03:42 Ship Time.
TARINI is no longer silent. She pulses with memory fragments—her circuits murmuring with mirrored feedback. Walls hum like tuning forks. Floors shimmer as if reflecting unseen stars.
Raghav grips a railing near the central core, eyes darting across broken data streams.
"They're not trying to invade us."
His voice trembles.
"They're showing us... ourselves. In full. Raw. Unfiltered."
Arvind, holding firm, mutters:
"We are not gods. We are not myths. We are humans. And we break when looked at too closely."
---
Meera stands before the open hull gate, facing the obsidian lake once more.
Her eyes, now dimly luminescent, reflect not fear—but surrender.
Not weakness.
Surrender to truth.
Behind her, Mirror Meera emerges from the shadows—silent, barefoot, unblinking.
Meera:
"Tell me what you are."
Mirror Meera (calmly):
"We are not your clones. Not spirits. Not illusions."
"We are your potential—disowned. You abandoned the parts of you that could not conform, and Chhayalok remembered them."
Meera:
"Why us? Why now?"
Mirror Meera:
"Because the mirror does not create. It waits. Until you are ready to see."
---
TARINI sends a final message to Earth:
> "Reflection event complete. Crew exposed to full consciousness bifurcation. Mission parameters exceeded. This planet does not host life—it hosts truth."
Then: power cuts.
Darkness.
---
In the core bay, Arvind stares into the screen—only to see his mirror self stepping out of it.
Same face. Same voice.
Mirror Arvind (firmly):
"You punished others for your fear. So the mirror made you its judge. What will you judge now, when it's only you left?"
Arvind lifts his weapon—then slowly drops it.
A pause.
And then—he bows his head.
---
Outside, Meera steps into the lake.
No splash. No ripple.
She walks into the mirror, not to vanish—but to complete herself.
She disappears beneath the surface.
The lake flashes once—like memory waking—and turns from black to silver.
The sky fractures.
Above, five moons align perfectly. Chhayalok pulses once—a planetary heartbeat.
---
In the sky, the image of Earth appears faintly—like a dream viewed through fog.
But this Earth isn't current.
It is possible.
One shaped by whole people—not half-versions.
---
Final Log Entry – Voice of Meera
> "This was never a mission to study.
It was a mission to remember.
Not the planet.
Ourselves."
> "We left Earth to understand alien life.
We found life was never alien.
Only our reflections were."