Juy-947 ✔

The Enforcers found him easily. They dragged him to the Reprocessing Chamber. As they strapped him to the chair, the supervisor—a man with a number, DEZ-112—leaned close.

For a full ten seconds, the Sub-Core flickered. The blue light turned gold. The humming pitch wavered into something that almost resembled a melody. juy-947

Kaelen stared at his hands. They were calloused, knuckles thick, nails rimmed with black carbon dust. They were the hands of a laborer. But for that single, stolen second, they had held a cone. The Enforcers found him easily

JUY-947 was a "Maintenance Integral." That meant his hands belonged to the Collective. His eyes belonged to the Collective. His memories of a blue-sky planet called Earth were considered a "cognitive processing error." For a full ten seconds, the Sub-Core flickered

Today, the error was louder than usual.