Story Reader / Main Story / 28 Polaris Bond / Story
In the course of history, the past dominates the present.
While in the writing of history, the present dominates the past.
—Qian Zhongshu
Hello.
A voice hovers in mid-air above her head.
When she wakes up again, Qu finds herself sitting in an armchair, as if she has just drifted off while reading and taken a brief nap.
Surrounding her are endless rows of bookshelves, with dense archives and large metal cabinets with rotary handles lining up in the distance, fine dust dancing between steel and wood.
These shelves hold bamboo slips, stone tablets, papyrus scrolls, thread-bound books, clippings, and file folders imprinted with large red seals, alongside yellowed woodfree paper fastened together with paperclips.
On them lie tidy black text as if printed, inscribed in Latin, Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and various other languages...
Hello, thank you for using Tabula Akasha. I'm Huaxu, and I will assist you in completing the mind data upload.
Why am I here?
This is the pre-login relay space for Tabula Akasha.
Qu, identification number 5784221930, you have been confirmed dead and are thus permitted to join Project Tabula Akasha.
Qu closes the book in her hands, examining her fingers in the dim light of the library.
Am I... dead?
According to the mind data upload protocol of Tabula Akasha, confirmation of deceased status is necessary to transfer one's consciousness to the Tabula Akasha human mind data repository.
I will assist you in completing the full mind data upload.
Suddenly, the rows of bookshelves around Qu interlock and fold like intricate joinery, unfolding into an endless expanse of books.
In the shifting shadows of the library, she discerns another Qu not far from her, also seated in an armchair, appearing to have just been awakened by Huaxu, a book still open in her hands.
Further ahead is but another Qu, also seated in an armchair, yet to be awakened from her sleep.
And further ahead, there is another one...
Countless "Qus" stretch before her, like an unfurling scroll of a painting on a desk, expanding in every direction, lying flat, cascading downward, or flowing back upward. In these paintings, "Qu" is infinitely fractured and intertwined into endlessly intricate, introspective shapes.
These paintings unfurl and twist incessantly, creating numerous threads that then interlace into identical artworks.
Birth records, growth records, life events, work history, resume...
Accompanied by Huaxu's voice, towering high-density shelves emerge from those paintings, lining up before Qu...
Like majestic mountains.
Are these all histories related to me?
Yes, to be precise, this is your history.
Based on these historical records documented in the Kowloong data center, Tabula Akasha can reconstruct your entire life.
You can choose to be uploaded into the Tabula Akasha database and review these historical records without any time constraints.
After that, these historical records will become part of your virtual consciousness, entering Tabula Akasha along with your consciousness. You will arrive in a new world and continue to live on.
A new world?
Qu casually retrieves a kraft paper dossier from the high-density shelf before her, its silver wax seal imprinted with the red stamp of "Kowloong Third People's Hospital".
Kowloong Third People's Hospital...
Without a tool at hand to cut open the paper bag, Qu has to tear along the wax seal to open it, taking out the only piece of paper inside.
...A birth certificate.
Even during the highly digitized Golden Age, people still maintained the habit of storing crucial documents and records on paper.
Time, place, people, cause, process, and result.
This piece of paper is her origin.
Her eyes scan line by line, recalling the memory of her birth that a human could not retain from a physiological standpoint.
She was born in a public hospital in Kowloong, on the thirteenth floor of the obstetrics department, with the birth number 01323.
Not only her, but her elder brother and younger brother were also born in this public hospital.
Wherever it is, it's a Kowloong hospital, and they are all Kowloong people.
Father...
She caresses the two names on the greenish birth certificate, but as her fingers brush one of the names, an image jolts into her mind like an electric shock. Suddenly, the bookshelf nearby topples over, unveiling an operating table—
...This won't do. The heart rate remains suboptimal.
Director, the fetal heart rate has dropped as well.
Prioritize saving the mother. Administer atropine and dopamine. Push, push more.
...The bleeding won't stop. The blood we push in immediately flows out again.
What about the child?
Dr. Xu, I'll try to keep the mother stable. The child's life is in your hands...
...Villier.
Would these things also be recorded in Tabula Akasha?
Every piece of information that should be recorded in an individual's history will be included in Tabula Akasha.
Blocked by the frantic medics surrounding the operating table, Qu is unable to catch a glimpse of the person lying upon it or her face.
She can only witness the drops of red blood falling from the now-dark sterile drape to the ground.
She should not know what exactly happened on the operating table that day.
It was only years later, when she looked through the sealed files of the medics, that she discovered how her never-seen mother had been engulfed by family conspiracies.
Regardless of status, regardless of confidentiality...
There is only one thing that I would like you to acknowledge.
Every consciousness that can be uploaded into Tabula Akasha has been declared dead.
If you are "ready," the reconstruction for the data upload can commence at any time.
Qu clenches her fist, returning the birth certificate to the shelf beside her. The operating table, previously revealed not far away, also fades back into the infinite bookshelves.
Let's get started.
Qu reaches out and pushes aside the heavy bookshelf beside her.
I've been ready for a long time.
