The Arrival
Lira opened her eyes to a room she didn’t recognize.
Soft light pulsed along the curved walls, casting the faintest hum into the air. She sat up slowly, her body heavy, her mind slower. The bed was sleek and unfamiliar. A window stretched across the far wall, showing nothing but an endless ocean of stars.
“Lira!”
She turned toward the voice. A man stood in the doorway, his face breaking into a relieved smile. “Thank the void — you’re awake.”
She didn’t know him.
But he clearly knew her.
The Fractured Past
The man introduced himself as Arin, and soon others followed — a parade of faces all wearing familiarity she couldn’t reciprocate. They called her a friend. A leader. A survivor.
But Lira remembered none of them.
As days passed aboard the Eos station, flashes of memory returned — disjointed and strange. A childhood in a lush, green world. A mission to escape some unnamed disaster. A man’s laughter she couldn’t place.
But nothing aligned with the sterile corridors and hollow camaraderie around her.
The Cracks Begin
It started with small things.
- A corridor she’d never walked down but somehow knew where it led.
- A conversation about a battle she didn’t recall — yet could describe in detail.
- Arin’s eyes shifting colors when he thought no one was watching.
Then came the whispers.
“We shouldn’t have brought her back.”
“She’s starting to notice.”
The Shattered Truth
One night, Lira found the room.
A hidden hatch in the cargo bay led to a darkened chamber lined with glass pods. Inside each floated copies of herself — a hundred Liras, their eyes closed, their faces serene.
Behind her, Arin spoke softly.
“You weren’t supposed to wake up this time.”
She turned, heart pounding. “What did you do to me?”
“You’re not… you,” he said. “You never were.”
He explained the Exodus Project — an effort to preserve humanity by copying minds into artificial constructs. But something went wrong. The Lira standing here wasn’t the original — or even the first attempt.
“You’re… a fragment,” Arin said. “One piece of her. We kept trying, but none of you… fit.”
Her mind reeled.
If I’m just a fragment… what happened to the rest of me?
The Final Question
As the station shuddered — alarms blaring — Lira faced the truth.
She wasn’t a person. She was a collection of echoes, a fractured mind pieced together from memory and hope.
But one question remained.
If I’m not Lira… then who am I becoming?
