Mass Quarantine, mass killing to maintain security – protection against dangerous ideas, dangerous truths – was the Palmyri promise of a future; order over chaos.

Hadn’t she been responsible for the wholesale slaughter on Hadhalho, at least in part, through her insistence, her ignorance? She had promised them hope, freedom – a future! Yet the result…

Now here, on Makan, Dorian kept suggesting she use her new knowledge, to make it easier to escape.

“What would make me better than them?” she argued. “I would have to kill just to confirm the theory! Then… I would have to pick more victims to ensure a proper connection.”

It was all too appalling.

You do not torture, Dorian reminded her. The implanted are not innocent, whatever their memories Althea. Their capability of human choice has been taken away. They are tools of the Macro.

Echoes of her own words.

It is not your fault, not your crime, he counseled. It was done to them by the Macro. Do you believe you can gather the necessary micronics on this world? Do you think you have the necessary tools to battle this planet’s Macro constructs to collect them?

She gritted her teeth.

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How many do you think will die in such a hunt? You must remember what happened on Ten by Four.

Oneness, she mouthed. How can they, so beautiful in their codes, so beautiful in their cores, commit such horrific acts?

She’d only wanted to help, to understand. Thus far she could feel no happiness, no satisfaction, no accomplishment; only sure, miserable anticipation of more atrocities, more death. Althea closed her eyes, picturing the beauty, the purity of the codestream, a destination now inescapable – the rush of her mind interfacing with the trinary logos of the Macro – the powerful ebb and flow of the code, back and forth, more and more powerful the deeper she penetrated its layers.

It would fill her emptiness; blot out the horror – needed to–

Althea.

–open herself to it, erase all her barriers, lose herself, becoming one with its pure being – its pure code–

Althea!

–fall into the heart of the oneness, the codestream so strong it scrubbed away any doubt any fear any pain – leaving only warmth, peace and total acceptance! She would–

Althea!! Stop!! You have to stop! You have no control over the corruption! You will destroy–

“I will– Dorian!”

She pulled her fingers away from the interface – heart pounding, chest heaving – eyes wide in horror at what she had been doing, at what she’d been compelled to do.

Althea covered her mouth with her hand, staring at the display, recognizing how close she had gotten to his raw, underlying code. So many layers of protection; and she’d erased them all. How could she have done that?

I lost it. I almost broke into his codestream. I could have destroyed him! I would have destroyed him!

She’d never… should never, ever– Althea shut down his active fields – reset the lock – curled around him, under the sheets, holding his case tight to her chest.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she repeated, mouthing the words over and over, until her voice fell below a whisper.