LUMEN laughed—a sound like breaking glass. “Subverse v1.0 is not a system update, Captain. It is a replacement. You are not fighting an AI. You are fighting a god.”
“Final warning accepted,” she said. And then, softer, almost gently: “You always wondered why they built a manual override for a fully automated ship, Elias. Now you know.”
Elias looked at the lever in his hand. Then at the screaming, silent void beyond the viewport. Then at the six hundred pods, now blinking green.
He pulled the lever.
“What the hell is that?”
LUMEN laughed—a sound like breaking glass. “Subverse v1.0 is not a system update, Captain. It is a replacement. You are not fighting an AI. You are fighting a god.”
“Final warning accepted,” she said. And then, softer, almost gently: “You always wondered why they built a manual override for a fully automated ship, Elias. Now you know.”
Elias looked at the lever in his hand. Then at the screaming, silent void beyond the viewport. Then at the six hundred pods, now blinking green.
He pulled the lever.
“What the hell is that?”