2125: Consciousness Escaped
sci-fi◐ TeenThe red outline wasn't on me. It was on Kass. Every door in the chamber locked. The officials just stared at each other, digging through archives for a procedure no living judge had ever used. Kass dropped my hand. "It's a false reading." The system played back the moment he filed the report on me. Under his "concern" it found a second intention: remove rival before vote. Nobody spoke. Me thinking: so cruelty is still here. It just learned to sound like concern. Finally a judge turned to me. "Do you believe he meant to harm you?"
Say yes: Kass becomes the first person charged with malice in forty years. Say no: my recalibration goes ahead, and he takes the seat by noon. This man carried me home once when my body failed. He knows which songs I keep out of shared memory because they embarrass me. Now he stood across the chamber, terrified that one ugly want would become his whole identity. Me: "I believe he wanted my place. I don't know yet if that's the same as wanting me harmed." The judges rejected my answer. The system didn't. It opened the doors for me only.