About The Scarlett Kite
Hi! I'm Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old, a journalism student in Perplex City and this is my blog all about the excitement over the search for the Cube. I'll be keeping track of what the media over there is saying about it, and maybe a little bit about my life as well!
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Friday, September 23, 2005
Allain tells me more about Viendenbourg
Category: story, 12:16 PM
I couldn't believe it. Allain was going to the same mysterious location as me!
I must have jumped in my seat when he said the word Viendenbourg, because Brede said "What's up, honey? Is everything OK?" I told him I was fine; I was longing to ask Allain what he knew about Viendenbourg, why he was going there, how he'd found out the name, but I didn't want to seem too curious. Luckily for me, Brede was interested as well.
He said: "What do you mean, you're not sure it exists?" Allain smiled and looked down at his hands.
"I know, it sounds pretty insane doesn't it? The thing is," he leaned forward, "you know I'm a student at Edyta College?" We nodded. Edyta College is fairly prestigious - it's a rival school to Marmalejo where Brede and I study. "And I guess you must be able to tell that I'm interested in a lot of different subjects, right?" We nodded again. "It's almost a problem, actually. I'm supposed to choose a subject of special interest next year, but I haven't been able to. Anyway a few months ago, among all these other projects, I got interested in studying the history of, you know, the war."
Brede and I both breathed in sharply. We knew about the war, of course. Everyone does. But it's not something you talk about. It's a dark part of our city's past - we've moved on. "I can't explain it," said Allain, "I was drawn to find out more. I even started reading through some of the material in the military archives. It was there that I first heard about Viendenbourg." Brede and I were very quiet now. "You know that material, it's mostly, well, fragments. So much knowledge has been lost from that time, even the technological developments of the final 50 years are mostly gone. And no one wants to try to retrieve them."
Brede shifted in his seat. I could tell this conversation was making him uncomfortable. What Allain said was true - everyone knows that technological advances were made during the war, but given where they led, no one wants to try to get them back. "I know that's what everyone thinks," Allain continued, "but the more I looked at those fragments the more amazed I was. From the documents, they had AIs far in advance of our own, and medical and health developments that were just... astonishing. I decided to try to piece some of that knowledge back together."
Suddenly, Brede stood up. His face was pale. He looked calm, but determined. "I'm very tired," he said, "I think I'll go to bed. Are you coming, Scarlett?" I looked at him. I knew why he was leaving. A lot of people feel like Brede does about the past - best left forgotten. You can't move forward while looking back. But I had to know about Viendenbourg.
"In a few minutes," I said. Brede looked at me. He said nothing, turned and walked toward our carriage. Allain and I looked at Brede's receding back, and then back to each other. There was a little pause, then he continued.
"I worked in the military archives for weeks, piecing together records, trying to make some sense of formulae and notes. Sometimes a hint of meaning would seem to be within my grasp, but then it dissolved again. I felt I was getting nowhere. And then, one day, an old man with white hair came up to my desk. He said: 'I see you've been working on ancient technology.' I nodded. He said: 'You'll never get anywhere with those old notes. You need the originals.' I smiled and told him that the originals had been lost centuries earlier. He looked at me, and then handed me a data button and said: 'I think you dropped this'."
He told me the rest of the story, but I felt that I'd heard it already. Allain had also received a map showing Viendenbourg, he'd also compared it to modern maps and found that there was nothing there. And now he was also travelling to Viendenbourg. There was a long silence after he finished. I had to make a decision, but I felt it had almost been made for me. Perhaps it was stupid of me, but I felt I wanted to trust him, at least as much as he'd trusted me. I said: "I also met that man in the archives. He gave me a map of Viendenbourg. And I'm going there too. And there's something else... I think I've seen that man on this train. I think he's here." And I stood up, said goodnight, and went to bed.
That was a week ago now. I've spent the past week trying to make things up with Brede. We've walked through some of the most beautiful places there are, but sometimes, as we're walking, I catch him looking at me strangely. As if he didn't know me at all. I can't explain it to him. I thought of trying to tell him the whole thing but somehow, now that it's linked to Allain, I don't feel I can. We haven't talked about it. We haven't seen Allain this whole week of walking but today we reached the train again. While Brede was getting our luggage, I sneaked a look at the passenger manifest and found out which compartment Allain is in. And about an hour ago I went along there to talk to him.
As I reached the carriage, I heard raised voices. Or, at least, one raised voice. It was Allain, shouting. It was as though he was talking to himself, although he paused occasionally. He was shouting: "You should never have told her! You should never have trusted her! Now she'll find out everything!"