Глава 14

You might not remember exactly what today means to you.

It would lead you into great danger if you do so.

No.

You must remember.

...Condition... Stable...

...Sorry...

For making you suffer again.

Hold my hand tight, Doctor.

Next time, please don't leave me without saying a word.

You wouldn't accept something like this happening again either, right?

Mmm... What's wrong, Dr. {@nickname}?

Why are you looking at me so strangely?

(Unknown language) Pries... tess...?

*sigh* Where did you manage to learn such a strange language this time around?

Did you sneakily upload your cognition to some civilization out on the tip of the spiral arm in this round of hibernation?

Alright, I'd just like to reconfirm whether or not your capability for language has been properly restored.

Don't tell me that you've even forgotten my name just because you've had a big nap.

Come on, say my name again. The database will analyze all of your voice data.

Pries...tess...

You recovered rather quickly, {@nickname}.

But since your body has only just revived, it still hasn't fully acclimated yet.

So don't make any sudden movements. NX-07 will press you back into bed if you do. Its new orders are rather difficult to rescind, so I'm afraid that my hands are tied.

You... Where am I?

You're still on 'Rhodes Island', of course. Our home.

You mean... just me?;What about the others... on Rhodes Island...

Just you? Hey, I'm here too.

...You really do keep asking this every time.

It all happened so fast. The damage to the defense array exceeded ninety percent, and with all the extreme environmental damage we received, the repair units were finding it difficult to restore everything in the short time that we had.

Not long after you began your hibernation, many of our colleagues left, one after the other. Everyone wanted to treasure the time they had before the stars fell. I understand how they felt.

Now it's just the two of us left. Of course, AMa-10 is still here as well. She's in good spirits, and still rather lively.

But don't worry, what's left of Rhodes Island can still maintain its basic functions. We still have some time.

When you are here with me, {@nickname}, I'm not afraid of the end.

No matter if our bodies collapse, or if our consciousnesses freeze, or if the laws of the universe invert, I can accept it all with open arms.

I need only have you by my side.

You seem rather absent-minded today. Still not fully awake from your dream, {@nickname}?

She takes your hand, pressing it against her cheek.

The touch of her skin is warm. Its corporeality snaps you out of your dream.

If that's the case, then I would like to know what you dreamed of.

Although I will say that I would prefer if I were in it.

...;Dream...?;A very long dream...?

'Terra'.

That land... Catastrophe... Oripathy...

You wandered that land for several years. Felt how real everything was. All too real.

The jubilant cries of the masses still echo in your ears.

The Catastrophes have not yet stifled all hope. Beneath the trauma and the suffering, you can still feel a warmth, enduring, eternal.

It is warm. It is touching. You are surrounded by a gentle crowd of people.

'Rhodes Island'.

You will never forget Rhodes Island.

Rhodes Island healed your scars. Rhodes Island allowed you to have your regrets.

You are still standing with it, aren't you?

You have been to lands covered in ice and snow with them.

Felt the soft sand at the shore with them.

Witnessed how they live.

Witnessed how they die.

They convince you that—

In a unjust land that should have been burnt away, ideals are still worth believing in.

You accompanied those idealists against the surging heat, no matter if it would sear your flesh.

You saw vile empires, and the sorrow of those unable to fight their fate.

You could never forget...

Her.

She has never left you.

They have never left you.

'Doctor...'

'Doctor!'

(Unknown language) Amiya...

Doctor!

Your mind's wandered off again. It seems you have a penchant for speaking in that alien language.

Those experiences... were real.;That was no dream.

And what's wrong with that?

We have always had the power to define dreams and reality in our own hands, {@nickname}.

When our consciousnesses traverse the universe across countless light years, and we participate in sacrificial rituals to a white dwarf in the frozen wastelands, how would we define these experiences?

Once you return to this body of yours, how would you be able to determine if information that must wait millions of years to be captured is dream or reality?

Wait, you're not seriously thinking that over, are you?

Priestess...

What is it, {@nickname}?

Why do I know your name, when we've never met?

'Never met'... So, you've finally noticed.

I'm happy to hear you say that. It means that you are very close to finding the real me.

But I can't help but feel a little disappointed.

Because of that minor mishap, your memories... have been damaged beyond repair, and there is nothing that I can do about it.

Is this place here... also Rhodes Island?;Have I been here before?

Here... It's 'The unknowable'.

We made a wish together when we created this place.

When the last warmth of the stars dissipates, and the weave of time falls apart into chaos, we will let the darkness wrap around the two of us like a blanket.

It sounds like you're describing a tomb.

We will wait until this world and the starry sky above welcome their final moments... Our universe will become an immense tomb of its own.

There is no hope in any corner of any star in the heavens. Each and every speck of cosmic debris that seems to hold possibility of salvation has long since been found and examined by us.

Every attempt at resistance only ended in its premature destruction. Every exploration only deepened our despair.

The conclusion was rather simple. Any life formed from ordinary matter is unable to escape. Any knowable technology is unable to prevail over our inevitable end.

My apologies, {@nickname}.

It's just that it has been a rather long time since I last had the opportunity to tell you everything I wanted to say.

Were we... intimate?

Intimate? I wouldn't use that term to describe our relationship.

It belittles all that we have experienced together in the past.

I don't remember any of it.

It's fine, I'm not upset.

Though your mind may not remember, I am sure that in the deepest recesses of your consciousness, deeper than any probe or instrument can reach, there are still traces of me.

If it were not the case, then why would you allow me to keep holding your hand like this?

Hmm...;Did we do this a lot in the past?

'Holding hands'... Yes, we had many different ways to 'hold hands'. Much of the time, we had no need to use any specific part of the body to do it.