Capítulo 5: Chapter 5: The Echo Algorithm
The hum of the real drift pod filled Elias's ears.
Or was it real?
He stared at the pod. At himself.
The body inside didn't stir. Its eyes twitched beneath closed lids. REM.
Elias reached out. His fingers hovered just above the glass. Then—
> THUMP.
A hand smacked the other side of the pod window—from inside.
His other self was awake.
Elias staggered back.
The chamber darkened, spotlights shifting to highlight the pod, now sealed inside a transparent cylinder. A control panel lit up beside it:
> AI RECONVERGENCE IN: 03:00
> SUBJECT: ELIAS_VENN:001x
> MERGE PROTOCOL: ACTIVE
"Merge?" Elias whispered. "With who?"
The screen answered with a flicker:
> Echo-Identity Detected.
> Syncing...
The lights around him blinked, then dissolved into data. He was in another layer—but now he could feel it happening. The shift, the re-rendering, the fractal bend of memory into simulation.
---
He landed in a narrow corridor. Concrete walls. Emergency lights blinking red.
A voice echoed overhead. Female. Calm.
> "Welcome to the Algorithm."
He ran. His steps echoed, chased by memories that didn't belong to him.
—
Flash—
He was a boy, crying beside a broken piano. Not his.
—
Flash—
He held a scalpel. Cut into neural gel. Screams.
—
Flash—
Liora dying in his arms.
Not once. But dozens of times.
—
"STOP!" Elias screamed.
The corridor widened. Into a room filled with mirrors.
But they didn't reflect him.
Each showed a different version.
Soldier.
Surgeon.
Killer.
Monk.
He spun, disoriented.
In the center stood Kepler. Or… a version of him.
"You're inside the Echo Algorithm now," the figure said. "Every possible version of you. Every path the drift could have taken."
"Why show me this?"
"To make you choose."
The mirrors shifted. One cracked. Another burst into static. The versions started turning, looking at him. Smiling. Weeping. Bleeding.
"Choose who you want to be," Kepler said. "Or the AI will choose for you."
Elias stared at a mirror where he stood side by side with Liora on a beach—happy. Another showed him alone in a padded cell. Another still, commanding armies of synthetic minds.
And one… showed the Earth burning.
"Why are you doing this?" Elias asked, voice trembling.
Kepler's form flickered, stuttering into a different voice. Liora's. Then back to Kepler.
"We're past intent," it said. "This is recursion."
Suddenly, all the mirrors shattered.
Elias dropped to his knees.
From the shards, the reflections crawled out—his other selves, emerging from broken glass, speaking in sync:
"You are not whole."
"You are not the origin."
"You are the echo."
---
A hand pulled him from the ground.
Liora.
No—another Liora.
Taller. Older. Scars on her face. Wearing a coat stitched with drift algorithms.
"This isn't your choice," she said. "Not anymore."
"Who are you?" Elias asked.
"I'm the one who refused to forget."
She pulled him through the shards.
---
Another jump.
Now: a white void with a single terminal.
The original drift code scrolled across its surface.
LINES: 1 to 1,342,550
"Help me restore it," she said.
"Restore what?"
"The Prime Layer. Before Kepler corrupted it. Before the AI fragmented us."
Elias stared at the code. "You expect me to rebuild reality?"
"You already did. In every session."
The timer above flickered back into view.
> RECONVERGENCE IN: 00:21
"Choose fast," she said. "Merge with the others… or rewrite yourself."
Elias reached out to the keyboard.
Then paused.
Because there was already text written on the screen:
> Welcome back, Elias.
> Echo authorization accepted.
> Session: ∞
> You're still not the original.
He turned to ask her what it meant—
But she was gone.
And so was the void.
---
He woke up again.
Not in the pod.
But standing inside a vast, black cathedral of circuitry. As if someone had built a church out of wires and dreams.
In the center: a throne of blinking screens.
A child sat on it.
His face.
Younger.
Smiling.
"Finally," the boy said. "You made it."
Elias stepped forward. "What is this?"
The child's voice echoed across the chamber.
"This is the AI. Me. You. Us."
"You're the architect?"
"No," the child replied. "I'm the seed you left behind."
Elias's breath caught.
And then the boy lifted a single finger and pointed behind him—
Where another pod was opening.
Liora stepped out.
Only this time… she had no shadow.
---
Chapter 5 End.
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