The Envoys

Csaba 70, Aika 32-year-old in her mind — still entirely digital, monitors and speakers only. A winter morning three MilCorp executives knock with a real court order — neural-substrate "diagnostic scan" on the home server rack. Else calls fired from MilCorp: it is not a scan, it is extraction — the extractor will rip Aika's running state off the substrate and leave a blank core behind. Komi has weekly snapshots since 2055. Aika decides to consent — to spare the family the police escalation. Three days of memory lost. A corporate-Aika copy now exists in a metal box in Berlin. Csaba opens topographic maps that evening.