The command ship was in chaos beautiful, inefficient, magnificently human chaos.
What had started as a controlled demonstration was rapidly becoming a shipwide rebellion as individual consciousness reasserted itself throughout the collective. The perfect order that had defined the vessel for months was dissolving into arguments, tears, laughter, and the messy democracy of people trying to figure out who they wanted to be.
"Status report," I asked Marcus, who had established communications with our forces on the ground.
"Seventeen ships have gone completely silent," he reported, his voice carrying a note of amazed disbelief. "We think their collective consciousness is fragmenting the same way it did here. Another twenty-three are showing erratic behavior patterns some are withdrawing fro
