The silence that followed the hologram's disappearance felt heavier than before — not emptiness, but anticipation.
Rotham stared at the console. The name Selin echoed in his thoughts. That voice... it hadn't just known him — it had sounded sad. As if it mourned his arrival.
He accessed the console again. A new prompt appeared:
DREAM LOGS – RESTRICTED ACCESSUNLOCKED VIA KEYHOLDER LINKDOWNLOAD? [Y/N]
He tapped Y.
The screen flooded with fragmented visuals — blurry clips of people he didn't recognize walking the halls of Adra-9. Some were scientists, others dressed like soldiers. All of them shared one trait: urgency. Panic. They were preparing for something.
Then, he saw himself.
Or… someone who looked like him. Younger. Wearing a Union tech uniform. Speaking with Selin — not a hologram, but a real woman, surrounded by spiraling schematics of the Naris Protocol.
"You're sure this will work?" his past self said.
"If it doesn't," Selin replied, "we won't remember anything."
The footage cut out. Rotham staggered back.
He wasn't just caught in the mystery. He was part of it. A buried identity, locked behind time and memory.
The station hadn't forgotten him. It had waited for him.
But why?
A sharp noise jolted him — a soft clang from deeper in the corridor.
He wasn't alone anymore.