The Crystal Library
by Michael Burnett
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Table of Contents parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
conclusion
Item 6:
BREAKING: BLAST AT LONDON COLLECTIVE HQ LEAVES NINE DEAD
By Faith Hannigan, THE TIMES (London)
Published 3rd November 2054, 2:40 pm
A devastating explosion tore through the south wing of the London Collective’s Headquarters building on Gordon Square in the early hours of this morning, leaving dozens of Archivists injured and at least nine dead. Emergency services are working to locate and rescue any remaining individuals still trapped in the rubble.
Police are citing the attack as being ideologically-driven, following encrypted communications from a proto-human rights group, The True Kindred, who have claimed responsibility for the attack. Intelligence services are striving to discover the location from which the message was sent.
The IED, rigged to a laundry service LGV vehicle, detonated at 4:35 a.m. after ploughing into the Foyer section of the Headquarters building, formerly the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Witnesses at the scene describe an erratically-driven van travelling considerably over the speed limit along Gordon Street before colliding with the main entrance and exploding in a blue-black fireball.
Much of the London Collective’s centre of study now lies in ruins. Supt. Harriet Burnley, spokesperson for Scotland Yard, has confirmed the attackers’ use of Immolator offensive technology, outlawed by the Wroclaw Convention in 2036. Firefighters took 3 hours to get the blaze under control, narrowly preventing it from spreading beyond the targeted building.
One witness, Ruksana Mirza, said: “I work at the International Development Centre at the other side of Gordon Square, so I saw everything. First, I heard this massive loud sound, then the earth shook. Then I looked outside and the Collective building’s on fire. Burnt trees, pieces falling everywhere, and what was left of a truck on fire, right in the middle of it. Then there was just this deathly silence, before the people started screaming.”
Prime Minister Oliver Tull has called an emergency meeting with COBRA over what now seems to be a rising tide of hate crimes against ‘Archivists’, amid generally growing social unrest. In a press conference at 1:30pm, Prime Minister Tull made the following statement:
My government will do everything it can to protect the people of Britain from the growing threat of so-called “proto-human” hate groups, who do not hesitate to strike out at Collective members or anyone associated with them. We have never tolerated these outrages and we’re not about to start now. We are all British people and deserve to live in peace.
But sceptics have called for further sanctions against members of extremist groups. Some, such as the pressure group Transparency, are calling for extensions to surveillance powers, which they believe would allow security forces to identify potential hate criminals before an atrocity is committed. Opposition leader Leanne Margot has voiced her outrage at Tull’s approach to the crisis, saying “Words are not enough; it is time for the Prime Minister to get serious about the threat we face. Tull’s empty promises are making no-one safer. Britain is falling apart.”
Part of the message, allegedly sent by The True Kindred, reads: “This is but the first of many. We will come for you in your stinking nests, we will burn you like the insects you are. No Archivist or sympathiser is safe from us.”
Following decryption of the message, the UK has officially been placed at Critical Threat Level for the first time in over 15 years. Whilst many amongst both main political parties have until recently dismissed the proto-human groups as “mostly posturing,” opinions are now starting to change, with pressure groups such as Transparency gaining increasing support from inside the cabinet.
The London Metropolitan Police, working alongside several private security forces, have as yet been unable to identify the driver of the LGV containing the explosive device. A police spokesman has cited difficulties in gathering forensic evidence, due to the extremely destructive nature of the device used.
Mayor of London, Craig Sefton, has urged the people of London to exercise caution, and report anything suspicious to the police immediately:
This is the first large scale attack on London in over two decades, but we cannot assume it will be the last. It is everyone’s duty to ensure that London remain a city safe from violent individuals and extremists of all persuasions.
Item 7: The Augur Awakens
Transcript from Press Conference: ‘Institute of Crystal Linguistics confirm that The Augur has been awakened.’
Venue: secret location in Hertfordshire, UK.
02/05/2055, 13:00 CST.
St Andrew: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I’m Dr. Rebecca St. Andrew. I’m a member of the Crystal Linguistics research team assigned to the resuscitation of the Asterian organism, ‘the Augur.’ I’m here to tell you all that, after seven difficult years, we have made a profoundly important breakthrough this morning. In the spirit of transparency, my colleagues and I at the Institute of Crystal Linguistics and the independent Scholarly Collectives have decided that it would be prudent to engage with wider society and make our findings known. Today, we have managed to reanimate The Augur.
