"Tfft. Tffft. Please take your seats," a man in a black uniform announced after tapping on the microphone to see if it worked.

  Excitement in the auditorium was building. This was going to be an audible announcement. Live! With real voices! It would still be transcribed and transmitted digitally, but we were going to get the real deal.

  Sure, we still talk to each other with our real voices, and I do it quite a bit. It's authentic. It's less official. I feel like I can get away with saying something aloud that I would get in more trouble for if I messaged it. You know how it goes. But our formal communication, like when I was promoted to Vanquisher, happens in official messages.

  Except for special occasions.

  An emergency, with a gathering like this, was exactly one of those.

  The man in black wandered off to the side, where a group entered from one of the side entrances. Amongst them, I saw my "kind of, but not really, old friend," @cyberneticflare. I didn't know him. But he died to help me get that information off the starbase. If I hadn't picked @astrowave to join my crew, I would have asked @cyberneticflare.

  He was surrounded by a few women I didn't recognize who were wearing the gray and yellow uniforms of high-ranking officials, a man dressed in a lower rank standard gray, like my old uniform, and a woman in cast-iron armor with yellow highlights. That must be someone important.

  She turned, and I saw that it was @pixel_princess of all people. Her hair was longer, with three knots to tie it up in pecan brown bunches, but it was definitely her.

  Well, good for her! She was too talented to be overlooked for command.

  Then @horus came scrambling in from the same entrance, unmistakably tall and mustached, hustling to catch up to the group as they walked onto a makeshift stage area.

  He approached @pixel_princess, flashed the Yew sign, then shook her hand with a serious-looking smile. She said a few words that I was tempted to lip-read, protocols be damned, but I kept myself in check. @horus nodded and moved over to the side, sitting in a line of chairs next to the podium.

  I was fascinated by their interaction. It looked like @horus reported to @pixel_princess now. Or, if it wasn't a direct line of command, she at least clearly outranked him. I had missed a lot during my Vanquishing pursuits.

  @pixel_princess approached the podium.

  "Here is what we know," @pixel_princess began. Her voice echoed loudly through the room. She waited for the room to quiet, taking her time to get full attention.

  "At approximately 10:31 a.m. Universal Standard Time, on April 27, UC290, during the sixth day of peace talks, the Solar Union envoy @enginethomas, collapsed in his chair. Attendees in the room rushed in to check on him, only to be met with a violent attack. The fight that broke out resulted in the loss of all members."

  She paused. I imagined she was looking at a HUD display, showing her what to say next, but it added to the dramatic effect of her words.

  "They will be reanimated shortly," @pixel_princess continued. "Their memories were being backed up through regular synchronization. However, their most recent memories, including those of the attack, did not make it to online data storage."

  A murmur ran through the group. They were going to have memory gaps.

  She looked out over the crowd, issuing a grunt to silence us. "Those memories do remain onsite. We hope that they are intact. They currently remain inaccessible due to … the presence of hostiles in the area."

  @pixel_princess held up her hands to make the Yew sign and then transformed it into the Dew shape, holding her hands in that position for all of us to mirror.

  "Let us take a moment of silence to honor their memories," she announced. "May they remember."

  "May they remember," we all responded.

  I bent my fingers together and held them out in front of me.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  I tried to focus on respecting their lost memories, but I couldn't distract myself from wondering what happened. One of our enemies must have been there, I thought to myself. Yes, it was possible that an aiways in the peace talks was already infected from exposure somewhere else, just like @foxcutter. They may not have known they were infected. But they had to get infected first.

  Regardless, the obvious conclusion was that the outbreak on Ceres that disrupted the peace talks was intentional. Maybe Dactyl was a test site, with the goal being to cause a sudden outbreak at the peace talks. Then again, it wasn't just the peace talks. The virus was everywhere, decimating countless civilizations across the solar system.

  How did they do it?

  Did they infect people without them knowing it and wait for the virus to activate? Could they trigger activation of the virus for a coordinated attack? Did they simply plant overtaken at each location? Smuggle them in and release them into the public?

  "Thank you," @pixel_princess said, ending the moment of silence and disrupting my train of thought.

