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Quorum of Salt

sci-fi◐ Teen
5 contributors · 5 paragraphs deep

Cal searched the tank for an off-switch on the vote. He found a brass dial labeled FOUNDER'S OVERRIDE, locked behind a keypad. He had no code. But scratched into the metal beside it, in a shaky old hand, were four numbers. Someone had wanted them found.

Cal punched in the four scratched numbers. The keypad turned green. He spun the FOUNDER'S OVERRIDE dial hard, and every screen on the ship blinked the same word at once: VOID. The tally collapsed to zero. In the tank, the woman smiled in her sleep, safe for now, and Cal finally let out the breath he'd been holding for nineteen years.

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