Who Fell Again and Again on the Bridge
Session: 2025-04-30
The page opens on a line with nothing beside it: Was a Vesk, became a Morgue. Then a ghoul, Renzar, and what he carried. A security card, an internal security officer's. Freebooter armor, a buzzblade dueling sword, a yellow star plasma rifle. The journal does not say how the crew came by them, or whether Renzar fell.
Who read the ghoul's things, and the card of his office.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 85
What dies without breath does not forget the want of it.
— the Cycle, IV.4
A vesk who became something else. He wrote it first, above the ghoul, and never explained it. Why set down a riddle and walk on?
Under Twisty monks, three healing serums. The monks of the last page, perhaps, given a new name. The journal does not say.
Look to what the fallen carried.
A thing that steadies the dying is worth the carrying.
Know what they eat, and whether you can eat it.
(Zigu, from his journal.)
— the Forms, Form 33, later additions
Then Gerd Nashal, and a list beneath the name. An advanced iridishell. A white force field. A comm unit that reaches across a whole system. A bridge key, and a key that commands the cyber-control. The journal does not say how the captain's things came into the crew's hands, or what became of him.
Who took up the captain's keys.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 86
The heaviest mass moves least. All else moves around it.
— the Cycle, IV.11
In 137 the page ended on his name alone. Here the name heads a list. Perhaps it was always a heading, and the list came after.
Bridge! The only word on the page he marked so. On it waited a massive creature of mouldy green, like a vesk. Beside it an elebrian. Som wrote first undead by it, and nothing more.
Who came to the bridge, and found the dead before him.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 87
The oldest light comes from what is already dead.
— the Cycle, IV.9
The first exchanges. A heavy blow went through the elebrian's ward. A lighter one did not. One blow turned on a foe's shell; another broke through the shell of the mouldy one. The journal does not say whose blows they were.
Know the shell from the ward.
A blow the shell turns, the ward may let through.
Strike where it is thinner.
(Zigu, from his journal.)
— the Forms, Form 37, later additions
I've got See Invisibility … use it! He wrote it to himself, as an order. Later he broke the ampule and drank. Something on the bridge could not be seen. The journal does not say what, or what he saw when he could.
When the foe cannot be seen, break the glass that shows it.
Do not wait to be struck first.
(Zigu, from his journal.)
— the Forms, Form 45, later additions
The dark beyond the fire is not empty. It is only unlit.
— the Cycle, I.2
He had to remind himself. That seems out of character for a man who counted every ampule he was handed.
Rewire Flesh. A working went into his body, and he did not throw it off. For a long while after, his hands were slower, and his presence less. The journal does not say who worked it.
Who was rewired in the flesh, and fought on.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 88
What is bent from within is the last to straighten.
— the Cycle, IV.14
Then two words alone: Pre-record monologue. The journal does not say whose monologue, for whom, or what it held.
Light leaves the star, and goes on without it.
— the Cycle, IV.5
A voice set down ahead of time, to speak when the speaker cannot. In the middle of a fight. Whose was it?
He was on the deck. He wrote that he lay there, and asked whether, in the fight, he would be attuned. The journal gives no answer.
Light without weight scatters.
Weight without light falls in.
Hold both.
— the Cycle, III.7
The next page: Still up and fighting. Then Down a bunch of times. Then Down again. He fell, and rose, and fell. The journal does not count the falls.
Who fell again and again, and was still fighting.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 89
A star may fall inward many times before it is done.
— the Cycle, IV.15
He who counted tokens and sapphires did not count his own falls. That seems out of character. It is not. He counted what he could keep.
Stabilized. Someone steadied him. The journal does not say who. After it, blows that turned on a foe's ward and on its shell, and last, a note of how hard that shell was. The journal stops there, with the fight on the bridge not done.
To fall inward is also to give.
— the Cycle, IV.7
Where the record ends, stand.
Do not step into what you cannot see.
— the Cycle, I.5