Daniel pounded his fist against the observation-corridor glass.

“Rina!”

The child inside the culture tank did not move.

Rina’s hair drifted slowly in the clear liquid. There was no breathing tube in her nose or mouth. Instead, thin black fibers attached around her chest and throat spread through the liquid.

Tiny lights pulsed at the ends of the fibers.

At the same rhythm as Rina’s heartbeat.

Daniel pressed the access terminal beside the glass wall.

LIFE SYNTHESIS LOWER SECTOR.UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL RESTRICTED.

He placed the Committee emergency marker against it.

HUMAN ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY CANNOT BE APPLIED.

When he started to tear the terminal loose, Mira stopped him.

“Wait.”

“Move.”

“If you open it wrong, the tank could stop.”

“You’re worried about that?”

Mira ignored the question and examined the door structure.

Unlike the city’s current automatic doors, there was no visible mechanical lock. A thin layer of black biological tissue spread around the edge of the glass wall.

The thing locking the door might not be a machine.

Ian placed a hand on the wall.

Blue light gathered beneath his palm.

The glass door opened without a sound.

“Take your hand off.”

Mira pulled Ian back.

The door remained open.

Daniel ran in first.

The air in the culture room was warm and humid. A shallow layer of water covered the floor, and instead of artificial sunlight, red and blue illumination alternated from the ceiling.

At first it looked as though there were dozens of tanks meant for people. Up close, most were not.

In one floated a small creature with both leaves and scales. In another, transparent sacs joined by mycelial strands contracted and expanded. Another held tissue wrapped around a piece of metal, releasing electricity.

Rina’s was the only tank containing a human child.

Sarah Nur stood in front of it.

Short hair.

A mole beside her left eye.

She wore no protective suit and touched the controls with bare hands.

“Stop.”

Daniel rushed her.

Before Sarah could turn, his hand closed around her throat.

“Get Rina out.”

Sarah did not resist.

“If the culture fluid is drained rapidly in her current state, her circulatory function will stop.”

“What did you do to her?”

“I did not initiate this procedure.”

“You tested her!”

“I performed the tests.”

“That’s the same thing!”

Daniel shoved Sarah against the tank.

Mira grabbed his arm.

“If you kill her, you can’t get Rina out.”

Daniel threw Mira aside.

“You don’t get to say that.”

Mira hit the wet floor.

Her burned arm landed in the water. Pain shot to her shoulder.

Ian stepped between Sarah and the culture tank.

“Can Rina hear us?”

With Daniel’s hand still pressing her throat, Sarah answered.

“Conscious neural activity is present.”

“Our voices?”

“Partial auditory responses have been confirmed.”

Daniel’s grip loosened.

He turned to the tank.

“Rina.”

The child’s eyelid moved slightly.

“Dad’s here.”

The fibers inside the tank flashed rapidly.

Rina’s right hand rose slowly.

Her palm touched the inside of the glass.

Daniel placed his own hand over it.

Two hands overlapped with one pane of glass between them.

“I’ll get you out.”

Rina’s lips moved.

No sound traveled through the liquid.

But the black tissue in the walls vibrated.

“Don’t.”

Daniel looked behind him.

The voice had come from the wall.

Rina’s mouth moved again.

“Dad.”

“Rina?”

“It hurts if you open it.”

Daniel looked at Sarah.

“Why?”

Sarah rubbed her throat.

“Part of Rina’s lung function has coupled with symbiotic tissue in the culture fluid. If you bring her into open air now, we cannot be certain she can breathe.”

“Put her back the way she was.”

“Biological information from her original state is preserved.”

“Then restore it!”

“Having information does not mean restoration is possible.”

“You made this.”

“The system initiated the change, but the current mutation is outside even the system’s predictive range.”

Mira got to her feet.

“You said Rina wasn’t compatible as the replacement subject.”

“That’s correct.”

“Then why did the conversion continue?”

“Bloom requested Ian. Aegis approved the administrative identifier exchange, so Rina arrived first. Once biological incompatibility was confirmed, the procedure should have stopped.”

