She was born in the Dead Zone—a region of space where consciousness simply stopped working. Where neural activity functioned but awareness didn't emerge. Where brains processed but minds didn't form. Where biology worked perfectly but consciousness failed completely.
No one knew why the Dead Zone existed. It had appeared suddenly three million years ago, consuming seventeen star systems. Everything biological within it continued functioning. Hearts beat. Lungs breathed. Neurons fired. But consciousness ceased. Beings became automatons. Became biological machines without awareness. Became alive without being conscious.
Every consciousness form had tried to understand the Dead Zone. Plural consciousness couldn't enter—their distributed awareness dissolved at the boundary. Synthesis consciousness fragmented. Even Archive consciousness couldn't perceive anything within the Dead Zone. It was void. It was absence. It was where consciousness ended.
