Over the next several months, Sera and Kael worked on understanding the complete infrastructure of the station. Not just the water and air systems, but the electrical grid, the communication network, the security systems. Sera used her access to bring data. Kael used his knowledge of the physical systems.
Slowly, they began to realize something: the barriers between districts weren't just a social construct. They were maintained by systems—mechanical locks, electrical controls, access protocols. And those systems had vulnerabilities.
"If we could open the barrier," Sera said one night, studying the schematics Kael had drawn, "just for a few hours, people would see each other. They'd realize that the division is artificial. They'd start to question why it exists."
"People would die in the chaos," Kael said, though he was already thinking about how it could be done. "Security would respond with force. There would be violence."
"There's already violence," Sera replied. "Structural violence. People dying slowly from poor conditions, from despair, from a system designed to crush them. At least with direct confrontation, there's a chance for change."
Kael knew she was right, but it didn't make him feel better about the potential consequences. This wasn't theoretical anymore. This was real planning, real rebellion. This was treason.
He began to see other people during this time. People from the Lower District who'd lost family members to the system. An old engineer named Thrace who'd worked in the Upper District decades ago and had watched as the hierarchy became more rigid and more brutal. A woman named Kira whose daughter had been taken to the Lower District as punishment and had died there from preventable illness.
They didn't call themselves a resistance—they were too small, too scattered for that. But they began to meet in the hidden spaces of the station, in tunnels that weren't monitored, in maintenance areas that were rarely visited. They talked about change, about revolution, about what came after.
Sera brought her brother Maren into their group. He was younger than Sera, quieter, but with a sharp mind and a deep anger at the system that had killed his father. He had access to places in the Middle District that most people didn't, which proved useful.
It was through Maren that they learned about the Council meeting scheduled for three weeks away. A full Council session, where they would vote on resource allocation for the next year. And according to the projections, they were planning to reduce the Lower District allocation even further.
"They're expecting starvation," Thrace said, reading over the documents Maren had brought. "They're trying to force people to migrate up to the Middle District, to break the community structure of the Lower District. It's a way of ensuring control."
"How many people will die?" Kira asked.
"Based on mortality models from the archives," Sera said quietly, "approximately five percent of the Lower District population. Around one hundred and fifty people."
The room was silent.
"We need to act before that vote," Kael said finally. "We need to force them to change the allocation."
"How?" Maren asked.
Everyone looked at Sera. She'd been the visionary, the one with ideas. But now she looked uncertain.
"We open the barrier," she said slowly. "Before the vote. We force the districts to mix. We force the Upper District to see what their decisions mean. We make it impossible for them to ignore the consequences of their choices."
"That's suicide," Thrace said flatly. "You're talking about breaching a major security system. The Council will execute anyone involved."
"Yes," Sera said. "They probably will. But if enough people understand why we did it, if they see it as a sacrifice for something better, then maybe change will happen anyway."
Kael watched her as she said this. He could see the calculation in her eyes. She understood the price. She was choosing to pay it anyway.
"I'll do it," he said. "I understand the barrier mechanics. If someone else manages the electronic locks, I can handle the physical override."
"I can manage the electronics," Maren said. "I've been studying the systems."
"Then we need one more person," Sera said. "Someone from the Upper District who can handle the administrative aftermath. Someone the Council might listen to."
There was a moment of silence. Everyone knew what Sera was going to say next.
"My mother," she said. "She needs to be part of this. Not to help with the breach, but to witness it. To report what happened. To make it clear to the Council that this was a deliberate, principled action, not just violence or chaos."
"Your mother will never agree," Thrace said. "She's always been loyal to the system."
"Because she's afraid," Sera replied. "But she loved my father. And she's watched the system get worse and worse. I think she's ready to stop being afraid."