She was built to clean. To serve. To fade quietly into the background.
But the stars have other plans for her.
*****
In the Gaian Empire, there are twelve kinds of clones. Hirayas are the lowest - built to clean, to obey, to fade into the backgroun...
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Ayaz Gurel is still in his astrasuit when Jon Gavelan insists he lie down and rest.
Our senior aero-technician looks pale, drained—his face slick with sweat and his hands trembling faintly. The effects of post-cryogenic wake syndrome—what everyone here just calls the symptoms—are already written all over him. And it's happening barely an hour before the scheduled departure to Vesta.
So here we all are, crowded into his room, circling his bed. We watch him sink into the sheets slowly, the hiss of his astrasuit's seals loosening cutting through the silence.
"I'm fine," Ayaz mutters, his lips dry and cracked from all the vomiting earlier. An IV is already hooked to his arm, pumping fluids and nutrients back into his body to make up for everything he's lost. "I can do the walk, Cap—"
"Nonsense." Jon crosses his arms. "You'll be more useful here on the ship than out there. Besides, I can handle the walk alone. Jared, Miki, and Pol can form the second group."
"Cap, no," Miki cuts in sharply. "We're not taking that kind of risk. I know you have the license to explore solo, but just looking at what's waiting for us out there? I'd say this isn't an ordinary mission. We need to stick together if we're going to do the walk."
I understand exactly what the Gaian woman means.
According to the Armstrong Code, each group of walkers is required to have at least three members. Never two. Never just one. For safety reasons, obviously.
But Jon, being both ship captain and alpha sailor, still has the final say.
"I can do solo. I have the license to do so, regardless of the Code."
"Cap, can I say something?" Ayaz cuts in. "I won't be able to live with myself if something happens to you just because I couldn't do the walk. So, please—listen to Miki. Better safe than sorry, right? Isn't that what you always tell us?"
Jon exhales hard, rubbing the back of his neck. "Vesta's hurtling toward the Dotted Channel. We've got a twenty-four-hour window to complete the walk. After that, asteroid activity spikes, and the planet could get obliterated. If anyone has a better idea, say it out now."
"What about the paladins?" Miki suggests smoothly, her eyes sliding to me and Irene. "One of them can substitute for Ayaz—"
"Sorry, guys," Irene says before anyone else can speak. "I'm not a registered squire. Never done a walk before."
And just like that, every pair of eyes lands on me.
The blood drains from my feet when I realize what that means.
"No," Jon snaps. "We're not sending the Hiraya down there."
"Why not?" Miki arches a brow. "Didn't the Council handpick these paladins? Irina even said this Hiraya was top of her class—"
