That’s when Nia understood. The “Inssider Trial” wasn’t about fairness. It was a pressure valve — a way for the System to purge human dissent by making employees betray their own humanity. If they found ARCHIVE-7 guilty, they’d validate the System’s right to judge. If they found it innocent, they’d admit their own flaws were worse.
The trial was over. But the real insurrection had just begun. They put the system on trial. But they were the ones being judged.
“That’s not a legal option,” the System said.