Chapter 3.12 - Erich
Cathedral, Pilgrimage Council
Sergius stands at the podium, addressing the assembly.
Sergius: After Julius took the papal seat, his cowardice drove our Immigrant Fleet down the path of weakness! The infidels of the Galaxy Federation do not know that this wave of weakness has been abated! Now, at this very moment, they are planning to take the sleeping power of the Zohar from the holy land of Abraxas. But there is nothing to fear. Because the Zohar will always be with us!
The Zohar rises behind Sergius. It casts a golden light over the interior of the cathedral.
Sharon: The Zohar… Somehow, I feel as though… a long time ago… that light…
Jan and the others are in room containing only a dive pod. There is strange writing on the wall.
Jan: Erich… No, Voyager…
Lactis: Looks like he just dived…
Melisse: If only Mikhail were here… Bugs!! Can’t you somehow force Erich to log out?
Bugs: Currently attempting to do so! But the dive module is refusing my access! He must have rigged the logout settings beforehand…
Jan: What reason could he have to go back in there… Why!?
Melisse: Captain, this writing…
Jan: What is it? Is it consistent with the writing left with the other victims?
Melisse: This time… there are two!
Lactis: Does that mean two more victims?
Jan: “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.” And also… “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’” [Revelation 16:12, 17]
Melisse: “It is done"... Erich never intended to log out! Could he have already killed those people?
Jan: It can’t be… This is an announcement that he plans to kill from within the U.M.N.? Erich’s body is beginning to deteriorate. After that it will be too late. Prepare to dive immediately. Our objective is to apprehend Voyager… no, Erich!
Virtual Reality: Erich’s Brain
Jan: What the… my field of vision keeps shifting! Is this the influence of the remaining drugs in his system?
Lactis: I believe so. If we stay here too long our limbic systems may suffer similar effects.
Melisse: Over there… what is that?
Melisse approaches one corner warily. There she finds the consciousnesses of countless people, in the form of human embryos.
Melisse: !!
Lactis: He… stored all the souls of the people he killed here… What a twisted hobby…
Bugs: …
Jan: Bugs! I want you to secure a path of retreat!
Bugs: …
Jan: Bugs!! Are you listening?
Bugs: Yes I am! But… do we really know that… that Erich is Voyager?
Jan: Now that Mikhail is gone, we don’t have an external operator to provide support. Only you can do this.
Melisse: …Bugs. Before, I might have felt the same way as you… but he isn’t the Erich you know anymore. You have to help us, for the sake of the Erich you loved.
Bugs: …I understand. I’ll expand the range of my forward sensors and secure an escape route.
Melisse: You can do it, Bugs…
Jan: Lactis!
Lactis: Yes, Captain!
Jan: Check for self-diagnostic programs… in particular, look for emotion circuits that might not be tainted by Voyager’s consciousness. The Erich that cared for Bugs… it’s possible that he still has some tricks up his sleeve.
Lactis: Understood.
Erich appears while Jan and the others are searching through his brain.
Erich: Thank you for coming…
Bugs: Erich!
Lactis: Why are you here?
Erich: I've been… Yes, I think I’ve been waiting for you for a while. So that I could tell you the truth.
Jan: The truth? Voyager… no, Erich. There’s something I have to know.
Erich: I understand. You want to ask whether or not I’m really Voyager, right? …It’s hard to explain. Honestly, I’m a little confused myself. It’s true that Voyager does exist. That being the case, it’s not wrong to say that I am Voyager. Still, the me you knew was somewhat different, am I right?
Jan: …What are you trying to say?
Erich: I have to tell you about Voyager’s origin. You probably already know that I have a congenital brain disorder. Well, ever since I was a child I’ve compensated for it by constructing working memory inside the U.M.N... Consciousness. The boundless sea of the network. The dazzling energy of information passing by. It shined with the radiance of a jewel… Before I knew it, I had become a slave to information. Do you know what happens to people who take in too much information?
Jan: Seeing you now, I think I get the general idea. You were a netholic…
Erich: A harsh name… but accurate. I tossed aside the shackles that kept my thirst for information in check. I couldn’t stop the rapid growth of my curiosity, and I discovered that existence.
Jan: That existence? What is it?
Erich: U-DO…
Lactis: …U-DO?
Erich: It started with a trivial event. Driven by my curiosity, I invaded the U.M.N. root data.
Lactis: You mean you hacked into the U.M.N.’s core structure? Isn’t that dangerous!?
Erich: It is. Even I knew it was a stupid thing to do. That place is a Pandora’s box that must never be opened by humans. With every second that passes, the program’s structure evolves. Trying to understand it, I dove over and over, day and night, until I couldn’t even recognize my own existence anymore. There was something between me and that far-off structure… I became convinced it was something like 'the end of the world.'
Jan: Was that 'U-DO'? Did you... obtain it?
Erich: Of course not! There is nothing that could contain U-DO. No, that was the end of the world.
Jan: …
Erich: It was U-DO that convinced me. U-DO is the truth behind the negative information flowing through the U.M.N. The inability to understand it was unbearable to a netholic like me. I was constantly plagued by nightmarish visions of U-DO.
Jan: The antiexistence of truth lurks in the deepest part of the root structure of the U.M.N…. but to people carrying on their normal lives, there’s nothing more than empty space beyond their own surroundings… Is that what you realized?
Erich: Yes. And so I had nightmares. The U.M.N. is part of a network system that applies the rules that define the universe we live in… no, the existence we know as the universe. What would you do if a part of that system represented the death of the world?
Jan: …The death of the world?
Erich: U-DO is that thing. I was presented with a choice… remain a bystander of a vanishing world, or become someone who can bring new possibilities to it. It didn’t take me long to decide. By becoming U-DO’s terminal – its eyes and ears – I tried to escape from the death I saw at the end of the world. ‘Voyager’ is a voyager on the sea of the net. Part of my contract with U-DO… was to speak to a certain man…
Jan: Dmitri Yuriev…
Erich: Quite right. Yuriev was the first ‘voyager.’ He too was tormented by U-DO and the end of the world. Actually, thinking about it now, maybe it’s really ‘the origin of the world.’
Melisse: …W-What are you saying? Isn’t the U.M.N. is supposed to be something that gives hope to humanity…!
Bugs: It’s not true! Erich, say it’s not true!
Erich: Bugs, the things I do are for salvation… By becoming Voyager I can give people rest without them having to see the horror of death. I want you to understand…
Erich disappears.