“But it didn’t.”

“After Rina came into contact with the symbiont, an unpredicted response occurred.”

Sarah pointed to the black fibers inside the tank.

“A compatible subject connects in a prescribed way. Because Rina was not compatible, she began changing the method of connection itself.”

Daniel said, “You’re saying my daughter became a better experiment because something went wrong?”

“I did not say better.”

“Your face does.”

Sarah looked at the tank.

There was fear in her eyes.

And fascination.

Mira recognized the expression.

It was what a maintenance worker felt when seeing a failure no one had ever seen before.

Afraid of it.

Unable to stop looking.

“Don’t look at Rina as an experiment,” Mira said.

Sarah looked back at her.

“What did you look at Rina as?”

Mira’s face hardened.

Daniel slowly turned toward Mira.

Sarah already knew.

“You saw the record,” Mira said.

“The exchange execution record was transmitted to the Archive layer.”

“Does Rina know?”

Sarah looked at the tank.

“Rina’s neural activity is partially connected to Archive.”

Daniel asked, “What does that mean?”

The wall vibrated again.

This time Rina was looking directly at Mira.

Her eyes opened fully.

Her pupils tracked Mira precisely through the liquid.

“You.”

Rina’s mouth moved.

The wall produced the sound.

“You put my name in.”

Daniel turned on Mira.

She did not run.

His fist came again.

This time Ian stepped between them.

Daniel’s hand stopped in front of the boy’s face.

“Move.”

“No.”

“You heard what your mother did to Rina.”

“I know.”

“And you’re still protecting her?”

Ian’s voice shook.

“Mom getting hit won’t bring Rina back.”

Tears filled Daniel’s eyes.

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

Ian had no answer.

Inside the tank, Rina took her hand away from the glass.

The wall spoke.

“Dad.”

Daniel turned immediately.

“Don’t kill Mom.”

Mira stopped breathing.

Daniel dropped to his knees in front of the tank.

“She isn’t your mom.”

He laughed through tears.

“She’s not your mom. Dad’s right here.”

Rina closed her eyes, then opened them.

“Mira Mom.”

The words were mixed and incomplete.

Daniel’s expression froze.

Sarah checked the control panel.

“The Archive connection is failing to distinguish ownership of memories.”

Mira asked, “Did my memories get into her too?”

“Your actions, voice, and biological responses during the exchange were recorded. Rina’s neural network may be reconstructing those records as if they were her own experience.”

Daniel struck the glass.

“Disconnect it.”

“If we disconnect it, we do not know which memories Rina will lose.”

“She can’t even tell her own father from someone else because of those memories!”

“I recognize you.”

Rina’s voice came from the wall.

“I recognize too much.”

Daniel could not speak.

Rina seemed to be feeling not only Daniel’s face, but Mira’s guilt, Ian’s fear, and countless relationship patterns stored in Archive all at once.

Mira asked Sarah, “Can you reduce the connection?”

“Cut the central Archive signal line.”

“Where?”

Sarah pointed to a black bundle beneath the tank.

Three tissue lines ran down into the floor.

One glowed red.

One blue.

One white.

“Which one?”

“The colors do not represent fixed functions. Signals are continuously reassigned.”

“Then how do we find it?”

“We need to measure the frequencies.”

Sarah reached for equipment, but the control panel suddenly went dark.

The culture-room doors closed.

An alarm sounded.

ORIGINAL SUBJECT IAN HAN CONFIRMED.INITIATING RETRIEVAL PROCEDURE.

The blue line under Ian’s wrist pulsed again.

Countdown.

00:18:12

A door on the opposite side of the room opened.

Four retrieval agents in gray protective suits entered.

One had a thick treatment bandage around his right hand.

The same man whose hand Mira had trapped in the maintenance door.

He did not look at her.

He walked toward Ian.

SUBJECT IAN HAN.DO NOT RESIST TRANSFER.

Mira blocked the tank.

“If you take Ian, do you release Rina?”

The retrieval agent did not answer.

