Chapter 454: The First Bearer

Aria examined the six connections while Aurelia compared the original archive’s records with the modifications made by Serik. The suspension function they had found seemed suitable, but its description contained an important condition: before isolating any set of instructions, the archive needed to identify which processes depended on it.

"We can’t simply select Serik’s copy and tell the archive to suspend it," Aria explained over the communicator. "The archive needs to verify whether any essential function will stop operating when the connections are interrupted."

Damon looked at the six red supports. "And how long does that verification take?"

"I don’t know. The function hasn’t been used in centuries."

"Great."

"But we can start with the first support. It’s connected to the search system you already shut down."

Damon approached the indicated mechanism. The connection remained attached to the first row of ancient plates, and the red filaments had contracted around the fitting. Beside it was a small inscription that, according to Aria, corresponded to the archive’s maintenance control.

"Do I need to release the fixation first?"

"No. This time, the archive itself will do that. Press the lower symbol and keep your hand there until a response appears."

Damon found the inscription and pressed it.

The crystals illuminating the room dimmed. A white line traveled across the floor until it reached the first support, and the plates connected to it began making small clicking sounds.

"Aria?"

"I’m monitoring it."

The red filament tried to contract even further, but the ancient structure opened the fitting beneath it. The connection slowly detached from the plate and remained suspended in its modern support.

A message appeared on the Level Zero panel.

EXTERNAL CONNECTION IDENTIFIED.

ESSENTIAL DEPENDENCY: NONE.

SUSPENSION AUTHORIZED.

Damon withdrew his hand when the white line disappeared.

"One."

Aria confirmed that the first connection had been isolated without interrupting the patients’ nourishment. The system searching for Liora also disappeared from the active controls.

"It worked," she said. "Let’s move on to the second."

Damon examined the other five connections. All remained attached to the ancient plates, but the filaments around them were now moving faster.

"The protocol noticed."

"I know. Just don’t touch any of them until I finish the verification."

The second connection was linked to Neria’s records. When Damon activated the maintenance function, the archive did not immediately authorize suspension. A different message appeared on the panel.

ACTIVE DEPENDENCY DETECTED.

SOURCE: BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY.

Aria examined the description and called Ester over the communicator.

"We need to know whether Neria is still receiving anything from the recording structure."

Ester replied after a few seconds.

"She’s still receiving nutrients through the cylinder, but we separated the main circulation from the recording system. The last red filament is still attached to her spine."

"Does that filament maintain any necessary function?"

"Neria says it doesn’t, but it’s connected to an important root. I’m not removing it until I can separate the tissues."

Aria relayed the information to Damon.

"The second connection can’t be suspended while the last filament is active."

Damon took his hand off the mechanism.

"Then we’ll leave that one for later."

Aurelia nodded. "We can work on the others. There’s no reason to rush a procedure that directly involves her body."

Damon moved to the third support.

This time, the verification identified a connection to the system that prepared the references used at Level Zero. Aria confirmed that structural distribution had already been interrupted and that the chambers remained under the original suspension function.

"You can continue."

Damon activated the mechanism. The white line traveled across the floor and reached the third row of plates. The red filaments tried to keep the fitting closed, but the ancient structure opened the support and isolated the modern connection.

Aurelia watched the indicators.

"Three connections left, besides the one linked to Neria."

"Four," Damon corrected.

"You’ve already isolated two."

"So there were six, minus two..."

He stopped.

"Four. Right."

Aria began to laugh.

"Don’t write that down," Damon said.

"I didn’t need to."

He returned to work.

The fourth support presented a different problem. When Damon activated maintenance, the archive identified a dependency involving the stabilizers of the six patients who had undergone the incomplete procedure.

SUSPENSION UNAVAILABLE.

ASSOCIATED LIFE SUPPORT.

Damon immediately withdrew his hand.

"Aria, we can’t shut this one down."

"I can see that."

Aurelia expanded the record and found the reason. Serik’s protocol had used the modern stabilizers to fix the patients’ new channels in place. Although the original suspension function prevented further alterations, part of the organisms’ maintenance still passed through the modern connection.

"If we isolate this support now, the three most critical patients could lose the circulation the machines are maintaining," she explained.

Damon looked at the red structure.

"So Serik managed to tie the protocol to the patients."

"Yes. Not necessarily on purpose at this stage, but that’s the result."

"Can we transfer their maintenance to the original system?"

Aurelia consulted the records.

"Maybe. The ancient archive has a structural support function, but we need to confirm whether it can maintain the channels that have already been altered."

