He tried asking a few more questions, but received no useful answers. Only after a long while did he turn his head and, for the first time since returning here, look into her blue eyes. He gazed at them for a long time, as though hoping to find something there.
But there was nothing.
It was as though she were sitting right in front of him, yet remained a world away.
"Do you know who I am?"
At last, he asked the question.
A torrent of numbers flickered through Silver Fantasy's eyes as she watched him quietly, but unlike with the other questions, she did not immediately respond.
Time flew by.
Finally, after who knew how long...
Just as Lynn had turned away and silently returned his attention to monitoring the operation of her body...
She slowly extended her hand.
He suddenly saw a component activate on the monitoring equipment.
And when he turned his head, he saw her outstretched hand and the light of a three-dimensional hologram projected above her palm. Within that light, a small virtual flower slowly appeared.
Pure and flawless.
At that moment...
Lynn froze where he was.
Yes, of course he remembered that flower.
One evening after the Purification Council had tried to force his hand, he had casually picked a flower from the Hive's fields and given it to her. She had taken it home, but afterward, it could never be found again. It was only a string of code that existed in the Data World, and he had never given it much thought.
"Retrieved from the encrypted database-partially correlated with the identification code you provided-"
She replied.
Lynn suddenly felt his lips go dry, but he still asked:
"Is there anything else? Wasn't there... wasn't there also a dream, with a very warm