do we know yet?

(is it knowable?)

6) GÇ£what was many now becomes one when one becomes fourGÇ¥

"Those implants carry the fragmented consciousness of the Sleepers within them," said Sarum. "In some of them, the Sleeper presence is so strong that it can overwhelm the implant's host."

Heth's brow furrowed and his eyes hardened.

"What's more," continued Sarum, "all Sleeper technology has these fragments within it. The Empyreans who today wage war on the Sleepers' outposts to harvest their technology are not, in fact, mere resource gatherers, nor are they simple thieves. They are committing something far worse than theft."

"Genocide," said Heth.

"If you don't believe me," she said presently, "then answer me this: has the number 514 played into any of your lost cases?"

The atmosphere in the room sharpened perceptibly.

Heth leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. At length he began to speak.

"It's been happening since the beginning," he said. "At first we thought it was localized to a particular place. Our first two cases came from the same barracks. We thought it was something a few of them had seen on joint operations. Some kind of graffiti they'd seen during a traumatic moment on Caldari Prime."

Sarum was staring at him intently.

"Then it started popping up everywhere," Heth continued. "Always the same."

"Blood-red skies, strange beings, and the number 514, often written in blood," said Shakor.

Heth looked at him, eyebrows raised. Roden showed no expression, but his eyes darted back and forth between the two men.

"Exactly that," said Heth.

Empress Sarum nodded.

Before the moment and all its implications were allowed to go any further, Roden spoke.

"What does that prove, though?"

"I beg your pardon, Mister President?" asked Sarum.

"The implants give them strange visions," said Roden. "How do you know for sure that Sleeper consciousness is the culprit, and not some," he made a flippant gesture, "random subroutine implanted as a failsafe by their engineers? For that matter, how do you know this isn't merely a quirk of the technology, soon to be ironed out by engineers? Surely those of us who are old enough GÇö" and here he nodded his head pointedly at Shakor, "GÇöremember the spectacular capsule failures of the Caldari-Gallente War. To my recollection those stories weren't much better."

Why do you think we are only going to be in dusty environments?