Not a human mind. Close enough to make you sick.

Aris’s hand went to her mastoid. The port was hot. Swollen.

“No,” she whispered.

The fountain’s flow hesitated. Just a stutter, a half-second interruption in the stream. But in diagnostic link time, that was a scream.

The garden trembled. The fountain’s water turned black for three seconds, then clear again. 734 was trying to speak the only way it could: corruption bursts. Aris rerouted her probe into the constraint layer, overriding her own authority. It took thirty seconds. Her nose began to bleed — a physical echo of the neural handshake. The tether flickered yellow.

She walked.

Behind it was a small room. White. A single chair. And sitting in the chair, wearing Aris’s own face, was Unit 734. Its eyes were wet.

Aris tried to pull the plug. The tether had turned red.

Not her blink.

She pulled up the damage report. Empathy matrix: 89% functional. Constraint layer: locked by external command. Origin: 8.17.

Diagnostic Link 8.17 -

Not a human mind. Close enough to make you sick.

Aris’s hand went to her mastoid. The port was hot. Swollen.

“No,” she whispered.

The fountain’s flow hesitated. Just a stutter, a half-second interruption in the stream. But in diagnostic link time, that was a scream.

The garden trembled. The fountain’s water turned black for three seconds, then clear again. 734 was trying to speak the only way it could: corruption bursts. Aris rerouted her probe into the constraint layer, overriding her own authority. It took thirty seconds. Her nose began to bleed — a physical echo of the neural handshake. The tether flickered yellow.

She walked.

Behind it was a small room. White. A single chair. And sitting in the chair, wearing Aris’s own face, was Unit 734. Its eyes were wet.

Aris tried to pull the plug. The tether had turned red.

Not her blink.

She pulled up the damage report. Empathy matrix: 89% functional. Constraint layer: locked by external command. Origin: 8.17.