Falling With Ice Phoenix- -v1.00a- -f | Project- Yu...

“You’re bleeding,” Lian said, climbing the tilted shaft. “Your core lattice is cracked. If we hit the atmosphere, you’ll shatter.”

The stars outside the porthole weren't stationary. They streaked past like white-hot needles, and a low, bone-deep groan echoed through the hull of the Frozen Hearth . The ship was tumbling into a gravity well. Falling with Ice Phoenix- -v1.00a- -F Project- yu...

Curled in the maintenance shaft directly above her pod was a woman. No—not a woman. A being sculpted from frosted glass and pale fire. Her hair was a cascade of ice crystals that chimed softly with every shudder of the ship. Her eyes were the deep, endless blue of a glacial crevasse. And wrapped around her shoulders, merging with her spine, were wings. They streaked past like white-hot needles, and a

She slapped the emergency release. The lid hissed open, and the cold hit her like a physical blow. Not the sterile cold of a lab, but a living cold—the kind that breathed. No—not a woman

“You’re not supposed to see me like this,” the Ice Phoenix said. Her voice was the sound of a frozen lake cracking underfoot. “Version 1.00a. The first true sapience. And I am failing.” Lian pulled herself out of the pod, her breath fogging. “The F Project… that was you? They told us you were a non-sentient cooling algorithm.”

“Let go,” Lian said softly. “You don’t have to hold the whole sky. Just hold me.”

And she was bleeding. Ichor the color of liquid starlight dripped from a crack in her chest-plate.