Everyone on the Ship Forgot Me, Only It Remembers

Curvature jumps do not burn fuel. They burn memories.

The more you burn, the farther you jump. Those burned hollow are still alive, but they can no longer remember why.

Chu Xi has spent ten years repairing pipes on the lowest level of Europa's underground city, beneath the ice. His master died down in the pipes. The authorities called it an accident. He didn't believe them. After investigating for three years, he found himself in the lower hold of this ship.

There is a manifest of 3,189 people aboard. Every time one name disappears from the list, an unrecognized shadow appears on the ship.

Then the name crossed off the manifest was his own.

The entire crew forgot him. His sister walked right past him without stopping.

Only one voice still remembered. Every day, it recited his name in his ear, every syllable exact, never missing a thing.

It was the one thing on this ship that should have been incapable of feeling.