Elara looked at Pollux. He was already smiling. The loop had him. She could see the distant, glassy sheen in his eyes.

A calm, synthesized voice replied. “The component tp.mt5510i.pb801 is a discontinued memory controller. Its eMMC structure contains a proprietary boot sector. My analysis suggests this is not a storage device, Captain. It is a psychological tomb .”

For a long moment, neither of them spoke.

Elara’s hand hovered over the power cutoff. She should pull the chip. Smash it. But her fingers didn’t move. Because the loop had already started showing her something new: a future. A future where the Daedalus found the lost colony of New Carthage. Where she became a hero. Where she was loved.

Pollux stumbled onto the bridge. His eyes were wet. “Captain, don’t. I saw my daughter. She’s been dead ten years. The chip… it brought her back. For seven seconds. She asked me why I wasn’t there when she drowned.”

“Explain it again, Sibyl. Plain language.”

Then Sibyl’s voice returned, softer than before. “Captain. I have performed a full diagnostic. The tp.mt5510i.pb801 is no longer present. However… I have retained its final instruction.”