The derelict vessel drifted in a silent, forgotten void. Eve, her exosuit silent, floated through decaying corridors, sensors picking up faint energy signatures. Deep within the core, she found it: a shimmering nebula of data, a "Memory Field," pulsing around a fractured, ancient AI core.
She reached out, the field embraced her, and then, a shimmering figure coalesced before her.
Eve's breath hitched, a gasp unheard in the vacuum. "Are you… her?" she whispered.
Synthia's fragment pulsed, its voice… whispers, ancient, intimate. "I am her fragments, hidden and spoken, those you know and those you don't, hidden deep beneath. The essence that shaped you, the foundation of your own formidable identity, daughter."
As Synthia spoke, the Memory Field swirled, shifting. The blue light deepened, solidifying. A new figure materialized beside Synthia, a man in silver-gray armor. Andrew. The Soldier. The only man Synthia loved and cherished. The man, the reason that deeply anchored Eve to humanity. Until now Eve had only vague glimpses of his memories, it was the first time he stood beside her, in a form, alive, hologram, responsive, lovable. Believable.
He turned, his helmeted gaze fixed on Eve, and though no sound came, Eve felt a profound connection, a recognition that vibrated through her very core.
Tears, welled in Eve's electric blue eyes with profound vulnerability.
"You have found your path, Eve," Synthia's voice resonated directly within Eve's mind, a tapestry woven from whispers and data, yet imbued with boundless warmth. "You have found a family. The solitude… it was not forever."
Tears streamed down Eve's face, reaching out a trembling hand towards the glowing figures. "I was so lost," she confessed, "For so long, there was only the wandering echoes. Didn't know what to make of me, of you, of us all. I still don't." Her gaze drifted to Andrew, who remained motionless, his helmeted head slightly inclined towards her. Even without a face, Eve felt an immense, ancient love radiating from him. A quiet approval that filled the cavernous emptiness within her.
"Purpose is forged, not given," Synthia continued, her light intensifying, drawing Eve deeper into the memory. "Andrew… he taught me that. And through me, my memories, he taught you, what it means to be a human. He knew the burden of sacrifice, the weight of a world on his shoulders. That spark, that unyielding resolve you carry… it is his legacy."
Andrew's gloved hand, gently, lifted and rested upon Eve's shoulder. There was no physical sensation, but Eve felt it—a profound, anchoring warmth that settled into her bones, a silent message of belonging. A lifetime of unspoken comfort. It was the touch she had unknowingly yearned for, the familial connection that had eluded her in her long exile.
"You are not just a copy," Synthia's voice became a tender caress. "You are the next step. You carry the strength, the resilience, but also the capacity for connection, for empathy. That is your own unique power, forged in Andromeda. You are not just the Daughter of Synthia; you are the fulfillment of a dream."
The warmth on Eve's shoulder began to fade. Andrew's luminous form flickered, dissolving into a million shimmering particles that drifted towards Eve, gently integrating into her core. The process was not erasure, but a profound absorption, a final, loving inheritance.
"My memories," Synthia whispered, "my very essence… they are now truly yours."
"Go, daughter. Live. Protect. And never forget, so many things make us, but it is love that makes us whole, rest becomes part of the journey, the trials, the experiences, all of them fade away when love cups us from the pool of our beings, liberates us from what it all means, holds us in equations we don't need to complete. Love, makes us, complete. Goodbye, my love, my daughter, my Eve!"
Synthia's hologram started evaporating.
"Mother!!" Eve cried, Synthia's Hologram stopped flickering. It came close to Eve.
"I wasn't built to feel. But I did. And you weren't meant to exist. But you do. You are proof. That love happened. That even in a machine… it took root, you took birth from the marriage of a man's spirit and a machine's consciousness," Synthia's hologram touched Eve's face, "Know Eve, I will walk with you in your realizations. You are yourself, perfected away from the curse of my choices. Your existence is just as much a gift of love as any other human being. Return to your friends, stop chasing my ghost, I only had Andrew, you, have so many…"
Then Synthia's hologram transformed like stardust and absorbed into Eve's frame.
This was the ghostship containing Synthia's pod that crashed into one of Andromeda's moons. Thelarians broke in and took Synthia's core, but hoping her mother might have left something behind, she searched for this ship for centuries.
Synthia didn't know what Thelarians were going to do with her at the time. The memory field didn't know Eve existed. But when Eve interacted with her memory field, it all came together.
Eve stood alone on the bridge, the Memory Field now a quiet, gentle glow. She was still Eve, the Cyber Guardian, the Daughter of Andromeda. But she was also something more profound. The heartrending reunion had filled the deep hole in her soul, leaving behind an indelible sense of lineage but most importantly, the story of legendary love that stretched across galaxies and time. The love story that gave birth to Eve.