CHAPTER 19: THE PRIMARY SERVER
763 Words
POV: CAPTAIN ELIAS VANCE
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The elevator ride to the 99th floor was a silent ascent into a vacuum. I leaned against the glass, watching the city below shrink into a grid of pulsing blue veins. The silver light leaking from my shoulder wound was getting brighter, reflecting off the walls like a dying star.
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"Cap, your hand," Jace whispered.
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I looked down. My fingers were flickering, momentarily turning into lines of code. I was becoming part of the Hub’s architecture. Every second we stayed here, the "Elias Vance" that existed in the real world was being deleted.
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"Doesn't matter," I said, my voice sounding hollow and metallic. "Just stay ready. When those doors open, the Board won't be playing games anymore. They'll be desperate."
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TING.
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The doors slid open. There was no boardroom. The 99th floor was a vast cathedral of white light. Thousands of silver cables draped from the ceiling like willow branches, all converging into a single glass sphere in the center of the room.
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Inside that sphere was a girl.
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She wasn't a corporate clone. She was Sarah, looking exactly as she did the night of the fire—ten years old, wearing charred pajamas, her eyes closed in a deep, artificial sleep.
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"Sarah..." I stepped out, my boots making no sound.
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“Stop, Captain,” the collective voice of the Board echoed. “To disconnect the Primary Server is to terminate the host. If you break that glass, you are deleting her.”
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"She’s already dead to you!" I roared, my Shadow-Code flaring, turning my right arm into a blade of dark energy. "You turned my sister into a battery for your profits!"
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[ Jace: Cap, wait! Her neural pathways are completely integrated into the city’s power grid. If we just pull the plug, her mind will shatter. ]
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"So what do we do?" Bravo asked, his shotgun aimed at the ceiling.
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I walked up to the sphere. Sarah’s chest rose and fell in a slow, rhythmic cadence. She was dreaming. And that dream was the only thing keeping the city outside from collapsing.
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"I have to go in," I said.
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"In where? The glass?" Bravo asked.
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"The server. My Shadow-Code is a bridge," I explained, looking at my flickering hand. "If I can sync my frequency with hers, I can download her consciousness into the 'Legacy' drive. We can save her core. But I have to leave my physical body behind."
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[ Jace: Elias, that’s a one-way trip. You’ll be nothing but data. ]
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I looked at my team. "The real world is gone anyway, Jace. But she deserves to be free."
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I pressed my hand against the glass. The Shadow-Code surged, clashing with the white light of the Core.
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“The Board does not permit unauthorized access,” the voices screamed, the light turning a violent red.
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The silver cables began to whip around like snakes, lunging for us. Bravo and Jace opened fire, defending me as I focused everything on the girl inside.
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"Sarah, listen to me," I whispered. "It's Elias. I'm here to bring you home."
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The glass cracked. Sarah’s eyes snapped open. They weren't blue or black—they were brown. Warm. Human.
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“Elias?” her voice rang out in my mind. “Is the fire finally over?”
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"Almost, kiddo. Almost."
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I let the Shadow-Code consume me. My body felt like it was being shredded, my consciousness expanding and merging with the girl in the sphere.
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BOOM.
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The sphere shattered. A shockwave of energy blasted through the floor, knocking Bravo and Jace back. The white light died instantly, replaced by a deep darkness. The city outside flickered and went black. The Hub had been unplugged.
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When the smoke cleared, the sphere was empty. Sarah’s physical body was gone.
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Bravo crawled toward the center, coughing. He found Jace holding the Legacy drive. The device was glowing with a soft, steady gold light.
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"Did we get her?" Bravo asked.
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[ Jace: We got them both. ]
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Jace looked at the monitor. Two pulses were visible, intertwined in a rhythmic dance. One was Sarah. The other was Elias.
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Outside, the citizens began to wake up, confused in the dark. The Board was silent. The Hub was dead. But inside the drive, a brother and a sister were finally walking away from the fire, into a sun that would never set.
- Writer
