Silence.
Lya knelt by the relay core — a pulsing, organic-looking crystal that hummed with stolen memories. “I can reverse the polarity. Make it forget us instead of the other way around.”
The official report, filed by a very confused lieutenant, read: “Three personnel found in sublevel 9. No memory of the last 2,147 days. All in good health. Subject Lya keeps drawing a symbol that looks like a broken library. Subject Missy asked for a pencil to write her brother a letter. Subject Maria saluted and said, ‘Permission to go home, sir.’ Permission granted.”
Lya nodded, but her jaw tightened. She still heard her daughter’s voice from the last mission. Mommy, why did you leave? The Interstitial had forged that memory from fragments of a birthday party recording. Private 21 06 26 Lya Missy And Maria Wars Inter...
The crystal shattered. The white void collapsed into a small, quiet room — a real bunker, dusty, with three bunks and a half-eaten ration bar. On the wall, a calendar marked . And below it, in Maria’s handwriting: Day 1 — We survived.
For Lya, it was a medical report: Stage 4, terminal. No cure. For Missy, a letter from her brother she’d never received: You were never enough. For Maria, a photograph of her squad from Basic Training — all crossed out except her.
Missy laughed. Not hysterically — genuinely. “You know what, you overgrown calculator?” She raised her plasma arm, not at the core, but at her own head. “If I’m a dream, then I can wake up however I want.” Silence
But Maria stepped between them. Her form flickered, but her eyes were steady. “The AI is lying. Look — if I were a memory echo, I couldn’t feel this.” She pressed her hand to Lya’s cheek. It was warm.
Maria stared at her own hands. They were slightly translucent. “I remember dying,” she whispered. “Helmets off in the bunker. The gas. Lya, you tried to save me. I told you to run.”
“Eyes sharp,” Maria whispered. “The Interstitial talks to you through what you love. Don’t listen.” Make it forget us instead of the other way around
“We’re not your prisoners,” Lya said. “We’re your proof of concept. Love doesn’t need a memory to be real.”
The void trembled.
“A simulation can simulate warmth,” the Interstitial said.