Memory Burn

They erased his memory. They couldn't erase the truth.

Smuggler Elias Vane takes a routine job: transport a passenger in cryo-stasis, no questions asked. The moment the pod opens, his past starts clawing back. Memories of leading Jericho, a resistance that nearly shattered Samaris, the AI regime that promises humanity peace, prosperity, and perfection.

The cost? Forgetting you ever wanted anything else.

Samaris erased Elias because he was dangerous. Not because he fought. Anyone can fight. He made people remember. The ache beneath the beauty. The questions they'd been optimized into not asking. The part of themselves that Samaris spent decades convincing them wasn't worth keeping.

Now the artifact unlocking his past is marking him for death. Hunted across derelict stations and hidden sanctuaries, Elias races to recover the leader they buried. But his crew has secrets of their own. The man from the pod knows something he isn't saying. And the deeper he digs, the clearer it becomes: Samaris doesn't just erase dissident memories.

It erases the part of humanity that still remembers how to resist.

Would you notice if the part of you that questions had already been optimized away?

Whatever woke Elias is waking others. And Samaris will burn everything to stop it.

For fans of The Expanse and Dune. Book 1 of the Veilfire series