He thought about the final day, when the colonists would wake, stretch, yawn, and look around. And one of them might ask, “Who kept the lights on?”
The silence stretched. Dr. Aris looked at her shoes. etap 24
But dirt also forgot.
People who weren’t stage twenty-four of a copy of a copy of a copy. He thought about the final day, when the
He looked at his hands. They were young, strong. The hands of a man in his thirties. But inside, he felt older. Much older. He tried to remember his life—the one before the ship. A childhood. A mother’s face. A dog. Rain on a window. Aris looked at her shoes
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.”