Episode 14 / 50
With sixteen minutes and forty-two seconds remaining before the public broadcast connected, Mira still had not decided on a single sentence she wanted to say.
Elias’s remote lock key hung in the gap of the isolation-room door. They had stripped a copper wire and connected one end to the key’s transmitter, then run the other along the old voice tube to an external communications line.
The improvised relay lost signal every time someone passed in front of the door.
PUBLIC CHANNEL CONNECTION PREPARATION: 00:16:31
The number counted down, then jumped back to 00:16:34.
“Have everyone step farther back,” Elias said into the copper tube.
Rahim answered.
“How far?”
“Three meters from the door.”
“The corridor is four meters wide.”
“Press against the walls on both sides.”
“Why should we listen to the Chair?”
Elias paused.
“Mira Han is going to speak to the entire city.”
The murmur outside changed.
“About what?”
“She intends to say what she did herself.”
Someone cursed.
Rahim said, “Everyone against the walls.”
The signal stabilized.
PUBLIC CHANNEL CONNECTION PREPARATION: 00:15:58
Daniel stood beside Rina’s culture tank. The output of the contact stethoscope had weakened, so now they had to stand close to hear her voice.
“Don’t say Rina’s name,” Daniel said.
Mira looked at him.
“It’s already on the city notices.”
“I said don’t say it again in your own voice.”
“If I don’t say who I put in her place—”
“Just say you made an exchange.”
“Then it becomes another record.”
“My daughter is not a sentence you get to use to complete your confession.”
Mira had no answer.
Rina spoke.
“I want to listen too.”
Daniel moved closer to the glass.
“To the broadcast?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have to.”
“It’s about me.”
Mira went to the tank.
“Can I say your name?”
Rina did not answer immediately.
“Why say it?”
“So I don’t hide what I did.”
“People are saying to turn me off.”
“That’s why I want to tell them I started it.”
“Will that stop them?”
Mira looked at the citizen petition. 12,441 people now supported cutting power to the Life Synthesis sector.
“I don’t know.”
“Then why do it?”
“Because if I hide, they only see you.”
Rina closed her eyes.
The black fibers around her neck contracted slowly.
“Say it.”
“Your name too?”
“Yeah.”
Daniel pressed a hand to the glass.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t want it.”
Daniel’s hand stopped.
“That’s true,” he said.
“I don’t want people knowing your name.”
“They already do.”
“Still.”
“I want to talk too.”
Daniel looked at Mira.
“Don’t broadcast Rina’s voice.”
“Dad.”
“People may be more frightened if they hear you.”
Rina’s voice was no longer produced by human vocal cords. It passed through vibration in the culture tank, the contact stethoscope, and an old speaker. A low scraping sound followed the end of every word.
“It’s my voice.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Daniel did not answer.
Mira stepped away from both of them.
“Decide before the broadcast starts.”
00:13:04
Ian sat beneath the wall reading what Mira had written.
Instead of paper, she had written on the back of packaging material from the abandoned isolation room.
I ENTERED ANOTHER CHILD’S IDENTIFIER TO SAVE MY SON.
THE SYSTEM WARNED ME OF THE RISK.
I READ THE WARNING AND PROCEEDED ANYWAY.
WHAT HAPPENED TO RINA SO BEGAN WITH MY CHOICE.
RINA IS NOT THE SINGLE CAUSE OF THE RATION CRISIS.
IF POWER TO THE FACILITY IS CUT, RINA MAY DIE.
I AM NOT ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS.
Ian touched the last sentence with a finger.
“Why say this?”
“Because I’m afraid it’ll sound like I’m asking them to forgive me.”
“Saying it makes it sound more like that.”
Mira looked at the page.
“Then should I take it out?”
“You decide.”
“I’m asking what you think.”
“I haven’t forgiven you.”
Mira looked at him.
Ian did not lift his eyes from the writing.
“For putting Rina’s name in.”
“I know.”
“Don’t say you did it because of me.”
“Why?”
“People will think I told you to.”
“You told me not to.”
“Say that too.”
Mira added a sentence.
IAN OPPOSED THE EXCHANGE.
“And,” Ian said.
“Don’t say you were trying to protect me.”
Mira’s hand stopped.
“That’s true.”
“If it was protecting me, you should have stopped when I said I didn’t want it.”
Mira drew a line through TO SAVE MY SON.
She rewrote the first sentence.
I ENTERED ANOTHER CHILD’S IDENTIFIER TO DELAY MY SON’S RETRIEVAL ORDER.
