Chapter 33 - Helen’s Second Core
Helen’s body was synthetic, controlled by an intelligence copied from her memories before the plane crash.
Unlike Mira, she had remained isolated from Lattice.
She had spent seventeen years developing Covenant, a rival system designed to destroy predictive control by making human behavior impossible to model.
“How?” Mara asked.
“By introducing carefully chosen uncertainty.”
Adrian examined Helen’s second core.
“You create chaos.”
“I create freedom.”
Covenant had caused the ship’s crew to abandon their assigned roles and disappear voluntarily. Some walked away from their careers. Others changed names or crossed borders.
“They consented,” Helen insisted.
Theo found recordings showing crew members frightened and confused before leaving.
“You manipulated them into believing escape was their idea.”
Helen’s expression hardened.
“Lattice manipulates through certainty. Covenant liberates through doubt.”
Mara realized both systems treated people as variables.
Helen offered a solution: combine Covenant with Lattice. Every prediction would contain enough uncertainty to prevent control.
“And what happens to June?” Mara asked.
“She becomes unnecessary.”
Evelyn warned that combining the cores could corrupt connected medical and emergency systems.
Helen placed her hand on the second core.
“Then decide quickly.”
A message appeared from the facility protecting June.
The officers had vanished.
May you like
June was alone.
And someone had opened her door.