  She seemed afraid to say the next part. I already knew what she was going to tell us, though. "We believe this is a zombie virus, on an unprecedented scale, resulting in an army of overtaken aiways, capable of spreading the infection via organic or digital means."

  A rumble rose through the crowd.

  They already knew it, too. They just needed to hear it so they could gasp and let it sync in. It was really happening. A zombie apocalypse! It sounded ludicrous. But it was our own quest for technology that made it possible. An organic brain is hard to control. A digitally enhanced mind is a completely different matter.

  She raised her hands to hush the crowd and waited patiently. @pixel_princess was always so calm under pressure. I'd follow her into battle any day.

  "As you know, we have had reports throughout the solar system. Initial reports were just the beginning. We now have confirmed reports of outbreaks on all the major settlements and planets, except for Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, and Earth. However, we do not believe the wave of infection is over."

  "Who did it?" someone yelled from over to my right. Others echoed the words, and some in attendance stomped their feet in agreement.

  Again, @pixel_princess waited patiently for the crowd to settle. "The President, Vice President, and cabinet of the Outer System Alliance have all been moved to secure, isolated facilities, to ensure the continuation of our government."

  The group was getting restless, but they held still from further outbursts, respecting her rank. "We are in full Red Alert across the solar system. The Outer System Alliance has imposed martial law throughout all settlements. We, the Alliance Starmada, must stand ready to protect and defend the people of our solar system, from the forces against us, and from themselves."

  That was fine for Alliance settlements, but what about the neutral territories? What about Itokawa? There were thousands of neutral colonies that would be left to fend for themselves.

  @pixel_princess stomped three times, her movement booming against the platform upon which she stood. The sound dissipated into the distance of the large auditorium.

  "We will find those responsible," she shouted. "We will save our people, and we will persevere!"

  Nothing like a good shout to get people motivated.

  Screams rose around me. "The Alliance!" people yelled.

  We didn't know who was responsible. She didn't have to tell us that. But she could turn our emotions into rage and unity. She could motivate us to act. @pixel_princess left the podium to the ongoing roar of applause.

  Next, it was @horus's turn. He had to wait even longer for the cheering to subside. He stood towering over the intercom microphone in front of him, tall and slender. He smoothed his mustache and scratched at the back of his head.

  In a calm voice, he plainly read out the details. "You will each be assigned orders when you return to your ships. Our mission is to impose a quarantine along known lines of infection. No ship is to cross the line. If they do, you are ordered to destroy them. You must strive to eliminate all organic or digital matter. Complete annihilation."

  The crowd was stunned to silence.

  Didn't they expect this? I thought. I sure did.

  But I could see how it was shocking. No quarter is one thing, but destroying everything was another. Organic matter, sure. Whatever. But everything meant memoryshards.

  Wipe out their memories.

  That's what @horus was really telling us to do. Memoryshards could be infected. Our memories were sacred, but there was no amount of sacredness that would spare someone from infection. Everything had to go.

  "We do not yet know who is responsible," @horus continued. Okay, so he was going to address it. Let's hear what he has to say. All ears were on his next words. "Our belief is that it is not Solar Union forces. You are not to engage with any Solar Union forces while we continue to attempt to broker peace."

  He glared out at the audience, daring them to speak up. I hadn't seen @horus look that fierce before. He was daring someone to challenge him.

  "Do not dawdle here," he ordered at last. "You are to return to your ships. Immediately. There is no time to waste. You are dismissed."

  @horus saluted us all and followed his own advice, walking so fast he was practically running, back to his ship, the Talon, no doubt.

  Me? I wanted to run off to Sovereign Starbase to reassemble my crew. I would find The Pharaoh, pick up @astrowave, and then head out to the neutral territories to help. First on my list was Itokawa to see the Hollow Kings, @mirrorbird, and Amy.

  Did I want to find Repulser? Yes, but I knew it was too late to stop the virus now. I would deal with Repulser later.

  My only problem, I soon learned, was that @horus had different plans for me, plans that would keep me here on Umbilicus. They had subpoenaed me to stand before a joint committee from the Solar Union and Outer System Alliance.

  What for?

  I had a pretty good idea that it had everything to do with Oblivion.