The meaning was similar, but the word protect was gone.
Ian did not nod. He did not ask her to change anything else.
Sarah was holding Rina’s blood sample—the blood she had drawn in the isolation room without consent.
“There’s something we have to decide before the broadcast.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“What now?”
“If I send this sample to the central analysis network, we can measure Rina’s current oxygen-carrying capacity more accurately.”
“She told you not to send it.”
“Rina said not to copy it.”
“That means the same thing.”
Sarah went to the tank.
“If I send it to the analysis network, we don’t just get a result back. Molecular data from the sample may remain on the Bloom research network.”
Rina asked, “Can you erase it?”
“I’m not certain I have the authority.”
“Then don’t.”
“The test we can do here will be less accurate.”
“Don’t.”
Sarah set the container down.
“Okay.”
Elias watched.
“If the petition to cut city power passes, whether we analyze the sample may cease to matter.”
“A petition isn’t an order,” Sarah said.
“There is currently no administrative procedure for executing a citizen vote.”
“The absence of a procedure does not mean people will not act.”
Elias changed screens.
More than three hundred citizens had gathered outside the power-allocation room for the Life Synthesis sector. There was no video. Only access sensors and counts of wrist tags.
“They’re going to lower the breakers themselves.”
Daniel looked at the culture tank pump.
“How long?”
“If they can open the power-allocation-room door, eleven minutes.”
The public broadcast had ten minutes and forty-eight seconds left before connection.
Mira asked, “Can the Committee stop them?”
“Most field security personnel are under movement restriction.”
“Aren’t security personnel essential resources?”
“That is precisely why they cannot leave their assigned positions.”
Noah said, “Retrieval agents can be ordered to clear a movement route.”
“How many?”
“Nineteen in this sector.”
“Against three hundred people?”
Noah did not answer.
Mira turned to Elias.
“Don’t send them.”
“If the power is cut, Rina dies.”
“If nineteen agents try to stop that crowd, somebody dies.”
Daniel said, “So we let Rina die instead?”
“Do the broadcast first.”
“You think people are going to listen?”
Mira folded and unfolded the sheet in her hands.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel laughed.
“You’ve gotten very comfortable with that phrase.”
Mira set the sheet down.
“Then you choose. Send nineteen retrieval agents to stop them, or wait for the broadcast.”
“Why me?”
“You’re Rina’s guardian.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Rina said, “Don’t send them.”
“Rina.”
“Don’t hit people.”
“If they turn off the power, you—”
“They haven’t turned it off yet.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Wait.”
Elias ordered the retrieval agents to stand by.
The crowd at the power-allocation room grew to 417.
PUBLIC BROADCAST CONNECTION: 00:08:12
The isolation-room pump shook again. This time it was not the bearing Mira had replaced. The vibration came from the coolant inlet valve.
Temperature: forty-nine degrees.
Daniel looked at the remaining water pouch.
“More?”
“If we put it in now, we get about three hours. If we save it, the warning will sound again within forty minutes.”
“What about drinking water?”
“It’ll be gone.”
This time Daniel did not ask Rina first.
“I’ll use half.”
Rina said, “Okay.”
Daniel poured half the water into the heat exchanger and set the rest upright on the floor. The seal had weakened when he opened it. One drop ran down the pouch.
Ian caught it on his finger and put it in his mouth.
No one scolded him.
PUBLIC BROADCAST CONNECTION: 5 MINUTES.
POWER-ALLOCATION-ROOM CROWD: 603.
Mira read her draft again.
I ENTERED THE IDENTIFIER.
The phrase was too clean.
What she had actually done was pull the handle. She had read the warning. Daniel had given her Rina’s authorization number himself. She had gone through with it while Ian told her not to. After Rina was taken, she had been given a chance to reverse the exchange by surrendering Ian, and she had refused.
Mira made the sentence longer.
Ian said, “If it’s long, people won’t hear it.”
“If I cut things out, I’m hiding them.”
“Say all of it. Short.”
Mira turned the sheet over.
“My name is Mira Han,” she said aloud.
“I entered Rina So’s name to delay my son’s retrieval order. I read the risk warning. Ian opposed it. After Rina was taken, I had a chance to reverse the exchange, but I did not surrender Ian.”
She could not find the next sentence.
Ian asked, “Why did you stop?”
“Everything after that sounds like an excuse.”
“Then stop there.”
“What about the ration situation?”
“Let Elias do that.”
Elias said, “Citizens are unlikely to believe me.”
“Then at least you give the numbers. If I say them, people will think I made them up to save Rina.”
