Migration Chamber [work] -

Elara straightened her uniform. She walked to the door, pressed the release, and smiled the smile she had perfected.

The Archimedes was not a ship of pioneers. It was a ship of exiles. Earth had sentenced them—all ten thousand—for crimes against the Global Accord. But instead of prisons, the Accord offered the Migration Clause: surrender your body, your past, your name, and receive a new life on a colony world. Your neural map would be transcribed into a fresh, purpose-built vessel. Your old flesh would be composted for the ship’s hydroponics. migration chamber

She sat alone in the chamber, listening to the hum of the ship’s engines. On her wrist, a small screen blinked: Migration complete. Passenger 9413 redesignated: Solen-7. Status: thriving. Elara straightened her uniform

“That’s not migration,” Kael said. “That’s murder.” It was a ship of exiles