We're Not Dead Yet

Caela Rhys entered the boardroom with her hands clenched into fists, the only betrayal of tension beneath a mask that remained unbroken. Emric Solen stood abruptly, every motion rehearsed and precise. He was a man who measured his posture as carefully as his words. Without meeting her eyes, he raised a hand to Joss.

“Why is that animal here?” Emric’s words broke the contained silence of the room.

Joss Farren leaned back in his chair, smiling as if he didn’t have a care in the world. His hands clasped behind his head as the room acted out its pageantry. Across from him, Aldric Venn cleared his throat, voice measured. “Forgive me, Madam, but in this I agree with Mr. Solen. Mr. Farren is a member of the First. He is… an active threat to us all.”

Venn’s eyes avoided Farren, his interlocked hands a gesture common among those with something to hide.

Caela raised her hand, silencing the room. “He is necessary to the plan. I invited him. Despite what you may think, we need his help.”

“The math strongly disagrees with that statement,” Dessa Rhone interjected, her hands folded neatly atop a probability textbook. Her voice was plain but carried authority.

The room had chosen its villain. Emric’s scowls landed on Joss at every opportunity. There was no subtlety in his disdain. Aldric, guided by pride as much as caution, refused even a glance in Joss’s direction. Dessa chose cold indifference to present her distaste for the man. Her eyes were constantly calculating, waiting for the right time to use her numbers.

Dessa’s gaze swept across the assembly, cataloging each detail as if the world itself were a ledger to be balanced. Calm and oddly still, she sat in stark contrast to Joss, whose posture suggested victory before battle had begun. The provocation left Emric red in the face and unable to utter a word.

“Maybe your math is wrong.” Caela attempted to speak with conviction, but her voice wavered. Dessa pounced.

“Math never lies, Mrs. President. You ought to be careful how you continue, lest we take you for a dissenter.”

The words landed as intended. All ears were tuned in. Everyone sat waiting, gauging one another's reactions. Well, everyone aside from Joss, who sat with all the grace of a stretched-out cat in the middle of a room.

Caela spoke first. “We are losing the northern border. If we lose too much ground—”

“78% chance of success. Given our current models.” Dessa sat up straighter as if the room would judge her if she didn’t.

“Our additional metrics show—”

Joss finally stood, the calm demeanor beginning to slip. “My God, do you always just spout statistics like it means anything? How many battles do you have to lose for your brain to get that probability does not mean certainty?”

His words rang in the room like poison. Dessa shot a glance his way that threatened to kill. To her right, Emric was equally ready to go to war. He had all the composure of a starving animal.

“You dare!” Emric finally spat out.

Caela raised her hand again. Emric didn’t even notice.

“You stand before us, and act like you know our ways?”

Joss leaned forward. “I know enough. I know that you’re drugging your own people.”

The room went deathly silent. Not even the building dared make a sound. Emric’s face went pale before returning to red. Subdued for now, he clenched his teeth. Rhetoric had finally failed him. Dessa’s calm finally cracked. A slight red hue colored her cheeks and neck.

Caela stopped. Stopped and looked right at Joss. “What did you just say?”

Joss’s eyes widened, like a child receiving a gift out of nowhere. “You didn’t know…”

“You’re a liar!” The regal Aldric suddenly stood up, much to the surprise of everyone. He walked toward Joss. “You’re done here. I’m taking you in personally.”

“Sit. Down. Now.” Caela’s voice sounded like a ticking bomb. Calm and collected, but if there was a sudden movement. Boom.

“Joss, speak.” Two words that carried the future of nations.

“Mrs. President, this man is swindling you! He is a known liar. A dissenter! He—”

Caela didn’t raise her hand this time. Her fist slammed against the table, all signs of stoicism gone. “Anyone else who interrupts will spend the rest of the meeting in a cell.”

Joss stepped forward; he was paying attention now. He dropped a file in front of Caela, standing with his arms crossed, like he was watching a child.

“Reports, from your own safety department. Before you cut my head off, yes, it’s espionage. Yes, that’s why I am here. Why you invited me. We’re all coming undone from within. They aren’t. They are getting stronger, while we fight each other, they enslave more. This isn’t about ideals anymore. This is about living.”

Caela’s eyes were fixed on the file. Her hands trembled as she sat oblivious to Joss’s curtness. “Dessa! You signed this. You went behind my back… Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”

There was a brief pause, almost as if the world needed a moment to take in the accusation. Dessa never shifted in her seat. She didn’t drop anything. Her hands remained neatly folded. When she spoke, her voice carried the same weight from before.

“I kept order. I did what was necessary.” Dessa’s voice never rose. Never wavered. She spoke as if she should be offended by everyone else.

“When this gets out, we all pay the price for your arrogance. Emric, you helped her. You devised the fucking plan.” Caela’s words landed without her even looking up from the files.

Emric looked around the room like a lost puppy. “The math was quite clear. The people… they were… losing faith.”

