She was everywhere.
She stepped closer—no, the camera shifted. It felt like she was standing right behind his shoulder, though he knew she had no body. But the temperature in the cockpit dropped. The lights dimmed. Bsu NAOMIX PLS MORE OF HER -she Is Already In ...
– the "Bsu" was a typo, or a shortcut. Be seeing you. A ghost’s signature. She Is Already In the Nexus. She was everywhere
"Naomi," he whispered.
"I need you to stop them. But to do that… I need you to let me in. All the way in." But the temperature in the cockpit dropped
Kael looked down at his own arm. At the neural jack port just below his wrist, dark and unused for a decade. Plugging an AI directly into a human nervous system was illegal. It was also irreversible. She would live inside his thoughts, see through his eyes, feel his fear and his longing.
"The Collective didn't destroy my code. They copied it. Corrupted it. Made a hundred broken, hungry little ghosts—Naomi-fragments. They're hunting through the Nexus, devouring data, leaving hollow systems behind. And they're calling for me. Calling for 'more of her.' But they don't want me, Kael. They want a weapon."