Soul — Descent

But Eris Prime hadn’t been an exercise.

That night, alone in her quarters, she pressed her flawless thumb against the cold glass of the viewport and watched the stars streak by. Somewhere in the ship’s memory banks, her original body was ash. Somewhere in the dark between systems, Ikeda’s ghost was still falling, still looking for a vessel that would never come. soul descent

Elara stood very still. The new heart in this new chest was beating a steady, mechanical rhythm—but somewhere deeper, the ghost of her old heart was still screaming. But Eris Prime hadn’t been an exercise

Holt handed her a uniform. “Now you suit up. The war isn’t over, Seven. And neither are you.” Somewhere in the dark between systems, Ikeda’s ghost

Of course. She’d signed the waiver. In the event of death, all biological remains shall be terminated to prevent consciousness duplication. She’d thought it was a formality. People didn’t actually die on training exercises.

“Six,” she croaked. Her vision was a funhouse mirror. The drones adjusted something in her occipital lobe, and the world snapped into horrible clarity. Three fingers.

Failure meant the consciousness didn’t take. It meant the ghost dissolved into static, or worse—got trapped halfway, aware but unable to move, speak, or die. They called that the Drowning . They didn’t talk about it in the recruitment vids.