Comm ID: Kaspar Korbinian
To: Bruchsal Base, Frankfurt System
ID Trace: Public terminal on Planet Stuttgart
Displaying...
Guten tag. My name is Kaspar Korbinian and I was once a history student at Mitte-Stadt University, and I don't have much time, I thought I saw an undercover Federal Policeman pass me a second ago. I pray to whatever is out there that this message gets through, because if it doesn't I'm gone - I'm history if you'd pardon the expression.
I bet your wondering how a University student found his way to Stuttgart, and I don't blame you. Check my records if you must: History department under Professor Petrus Urs, student ID number 4278593A.
Now for my story. The History department is, compared to most other sections of the school, relatively quiet and not under the scrutiny of the Political Sciences. This all changed when the gracious "New Church" of our nosy Chancellor started wanting admin access to the servers that handle historical data requests. My Professor and mentor declined, as nobody had a 'delete' or 'write' command on those servers. We all thought nothing of it for a week, thinking their silence on the matter meant we had won. This changed when not only did our Professor step down from his chair, but small bits of the server started changing.
In defiance, I copied the unchanged data onto optical disks and made plans to flee the planet. I don't know how, but they found out and I fear for my life.
Before the disappearance of my mentor, I was not political in the slightest. Friends would discuss things of this nature and I brushed it off, thinking my life was different, however now I know that none of us can escape politics. I have come to appreciate the democratic viewpoint, as it has had an equalizing effect in past history. In short: I am a party man.
Please, I come to you now with sparse credits to my name, and sparser skills. I have the eyes watching me at every turn.
//End Transmission.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