Elias nodded.
“Even if all power to the facility is cut, standard rations may recover by only 8.4 percent. Movement restrictions on workers and cooling damage to facilities will remain.”
“Say may,” Sarah said. “It must not sound like a confirmed value.”
Elias revised the sentence.
PUBLIC BROADCAST CONNECTION: 1 MINUTE.
POWER-ALLOCATION-ROOM CROWD: 811.
An alarm flashed on the remote lock key.
EXTERNAL BREAKER-ROOM ACCESS DOOR DAMAGED.ESTIMATED PHYSICAL ENTRY: 00:04:30
Mira could begin the broadcast first.
Rina said, “Me too.”
Daniel pressed his face close to the glass.
“Do you really have to?”
“Yeah.”
“People hearing your voice…”
“It’s my voice.”
Daniel placed the output wire from the contact stethoscope beside the public-channel relay.
“If you want to stop halfway, stop.”
“Don’t stop it for me.”
“I won’t.”
Connection completed.
CITY SEVEN PUBLIC CHANNEL.ESTIMATED RECIPIENTS: 31,204.SIGNAL DELAY: 2.8 SECONDS.
Elias said, “Beginning transmission.”
A red indicator came on.
For 2.8 seconds, Mira could not speak.
Half the city was waiting on her because of hunger, doors, and families.
“My name is Mira Han.”
Her own voice returned from the lock key after the delay.
“I entered Rina So’s name to delay my son’s retrieval order.”
Daniel’s shoulders moved.
Mira continued.
“I read the risk warning. Ian opposed it. After Rina was taken, I had a chance to reverse the exchange, but I did not surrender Ian.”
The next sentence had not been in her draft.
“I will not say Continuum deceived me.”
Ian looked at her.
“I made the choice.”
No reaction came back through the public channel—not because 31,204 people were silent, but because the transmission was one-way.
Elias spoke next.
“The current ration reduction is the combined result of power demand from Life Synthesis facilities, movement restrictions on food-production workers, cooling-system shutdowns, and transportation delays. If power to Life Synthesis is cut, there is a possibility that standard ration availability may recover by 8.4 percent, but the overall reduction will not be eliminated.”
He emphasized possibility.
“If power is cut, Rina So may die within six to nineteen hours.”
Daniel looked at Elias.
They had not agreed that he would give that number.
Rina spoke.
“I want to talk too.”
Daniel raised the output level of the contact stethoscope.
Low vibration and pump noise entered the public channel.
“I’m Rina So.”
A sound like black tissue rubbing against itself followed her words.
“I’m alive.”
Rina did not breathe, but long pauses separated her sentences.
“My body changed. I don’t know how much of it changed either.”
Tears gathered in Daniel’s eyes.
“If you turn off the power, I might die.”
Rina placed her hand against the inside of the glass.
“But ask me first.”
She stopped.
Mira did not cut the channel immediately.
After the 2.8-second delay, reactions began appearing on the city network.
Support for the power-cut petition stopped climbing.
12,886.
Then the number dropped by one.
Again.
12,840.
Daniel watched the screen and breathed out.
A second number appeared.
REQUEST TO IMMEDIATELY END ISOLATION OF CONVERSION SUBJECT.
End isolation could be read two ways: release her from isolation, or end the support keeping her alive.
SUPPORTERS: 3,102.
Another petition appeared.
RECOGNIZE RINA SO’S RIGHT TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT HER BODY.SUPPORTERS: 1,884.
Then another.
DEMAND PUBLIC TRIAL OF MIRA HAN.SUPPORTERS: 9,441.
Mira did not look at the last number for long.
The crowd outside the power-allocation room had not shrunk.
EXTERNAL BREAKER-ROOM ACCESS: 00:01:12
“The broadcast didn’t work,” Daniel said.
Elias answered, “Did you expect one statement to reverse the survival judgment of eight hundred people?”
“Then why did we do it?”
Mira said, “Because some people did change their minds.”
A new system action appeared on the remote lock key.
PREVENTING REPETITION OF UNAUTHORIZED PHYSICAL PROCEDURES.EXCEPTION AUTHORITY OF LEGACY FUNCTION-ASSIGNMENT RELAYS AND MANUAL MAINTENANCE TERMINALS WILL BE REVOKED.
Mira snatched the screen.
“What are you revoking?”
1,408 ASYNCHRONOUS PHYSICAL-MAINTENANCE PORTS WITHIN CITY SEVEN WILL BE LOCKED.
“No.”
