Kael’s voice lowers. “Say it.”
“They staged it,” I snap, heat rising in my chest. “They embedded your signature before the explosion, routed the file through a private server, then released it as confirmation.”
“And you extracted me,” Kael says.
The words hit like a second blast.
My hands still.
“Yes,” I whisper.
I replay the broadcast in my mind. My face on the screen. Collaborator. Terrorist extraction.
“They framed you as a lone extremist,” I say slowly, the pieces sliding into place. “Then I rerouted you. I fled with you.”
Varek folds his arms across his chest. “You fear you validated the narrative.”
“I did more than validate it,” I say, turning to face them fully. “I cemented it.”
The guilt hits hard enough to make my knees weak.
“They can spin this,” I continue, pacing once across the deck. “They’ll say the evidence was real, and I panicked because I knew it was real. That I helped my co-conspirator escape justice.”
The word co-conspirator tastes bitter.
Kael watches me without flinching.
“You prevented immediate execution,” he says.
“And handed them propaganda,” I fire back.
His jaw tightens slightly, but his voice remains even. “You did not know the full scope.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I snap. “Intent doesn’t matter. Optics matter.”
The cruiser shudders faintly as it adjusts trajectory around a minor debris field. The vibration runs through my feet, grounding me just enough to keep from spiraling.
I turn back to the console and pull up the timestamp discrepancy again.
“They were ready,” I say, staring at the offset. “Fleet mobilization hit ninety percent inside two hours. That’s not reaction time. That’s staging.”
“Yes,” Kael replies.
“They didn’t need broad war immediately,” I continue. “They needed you removed cleanly. Quietly. Under legal cover.”
“And if I died under terrorism designation,” he says calmly, “my clan fractures.”
“Reform collapses,” I add.
“Yes.”
“And Alliance hardliners get their martyr narrative.”
“Yes.”
I press my palm flat against the console, grounding myself against the cold metal.
“I thought this was species hatred,” I admit quietly. “I thought someone wanted to ignite war.”
