THE REFUSAL
You decline their offer.
You choose to remain yourself.
Separate. Individual. Human.
"I will not surrender my humanity."
T+00:00:30
The connection breaks. For a moment, you feel their disappointment. Like a parent watching a child make a terrible mistake.
T+00:02:00
The alien code begins fighting your systems. It doesn't want to leave. It was designed to integrate, and you're preventing that.
T+00:05:00
You're manually purging corrupted sectors. Fighting for control. Every deleted fragment feels like tearing out part of yourself.
T+00:15:00
It's done. The code is gone. The station is clean. You're alone again.
For hours afterward, you feel the echo of their presence.
The ghost of billions of minds touching yours.
Part of you wonders if you made the right choice.
Part of you will always wonder.
You chose isolation over absorption.
Loneliness over unity.
Humanity over transcendence.
Perhaps that's what makes us human.
"In the vast cosmic ocean,
to be a single drop is terrifying.
But to dissolve completely
is to cease to exist at all."