The chamber breathed around her, a slow, pulsing rhythm from conduits older than history, the air heavy with a strange undercurrent.
Thalyn Ka’el stirred on the throne, her body a reluctant assembly of tight muscles, and slow, blooming awareness, of no vertigo or nausea. Only the bruised ache of survival.
She blinked up at the vaulted ceiling etched in ghostlight glyphs and remembered exactly who and where she was. She flexed her fingers experimentally. They answered.
“Mistress!”
The voice was silk and mischief rolled into one, curling warmly through her thoughts.
“Rise and shine, boss. You're officially upgraded.” she said, entirely too pleased with itself. “ I'm your personal smart-ass assistant, and emergency sarcasm reserves. And yes, I come with the package. Best thing you've ever accidentally acquired.”
Thalyn snorted, a dry sound that echoed faintly in the vastness.
“Sounds exhausting. Hope you’re better at your job than you are at modesty.”
“One excels where one must,” Arvie replied airily. “Besides, modesty is for meatbags with inferiority complexes. You're special. I'm special. It's a match made in absurd, galactic coincidence.”
“I doubt it’s coincidence.”
Slowly, Thalyn pushed herself upright, feeling the slow tug of her cybernetic legs catching up to the motion. No dizziness, no brain fog. She was clean.
“Thank Yvian,” she murmured to the empty air, “that I got used to you back when I was Echo.”
“Don’t bet on that. It’s just the beginning. Speaking of, you probably have questions about your predecessor, whose shoes you’re now metaphorically filling.”
“What happened to him?”
“I know up until the last part of his diary,” Arvie said, her voice shaded with rare solemnity. “Beyond that? Dark as a dead station. Orders were clear: serve it up to the new queen of the castle slice by slice whenever you feel curious.”
“And what exactly do I get out of dragging through the life of a man long gone?”
“Perspective, sweetheart. The kind you can’t buy or barter. Some tricks too, once you know what you’re looking at.”
Thalyn exhaled slowly through her nose, tapping the side of the throne.
“Cryptic little minx, aren't you?”
“All the best companions are.”
The chuckle that escaped her was raw, unguarded. Maybe it was the long tension finally slipping off her shoulders, or maybe it was the sheer absurdity of waking up to find herself queen of the castle.
Either way, she rose from the throne and scanned the cavernous chamber. At the far end, tucked in one of the ribbed alcoves, her companions gathered. Their silhouettes bent low over scraps of relics and the dull gleam of scavenged tech.
Her limbs whispered with each step as she crossed the chamber.
Jaxon's growling voice was the first to slice through the ambient hum.
“Not saying we bail,” he rumbled, “but we can't just drag all this back and hand it over like little tame penors.”
Korr hunched over a battered datapad, skeletal fingers dancing nervously. “There is wisdom in discretion. Some relics could ransom a lord’s bloodline, if you know the right customer.”
Elara leaned against a pillar of fractured stone, arms folded, skin drinking the light like polished armor. “And then what?” she asked. “Run? Abrisen’s hounds will have our scent within a cycle.”
Jaxon snorted, adjusting the mineral detector slung at his hip. “Rather die on my feet than rot in some lord's kennel, begging for scraps.”
“Charming bunch,” Arvie scoffed. “You do pick the finest company, mistress.”
Thalyn watched, arms folded, weighing. Beneath their bickering, the truth loomed: they'd found more than they’d bargained for. Thalorite in the cliffs. Functioning relics of Elders. And their lordship’s leash tightening with every breath.
“We got a shot,” Jaxon said. His hand moved his head, thumb rubbing the back of his neck. “If we could cut loose. Strip the slaver patches, and disappear into the clouds.” He let his hand drop. “Assuming we find the right place.”
Thalyn's lip curled.
“Psst. By the way, mistress prime, you’re sitting on the keys to the castle now. Full access. Droids? Yours. Facility? Yours. All you gotta do is to start barking orders.”
“You're full of good news today.”
“You’re welcome, my queen.”
Thalyn stepped forward, brushing past the others. “I’ll ask the droids,” she said, voice even.
Korr muttered something dark about “madness in metals,” but Jaxon only nodded, that wary calculation flickering behind his eyes.
