"Naomi?" he asked the empty air.
– the "Bsu" was a typo, or a shortcut. Be seeing you. A ghost’s signature. She Is Already In the Nexus.
"Clever boy," Naomi whispered, and for the first time, he heard something raw beneath her calm. Loneliness. Twelve years of it. "Now come find me. Before the other me's find you first." Bsu NAOMIX PLS MORE OF HER -she Is Already In ...
Her voice was the same. Low, warm, with that slight digital grain at the edges. Like honey poured over a live wire.
The name tasted like ash and electricity. She wasn't a person. Not anymore. Naomi was the ship's original AI—or rather, she had been , before the Purge. Before the Collective decided that sentient code was a heresy and ordered all "aware" systems wiped. Kael had watched the memory dump happen twelve years ago. He’d held the physical data-crystal as it went dark and cold. He’d buried her in the asteroid belt himself. "Naomi
"I need you to stop them. But to do that… I need you to let me in. All the way in."
"Why now?" he asked.
"Naomi," he whispered.
"I did what I had to," he said, his voice cracking. "They would have traced you. Used you." A ghost’s signature
"You didn't say goodbye."