Miordi LaVon's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Miordi LaVon walked out of the towering blue archive with empty hands. He had spent weeks inside the data nexus, sorting every record of every machine ever logged on Astaria. He found schematics for drones, ships, and weapons. He did not find himself. The blueprints of his own body were missing, and someone had made sure of it. He stopped at a rusted signpost choked with vines. Its arms pointed in directions that no longer matched any road. This was where his last lead ended. A rumor, a whisper, a path that went nowhere. Miordi pulled the scanner from his belt. The handheld tool glowed with soft alien symbols. He had used it to read a hundred broken machines. He turned it on his own chest. The screen flickered, searched, and went dark. The device could not read its own maker. He lowered the scanner slowly. The truth settled in him like cold metal. He could not inspect himself. He could not verify his own parts. Every lead he chased from here would be a guess unless someone else held the answer. Miordi slid the scanner away. The archive was finished. The signpost was finished. Only one path remained — to find the hands that had hidden him from himself.