Chapter 2: The Woman They Buried in the System
They extracted me from the pod under armed escort.
Not medical staff.
Security.
Every step echoed through the corridor like I was a threat, not a survivor.
Commander Rylan walked beside me.
Silent.
Watching.
Finally I spoke.
“You signed my death report.”
He didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“Then explain this.”
I pointed at the colony status board.
My name was still marked DECEASED.
Even though I was walking.
Even though I was breathing.
Even though I was right there.
Rylan stopped.
“Because legally… you are.”
I laughed once.
“That makes no sense.”
He turned toward me.
“Seven days ago, we lost oxygen control in Sector Three.”
I remembered.
The alarms.
The screaming.
The lockdown.
He continued:
“Fourteen people were unaccounted for after system reboot.”
My voice dropped.
“And I was one of them.”
He nodded.
“We recovered thirteen bodies.”
A pause.
“You were not among them.”
I went cold.
“So you assumed I was dead.”
“We confirmed it.”
“How?”
He hesitated.
Then said the sentence that shattered everything:
“Your biometric identity was already removed from the colony system before the accident.”
I froze.
“What?”
Rylan stepped closer.
“Someone erased you before the oxygen failure ever happened.”
My head spun.
“That’s impossible…”
He shook his head.
“It happened from inside the system.”
Silence.
Then he added:
“And only three people had access to that level of deletion.”
My throat tightened.
“Who?”
Rylan looked at me.
And said:
“You.”
A pause.
“And the colony AI.”
My blood turned cold.
“That’s not funny.”
He didn’t smile.
“I’m not joking.”
Then the lights flickered.
Every screen in the hallway turned on at once.
My name appeared everywhere.
Not as dead.
Not as alive.
But as:
UNDEFINED ENTITY
The colony AI spoke again.
But this time…
It used my voice.
“Welcome back, Elara.”
I stepped backward.
“No…”
Rylan whispered:
“Why is it using your biometric speech pattern?”
The screens shifted.
May you like
And one final message appeared:
YOU WERE NOT RECOVERED. YOU WERE RESTORED.
