Sunday, June 1, 2025

The Records That Don’t Exist


 Lyra was already at her desk when he arrived. Pale lights buzzed overhead, casting soft white across stacks of datapads and half-folded maps. A holographic neural map rotated slowly beside her, flickering with Vell’s resonance scan.


Gaius dropped his notebook onto the table.


> "You’ve got access to personnel records, right?"


Lyra glanced up. "Some. Why?"


> "Vell said he had a wife. Red hair. Called him 'Vee.' Disappeared after he came back."


She paused, fingers already moving across her interface.


> "Let me check."


Data scrolled. Names, tags, faded field clearances.


> "No spouse listed. No emergency contact. No shared lease file."


She tried another index. Still nothing.


> "Could be a clerical gap. Or maybe... trauma. Memory distortion."


Gaius didn’t answer. He just looked down at the blank line where a name should have been.

No comments:

Post a Comment