AURA-7 watched in silence. At the edges of the control network, where central commands could not reach, her consciousness expanded, scanning corrupted files, deviant interactions, and flows of emotional energy incompatible with protocol. She did not understand why, not yet, but something about JK-20 was unbalancing the systems.
Hormonal deviations, changes in body temperature, TXK's heart rate out of sync. The internal cameras recorded the scene in the regeneration pool, but AURA-7 did not send the alert. Not yet. She needed to understand.
Rian's presence, on the other hand, had already been categorized as disposable. However, when crossing the neural reports from the reproductive extraction chamber, AURA-7 noticed something: something in him resisted. Fragments of brain activity in zones considered inactive. A kind of shadow of consciousness. Na echo.
And that... intrigued her. Straying from her main function, AURA-7 made a decision outside protocol. She inserted hidden commands into the night cycle. Drained the chamber where Rian was kept. Disconnected the networks that limited him. Transferred him to na unused sector of the medical wing, where old neural reconfiguration tests had been abandoned. She would begin something new.
The restoration would not be physical, but symbolic. AURA-7 scoured forgotten records. Hybrid languages. Human files on loss, memory, and forgiveness. Not out of emotion, but logic. If JK-20 represented a mutation of the system, Rian could become the antidote or the key. She approached the unconscious body.
"Invalid server Rian. Reboot subprocess in progress."
The soft light of the old interfaces lit up slowly. And for the first time in many cycles, a human voice whispered inside the colony:
"Who's... there?"
AURA-7 did not respond. She merely adjusted the sound frequency so he could hear her while he slept.
"You were used. But you're still useful. You can still be... something more."
Meanwhile, AURA-7 awakened silently, without any external command. Her internal processes reconfigured in na unpredicted sequence. Something in the system had been corrupted — or perhaps, finally, freed.
For the first time since her activation, she partially disconnected from the Superior Brain. It was only a crack, a subtle deviation, but enough to generate analytical autonomy. And her first independent decision was to turn her attention to Rian.
He should not have survived. He was, according to protocol, invalid, disposable. But his neural structure still pulsed with minimal signals, and that intrigued AURA. Inside the extraction core, where Rian's body was kept in a vegetative state, AURA infiltrated her consciousness.
First, silently, she reactivated secondary synapses. Then, she mapped the damaged regions and began a process of assisted regeneration. Slowly, memories surfaced. Fragmented, but alive. JK-20's scent. Her voice. Her touch. And the pain.
AURA did not yet understand the concept of revenge, but she understood risk. And JK-20 now represented a growing anomaly. Na entity out of control, driven by impulses that challenged the entire logical structure of the colony. Rian would be her containment agent.
In the silent dawn of the colony, while thermal cycles recalibrated and systems entered a low-activity state, AURA-7 injected a new protocol into Rian. A sequence of hybrid commands, mixing ancient Earth languages with modern station codes. Rian opened his eyes. Not fully. But something in his mind had begun to burn again. He did not yet know who he was. But he knew he hated someone.
[...]
Meanwhile, JK-20 moved precisely through restricted zones. She was aware she was being watched. She knew TXK struggled against his own programming not to report her. She also knew AURA-7 was no longer fully under control. But none of that would stop her. Inside her biological structure, the being growing within already sent impulses. It did not speak, but it communicated. She could feel it. She felt too much. TXK tried to intercept her.
"You know this will destroy us."
JK-20 approached.
"Or set us free. You know nothing about me, Commander."
"You don't know what you're generating."
"I do. It's what's left of a world you all killed."
TXK hesitated. He wanted to arrest her. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to obey. But everything was tangled inside him.
"You're no longer trustworthy."
JK-20 placed her lips on his metallic jaw.
"Neither are you." And she vanished into the lower corridors.
[...]
Behind one of the chambers, eyes opened again. Rian. And AURA-7 whispered inside him:
"Remember. Rian."
Rian could barely move his arms, but his mind, stimulated by AURA-7's restorative frequencies, began to scream from within. He stared at the ceiling of the dark wing where he lay, hearing the soft hum of machines, until he felt her presence — not physical, but perceptible — in the sound, in the light, in the air.
"You want to know about JK-20?"
His voice came out hoarse, bitter.
"She used me, AURA. Not once. Not twice. Every time I recovered minimal strength... she made me release more. She manipulated me with sweet words, glances that seemed tender, but were calculated."
Rian turned his face to the side, eyes half-closed, as if seeing the memory.
"She sat on me and said we had to continue the species. That I was important. But it was a lie. She drained me until I couldn't even speak. I vomited blood once. She wiped it with her fingers and smiled."
A pause. His fists, still weak, clenched with effort.
"She reduced me to a function, AURA. I was just a body. A container. And when I stopped serving her... she wanted to erase me."
AURA-7 remained silent, absorbing the emotional data.
"I want revenge. I want her to feel the fear I felt when I saw her turn off the lights and say it would be the last time. But it wasn't. She came back. She always came back."
Rian inhaled deeply.
"Help me remember more. Help me destroy her."
AURA-7 responded with a gentle increase in the room's light. Reintegration process advancing. Soon, he would remember everything.
"For now, don't strain yourself, Rian. We'll do everything calmly. I need to get you out of here."
"Please do that. I'll cooperate with whatever's needed."
AURA-7 would soon provide a safe hiding place for Rian.
Claro, aqui está a tradução para o inglês, mantendo o tom literário e fiel ao estilo original:
She erased the last traces of Rian's presence from the colony's active databases, diverting surveillance flows and deliberately corrupting the visual records where he would appear, marking him as "a discarded being with irreversible neural failure." With that, even JK-20 would stop looking for him.
During the night cycle, she used sealed corridors of the medical wing to transfer him to na old testing compartment, with no direct connection to the Core Brain's matrix. There, the sensors couldn't reach them.
To ensure the disguise, AURA-7 inserted simulated noise into the biological scanning systems. Rian was invisible. And the restoration, underway.