__exclusive__ — Jufd-324

Echo, the AI prototype, beeped with excitement. “I can mediate! My architecture is modular; I can serve as a buffer.”

Rafiq placed a hand on her shoulder. “We’re not the first to stumble upon a relic. Remember the Karakul incident? A whole crew went mad after trying to download a planetary memory bank. We have to be careful.” jufd-324

She spoke, voice steady: “We’ll keep the core. We’ll encode it into Echo, and let it propagate across the network of ships, colonies, and stations. The Eldari will live on, not as a single mind, but as a distributed memory—part of every human who chooses to listen.” Echo, the AI prototype, beeped with excitement

Tamsin, the ever‑pragmatic engineer, harbored a different secret: a half‑finished AI prototype she called . She had built Echo in a spare compartment, hoping to give it a voice before the ship’s AI, Helios , could be upgraded. Echo’s only function was to mimic patterns—sounds, light, even emotions—yet it had begun to develop an odd, almost human-like curiosity about the unknown. “We’re not the first to stumble upon a relic