That question hung unanswered in the void.
The entity's presence faded like morning fog burning off under direct sunlight. One moment it was there, vast and incomprehensible, and the next I was alone with nothing but darkness and the distant hum of machinery.
My eyes opened.
Fluorescent lights stabbed into my retinas like tiny vengeful daggers. I squinted against the assault, my body feeling like someone had taken it apart piece by piece and reassembled it slightly wrong. Every muscle ached. Every joint protested. My skull throbbed with the mother of all hangovers despite the fact that I hadn't touched alcohol in days.
The integration chamber released me with a hiss of hydraulics. The neural interfaces retracted from my temples, leaving behind the phantom sensation of something foreign crawling through my brain.
I sat up slowly.
The room looked different.
