System Crash and Reboot

The warning alert had stopped flashing red twenty minutes before Nathan stopped breathing. In the vacuum of Space Station Tartarus, sound was an illusion, but the telemetry console screaming [INTEGRITY: 0.04%] was as loud as thunder.

His visor cracked, letting the absolute zero of the void seep into his eyelashes. Then came the darkness—deep, crushing, and final.

Until the terminal prompt flickered in neon green text across his retinas: [FATAL EXCEPTION AT 0x7FFF001. EMERGENCY RESTORE TO INITIAL CHECKPOINT COMMENCING...]

Nathan gasped, sitting bolt upright. The air smelled of burnt ozone and lukewarm synthesized coffee. He looked down at his hands—no cybernetic scars, no plasma burns. On his terminal, the digital clock read: March 14, 2045. Exactly ten years before the Singularity.