[she doesn't know what 'purgatory' is, other than the general sense of a grueling situation to endure until one could be free of it, or why anyone would be praying to a living person. but this explains something of the dumb, hollow pain she saw in him when they met, something far more than the physical pain of the crash.]
Whatever this place is, it has a lot to answer for. There's something important I need to do, but it's gone and I can't--
[what do normal people say about something like this? "maybe you'll see him again?" so far there seems to be no way home for any of them.] Maybe he'll find you here too.
Oh, I am. Khiruev was just the only other human who knew where I was. We were working with a nonhuman enclave. I'll tell you about it later. [a wild promise, but she'd preserved the servitors' secrets for so long; hopefully the compulsion would let her off before she informed the whole network that machine intelligences are people too.
she remembers the two truths, and -- her experiences with resurrection having been very specific -- ponders whether there's a polite way to ask whether he, like the man whose memories she used to carry, is anchored to someone else who might still be in there with him.]
no subject
Whatever this place is, it has a lot to answer for. There's something important I need to do, but it's gone and I can't--
[what do normal people say about something like this? "maybe you'll see him again?" so far there seems to be no way home for any of them.] Maybe he'll find you here too.
Oh, I am. Khiruev was just the only other human who knew where I was. We were working with a nonhuman enclave. I'll tell you about it later. [a wild promise, but she'd preserved the servitors' secrets for so long; hopefully the compulsion would let her off before she informed the whole network that machine intelligences are people too.
she remembers the two truths, and -- her experiences with resurrection having been very specific -- ponders whether there's a polite way to ask whether he, like the man whose memories she used to carry, is anchored to someone else who might still be in there with him.]
Are you?