There Is No Antimemetics Division

Marie Quinn

In the Unknown Organization, the Antimemetics Division is responsible for containing and studying anomalies that erase themselves from memory and perception. To function at all, Division staff rely on "mnestics", drugs that let them notice and retain awareness of antimemetic phenomena, even as prolonged use causes severe physical and cognitive harm. Antimemetics Division Director Marie Quinn repeatedly comes to understand, and then deliberately forgets, that the Division is engaged in an ongoing, mostly unrecognized war against an apex antimemetic entity designated U-3125, an "escapee" that cannot be safely known. U-3125 operates as a lethal information hazard: when someone successfully conceptualizes it, the entity detects them and proceeds to overwhelm and kill them, with the danger spreading through shared knowledge of U-3125.

As the situation deteriorates, Quinn takes extreme steps to limit who can be harmed by what she knows, including completely erasing her husband Adam and other key parts of her personal life from her memory to prevent the conceptual contagion from reaching those close to her. She attempts to maintain continuity by working through recorded notes and controlled environments that reduce her exposure, while trying to assemble a plan she will not be able to reliably remember. Quinn concludes that the only viable route to victory is a device associated with researcher Ed Hix, an "irreality amplifier" intended to broadcast a counter-meme capable of opposing U-3125. As U-3125 breaches containment and begins assimilating personnel, Quinn reaches a large, sealed basement hangar under the Antimemetics Division's headquarters at Wyeleigh, where she expects the amplifier to be stored.

Instead of the expected device, Quinn finds a "memory bomb". Under attack from U-3125, of which she is now irreversibly aware, and her own condition failing from a lethal dose of mnestic medication, she detonates the bomb, erasing all living memory of the Antimemetics Division itself, cutting away the informational foothold U-3125 uses to spread and forcing a rupture in the war's continuity.

Adam Quinn

In the aftermath of the above events, Marie Quinn is dead and forgotten. But her husband Adam, who has a weak natural immunity to antimemetic effects, begins noticing profound gaps and inconsistencies in his life and memory that suggest something vast has been removed. Guided by the antimemetic Unknown entity "Sunshine", which previously preyed on Marie's memories, Adam journeys to the ruins of the Wyeleigh facility. There he discovers the remnants of Quinn's plan. He erases a physical manifestation of U-3125, but Sunshine is killed in the fight as well.

After a long journey north, Adam eventually locates Ed Hix, who is alive and has continued work in isolation for years, completing the irreality amplifier but lacking a viable method to supply the specific countermeme needed to activate it against U-3125. Adam then takes an extreme dose of mnestics to restore his memories, culminating in an encounter in "ideatic space" where Marie Quinn's recovered consciousness supplies the countermeme that is amplified to neutralize U-3125. With the threat eliminated and normalcy returning, UO leadership recognizes that major portions of recent history are inexplicably missing and moves to rebuild their capabilities.