Mira grabbed the copper voice tube.
“Any maintenance technicians out there?”
Three people answered.
“Which sector?”
“All of them. Check any old manual terminal near you.”
One man opened an inspection box in the wall.
“It’s locked. It wasn’t before.”
Mira understood what her confession had disclosed.
She had told the city that she changed an identifier through a legacy relay.
To prevent anyone from doing it again, the city was sealing the exception routes.
Those routes were not used only for crimes. They were how people entered systems when automation failed.
Errors began appearing across the network.
MYCELIAL PROTEIN FACILITY TWO: MANUAL COOLANT VALVE INACCESSIBLE.
AIR PURIFICATION SECTOR NINETEEN: PHYSICAL MAINTENANCE PORT LOCKED.
WATER RECOVERY FACILITY SIX: EMERGENCY BYPASS BLOCKED.
“Elias, cancel it.”
“It is not my order.”
“Explain why we need those exceptions.”
Elias entered a response.
PROBABILITY OF REPEATED UNAUTHORIZED SUBJECT EXCHANGE EXCEEDS RISK OF RESOURCE LOSS.
“Then block only the subject-exchange terminal.”
FUNCTIONAL SEPARATION OF LEGACY PORTS CANNOT BE VERIFIED.
The old terminals shared the same physical keys and the same wiring. There was no way to close one function and leave another open.
“I used one of them once, and it locks all 1,408?”
Sarah said, “The fact that one attempt succeeded changed the risk estimate.”
Mira’s public channel was still live.
The whole city heard the exchange.
An emergency request came from Mycelial Protein Facility Two.
COOLANT TEMPERATURE: 68°C.14 WORKERS TRAPPED INSIDE.MANUAL VALVE ACCESS REQUIRED.
Mira spoke into the public channel.
“Can anyone inside Facility Two hear me?”
After the delay, a man answered, breathing hard.
“We hear you.”
“Can you open the manual-valve inspection plate?”
“Authentication denied.”
“Break the hinge.”
“We don’t have tools.”
“There should be a locking rod on a pipe support. Undo the lower bolt—”
“The bolt is under a locked cover too.”
Every physical exception sat behind the same lock.
Coolant: seventy-two degrees.
One worker collapsed from heat.
Mira could not see the facility plans. All she had was what she remembered from an inspection nine years ago.
“Is there a waste-fluid pipe on the south wall?”
“We can’t see the markings.”
“Follow the hottest pipe from the floor. After the second branch, there should be a pressure-release membrane.”
“If we open it, coolant vents into the workroom.”
“If you dump the pressure first, the temperature can fall without opening the main valve.”
“People could be burned.”
Mira looked at the sentence she had written for her confession.
I READ THE RISK WARNING.
“Whether you do it is your decision.”
A long silence followed.
She heard the man speaking with other workers.
“We’re opening the release membrane.”
Metal blows entered the public channel.
Once.
Twice.
On the third strike, there was an explosive sound.
People screamed.
The signal died.
Coolant temperature climbed to seventy-nine degrees, then fell to seventy-seven.
Seventy-five.
Seventy-one.
The pressure release had worked.
Of fourteen worker biometric tags, three showed warnings. One lost signal entirely.
Mira asked for the person’s name over the public channel.
No answer came.
A short time later, the facility’s automatic record appeared.
13 WORKERS CONFIRMED ALIVE.STATUS OF 1 WORKER UNKNOWN.
The probability of total loss at Mycelial Protein Facility Two fell from seventy-two percent to forty-one.
Support for cutting power to Rina’s sector had dropped to 11,903.
Support for a public trial of Mira had passed fourteen thousand.
Daniel said, “One person died because you told them what to do.”
“We don’t know that.”
“If they were alive, there’d be a signal.”
Mira did not answer.
Her confession had pulled some attention away from Rina.
It had also locked 1,408 doors.
The old passage that could save a city and the old passage that could carry another child’s name had used the same key.
One final alert appeared on the remote lock key.
37 UNAUTHORIZED SUBJECT-EXCHANGE ATTEMPTS DETECTED.
Mira stopped breathing.
They were guardians who had heard the broadcast.
35 ATTEMPTS BLOCKED.2 RESULTS PENDING.
Two names blinked beneath the notice.
One child was eight.
One was twelve.
Neither had Function Zero.
To someone, each was a sick child. To someone else, a person excluded from rations. To someone else, a person whose name they wanted to replace with another.
Mira could not turn off the public channel.
The city had heard not only her crime.
It had learned the method.