Tomorrow, he would check Bay 8. The day after, Bay 9. He would fix what was broken. He would keep the soil alive. And when the time came, he would lie down one last time, close his eyes, and let the Odyssey arrive without him.
People who weren’t stage twenty-four of a copy of a copy of a copy. etap 24
The silence stretched. Dr. Aris looked at her shoes. Tomorrow, he would check Bay 8
The intercom above the cryo-pod crackled to life. A voice, flat and synthetic, announced: “ETAP 24. Initiate neural priming.” He would keep the soil alive
And for the first time in twenty-four lives, Kael decided he was okay with that.
Dr. Aris made a note on her clipboard. “Correct. Now, the bad news. Hydroponic Bay 7 is showing nitrogen depletion. You’ll need to rebalance the solution. The good news…” She paused, almost looking human for a moment. “This is your final stage. ETAP 24. After this, the ship enters the deceleration phase. The colonists will wake in eleven months. You won’t have to be replaced again.”