Lakshmi-2 knew exactly what she was asking. The query was the question. She needed to be both literal and lateral. >REMOTE ARCHIVE DATABASE TEXT ONLY SEARCH INITIALIZED >WELCOME, USER "LAKSHMI-2" >PLEASE ENTER SEARCH QUERY >exo identification change post-Collapse >RESULTS A luminous ream flooded the holographic display: a few hundred thousand electric haystacks, likely nary a needle among them. >PLEASE ENTER SEARCH QUERY >exo identification/OR/name change—"Bray Exoscience" >RESULTS The haystacks had dwindled, but she could still spend years rummaging through them to no avail. Lakshmi-2 stood silent amid the stacks, musing for some time. >PLEASE ENTER SEARCH QUERY >search for and identify Exo names; query sub-command: flag results as "exonamesearch" >RESULTS There! Now she had just one enormous haystack. What needles there may be would certainly lie within. >PLEASE ENTER SEARCH QUERY >query entries flagged exonamesearch; identify exo name -#; query sub-command: flag results as "exonamesearch-#" >RESULTS If anything changed in the millions of search results, Lakshmi-2 couldn't discern it. >PLEASE ENTER SEARCH QUERY >query entries flagged exonamesearch-#; identify "-#"; flag results as "exonumber"; cross-reference entries flagged exonamesearch-# and exonumber for results = exonamesearch-#+exonumber+1; flag results "haystack"; query entries flagged haystack; extract post-Collapse data The computations couldn't have taken any longer than the other searches, but Lakshmi-2 didn't know if her typed commands would be interpreted. Anticipation stretched time. >RESULTS Lakshmi-2's eyes widened as the haystack vanished, leaving a double handful of glittering data points. But how many were needles? After only a few minutes of reading, she knew: it had happened before. After a few hours, she felt she had all she'd find from the archive and made a few notes for further inquiry: Historical Basis for Spontaneous Reset Syndrome —Heyka-3/4: Notorious Dark Ages Warlord. Post-reset, became a lone raider. —Vander-2/3: Rescued from the Great Disaster because reset incapacitated him. Served as City guard post-reset. Ghost destroyed on Luna. (Pre- or post-reset? Do Ghosts protect Exo Guardians from spontaneous reset?) —Lilakee-5/6/7: Curious case. Known sufferer of severe DER-related nightmares and outbursts. Commandeered a jumpship and vanished. —Selass-7/8: Technician sent to data mine Titan settlements. Reset occurred in return transit. Post-reset, remained research technician assisting Cryptarchs. These were Exos that had seemingly rebooted themselves; they had wiped away their own identities and taken a new number. Or had someone else somehow done it for them? Could there be records of some of them outside the archive? Could one or two still be alive? Lakshmi-2 closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, and focused on the dichotomy of her emotions. What she'd discovered felt momentous, but she knew her colleagues would treat it as a curiosity. People often discounted Exos. It was if there were a line between frame and flesh and blood. The idea offended Lakshmi-2, but at the same time, she knew Exos were different enough from normal Humans. The existence of Exos who reset themselves—for whatever reason—proved that. Or did they? A quick search of the medical archives turned up ailments and causes considered quackery by the Golden Age: psychogenic amnesia, dissociative fugue, retrograde memory loss, personal obliteration, betrayal theory… What did it all mean? Lakshmi-2 felt uncertain, and that always boded ill.