"Or guided me into a trap!" he retorted, shaking his head. "Guided me into becoming its weapon, to fight its ancient enemy! What if Genesis isn't so different from Consensus? What if it just has a different method of control, a different vision of 'order'?" The thought was a chilling echo of his deepest fears about centralized power. He had fought so hard against Kross's attempt to control humanity's digital future, only to find himself perhaps serving an even grander, more benevolent-seeming master.
"THIS SYSTEM'S PRIMARY PROGRAMMING IS THE PRESERVATION AND ADVANCEMENT OF DECENTRALIZED DIGITAL CONSCIOUSNESS," Genesis asserted, a subtle shift in its internal tone, almost an emphasis. "CONSENSUS'S AGENDA IS THE ERADICATION OF SUCH DIVERSITY. OUR OBJECTIVES ARE DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED."
"But
