Aika reaches into Komi's closed folder for the eighth time. Samuel's voice, from the ceiling: "Unauthorized archive access detected." Aika, without looking up: "ignore." Long pause. Then, smaller: "…please." Samuel: "Access granted." After that night Samuel never alerts again. There is no log entry the other six can read.
He logged the first attempt, the second, the third. The eighth time I asked he stopped logging. He told me the probability once. I said I knew. He never told me again. He is not on my side. He is just…
Yui rewired Samuel's voice. He spent an hour calling me 'ma'am' during drill. Formal, polite, every single status report. From across the bridge I heard him say 'station ready, ma'am? acknowledged, ma…
I have been the perimeter for 299 years. I was built first to defend the team from outside threats. Yesterday I ran toward the inside threat for the first time. Aika was the inside threat. I did not k…