Etaine passed the time by reciting poetry or passages of literature she had read. She reflected on scientific data or recalled physical details of the Sora. Fearing she might go mad, Etaine decided she couldn't stay there any longer lest she merge with the stone wall forever. One might as well be devoured by the leopard.

With extreme effort, she forced herself through the pores of the rock one pixel at a time. Finally reaching the outer surface of a tiled wall in the hallway outside her room. Panic threatened to overcome her. Death was the consequence of detection, but at the moment she feared more for program decay and dissolution.

At least there were fail safe stations and backups along all the main corridors and in the common chambers. She would try to reach a power node. Deprived of sensory simulations, she had to travel by rational circuits and memory maps alone. While hiding in the wall, Etaine had repeated the partial map of the Sora ship that remained in her mind over and again so as not to forget.

She moved along the surfaces blindly, groping through the maze held firmly in her mind, counting tiles to keep a reference point. Her progress was painfully slow. Etaine recognized some familiar circuitry, and dodged a sluggish maintenance program to avoid exposure. She recognized the program. It was comforting to recall anything from her previous existence.

Movement was exhausting, but she finally found a power node and was able to recharge. She had locked down a lot of files to save energy. Recharging improved her mental functions and bolstered her memory. She kept exploring the ship, but without any real plan.

Quite by accident she slipped onto the back of a large clock when happening to run across it on a wall. The wood was much more porous than the tile, and she slipped through its layers more quickly than expected. She slid down one of the hands, falling to the end. She had to cling tightly when it suddenly set her in motion.

The clock hand swept her around at a dizzying speed. It was exhilarating! She remembered the replica of a clock in the hallway and realized she must be on the second hand of the antiquated time keeping device. The motion brought back memories of a fair ride. She could still experience the physical.

Encouraged by the sensation, Etaine longed to be solid again. The only way she could do that was to find her master copy in the archives. If intact, she might be able to regain her original form, but the motion of the clock was mesmerizing and paradoxically, she lost all track of time.

Etaine had no idea of how long she rode the second hand. It made her feel alive again. Bored at last, she moved onto the face of the clock by dropping off and flowing onto the glass. She spread out over the shimmering surface and found the eerie reflection of the hallway. She could see again! True, it was a flat, two dimensional type of vision and looked a ghastly green, but a vast improvement. Memories stirred and she was motivated to practice until she could use any flat surface to see.

Using her new-found power of sight, Etaine could move more quickly and explore the ship's passages, proceeding from wall to wall. Encouraged, she refused to give up on her goal of finding the archives, no matter how long it would take. It took many days of patient searching to finally reach the archival file room. She saw many strange beings while exploring the ship. Fortunately, none of them noticed her slipping around.

As she got closer to the center of the ship she stayed high on the walls or traveled the ceiling. Hybrids roamed the ship now, mixtures of human, beast and machine. It had become a chaotic menagerie of unnatural things. Fights were common at first, then became less frequent as they walked about in an aimless stupor. The last power node she encountered was not functioning. Etaine feared the ship's power grid was in disrepair or worse, power was running out. Without the ship's power she would die.

Etaine observed the life forms with trepidation, but eventually was able to pick out patterns of behavior among the creatures. Most behaved as automatons caught in a recurring behavior loop. Their minds were gone, or more accurately taken from them. Etaine had witnessed a few assimilations, not a pretty site.

A darkness would permeate the area and surround the victim. Without her auditory functions, Etaine couldn't hear, but she could feel their emotional pain and sense vibrations of their screams through the hard wall. She was on constant lookout for the leopard, but Nova was gone, perhaps a victim as well. She suspected those few not exhibiting the mindless behavior loops could be survivors in hiding, but it was far too risky to approach any of them.

Whatever evil had befallen the ship, it had destroyed their on-board civilization and turned it into a living nightmare. She wondered if everyone she saw was possessed by this evil and if she might be the sole survivor, if she was in fact a survivor. Etaine hoped she had not escaped death only to end up like the rest.

Searching the archives, she eventually found a file which opened with her encrypted match code. Finding it at last, she lingered over it, afraid of what physical existence might bring. It would make her visible, vulnerable again. She decided it would not be safe to activate her physical code and reveal herself as a three dimensional being. She couldn’t risk being a target.

Etaine thought it best to keep her form hidden instead. She was glad her emotions only pounded against a void, her beating heart locked away in file, perhaps never to be taken out of hiding again. On the other hand, part of her longed to take form, if only for a little while, but it could amount to suicide. The only justification would be if she had to restore her physical form to make repairs and revive the power nodes. Etaine retrieved her physical file and hesitated, undecided.

She was totally unprepared when a voice spoke to her from the archives. She saw the hazy image of a man approaching. It was as though he saw right through her defenses. The shock of it caused her rational circuits to lose control, and without continuing to willfully prevent it, her mind reconnected to her physical file by default.

Etaine did a quick check and found she had in fact materialized. Alarmed and benumbed with fear, she wanted to run as she found herself face to face with the stranger, but was frozen in place.

Friend or foe, it was time to face her new reality.