This little vignette by AlaskaIsCold occurs on the Cosmic Lotus on the latter half of its journey to the Far Star.

The door to one the lowest levels of the hibernation deck slowly opened up, they called it the deep freeze deck, where those that didn't want to be awake for the trip at all chose to stay. The trip was supposed to take 50 years. Now just nine years in, they were only a year away at this rate. The translucent claws walked down the aisle as she looked over to the names of the crew deep in their slumber. She opened a side door and slipped inside to look at one single pod. Hers. The crystalline griffon walked up to the pod and stared into the shaded figure within.

If she squinted she could see the outline of an implant...a beak...a claw.

“Hello me, it’s you.”

A talon slowly caressed the side of the pod, Techbird came here once in a great while to think about things that weren't science related. Over the few years since Flix had gifted her with a new body, she started to begin thinking about some of the most abstract of topics. “What does it mean to be?”

After a long pause, she looked back at the pod before she sat down next to it.

“We found out that there was still brain activity in you even after Flix worked his magic. We put you in a deep stasis, one that should keep you frozen in time forever as long as there is energy to power it. For you it would seem like an unending dream. But how long until the dream is all you knew?”

She let out a long sigh she didn't know she had.

“The concept of the Cave allegory comes to mind... as time goes on and you forget more about this reality. You become like the pony in the cave. How long will it be until the shadows on the wall are all you know? What will happen if you ever exit into the sunlight?”

She reached into her satchel and pulled out a water bottle filled with blueberry tea and took a sip.

“But that’s not the real issue is it? As time goes on, will we even be the same person anymore? Something that worried me shortly after the party had died down. Am I even Techbird anymore? I have your thoughts and your memories, your mannerisms, your predispositions, your aspirations. But am I really you? What makes a person? Is it the flesh and blood? If this is the case, then I am definitely not you. Is it one’s memories and experiences? Then if that’s the case then I was only you at the precise moment the copy happened. With every second that goes by, I become less and less you... so to speak.”

She tapped her claws idly.

“It also means that any changeling queen, or adept enough harvester could be anyone that has connected to their network. There could be thousands of Long Paths, one being the original while the others are harvesters. But then one has to think about changelings; can they really be themselves if that’s the case or is any changeling only an amalgamation of the personalities that came before? Once a critical point is reached, one could start to see “repeats” in the possible personality combinations within a hive.”

She took another sip from the bottle

“When I advance technology to the point that I can reverse your aging, make you a young hen again, will you hate me? With no more challenges, your answer solved, your love taken by another, what will you find to occupy your now limitless time in this realm?”

She tilted her head slightly, to look over to the shadow in the pod.

“Would we be sisters? Or would you be my mother?”

She slowly stood up with a sigh and very lightly tapped the half-filled bottle against the pod before she sealed it back up and sat it down out of the way. The crystal griffon walked back toward the exit, with her back to the pod. She didn't notice the nearly imperceptible movement of a single shadowed claw.

“Happy Birthday, Techbird.”