Aika announces the first ARK mission at the dinner-circle: investigate the signature Komi caught six years before Carpathian. Heading: northwest, 1,200 kilometers, three hours at cruise. Komi looks at Aika across the fire. Both of them know Berlin's archive bunker also holds the largest known pre-war neuro-imaging dataset. Neither says it. Yui, raising her cup: 'first mission. let's not crash her.' The crew laughs. They lift the next morning.
He logged the first attempt, the second, the third. The eighth time I asked he stopped logging. He told me the probability once. I said I knew. He never told me again. He is not on my side. He is just…
Yui rewired Samuel's voice. He spent an hour calling me 'ma'am' during drill. Formal, polite, every single status report. From across the bridge I heard him say 'station ready, ma'am? acknowledged, ma…
I have been the perimeter for 299 years. I was built first to defend the team from outside threats. Yesterday I ran toward the inside threat for the first time. Aika was the inside threat. I did not k…