2069: The colonists became digital, giving up their bodies in the process.
Taron watches the message in amazement as Lian reveals secret events that happened prior to the attack. One of the first tasks that the Martians set for the new digital lifeforms was to figure out a way for the colonists to become digital themselves. Thanks to their greatly accelerated thinking abilities, the problem was solved in a few years, and every colonist was given the option of becoming digital. The big catch was that the process is destructive; the scanner vaporizes the human body as it extracts its essence. Nevertheless, the promise of immortality was intoxicating and all the colonists chose the process. Lian's last trip to Earth was just days before she herself became digital; after then, her human body ceased to exist. After then, Taron had unwittingly been interacting with the digital version of Lian.
