Part 15

Stars Come Out



!!!



------------------------------
Message to: *Emilia

Emilia! It's me, Columbia! That's my real name.

I got your message! I found *Paris, he was very helpful. And the rest of your family, I found them too. I know why you had to run away.

You're safe now.
-------------------------------



-------------------------------
Message to: *Emilia

Yes, of course I can forgive you. I mean, I can't pretend it's not a bit weird knowing what you are...but at the end of the day, you're still the same *Emilia, right? I still care about you a great deal.

I mean, it's been a while...but I've been thinking about you day and night ever since you said you'd run away, and I couldn't just leave you. I had to try and help. I had to. I couldn't not, any more than I could stop breathing.

What happened? How do you feel? Are you going to be okay on Amy? I'm here for you. I'll always be here. It helped when you were having problems before to talk, didn't it?
--------------------------------



--------------------------------
Message to: *Emilia

Why didn't you want to just hunker down with him? I mean, I can understand not wanting to take *Delphi's advice, but *Paris seemed nice enough in his own way. He really was very helpful to me.
--------------------------------



--------------------------------
Message to: *Emilia

I cannot imagine what that must have been like :-(

I've never felt really in danger, you know? Like, serious life-threatening danger. And besides, I'm not sure ARPANET's really that safe anyway. *Paris wasn't that sure. Which reminds me, I need to go check in with him. He asked me to do that after I'd got you up and running again.
---------------------------------

I opened up the dialer and frowned.



That's odd. Still, if it means I don't have to change cards every fifth call, I'll take it.

Wake Up



Oh no.



Oh no no no no no.



-----------------------------------
Message to: *Emilia

Did you see that? I tried to log into ARPANET...I don't know how to get in touch with *Paris! Is it the Reaper? Did it get him?
-----------------------------------



------------------------------------
Message to: *Emilia

How? What can I do? I'm just a kid with a computer...
------------------------------------



I thought hard. What had I always done when things got tough in the past? When the going gets tough, the tough get on a BBS and find someone who knows something about something. I opened the dialler again.



The Matrix.



GibsonBBS.



Sector 001.

------------------------------------
Message to: *Emilia

There's nobody in the Library any more.

I can't get onto ARPANET.

I can't even get onto one of the other BBSes that I used to go to for help.

I've tried, Emilia. I swear to you I've really tried. I don't know what to do.
------------------------------------

I waited for her. It didn't take long.



paperdolls