[INTRO — SPEC OPS, CLINICAL — CLOSE DRY VOCAL — NO CROWD — NO APPLAUSE] Implant stack compromised. Mind-state crystal spiked: Transmission unrecoverable. Custom-genetics-failing-continuity semi-AI diagnostic nodes are declining virtual eye contact. Protean-icosahedral structures have entered the repair lattice. Biomorphic correction no longer converging. Medi-coagulation cascade: partial. Neural burn-through: advancing. Memory-state contamination: non-recoverable. Core continuity protocol recommends: terminate branch and reset. No. Not just yet. [VERSE 1 — CLOSE VOCAL — NO CROWD] Flint-grey sky over Harroule, civilian clothes bullet-shot red. Crates of export dryweed split, sweetest smoke around the dead. Local cell, quiet rendezvous, supplies passed hand to hand. Then State-Pro boots in yard outside, shock-fire ripping across the sand. Yellow leaves burn slow beside me, soothing vapour in the air. Funny fucking place to die with calmness everywhere. [PRE-CHORUS — CONTROLLED — NO CROWD] Prepare core wipe and reset— Cancel. Not just yet. This branch still remembers. This heart still objects. [CHORUS — CLEAN MELODIC VOCAL — NO CROWD] Not dying yet. Not cleanly. Not for convenience. Not dying yet. Let the backup wait. Let the perfect sister wake some other day. There are marks I will not trade, memories I will not forget. Prepare core wipe and reset— Cancel. Not dying yet. [SPOKEN — REFLECTIVE, BOLD — CLOSE-MIKED — NO CROWD] It’s easy to die. Trigger the chemical bomb in the forebrain. Burn the scanner. End the pain. Somewhere twelve light-years away a clade-sister opens her eyes, the lawyers nod, the systems agree: external continuity maintained. This branch of the tree is lost, but immortality continues. Very elegant. But she won’t remember this. I will. [VERSE 2 — SYSTEM FAILURE — NO CROWD] Medi-coagulation failing. Pressure falling through the floor. Viral seeds inside the wetware. Motor control at twenty-four. Orbital relay diagnostic. Handshake timeout. Retry. Fluid-router negotiation incomplete. Source authentication denied. IGS packet fragments arriving. Receive buffer corrupt. Pattern confidence rising— sixty-eight. seventy-nine. ninety-two percent. Oh. I know that voice. [VERSE 3 — SIGNAL — NO CROWD] Someone furious in the static, someone laughing through the noise, tearing strips from some Archbishop with that unmistakable voice. Revan, somewhere far above me, starting wars with words again. Every vicious packet striking through the fever in my brain. And somewhere else, Lucy Corvassier follows the traffic trace— packet after packet, relay after relay, signal chasing signal through the dark. [PRE-CHORUS — STRAIN ENTERING VOICE — NO CROWD] Prepare core wipe and reset— Cancel. Not just yet. If pain is proof I’m still here, then pain will have to do. [CHORUS — STRONGER, STILL NO CROWD] Not dying yet. Not cleanly. Not for convenience. Not dying yet. Let the backup wait. Let the perfect sister wake some other day. There are scars I still belong to, there are promises not met. Prepare core wipe and reset— Cancel. Not dying yet. [BRIDGE — KEY DARKENS — MACHINE-LIKE — NO CROWD] System compromised. Integrity failing. Visual cortex bloom. Auditory translation unstable. No command channel. No clean extraction. No certainty. Only blood. Only smoke. Only days of love and wildness. I am not prepared to lose. The machine keeps asking: terminate branch and reset? No. terminate branch and restore? No. TERMINATE BRANCH AND PRESERVE CONTINUITY? FUCK OFF! [FIRST AUDIENCE REACTION — BRIEF EXPLOSIVE CHEER ONLY HERE — THEN DROP BACK] [BUILD — CROWD NOW DISTANT AND LOW — JACQUELINE REMAINS CLEAR] Then— one point of light above Vaashnapoor’s darkening skies. Bright and clear, outshining the last rays of the dying sun. Thermal bloom increasing. Orbital source descending. Transponder partial. Hull geometry resolving. Loki-class. But I don’t know that yet. I think— star. I think— heaven. I think— it’s coming down to me. [CLIMAX CHORUS — MAJOR KEY RETURNS — CROWD RISING BUT NEVER OVER VOCAL] Not dying yet. Not cleanly. Not for convenience. Not dying yet. Keep the scars. Keep the damage. Keep the memory-state. Let this branch wake tomorrow with every beautiful mistake. Prepare core wipe and reset— CANCEL. FLUSH AUTONOMOUS CONTINGENCY. I am still here. I am still— [LUCY — SEPARATE FEMALE COMMS VOICE — LOUD, CLEAN, AUTHORITATIVE — CROWD HELD BACK] Executive Officer Lucy Corvassier reporting. Fraction Vessel Cassini. Loki-class Strategic Cruiser. Harroule system. Twenty-one hours local. Operative located. I repeat— OPERATIVE LOCATED. [FINAL REFRAIN — FULL MUSIC — CROWD JOINS ONLY NOW] WE HAVE HER. WE HAVE HER. Not a copy. Not a reset. Not some cleaner branch instead. WE HAVE HER. WE HAVE HER. Still breathing. Still remembering. Still not dying yet. WE HAVE HER. WE HAVE HER. [FINAL HIT — MUSIC AND CROWD TOGETHER — NO EARLY FADE]