Aria called Mereth, who remained in the observation wing.

"We need to compare the current maintenance of the six patients with the archive’s original function. Can you send us their complete records?"

"I can. But I want to be involved in any decision about the change. The three most critical patients are stable only because we adjusted their nourishment individually."

"You’ll be involved," Aurelia replied. "We won’t transfer anything without your confirmation."

Damon watched the support for a few more seconds before stepping away.

"We’ll leave the fourth one, too."

The fifth was linked to the Scarlet Order’s authentication controls. Aria found references to the marks used by its agents, including the commands that had caused the deaths of the men at the outpost.

Damon grew serious.

"Can this connection kill other people?"

"It can," Aria replied. "It contains the execution procedures and receives the identities of registered agents."

"Then isolate it."

"Wait. I need to verify whether any active mark depends on it to keep functioning normally."

Damon looked at the support.

"You think shutting down the execution function could kill someone?"

"I don’t know. Serik built these marks. I’m not going to assume the authentication function is separate from their maintenance."

Aurelia analyzed the records and found an important distinction. The agents’ marks had local structures capable of maintaining their own circulation. The central connection only sent commands and received information. However, some marks had been configured to react automatically to a loss of communication.

"If we cut the connection, those marks might interpret the silence as a security violation," she explained.

Damon ran a hand over his face.

"That man really thought of everything that could go wrong."

"He thought about preventing anyone from interfering," Aria replied. "That’s not the same thing."

Aurelia found a maintenance procedure used during old equipment replacements. It allowed commands to be suspended without sending a disconnection signal to external devices.

"We can put the connection into maintenance mode before isolating it," she said.

"Won’t that let Serik keep sending orders?" Damon asked.

"No. The marks will only receive confirmation that the connection remains available. No commands will be transmitted."

Aria carried out the procedure and asked Varos to check his own mark, which Ester had previously blocked. He replied that he hadn’t noticed any change.

Then Aria asked one of the guards who still had an active mark to check the indicator behind his ear. The man confirmed that it had neither heated up nor shown any signs of execution.

"Now you can isolate it," Aria said.

Damon activated maintenance.

The fifth connection detached from the ancient plates, and the modern support entered a state of suspension. Aria checked the communication log: no orders had been sent to the marks during the procedure.

"Done."

Damon exhaled.

"Finally, one part that ended without creating another problem."

"Don’t celebrate yet," Aurelia replied.

He looked at the three remaining supports.

"I was just going to breathe."

In the biological laboratory, Ester took advantage of the interruption to the authentication commands to finish the procedure on Neria. The last red filament remained attached to the base of her spine, but the smaller connections had already been separated, and she could remain seated without losing circulation.

Liora stayed beside her. The artificial roots that had tried to reach the girl had stopped growing after Damon shut down the search machine, but the filaments were still present in the cracks in the floor.

Ester examined the area near Neria’s spine again.

"Now that the recording system is suspended, we can try separating the last filament. I need you to move only the root it’s attached to."

Neria nodded.

"I can do that."

"If you feel any loss of sensation in your legs, stop immediately."

Neria closed her eyes and began moving the root.

The plant structure slowly contracted. The red filament followed the movement for a few centimeters, but then lost tension. Ester inserted a needle at the point where the artificial connection approached the spine, preventing it from contracting again.

"Now."

Neria continued moving the root until she managed to separate it completely from the filament.

The red structure remained attached to the cylinder.

Ester watched the indicators. Neria’s nourishment showed no changes, and circulation in her legs remained stable.

"We did it."

Liora immediately hugged her sister.

Neria closed her eyes and rested her face against Liora’s shoulder. For a few seconds, she remained motionless, breathing with difficulty. Then she pulled away enough to look at Ester.

"Can I get out of here?"

"You can get out of the cylinder. That doesn’t mean you’re ready to walk around the facility."

"I’ll take it."

Ester called two guards and asked them to bring a chair. Neria was settled near the table, where Liora remained beside her.

Aurelia received the confirmation over the communicator and checked the second connection again.

The active dependency had disappeared.

"Damon, we can suspend Neria’s connection."

He returned to the indicated support.

"Is she all right?"

"She’s out of the cylinder. Ester confirmed that her circulation remains stable."

Damon smiled.

"Great."

He activated the maintenance function. The second support opened without resistance, separating the records extracted from Neria from Serik’s modern system.

Aria checked the indicators.

"The data remains stored, but the protocol can no longer use it to carry out procedures."

"So she’s free?"

