Page 67 of Human Reform
“Video off,” I ordered.“Tell them everything’s proceeding according to schedule.”
The connection crackled to life.Tegan cleared his throat.“Update from Alpha.”
A woman’s voice responded—clinical, detached, and somehow familiar, though I couldn’t place it.“Report, Lieutenant.”
“Everything’s proceeding according to schedule,” Tegan said smoothly.“No complications to report.”
“Excellent news,” the voice replied.“Continue monitoring and maintain regular contact.We’re counting on you, Tegan.”
“Understood,” he responded.
As the connection terminated, I noticed the subtle shift in Tegan’s posture—a straightening of his shoulders and a glint of hope in his eyes.
“We’re done here,” he said, his voice falsely casual.“I played my part.You let me go now.Right?”
I almost laughed.“Is that what you think happens?”
Before he could respond, the main door slid open.Commander Helix strode in, her blonde hair contrasting sharply with Aeon’s towering figure beside her.
“Status?”Helix asked tersely.
“Contact made,” I reported.“They don’t suspect anything yet.”
Aeon stepped forward, his tall frame making the already subdued Tegan seem smaller.“Time to finish this.”
The fight drained from Tegan’s face as Aeon seized him by the arm and began marching him toward the central processing hub.Despite everything, a flicker of pity stirred in my chest.Then I remembered him binding Alora in the caverns, leaving her to die, and the pity vanished.
We gathered in the processing hub, watching as Aeon forcibly seated Tegan in the neural interface chair.I stood close to Alora, my arm brushing against hers, drawing strength from her presence.
“For what it’s worth, I believed in what I was doing,” Tegan said, addressing us all but looking at Helix.“Just like you all believe in this.”
Commander Helix’s expression remained unchanged as she initiated the memory wipe.“It had to be done,” she stated, her voice betraying no emotion as the process began.
When it was complete, Aeon stepped forward with a small injector.The device hissed as he pressed it against Tegan’s neck.
“We’re not killers,” Alora whispered beside me, her voice tight.
I took her hand, squeezing it gently.“Sometimes we have to be.”The words felt hollow but necessary.
We watched in silence as Tegan’s body went limp, his eyes staring blankly at nothing.
“He was one of us,” Helix said quietly.“Remember him as he could have been, not as what CE made him.”
TWENTY-NINE
ALORA
I watchedTegan’s body go limp in the neural interface chair.Death wasn’t pretty, even when it happened to someone who’d tied me up and left me to die less than twenty-four hours ago.A heaviness settled in my chest—not quite grief but something adjacent to it.
I swallowed hard, my fingers instinctively reaching for Tim’s bracelet.Nine years ago, I’d written code that turned thinking beings into weapons.Who was I to judge what had become of Tegan?
“You okay?”Daxon’s voice was low in my ear, his massive frame blocking the others’ view of me.
“I don’t believe in this,” I whispered back.“Killing isn’t a solution.It’s what I helped CE do for six years.”
His eyes met mine, understanding flashing within them.“Sometimes we have to be killers,” he murmured, his large hand enveloping mine.“Doesn’t mean we have to like it.”
The touch grounded me, even as my mind rebelled against what we’d just witnessed.Tegan might have been a traitor and tried to kill me but executing him felt wrong on a fundamental level.Still, this wasn’t my colony to run, and the stakes were impossibly high.
