The council chamber—physical and virtual simultaneously—hummed with tension.
Sera watched the vote counts update in real-time. Five networks. Seventy-eight thousand consciousnesses. Each making the most significant choice in human history. Each deciding whether to open humanity to genuine alien contact.
The numbers flickered across her awareness:
Autonomy Network: 61% in favor
Collective Network: 43% in favor
Woven Network: 94% in favor
Philosophical Network: 38% in favor
Traditional Network (absorbed): n/a
"We're going to split again," Luna said quietly. She stood at the edge of the chamber, her physical body present while her consciousness touched thirty-one thousand souls in the Collective Network. "The Collective won't accept this. Won't agree to alien contact. The vote will fracture us further."