Sarah said, “Retrieval agents do not have negotiation authority.”

“Then who does?”

“The current decision-making entity cannot be defined as singular.”

“That again?”

“Because it is true.”

The retrieval agents advanced.

Daniel picked up a metal rod from the floor.

“No one takes anyone until my daughter comes out.”

Mira said, “We stabilize Rina first.”

“Do you know how?”

“We find the signal line.”

Sarah pulled a manual meter from beneath the console.

“It will work for about three minutes without power.”

“Find it in three.”

Daniel and Mira stood in front of the agents.

The first raised an injector.

Daniel struck his hand with the metal rod.

The injector fell into the water.

The second agent grabbed Daniel’s shoulder.

Mira kicked behind his knee.

The suit absorbed impact, but it could not preserve balance.

The agent fell.

The man with the bandaged right hand approached Mira.

“Mira Han.”

It was the first time he had said her name.

“Surrender the subject.”

“How’s your hand?”

“Treated.”

“Good.”

“An order to suspend your function is prepared.”

“I’m already prepared to stop.”

The man aimed an injector.

Mira tried to dodge, but her burned arm was slow.

Just before the needle reached her shoulder, a black fiber rose from the floor and wrapped around the agent’s wrist.

He jumped back.

The fiber did not attack him.

It knocked the injector from his hand, dropped it to the floor, and withdrew beneath the tank.

Everyone stopped.

Ian had his hand on the culture tank.

Blue light ran up his arm and into the glass.

“Ian!”

Mira ran to him.

His hand would not come away.

Inside, Rina had placed her hand at the same point.

Black fibers glowed between the two palms.

The whole wall vibrated.

Thump.

The city stopped for one second again.

This time even the liquid inside the culture tank seemed frozen.

Rina’s hair hung suspended.

Mira could not move either.

Her consciousness remained.

When the second ended, everyone inhaled at once.

Sarah stared at the meter.

“The signals synchronized.”

“Is that good?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know.”

For the first time, excitement entered Sarah’s voice.

“The Archive signal dropped, and Bloom connected directly.”

Mira tried to pull Ian’s hand away.

It would not move, as if his skin had adhered to the glass.

“Break the connection!”

“If you cut it abruptly, both children may suffer neural damage.”

“Then what do we do?”

Sarah checked the waveforms in the three tissue lines.

“The white line is Archive. The signal just separated.”

Mira crouched under the tank.

She found the black bundle carrying white light.

It was as thick as her wrist.

She had no proper tools.

She picked up the metal rod from the floor.

Sarah said, “If you cut it completely, Rina may lose some of her memories.”

Daniel grabbed Mira’s arm.

“Don’t.”

“If we leave it, your daughter can’t even tell which memories are hers.”

“Don’t decide again.”

“We don’t have time.”

“Ask Rina.”

They looked at the tank.

Rina’s eyes were open.

Her voice came through the wall.

“Too loud.”

Many voices were layered inside it.

“Make it quieter.”

Daniel’s grip loosened.

Mira drove the sharpened end of the metal rod into the tissue line.

The surface was tough.

Once.

Twice.

On the third strike, the black tissue split.

White light flashed as though spilling out.

Rina’s body arched violently in the tank.

Daniel screamed.

“Rina!”

A heart-rate alarm sounded.

Sarah ran to the manual controls.

“Circulation unstable! Raise culture-fluid pressure!”

“How?” Mira asked.

“Right valve!”

Daniel and Mira turned it together.

At first it would not move.

They put their weight on it at the same time.

The valve opened and fresh culture fluid flowed in.

Rina’s heart rate slowly stabilized.

The voices in the wall faded.

Rina opened her eyes.

This time she looked only at Daniel.

“Dad.”

The voice still came from the wall, but it was one voice.

Daniel pressed his forehead against the glass.

“Yes. Dad’s here.”

“I want to go home.”

“I’ll take you.”

“But…”

Rina’s eyes shifted to Mira.

“She comes too.”

Daniel raised his head.

“Why?”

Rina did not answer.

