Chapter 16 - The Original ChoiceSarah felt the room spinning.
She was the key.
Not Evelyn.
Not the first consciousness.
Her.
The system had always been built around her.
Every copy.
Every experiment.
Every memory.
Everything traced back to Sarah's mind.
Her father pounded on the glass.
“Sarah!”
She looked up.
The doors unlocked.
She carried Evelyn into the control room.
Her mother appeared on another monitor.
Still tied to the chair.
Richard stood behind her.
“Sarah.”
Sarah stared at him.
“You lost.”
Richard smiled.
“Not yet.”
He pressed a button.
Her mother screamed.
Sarah froze.
The machine beside her mother activated.
Richard spoke quietly.
“Upload begins in sixty seconds.”
Sarah looked at the central server.
“What do you want?”
“Your consent.”
Sarah frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the final system requires the original consciousness.”
He wanted Sarah to willingly connect.
Once connected, Richard could transfer every stored memory into her.
Millions of consciousnesses.
One mind.
One person containing them all.
Sarah understood the horror.
“Then you'll control me.”
Richard smiled.
“Exactly.”
Sarah looked at Evelyn.
She was barely conscious.
Her father shouted:
“Don't!”
Sarah walked toward the central chamber.
Her mother screamed:
“No!”
Sarah stopped.
“Mom.”
Her mother shook her head.
“Don't become what they made you.”
Sarah looked at her.
“What was I made to become?”
Her mother smiled sadly.
“Someone who could choose.”
Sarah looked toward Richard.
Then toward the servers.
Then toward Evelyn.
She finally understood.
The Foundation had always assumed people could be controlled through memory.
But memory wasn't identity.
Choice was.
Sarah stepped into the chamber.
Richard smiled.
“Good.”
The machine activated.
Thousands of voices flooded her mind.
Children.
Adults.
Doctors.
Victims.
Rich.
Poor.
Strangers.
People who had died decades ago.
Sarah screamed.
Her father watched helplessly.
Her mother closed her eyes.
Evelyn suddenly stood.
She grabbed the emergency lever.
Richard shouted:
“No!”
Evelyn pulled.
The chamber exploded with light.
Every server overloaded.
Richard fell.
The monitors shattered.
Sarah collapsed.
Silence.
Then a tiny voice whispered:
“Wake up.”
Sarah opened her eyes.
The room was dark.
Everyone was gone.
Except Evelyn.
She sat beside Sarah.
“You did it.”
Sarah coughed.
“What happened?”
“The system is dead.”
Sarah looked around.
“And the others?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“They're free.”
Sarah exhaled.
Then she noticed something.
The central monitor was still on.
One message remained.
BACKUP COMPLETE.
Sarah stared.
“Evelyn.”
Evelyn looked.
The screen displayed one final location.
An address.
And a photograph.
A man.
Sarah recognized him.
Her father.
But not the one sitting beside her.
The photograph showed him twenty-three years younger.
Standing next to another woman.
A woman Sarah had never seen.
Evelyn whispered:
“Who's she?”
Sarah couldn't answer.
Because beneath the photograph was a name.
May you like
SARAH'S BIOLOGICAL MOTHER.
And Sarah knew that woman was still alive.
