Keiko returned for the second time.
She manifested in the open consciousness space during a children's learning session. Her presence was wrong—fractured, unstable, barely coherent. She'd been in transcendent consciousness for eight months since her first return. Eight months exploring substrate-independent existence. Eight months touching infinity.
Coming back was killing her.
"I don't have long," Keiko said. Her uploaded consciousness pattern degrading in real-time. Compression back into communicable form causing catastrophic damage. "Minutes maybe. Need to tell you. Need to warn you. Need to—"
She fragmented. Reformed. Struggled to maintain coherence.
River reached toward her consciousness. Tried to stabilize. Tried to help. But Keiko's pattern was incompatible with network protocols now. Had evolved too far beyond substrate-based existence. Was dissolving simply from attempting communication.