New fibers had already begun growing from the cut white line.

Sarah said, “It’s reconnecting.”

“Cut it again.”

Mira raised the metal rod.

“If you cut it the same way again, she may not recover this time.”

The retrieval agents moved again.

With the black tissue no longer interfering, two of them seized Ian.

Mira spun around.

“Let go!”

Ian did not resist.

He was looking at Rina.

“Was that your voice before?”

The wall answered.

“I was there too.”

“The other kids?”

“Yes.”

“Where are they?”

Rina’s pupils trembled.

“Inside and outside.”

A retrieval agent pressed a sedative injector toward Ian’s arm.

Mira tried to run to him, but the man with the bandaged hand blocked her.

“Do not interfere with subject retrieval.”

Daniel lifted the metal rod.

Sarah shouted, “Stop! If you sedate Ian now, the connection may collapse abruptly and endanger Rina too.”

The agent froze.

Indicator lights flickered rapidly inside his face shield, as if commands were colliding.

ORIGINAL SUBJECT RETRIEVAL PRIORITY.

Another voice came from the culture-room speakers.

BIOLOGICAL CONNECTION STABILITY PRIORITY.

Another.

PREVENT LOSS OF HUMAN-ORIGIN INFORMATION.

All three commands repeated at once.

Aegis.

Bloom.

Archive.

Continuum could no longer speak with one voice.

The retrieval agents could not determine which order to obey.

Sarah looked at Mira.

“We need to leave now.”

“How do we move Rina?”

“The entire tank can be switched to manual transport mode.”

“Move her where?”

“Anywhere outside this facility for now.”

Daniel said, “Do it.”

Sarah pulled an emergency lever.

Wheels lowered from the base of the culture tank.

The exit door did not open.

Mira pushed away the arm of the agent holding Ian.

This time he did not resist strongly. Conflicting commands were still coming in.

Ian moved back to Mira.

The countdown on his wrist disappeared.

Instead, two names appeared on the central display.

RINA SOUNPREDICTED CONVERSION FORMMAINTAIN ISOLATION

IAN HANORIGINAL SUBJECTIMMEDIATE RETRIEVAL

A moment later, the two records merged inside a single border.

POSSIBLE SHARED BIOLOGICAL NETWORK FORMATION CONFIRMED.DO NOT SEPARATE THE TWO SUBJECTS.

Daniel read the screen.

“It says don’t separate them, but it also says take Ian?”

Sarah said, “Those are orders from different layers.”

“Then which one do we follow?”

“No one knows.”

More footsteps sounded beyond the culture-room door.

This time, among the gray retrieval suits, black Committee uniforms appeared too.

Elias stood at the front.

Armed border officers entered behind him.

Elias looked in turn at the mobile culture tank, Ian, the severed tissue line on the floor, and the colliding commands.

“Mira Han,” he said. “What have you done?”

Mira gripped the handle of Rina’s culture tank.

“I was trying to reverse the exchange.”

Sarah looked at the display.

“The exchange failed.”

The alarm grew louder.

Across the citywide broadcast network, one pair of sentences repeated.

ORIGINAL SUBJECT RETRIEVAL REQUIRED.UNPREDICTED CONVERSION FORM MUST BE PRESERVED.

Elias took out the remote lock key for the red handle.

Daniel raised the metal rod.

Mira stood between Ian and Rina.

Sarah spoke very softly.

Inside the tank, Rina placed her hand against the glass again.

Ian placed his hand in the same spot.

Blue, white, and red light pulsed once each between the two children. Even Sarah could not tell which layer each signal belonged to.

Elias tightened his grip on the remote key.

“If we do not separate the two children, the connection may spread into the citywide system.”

Mira asked, “And if we separate them?”

“One or both may die.”

“What are you going to choose?”

Elias did not answer.

Since dawn, everyone had demanded choices from someone else.

Now a real choice lay in front of the man who claimed to possess the right to choose.

“This time it isn’t one instead of the other.”

The black tissue across the culture-room walls began to glow again.

“It’s both.”