Chapter 189

Chapter 189 KAELOS The news spread faster than I'd anticipated. Within six hours of River's successful procedure, every Collective enclave on the planet knew what had happened. Within twelve hours, the requests started coming in. Enhanced individuals experiencing burnout, degradation, isolation—all asking the same question: Could we have what River has? I stood in the Council chamber, watching the message queue scroll past on the holographic display. Hundreds of requests. Thousands. Each one a life hanging in the balance, a consciousness slowly fracturing. "We can't possibly handle this volume," Torres said, her practical nature asserting itself. "We have one medical bay, one Elena, one successful case study. We need time to—" "They don't have time," I interrupted. "River had days. How many of these people have hours?" Seraphina stood beside me, her field carrying the weight of impossible choices. "Kaelos, Torres is right. If we rush this, if we try to scale up too quickly, we'll make