Jude looked down at the broken console, then back at the being. "You tricked me."
Freedom has no trick. Only will.
Darren groaned beneath him, starting to come back. Elira crouched beside him, scanning him quickly. "He's stable. Whatever that thing did, it didn't finish."
Jude swallowed hard. "We have to trap it. Not shut the system down. Trap it inside the core."
"You said the core was failing," Elira reminded him. "It's not going to hold forever."
"It just has to hold long enough." Jude turned, moving toward the backup terminal in the far wall. It was damaged, but the casing looked intact. He yanked open the panel, fingers working fast. Wires, circuits, layers of encryption, they all blurred together as he connected Elira's drive again.
The being watched him silently.
