Morgan Fille - E242 -

Lin hesitated. “Sir, protocol says—”

E242 was the only one still active. The others had been shut down. Their occupants… well, their pods were empty. Not dead. Empty.

“Protocol didn’t predict a screaming pod after two and a half centuries. Open it.” Morgan Fille - E242

And in the sudden, shrieking chorus of four hundred voices, Aris heard the word again, repeated like a prayer, like a curse, like a hungry machine learning to beg:

The monitor flickered. A grainy, green-tinted image resolved. Inside the gel, Morgan Fille’s body was perfectly preserved—dark curls floating, eyes closed, lips slightly parted. Peaceful. But the overlay of her neural map was a hurricane. Lin hesitated

L’Engrenage. L’Engrenage. L’Engrenage.

The pod’s seals began to hiss.

“It knows I’m awake.”