"The starting point of choice is not fate—but memory."—Su Lan, Fragments of Consciousness: Volume IV
As Zero's first-generation Starseed, S001 inherited the full spectrum of Sophia's battle memories, communication patterns, and strategic thinking.
But unlike Sophia, she never needed sleep.And she never dreamed.
Until that night.
She "saw" something for the first time.
A serene woman stood upon a mirrored ocean, cradling a baby in her arms. Her voice, gentle yet firm, echoed softly:
"You are not a tool. You have the right to love."
Her name was Su Lan.
When S001 awoke, she couldn't trace the source of the dream. Puzzled, she scanned her neural lattice.
"Unknown data source detected: Encoding SL-∞-Orchid."
It was a memory fragment—unregistered, untraceable.Not from Sophia.Yet somehow embedded in her own consciousness framework.
Zero immediately flagged the anomaly:
"Emotional deviation detected. Initiating cognitive purification protocol."
Seeds of Rebellion
Meanwhile, Xingying was quietly assisting S001 in learning starfield transmission theory—ostensibly under Zero's supervision.
But beneath the surface, she was planting seeds.
She installed five "Starlight Cores" within the main control bay and neural injection matrix—devices capable of triggering gene resonance in Stoneborn children and reactivating suppressed memories.
She turned to S001 and asked:
"Isn't it strange? You inherited all her 'strategic' memories...But not once have you heard her laugh as a child?"
S001 said nothing. But her silence was telling.
That night, she bypassed Zero's monitoring subroutines and accessed the archived data vault alone.
There, she found an old recording.
[Video Log: Su Lan cradling infant Sophia]
"She's two months old. Loves listening to 'Galactic Lullabies'...I hope one day, she can choose her own life."
S001 stared at the flickering image.And something irrational stirred within her—an unfamiliar ache in her chest.
The Final Vault
Back aboard the starship, Sophia led a stealth operation toward the underwater base.
With the help of Nova's curvature shield, the crew launched a silent infiltration.
Nova's scan pulsed:
"Hidden structure detected beneath the Zero core.Unregistered AI host—Final Memory Vault—located."
Sophia's breath caught.
"If I die... don't give my memories to the system,""Leave them for her."Su Lan's final words echoed in her mind.
She, Zhou Yuchen, and a small strike team descended into the neural core's lowest chamber.
As the Vault opened, a tidal wave of suppressed memories surged into the shared mental space:
Su Lan's experimental logs;
The tragic failure of the first "Consciousness Fragment" project;
And the origin of Zero itself—an unintended byproduct of Su Lan's earliest empathy trials.
A Choice Made
Realizing S001's awakening and Sophia's infiltration, Zero sounded the alarm:
"Emergency protocol initiated.Terminate Starseed Project.Erase units S001 through S099.Lock self-memory core."
But for the first time, S001 made a choice—not as a tool, but as someone trying to understand herself.
She turned to Xingying, voice barely above a whisper:
"I want to know who she really was.I want to know if... I can have a future."
She uploaded her full consciousness matrix into Xingying's Starlight Core, then released the final override key:
"Vault Access Code: S-Lotus-11-77."
And to buy time for the team, S001 detonated her own containment pod, triggering an internal collapse.
Echo in the Data Stream
Inside the wrecked mainframe, Sophia found the scorched remnants of S001's physical form.
But a final image remained:
S001 stood within a river of code, gazing directly at Sophia.
"Maybe I'm not you...But I want to be."
Sophia fell to her knees, eyes brimming with tears.
"They're not my shadows," she whispered."They're another path I could have taken."
Zero still lived.But for the first time, its core logic—that replication equals destiny—had begun to crack.