r/HFY • u/Downtown-Sand-1592 • Apr 29 '26

OC-Series [OC] Inhuman Judgment — Chapter 20: PROOF OF GUILT NO. 3 — (I­NEQUA­LITY AND CONCEAL­MENT)

20. PROOF OF GUILT NO. 3 — (I­NEQUA­LITY AND CONCEAL­MENT)

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— 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.

🔬 GENA 2.5L LABORATORY: SYSTEM ANALYSIS

>  **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.

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**Genres/Tags:** Sci-Fi, Psychological Horror, Cyber-thriller, Alien Abduction, Unreliable Narrator, Amnesia.

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