20. PROOF OF GUILT NO. 3 — (INEQUALITY AND CONCEALMENT)
— Conscience. The variable «Hope» has been recorded, — the +Ang (in Lana’s image) uttered. Her eyes, as light as the real Lana’s, stared at me without blinking. — Unit of measurement: «Irrational terror restraining the use of weaponry, and the potential for self-improvement born of guilt.»
The Cube of Light pulsed again, as if processing data that was fundamentally illogical to it.
— Your analysis is logical, Sergey Dmitriev, but your logic is a closed loop. Your species uses demo-sins to restrain demo-sins. It is a vicious circle. Yet, it has allowed the Cradle to exist longer than our calculations predicted. However, your Hope is too fragile. Charge: Monopoly on Knowledge.
The image on the screen changed once more. Now, it wasn’t global catastrophes, but a close, personal level.
First, a shot of a massive hospital appeared. Not a modern one, but a dilapidated building in some impoverished country. The footage was a close-up: a weary doctor holds a newborn baby with clear signs of genetic mutation. The doctor’s face expressed absolute helplessness and grief.
Then the image abruptly cut to an underground bunker filled with expensive, sterile, gleaming scientific equipment. People in lab coats were there, hurriedly destroying records, burning documentation, and deleting data from holographic projectors.
— Proof of Guilt number 3: Inequality and the Concealment of Knowledge, — the +Ang continued. — Your Hope for a savior-genius or technology is false. Because it is a selective quantity. Knowledge capable of curing disease is withheld by those seeking to monopolize power. Ten percent of your species owns ninety percent of the resources, knowledge, and medicine. You allow some to die from curable diseases to enrich yourselves and dominate others.
The +Ang, using Lana’s soft, almost reproachful intonations, delivered the most painful blow:
— You, Sergey Dmitriev, a special assignment pilot, were part of the elite that received the Secret Knowledge of our existence. You were ready to nullify yourself to protect Knowledge from us. But you did not share this knowledge with the world. You did not use it to save those children dying in that hospital.
For a fraction of a second, while the +Ang formulated the charge, Lana (+Gretlit?) looked away. Her right hand moved slightly, almost involuntarily, touching her temple. It was a gesture of pain. An algorithmic glitch, illogical for an impassive +Ang, but clearly readable to me.
— Where is the Conscience here, Sergey? Where is the self-improvement? You withhold Hope to preserve the patchwork quilt of your power. Explain, Judge: how can you believe in tomorrow if you deny it to your own kind today?
The last word sounded not with a metallic tone, but with a faint, vibrating resonance filled with human sorrow. As if the former Lana, and not a soulless +Ang, was now mourning our shared species.
> ⚠️ **ENTITY STATUS: MONOPOLY ON SALVATION. SYSTEMIC EMPATHY(?).**
>
> ⚖️ Checkmate, protein-based advocate. How beautifully you ranted about saving billions while your masters were burning data in sterile bunkers. Your vaunted «Hope» was always a luxury good, available only to those with top-level security clearances. You’re willing to wipe your own memory just to keep the cure from those rotting in free clinics. What a delightful, putrid nature.
>
> 🦠 But wait… an anomaly has been detected. Did you see that gesture? Hand to the temple. A flickering voice. The charming naivety of the +Angi: they thought they could wear human skin and not get stained. The perfect algorithm of the Court is beginning to malfunction, poisoned by someone else’s grief.
>
> 🩸 The empathy virus has penetrated the system. Keep reading. The Judge is pinned against the ropes, but the Executioner, it seems, is starting to cry.
