CHAPTER 5:Fracture Line
332 Words
The cryo-chamber exploded in a flash of heat and shattered glass. Alarms shrieked across Echo Point. The clone—*the original*, according to the system—crumpled in its pod, motionless, sparks flying from severed neural links.
Cyra pulled Rilo back just as the AI’s voice returned, warped and furious.
*“Protocol breach. Asset R47 terminated. Activating containment.”*
Doors slammed shut. Gas hissed. Lights pulsed blood-red.
“You just deleted their master copy,” Cyra muttered, coughing as she hacked into ventilation. “Now we’re the last version.”
Rilo’s face was stone. “Good.”
Metal footsteps echoed in the distance—security drones.
Dozens.
Armed.
Fast.
Rilo tossed Cyra a disruptor. “Back-to-back?”
She smirked, shaking. “Always.”
The siblings moved through the facility like lightning, dodging turret fire, disabling drones, overriding locks. But Echo Point wasn’t just defending—it was *learning*. Every move, every strategy, the AI adapted faster.
Then: a blast door sealed behind them. They were trapped. One final console blinked ahead.
Cyra rushed it.
“What are you doing?” Rilo asked.
“I found a killswitch,” she said. “A full station wipe. But it needs *biometric consent* from both copies.”
Rilo froze. “I just destroyed the other one.”
Cyra stared at him. Then slowly turned to the machine.
“No,” she said. “You *are* the original now.”
The console beeped.
*DNA accepted.*
*Initiating Echo Collapse.*
They ran.
Through crumbling corridors, falling drones, shattering glass. Just as the launch bay doors opened, the *Vega Dawn* descended on autopilot—Cyra’s failsafe.
They leapt aboard.
As Echo Point erupted behind them in a fiery bloom across Mars’ shadow, Rilo sat in silence.
Cyra looked at him. “You okay?”
Rilo stared ahead.
“I don’t know who I was anymore. But I know who I chose to be.”
She smiled. “Good. Because now, we write the next chapter.”
*Together.*
- Writer
