Ryker is halfway into a Lazarus excursion when an alarm goes off, bringing him out of the AlterCast VR network and into his apartment pod for the first time in 8 months. It takes him a couple of minutes to realize where he is, and to overcome the shock of Virtual Cognisance Reversal. He moves his robotic arm to disconnect the wires of his neural and feeding connectors. The weight of his physical movement causes him frustration, soon realizing that he didn’t calibrate the Muscle Atrophy Aversion settings correctly. It will take some time to acclimate to real-world gravity again.

The alarm going off comes from an old handheld interface he set up years ago to scan the system web for messages and recordings; anything sending out a signal that it was programmed to look for. There is an emergency broadcast being transmitted.

“Fellow beings: please heed our message. As the Red Giant dies, we must embrace Solace. The Journey into the next cycle starts with acceptance.”

Ryker is jolted back into the room by a sudden spike of adrenaline coursing through his body. He can’t believe what he is hearing – a voice he hasn’t heard since his final military mission 11 years ago. He pulls the message up onto his transparent display monitor, and stares deeply into a set of eyes he thought he would never see again. It is unmistakably Taith, daughter of Jak.

Ryker instantly recalls the day he has since tried to forget. Himself, Jak and Taith were on a joint escort mission into the nearby L-7U Mining belt, where Jak was captaining the L-Frigate. Taith was a new recruit at the time, directly reporting to Ryker, who served as the ship’s longstanding chief engineer. The two had a close bond; Ryker had watched her grow since she was just a newborn. As they were cruising through the mining belt, a piece of space debris tore through the ship, boring a hole right next to Taith, violently sucking her from the ship in a fraction of a second. A second piece of debris struck Ryker’s shoulder, decimating his arm as shrapnel ripped flesh from his face and body. A containment shield activated to stop the rest of the crew being sucked into space, but it was too late for Taith. It was all over so fast; Jak had witnessed the event in horror, unable to help. Once great friends, Jak and Ryker have since drifted apart, isolating themselves from the outer world in their respective ways.

Ryker feels a strange sense of yearning seeing her face again. He’s struck by the sense of connection he feels, despite how much his memory of her has faded. She’s grown up now, but still strongly resembles the child he used to love playing games with. How could she possibly be alive? Could this be a hoax?

His adrenaline levels are normalized by his regulation suit. He tries to comprehend the meaning of the words, his brain still scrambled from the cognitive re-adjustment back to the real world, and the shock of hearing Taith’s voice for the first time in over a decade. The interface clearly shows that the broadcast is being transmitted from Ōmikam, a small remote planet near to the Sun and home to the system’s native beings. Recently some scientists have detected a very slight increase in solar activity and energy release. There are theories that it could have something to do with the Ardor, the ancient beings of the system.

He replays the cryptic message, 

“As the Red Giant dies, we must embrace Solace.”

Ryker has heard similar messages before. Humans have been aware of the sun’s gradual demise since their arrival here, but he knows this process takes millions of years. The system is littered with countless religions and cults, each with their own ideology attempting to elucidate the approaching end to life here. Fearing their own mortality, many with the surplus resources required to exit the system have done so already. Ryker remains robustly skeptical, easily dismissing these baseless speculations. The net is saturated with crazy theories.

He stands up slowly, struggling against the weight of his cumbersome bodysuit. Seeing his vague reflection on the dirty metallic surface opposite he barely recognises himself; his physical appearance a distant memory. The apartment pod is almost identical to many others that exist here, designed primarily for the purpose of integrating into AlterCast. The numerous colonies on Planet X7-U now consist of mega structures that house millions known as Anchorites; humans ‘integrated’ with various forms of technology providing nutrition, entertainment, VR and cocktails of chemicals generating an approximation of different emotions. Since the accident Ryker has immersed himself further and further into this world, rebuilding his body into an almost completely synthetic form and only leaving AlterCast for essential bionic upgrades and repairs. Like most Anchorites, Ryker chooses the AlterCast over the real world.

Echoes of her voice continue to oscillate through his mind. “Taith…” he whispers softly to himself. Fighting another wave of post-cast nausea, Ryker takes a deep breath and calls his old friend.