Memory of Others

Chapter 4: Code 9-Red

The wind whipped fiercely against Anna's face as she stepped down from the autonomous vehicle that had stopped in the middle of the blazing red desert, where even artificial weather showed no interest in intervening. Before her lay an entrance half-buried under layers of sand and crumbling concrete – a massive metal door, rusted but still bearing signs of a biometric scanning system.

She extended her hand, pressing her palm against the old biometric recognition panel.

[CONFIRMATION: ANNA – ORIGINAL CODE: MH-13.]

A dry, cracking sound echoed as the heavy door slowly creaked open. A cold breeze, carrying the scent of rust and chemicals, wafted out from within.

Anna took a deep breath. Inside CODE 9-RED, the past awaited her.

The passage was pitch black, illuminated only by the faint light from the remaining emergency bulbs. She activated the neural sensor mode in her eyes – the space instantly appeared clear as a digitized map layer: a long corridor, a surveillance room, a storage area, and finally... the original memory recording station.

As she walked through an abandoned room, she paused. A metal chair was chained to the ground. Frayed wires lay scattered. On the wall, a line of white chalk still remained:

"Memory is not reality. It is a construct that the brain believes."

Anna shivered slightly. She had once believed that everything she saw was real. But now... she was no longer sure who she was.

Finally, she reached the central room – where the Central Nervous Machine was still operating in the background. A neuro-connection chair sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by hundreds of fluid conduits and artificial cellular memory storage units.

She approached the control panel. Data flashed up quickly:

ACTIVE DATA: MH_ORIGIN.VRM

STATUS: SIMULATING PERSONALITY – 8% STABILITY

AUTOMATICALLY ACTIVATING DIRECT COMMUNICATION MODE.

The screen immediately switched to a black interface. A face appeared – Sofia.

The face resembled Anna in every detail, but the eyes were different. Still. As if looking through both time and existence.

— "You’ve come."

Anna choked on her words.

— "I... I want to know who I am. Am I a clone? A product? Or am I you?"

Sofia looked at her for a long moment.

— "You are me – but also not. You are everything I once was, everything I wanted to escape. They separated me, cut my memories into pieces, each mistake... then built a new form. But memories, Anna, never truly die."

Anna struggled to maintain her composure.

— "Inside me, there is a memory... of a murder case. About someone who looks like me. What is it?"

Sofia tilted her head slightly.

— "That is the last memory they could not erase. A real case. The victim was me – or rather, an old version of me. They killed me to see if surviving memories could create a new person. And you... are the answer."

The air in the room thickened. Anna felt as if everything was spinning around her.

— "So who killed you?"

Sofia pointed to a segment of data in the system. Anna opened it – and saw a blurry image: a man, his face digitally erased. Only a code name remained:

E.D_1 – PROJECT LEAD.

Elric Duong.

The one who created her. And possibly, the one who killed Sofia.

Anna stared intently at Sofia.

— "What should I do with you? With myself?"

Sofia replied:

— "You no longer exist, Linh. You are the embodiment of everything that remains. But if you want to know the whole truth – go find him. Elric is not dead. Just hiding."

The final data was pushed into the storage device Anna carried – the entire model of the original memory, Sofia's essence, and the path to the last place Elric was recorded: the Black Free Zone – Old Jakarta, outside the law.

________________________________________

Stepping out of the darkness

Anna unplugged the connection from the port. The room gradually fell silent, the screen turned off, as if Sofia had never been present.

She stood up, clutching the data drive in her hand.

In the darkness of CODE 9-RED, she stepped out – no longer the "memory receiver" she once was. But as the bearer of her own origin, and a secret powerful enough to shake the very foundations of artificial technology in the year 3500.

In the distant sky, the first rays of a new day began to shine. But for Anna, the darkness was just beginning.