Chapter 7 - THE PILOT IN THE BACK ROW
Captain Hannah Price stood near the back of the hangar.
I recognized her name from Thorne’s file before I recognized her face.
She had once been considered one of the strongest candidates in the program. After failing Archangel, she was reassigned to administrative flight planning.
Thorne said she froze under pressure.
The preserved simulation showed otherwise.
During her evaluation, a simulated commander ordered her to fire on a target located beside a civilian evacuation route. The intelligence was incomplete.
Price delayed the strike and requested confirmation.
The target later proved hostile, but the civilian risk was real.
Thorne marked her hesitation as mission failure.
He then removed the final scenario branch showing that immediate compliance would have caused unacceptable losses.
Price had spent fourteen months believing the machine exposed her as weak.
She stepped toward the screen.
“Can you restore the original run?”
“Yes,” I said.
Thorne turned on her.
“Captain, do not involve yourself.”
For the first time, she did not lower her eyes.
“I’m already involved.”
General Cross ordered the operator to load the protected copy.
The hangar watched Price’s original decision path play across the gold display.
She had preserved the evacuation route.
Identified a second hostile vehicle.
Completed the objective seven minutes later without civilian casualties.
Her raw integrity score was among the highest in the program.
Thorne had changed it to a failure.
Price stared at the number until her eyes filled.
Not because a score defined her.
Because someone had taken fourteen months of her life and replaced the truth with shame.
“How many?” she asked.
The system displayed seven altered failures and eleven manipulated promotion scores.
Eighteen careers.
Some damaged.
Some advanced unfairly.
May you like
Every person in the hangar understood then that the file was not only about corruption.
It was about human time stolen by a man who enjoyed deciding who appeared worthy.
