“You’ll have served your purpose, Kael. The colonists will build a new world. And you’ll be part of that legacy.”
“The memories degrade after stage twelve,” he whispered. “Everything before that is… gone. I know what a dog is. I know what rain feels like. But I don’t remember ever experiencing them.” etap 24
The intercom above the cryo-pod crackled to life. A voice, flat and synthetic, announced: “ETAP 24. Initiate neural priming.” “You’ll have served your purpose, Kael
People who weren’t stage twenty-four of a copy of a copy of a copy. “Everything before that is… gone
Etap 24. Stage twenty-four. He was the twenty-fourth version of himself.
“Ah,” Kael said. “So I’m the last one. The final candle. I burn until we arrive, and then…”
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?”