"From the recording structure, yes."

Damon looked at the modern machine.

"It’s a start."

Three connections remained: maintenance of the six patients, administrative access to the archive, and the local copy of Serik’s protocol. Administrative access was the simplest to resolve. Aria found a procedure that allowed control of the original functions to be returned to the maintenance panel without erasing previous users’ records.

Damon activated suspension and waited until the white line traveled across the sixth support.

The red filaments came loose.

At Level Zero, the original archive’s controls began responding directly to maintenance commands.

Aria checked the available functions.

"Now we have full access to the old options."

Damon looked at the two supports that remained active.

"And the protocol?"

Aurelia examined the records.

"The local copy is linked to the patients’ maintenance. If we try to suspend only the protocol, it might use the remaining connection to keep functioning."

"Then we deal with the patients first."

"Yes."

Damon sat on a block of stone and rested his sword beside him.

"I’m listening."

Aria began comparing the clinical records sent by Mereth with the archive’s old functions. The analysis revealed that maintenance of three patients could be transferred directly to the original system, provided their spiritual nourishment was adjusted first. The other three had more severe alterations. The modern structure not only kept their organs functioning but also compensated for the absence of channels that the reinitialization procedure had attempted to create.

"If we transfer those three without correcting the references, their circulation will fail," Aurelia explained.

Damon examined the diagram sent over the communicator.

"Can we keep the current machine running without leaving the protocol connected?"

"Maybe," Aria replied. "We need to separate the maintenance function from the modification commands."

"Is there a way?"

Aurelia pointed to the old controls.

"We can use the suspension function to prevent new alterations and maintain only artificial circulation. But that has to be done individually. Each patient has a different configuration."

Damon stood.

"Then do it."

Mereth took charge of the clinical controls while Aria prepared to transfer the three less critical patients. Aurelia checked the structural references before authorizing each change. The first procedure took almost ten minutes. The patient experienced a temporary drop in spiritual circulation, but Mereth adjusted the nourishment and managed to stabilize him.

The second and third responded better.

When the transfer was complete, all three remained unconscious, but they no longer depended on the modern connection linked to the protocol.

Damon watched the dependency indicator decrease.

"Halfway."

Aria replied, "Now come the difficult ones."

For the three most critical patients, Mereth decided to maintain their existing artificial circulation and transfer only control of the stabilizers to the original archive. That would prevent further modifications without forcing their bodies to use channels that did not yet exist.

The first transfer was completed without complications. During the second, however, the patient’s circulation began to drop as soon as the modern control lost priority.

Mereth immediately interrupted the procedure.

"Return to the previous configuration."

Aria obeyed, but the indicator continued to fall.

Aurelia examined the channels and identified the problem. The protocol had fixed an artificial route in place that depended on a continuous command to remain open. When control was transferred, the route began to close.

"We can’t simply replace the control. We need to preserve that route until the body can maintain another circulation."

Damon looked at the red support.

"So this patient still needs Serik’s machine."

"The maintenance function, yes. Not the entire protocol."

Aria examined the instructions and found the specific command responsible for keeping the channel open. She separated it from the other functions and created a temporary reference in the original archive.

Mereth authorized another attempt.

This time, circulation remained stable.

The third patient presented a similar problem, but the solution needed to be adjusted because his artificial channels were distributed across different regions. When the final transfer was complete, Mereth spent several minutes examining the indicators before confirming that all six patients were stable.

Aria checked the archive.

MAINTENANCE DEPENDENCIES TRANSFERRED.

EXTERNAL CONNECTION: NONESSENTIAL.

Damon approached the remaining support.

"Now?"

Aurelia checked the records one last time.

"Now."

He pressed the maintenance inscription.

The white line traveled across the floor and reached the support that remained connected to the patients. The red filaments tried to contract, but the original archive opened the fittings and separated the modern structure.

At Level Zero, none of the vital indicators changed.

Mereth exhaled.

"They’re still stable."

Damon looked at the final connection.

The local copy of Serik’s protocol remained attached to the center of the modern machine, but it no longer had access to Neria’s records, the Order’s marks, or the patients’ equipment.

"Aria, is this the one?"

"Yes. All essential dependencies have been separated."

"And if I suspend it?"

"The copy will stop executing commands. The original archive will continue functioning."

Damon watched the support for a few seconds.

"Then let’s finish this."

He pressed the inscription.

The white line traveled across the center of the room, reached the red structure, and began releasing the six filaments that held it to the ancient plates. One by one, they came loose.

