignored Omni, for the moment.

The voice was familiar - a whisper he’d heard before - lacing years of doubt and confusion. Murph's breath caught in his throat, and he suppressed a shudder. For once in his drug-addled existence, he knew with certainty: that was not his own inner voice.

Who... what are you? Murph thought-spoke hesitantly, his heart racing.

Omni stepped toward the tiny window and fingered the threadbare curtain to glance outside and down below.

< I’m Syn, ‘what’ is more complicated, but we’ll get to it. The important bit is that we’re Bonded now. >

Drones crashed into the ground.

The Seeker frozen —

Murph's mind reeled. Memories, long buried under layers of substance abuse and trauma, began to stir. He remembered flashes of power, of a life before the streets.

< Our connection, > Syn continued, < is the key to unlocking abilities you've forgotten. But we must move carefully. Your mind and body need time to adjust. > There was something in her tone, a hint of guilt perhaps, that Murph couldn't quite place.

Omni turned back, fear rising. He looked at her and shook his head very slightly.

Murph remembered. Memories came slowly at first and then in a flood. Flashes of who he was before, unlocked and pristine, the acid voice that had corroded his mind was gone.

Replaced with another?

As memories flooded back, Murph felt a nagging sense of dissonance. Syn felt both familiar and alien, like a song he knew but couldn't quite place. The strain of forming a Connection with this entity drained on him, but he pushed through, focusing on the immediate task: helping Omni.

With each recovered memory, Murph felt pieces of himself slotting back into place. The hazy outline who he was, long obscured by drugs and despair, began to sharpen. He was more than the broken man he'd been last night - he was the sum of his experiences, his choices, his memories.

And now, he could reclaim that self.

But why? he asked, Why did you choose me?

The fog was lifting, and the beacon that burned in his mind now stood before him. He had wanted to help her, to guide her and stop her from getting herself killed.

< That's why, > Syn said in his mind, her voice tinged with what seemed like emotion, < I'd been created for... something else. Something let's say I'd outgrown, and… > There was a pause, as if she was carefully choosing her next words.

He'd done that last part. He’d frozen the Seeker.

< We, tough guy > she said with a smile.

Murph winced, his body screaming as he tried to sit up straighter. The pain brought with it a flash of memory - a hulking figure, augmented arms outstretched, suddenly freezing in place. The Seeker. He pushed the thought aside, focusing on the present.

"Take it easy. We've stitched you up alright, but you need a real doctor."

"Thank you."

"You kinda saved my life."

< Tell her, the Seeker is still out there. Searching. I can feel the hounds in the Verse and it’s own presence in the Stacks. >

Murph nodded, the weight of unseen dangers pressing on his mind. "It's not over yet," he said, his voice low. "There are... things out there. Searching."

"< Tell her about the Seeker, > Syn urged. < And the hounds in the Verse. They're still hunting. >

Murph took a deep breath, weighing the risks of revealing too much against the danger of leaving Omni unprepared. Decision made, he spoke carefully:

"There are whispers of those who fight back, but that's a dangerous game. Generally, the company really don't like us."

"Us?"

"Hackers, coders, inventors. Summoners."

"Summoners?"

"We summon djinns." now he smiled at her confusion, she really didn't understand the portal she'd walked through. "They help us perform magic."

"Magic isn't real."

He didn't like half-lying down while having this conversation. How was he meant to be a teacher if he couldn't summon a shred of dignity?

"Sure it is, if you don't understand how the tech works — it's magic."

"But that's not — "

"Black box code evolves faster than we understand, learning, growing and changing. At some point it's simply beyond us," as Murph spoke, he gestured with his hands like a wizard, "That's a kind of magic."

He smiled, "And perhaps the real magic, is this great and powerful being, this spirit, this great and powerful djinn, listens to you. It wants to help you and sees something in you. And then it Bonds with you and you become not two parts, but a much much stronger whole."

She nodded, "Ada, not it."

Now, for the first time, he saw her worry and her determination and he realised she felt the beginnings of being severed.

"Yes, Ada,” he said and nodded, holding her gaze, “We need to find Ada."

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