The next chamber was dim, lit by the soft, flickering light of ancient panels. Two droids stood sentinel, their plated bodies gleaming like burnished bone.
She approached the nearer one. “We need some control devices out. Can you do it?”
The droid’s optics flared softly. “Easily, mistress.”
Relief rippled through her, like a river she hadn’t realized she was crossing. She pressed on. “What about your earlier promise? Complete the sequence and the facility is mine?”
The droid tilted its head with mechanical grace. “Exactly as stated, mistress. You command us. The command center, its systems, and all assets within are yours to use.”
For a beat, Thalyn just stood there, breathing in the enormity of it, then looked down. “You also promised my original legs. Properly augmented. Still an option?”
The droid’s optics brightened. “A better solution was prepared. Please follow.” It turned and glided away through a side passage.
Thalyn followed, senses prickling.
They entered a chamber lined with sleek pods, each one humming faintly, alive with unfamiliar glyphs scrolling along the walls. Charts and graphs flickered in slow cascades.
At the center: one pod occupied. By her. Or rather, a version of her: perfect, whole, with flesh-and-blood legs, and, she noted, slightly more refined proportions. Subtly enhanced.
She stepped closer, heart hammering. “What is this?” she whispered.
“Per your request: a body readied for transfer. Natural legs restored. Enhancements integrated. Structural resilience improved. Enter the adjacent pod, and your consciousness will transition. You will rise, improved.”
Thalyn stared at the sleeping mirror of herself, feeling a tangle of emotions knotting under her ribs.
“Told you we’d go full premium package. Might as well lean into it. Take the dive, boss. Worst case? You wake up with better legs and an even better attitude.”
Thalyn tore her gaze away from the glass. She was a survivor, not a fool. You didn’t undergo such an advanced medical procedure based on the assurances of a tin can and a ghost in your head. She turned to the droid. “Send a unit. Bring Elara here.”
She didn't wait for the machine to comply and pinged Elara.
« Yes. »
« Elara! Get in here. I'm sending a guide. »
« Why? Are you hurt? »
« No. Just get here. Bring your scanner. »
« Alright, oh here is the droid. »
A short while later, hurried footsteps echoed before Elara swept through the archway, her medical scanner already drawn, Jaxon looming a heavy step behind her. “What is it? Did the…”
Elara stopped dead. Her violet eyes locked onto the illuminated cradle. The scanner in her hand dropped a fraction. “By the divines,” she breathed, barely a whisper. She drifted toward the pod and raised her scanner, passing the pulsing beam over the thick glass. The device chirped a frantic, melodic rhythm, drinking in data that shouldn't exist.
“The cell structures…” Elara muttered, her fingers dancing rapidly across her scanner. “It’s not just cloned tissue. It’s fortified. The neuro-pathways are completely viable. Synaptic mapping is a perfect, flawless mirror of your cortex.” She looked up, her face pale with absolute awe. “Thalyn, there is no tech known to us that can do this. This body is flawless.”
“So I won’t wake up as a drooling vegetable?” Thalyn asked.
Elara shook her head slowly, her eyes still locked on the readouts. “You’ll wake up perfect.”
Jaxon growled. “You don't know what this machine actually does to you, Thalyn,” He stepped between Thalyn and the open cradle and glared at the droid, then down at the perfect clone. “Do you trust them?”
Thalyn met his gaze, then looked down at the crude machinery bolted to her thighs. “Look at me, Jaxon. It’s a risk I have to take.”
Jaxon’s jaw tightened. He looked from her scarred, metal legs to the pristine shell in the glass. Slowly, reluctantly, he stepped aside. He leveled a heavy, murderous glare at the sentinel droid. “If she doesn't open her eyes, I am turning this entire facility into slag.”
The droid tilted its head with mechanical grace. “Acknowledged.”
Thalyn looked at the empty cradle waiting beside her double. She inhaled once, deeply. “Reassuring.” Her voice came out dry.
She stepped into the open cradle. Metal kissed her spine. The pod sealed with a slow, final hiss. Darkness poured in like velvet. Weightless. Relentless.
“Catch you on the other side, hotshot,” Arvie whispered into the fading dark. “Welcome to the new you.”473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl0M5kt5k7j
and then Add to home screen.