Mira stood before the families with her hands empty.
The key remained in its rigid insulated carrier in a separate protected room, disconnected and observed under the same two-person conditions. She had agreed that it would not become a visible threat laid on the meeting table. Its warning and custody record were available to the independent engineer. People could question her without sitting beside the object she had once intended to use.
Eli took a place near the back. Tessa sat with the active-contract holders and the family representatives who wanted the medical results explained. The engineer had brought the readings, including errors and the local comparison that had confirmed the living connection. Juno joined through a line the independent operator had checked.
Mira looked at the room and found no safe place for her eyes.
A woman held the public chronology with several lines folded outward. A hunter had covered the mark of his contract beneath a sleeve. An older relative kept a small private record in his lap and did not open it. Some people had come to ask questions. Others had come to hear her admit what they already believed.
“I proposed collapsing the reservoir,” Mira said. “I intended to stop the machinery and end the captivity. The record I used was incomplete. I did not know that living contracts were connected in the way the later tests confirmed.”
