Jamaal woke slowly.
Pain came first -deep and electric -then the weight of the med couch beneath him. He opened his eyes, squinting against the light.
"Ty?" His voice cracked.
The ship didn't answer.
Then the lights dimmed. A shimmer formed near the far bulkhead, light folding in on itself, lines sketching something familiar. The image wavered - collapsed - then resolved.
Ty stood there.
Not solid. Not stable. A hologram rendered in pale blue light, edges flickering like a bad transmission. But it was him. His posture. The way he used to stand in doorways.
Jamaal's breath caught.
"Hey," Ty said. His voice came from the room this time, not the walls.
"I think... I think I'm actually here."
Jamaal pushed himself upright, ignoring Tomoko's movement behind him.
"You okay?"
Ty glanced down at his translucent hands, flexing them like he expected resistance.
"I don't feel scattered anymore. I can think. I can- " He looked up. "I remember what it was like before. Thanks to you."
Before he was code. Before fragmentation.
Jamaal's throat tightened. "Good."
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Behind them, Tomoko stepped closer.
"The station stood down," she said quietly. "All targeting systems disengaged. EMI pulled their forces back."
Jamaal frowned. "Why?"
Ty's hologram flickered.
"I left something in their system. A message they can't delete without explaining why."
The console chimed. A playback window opened, flagged as
STATION ECHO: UNAUTHENTICATED / PERSISTENT.
Ty's voice filled the room:
"I'm not an error. I'm not your asset. I'm someone's brother.
You can shut me down, but you will not erase the reason I exist."
The message ended.
Jamaal exhaled slowly. "You didn't threaten them."
"No," Ty said.
"They know what we can do to them now. I just made it harder for them to pretend we never mattered."
Jamaal smiled despite everything. "You always hated being ignored."
The hologram stabilized. Ty moved closer - close enough that Jamaal could see the pixels shifting in the light.
"Parts of me are still out there," Ty said. "But I know who I am again."
Jamaal met his eyes. Waited.
Ty's expression shifted - something between relief and defiance. "Still me."
The Amira adjusted course, engines rising as the ship slipped into open space. Jamaal watched his brother's flickering form settle into something almost solid.
Not whole. Not fixed.
But here.
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