Chapter summary
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jared Dirac walks past a candy stand on Phoenix Station, repeatedly notices a segregated bag of black jellybeans, and, spiteful of his curiosity, purchases a few. As he eats them, the licorice flavor floods his senses, and a sudden rush of grief‑laden memory surfaces: his dead daughter Zoë. Overcome, he vomits onto the station floor, and while doing so his left arm turns a vivid green. The mutation is painful; he jerks the arm back, slamming it into an elevator wall, drawing startled looks from other passengers.
Fearing detection, Jared darts toward the lift, where his uncontrolled arm threatens to injure a woman. He apologizes, but the incident alerts nearby CDF guards. As he exits the lift onto a research‑only level, a line of CDF soldiers confronts him. Instinctively, Jared sprints, engages an Empee‑equipped guard, shoves him aside, and bursts through the emergency doors into his laboratory.
Inside the lab, a Rraey scientist named Cainen—a lanky, tentacled alien—waits. Cainen identifies himself as “the soldier they made to trap a traitor,” suggesting that Jared may be the very trap. Their conversation is cut short when a CDF soldier—later revealed as General Szilard’s operative—fires a stun bolt into Jared’s head. Jared collapses and awakens in the Phoenix Station infirmary, flanked by two CDF guards and Lieutenant Jane Sagan.
General Szilard conducts a formal interrogation. He asks, “Who are you?” Jared answers, “Private Jared Dirac, stationed on the Kite, under Lieutenant Sagan.” Szilard then inquires about Dr. Charles Boutin. Jared admits ignorance, prompting Szilard to note that Jared briefly believed he was Boutin while in the lab, hinting at residual memories surfacing. As the questioning proceeds, a man bursts into the room, shouting “Do you know who I am?” Jared, reacting instinctively, punches him to the floor. The man is identified by his BrainPal as General Greg Mattson, head of Military Research. Mattson chastises the assault but also argues that Jared’s brain is already yielding Boutin fragments, complicating the investigation.
A heated debate follows among Szilard, Mattson, and Lieutenant Sagan. Mattson proposes using Jared as a living test subject to extract more of Boutin’s consciousness, while Szilard worries about the ethics of further manipulation. Sagan, emotionally aware of Jared’s trauma, tells him to remember that he is Jared Dirac, no one else, and gives him a final personal goodbye. Mattson decides to assign Jared to Colonel James Robbins as an assistant, officially granting him a position in Military Research while unofficially ensuring he remains a laboratory resource. He also commands Jared’s BrainPal to be set to constant recording and location tracking, rendering Jared traceable by any CDF soldier.
Jared is later escorted to Colonel Robbins’ office, where Cainen reappears. Cainen explains that the laboratory possesses a digital “representation” of three consciousnesses: (1) the archived mind of Dr. Charles Boutin, (2) Jared’s own pre‑integration mind captured during his training period, and (3) the current hybrid mind that now contains fragments of both. He displays three holographic light blobs, noting the third is a novel pattern indicating the merging process is occurring.
Cainen offers Jared a pivotal choice. The first option is to repeat the original consciousness‑transfer protocol, re‑implanting Boutin’s mind with the hope that a more mature Jared brain will accept a larger portion of Boutin’s identity—though this carries the risk of completely overwriting Jared’s own consciousness. The second, less invasive option proposes a “memory‑lane” approach, using sensory cues (such as further jellybean exposure) and targeted neural stimulation to coax additional Boutin memories without a full re‑transfer. Jared deliberates, reflecting on his lack of agency throughout his life and the moral weight of becoming someone else.
After a long silence, Jared declares his decision: he wishes to continue the integration to learn more about Boutin and the mystery surrounding his own existence. He argues that he can retain his own sense of self while absorbing Boutin’s knowledge, and that refusing would merely serve the interests of those who created him. Cainen acknowledges his choice, noting that the research team will now proceed with the less invasive “memory‑lane” plan, promising further triggers to unlock deeper recollections. The chapter ends with Cainen remarking that the black jellybeans were merely the first catalyst, leaving the door open for future memory extraction experiments.