The local copy tried to reestablish communication with Serik, but his implant remained blocked by Ester. Next, it tried to access Neria’s records and received a suspension response. Finally, it searched for the Order’s authentication commands.

Those were unavailable, too.

The original archive finished its verification and isolated the modern structure.

LATER-ADDED INSTRUCTION SET IDENTIFIED.

ESSENTIAL DEPENDENCY: NONE.

SUSPENSION COMPLETE.

The red filaments lost their glow.

Damon withdrew his hand and watched the machine for a few seconds, checking whether any part of it was still moving. Nothing happened.

"Aria?"

She examined the Level Zero controls.

"The copy is no longer executing commands. The original archive remains active. The patients are still receiving maintenance."

Damon exhaled and sheathed his sword.

"Great. Now we can get out of here."

Before Aria could answer, a new message appeared on the panel.

EXTERNAL INSTRUCTIONS SUSPENDED.

ORIGIN RECORDS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW.

She opened the indicated section and found a sequence of ancient documents that had not appeared in Vermillion’s modern controls. The records included standardization procedures, organism designs, and reports on the development of the first preservation protocols.

Among them was a file identified with the name Serik.

But it wasn’t a record of transfers between the seventeen bearers.

It predated the first.

Aria examined the date and called Aurelia.

"You need to see this."

Aurelia approached.

The document described the creation of the original preservation protocol. Its initial objectives were to record biological alterations, prevent incompatible models from being distributed, and preserve information needed to correct structural failures.

There were no instructions to control populations.

Nor to install the protocol in human hosts.

Aurelia frowned.

"Those functions were added later."

Aria continued reading.

The first bearer had received the protocol as part of a research procedure. The record indicated that he was supposed to use it for a limited period, until the first standardization models were completed.

But the transfer to the second bearer had not been authorized by the original archive.

It had been carried out by the first bearer himself.

Aria looked up.

"Serik didn’t begin as a protocol created to govern the Order."

Aurelia nodded slowly.

"It began as a preservation tool. Someone decided to keep using it after its original purpose had ended."

Damon heard the conversation over the communicator.

"So history repeats itself."

"Not exactly," Aria replied. "The first bearer altered the protocol before transferring it. The instructions for continuity, control, and preservation of its own records were added by him."

Damon remained silent for a few seconds.

"Can we find out who he was?"

Aria opened the next record.

The first bearer’s name appeared alongside a biological identification.

She read it once.

Then again.

Aurelia noticed her expression.

"What is it?"

Aria didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she enlarged the identification and compared it with the records recovered from Eir.

The structures matched.

Serik’s first bearer had not been human.

He belonged to the same ancestral lineage Eir had shown Damon.

The lineage that existed before the separation of vampires, incubi, and other species.

Aria brought the communicator closer to her mouth.

"Damon, we found the record of the first bearer."

"Name?"

"Serik was the name of the protocol. His name was something else."

Damon looked at the suspended machine.

"What was it?"

Aria read the identification.

"Vaelor."

Aurelia continued examining the records and found an additional piece of information: the first bearer had requested the protocol because his own biological structure was becoming unstable. He wanted to prevent the alterations made by the standardizers from eliminating his natural capacity to adapt.

But instead of restoring his own lineage, he had chosen to preserve his records and transfer them to other bodies.

Damon stood motionless.

"So he was like me."

"Not exactly," Aurelia replied. "But he possessed the same ancestral structure Eir identified in you."

Damon ran a hand over his face.

"Great."

Aria continued reading.

Vaelor’s final record indicated that he had initiated the first transfer after discovering that his original structure would not withstand another standardization.

The archive did not record the complete outcome.

Only a note left by the researcher himself.

PRESERVING THE MODEL IS INSUFFICIENT.

THE CAPACITY FOR CHANGE MUST BE PRESERVED.

Damon looked at the empty supports of the modern machine.

"He spent thousands of years trying to preserve something his own body had already been capable of doing before it was modified."

Aurelia nodded.

"Yes."

Aria closed the record.

"Damon, we need to show this to Eir."

"We will."

He picked up the container holding the small preserved root and began walking toward the archive’s exit.

"At least now we have the records, the patients are alive, and Neria is out of that cylinder."

Ester replied over the communicator.

"Don’t forget Serik is still being held here."

Damon smiled.

"I haven’t forgotten."

"You’ll need to decide what to do with him."

"Not alone."

His answer left Ester silent for a moment.

Then she smiled.

"Good."

Damon returned to the maintenance corridor, leaving the original archive functioning under its own controls.