(Crosstalk. Reporters shout questions)
The key to making the breakthrough was in the recent translation of a particular rotation of Crystal 804,616 by the Eastern Seaboard’s Delta Collective in late January of this year. The translation of this crystal enabled us to overcome several paradoxes that were preventing progress. In January, we learned that The Augur is a completely synthetic being, a sophisticated but artificial simulacrum of a true Asterian. In learning this, we modified our approach. The simulacrum is now beginning to respond to our attempts at communication and appears lucid and co-operative.
(Crosstalk. Reporters shout questions)
Reporter: Has your team managed to speak with the creature? Can you confirm that the Institute aims to inform the wider public of its results?
St. Andrew: Although we have managed to reanimate The Augur, we have as yet had no fruitful exchanges with it. As can be expected, the simulacrum speaks using the Asterian kinetic language. In the coming days, we will be attempting to find common linguistic grounds in order to start engaging with it. We will inform the press of any and all developments as they happen. We are currently fine-tuning the translator apparatus and we are confident that we can begin to initiate real communication very soon.
Reporter: What will the Institute do to ensure equal access to the Asterian for all of us? How can we be sure the Institute won’t screen these communications?
St. Andrew: We were certainly expecting this question. Despite the recent violence against our partners at the London Collective, we at the Institute are committed to rebuilding trust between the Institute and Collectives, and the wider public. Because of this, we will be in discussion with Prime Minister Tull, the BBC, and several independent news outlets regarding the livestreaming of all conversations with The Augur, as well as the governments of all countries with Collective presences.
Naturally, any agreements made will fully reflect the need to protect ourselves from the threats we face from radical proto-human groups. The Institute wishes to remind the public that the Augur, and the apparatus supporting it, remains the property of the Institute, and any disclosure is purely voluntary.
(Crosstalk from reporters; mostly unintelligible)
(Male voice from crowd, shouted): Proper accountability!
St. Andrew: Yes, yes.
Reporter: How can proper accountability be ensured if the rest of us have to rely on your translations? How will we know you’re not lying to us?
(Indistinct)
St. Andrew: Ah, understandably, the wider population cannot use the Asterian language, this is an issue that we have discussed at length, and will discuss further with Prime Minister Tull and various group representatives. We aim to allow access to key individuals from these groups and from government into every communication session. These individuals will witness the translations as they happen.
Reporter: And who will these groups be? Who are these individuals? Are you telling us that a hand-picked group of Institute cronies will provide the accountability that we all need? Do you really think that’s good enough?
St. Andrew: Translation is a complex and time-consuming process. The doctoring of a translation would certainly be an even more complex process. Whilst this seems self-evident, perhaps it is less so for someone with no direct experience of the translation process. Despite the clear impossibility of distortion under these conditions, an oversight committee will produce publicly available periodic reports. You can check these, anyone can check them at any time.
(Shouting from reporters)
St. Andrew: The entire process will be audited far more rigorously than any ordinary government operation. If you yourself have any suggestions to improve the process, we are open to those, too. The matter is really very simple.
Reporter: Dr St. Andrew, Dr St. Andrew—
Another Reporter: What do you expect us mere proto-humans to do here? You’ve deliberately disallowed any ordinary individual access to the Crystal Library. Of course we don’t know the language! You’ve made sure of that. Why can’t the Institute consent to teaching the Asterian language to members of the government and press? What are you afraid of?
Another reporter: What is the Institute hiding from us?
(Crosstalk; reporters shouting; commotion and movement on the floor)
St. Andrew: As I have already stated at the beginning of this conference — to which the Institute has willingly invited the press from across the political spectrum — The Institute, in unanimous agreement with all but three of the independent Collectives, has called the conference as a show of good faith and co-operation. To cast about conspiracy theories is unhelpful, to say the least. Where is your evidence for these unfounded allegations? I stated at the beginning of this conference that the Institute will commit to appropriate transparency measures, many of which are in the legal sense, optional. We do this in the spirit of advancement of the species towards its apex.
(Reporters shouting questions, unintelligible)
St. Andrew: Such divisive questions serve no purpose. One has to question the—
Reporter: Which species? Archivists or Proto-humans? Which species?
Another reporter: Which species are you?
St. Andrew: The human species. Us, you. The human species, in totality. That is all I have time for. The Institute is committed to transparency in all its dealings. How you respond to that is very much up to—
(Shouting from reporters, movement on the floor. Screams; the sound of three shots fired in quick succession)
(END OF TRANSCRIPT)
Copyright © 2021 by Michael Burnett