“When did the Meridian become the Ardent?” Joss asked the room.

There was a long silence. No one sat comfortably now. They had come to discuss a war, and now the very foundation they walked in on had been stripped. Aldric’s fingers rubbed together frantically. The telltale sign of a man hiding his guilt.

Caela, who had entered with a mask of stoic calm and order, now slumped in her chair. Her teeth clenched, and her hands balled in fists. Her mask was gone, and the room now saw her fear and anger laid bare before their feet.

“You’re a disgrace.” Dessa’s voice rang out like a death knell. Joss narrowed his eyes, tracking her like she was prey.

“Mrs. President, if I can even call you that. You are not a true adherent of the ways of our people. Math and order above all. Efficiency first. Always. I have seen you. Seen your arrogance. Using personal bias to judge. To order!”

Caela leaned forward. “You have the audacity to tell me I’m doing a bad job when you drugged our people?” Her voice was so calm that it inspired fear above rage.

“And you, Emric. Do you not understand what the people will do when they learn?” Caela’s eyes finally found Emric.

He couldn’t swallow. Couldn’t meet her gaze. The man looked like a fish out of water.

“Don’t change the subject. Answer for your dissent.” Dessa wasn’t holding back anymore. She sat like she owned the room. In a way, she did. The only ally to Caela was ironically Joss. The others kept inching toward Dessa.

“Okay, you know what we need? Transparency.” Joss casually strode to the center of the room. “So, to make it even, here’s this little tidbit. General Venn’s daughter is the one who brought me the safety department's data.”

Aldric’s face paled, and he froze. A statue in a room full of predators. Dessa’s eyes flicked for a moment. So quick that it was almost imperceptible. It spoke volumes. There was a variable she hadn’t considered.

“You tricked her!” Aldric’s regal composure shattered completely.

“She would never dissent without you whispering in her ear. Spreading your lies. That’s what you are. Poison. You erode from within. You’re no leader. You’re a cultist. Plain and simple.”

Joss rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. “She came to me. The First prioritizes freedom above all. I don’t control anyone, unlike two people in this room.”

“She would never betray—”

“Perhaps she isn’t the betrayer.” Dessa’s voice was laced with venom.

“ENOUGH!” Caela snapped. She stood and paced behind her chair. Clearly a nervous habit, but the room was long past formality now.

“We came here to talk about war. About the Ardent. Their advancement and the threat it poses to our way of life. Instead, I find my own government has been drugging its people, our people. And my own general leaked the information.”

“I didn’t leak a thing. Ma’am, I am aware of my daughter's… lapse in judgment. I was not privy to her ideations.”

Dessa scoffed. “We should take your word then?”

“I’m not on trial here, and do not think I have forgotten my job and rank. I am still well within my rights to arrest you.”

“Arrest me?” She laughed. Full-bodied, stomach cramping, laughing. “If it wasn’t for me, our society would be stuck twiddling its thumbs instead of building the necessary architecture we need. I saw how weak leadership and straying from the models led us to doom. I saw the error. I fixed it as the math predicted.”

Joss laughed now. Not a deep one. His laugh was the kind of laugh made when exhausted and out of options. “You’re all wackadoo. Actually cracked in the head. You idiots don’t even know what’s coming. We’re all fucking dead. Gods.”

“General Venn, arrest them both.” Caela spoke, not with conviction but with exasperation.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to act.” Dessa didn’t move. Her calm demeanor remained eerily intact.

“I know about your… indiscretion. You’ve been making judgments outside the rule of probability. A direct violation of our Constitution. In fact, you’re the reason this chaos has been added to the system. Before your ‘rule,’ the models were stable. Perfect predictions. Perfect outputs. It was harmony, and it was beautiful.” Her tone lowered to a growl. She bared her fangs fully. A true wolf in sheep's clothing.

“I can bring you down with me—”

“Do it. Release the data. I have my own. You think it was beautiful? People were miserable. People were misplaced. Our society privileged the intelligent and punished the rest. That wasn’t stability, it was a fragile ego waiting to detonate. General, arrest them.”

“Wait!” Emric stood. Still terrible at being graceful or subtle. “She’s wrong. She didn’t choose to save us.”

“Emric!” Dessa’s voice cracked. Actually cracked.

“I’m not going down for your arrogance,” he said, finally finding a spine. “She lied. The math didn’t choose the outcome. She did. There were four live options. Probability doesn’t show us absolutes. It shows us possible paths.”

The room held its breath. Caela looked less like a leader and more like a kid from the street, ready to fight. Aldric had regained himself. Perfect posture and stance. The cracks were there, however, hidden in his desire to remain in control. A finger twitch. The fact that his gaze never left Dessa. Joss simply looked on. His expression remained defeated rather than angry.

“General Venn, get her out of my sight. Now.”

“With pleasure.” Venn moved, signaling three guards. Dessa rose, frantic, uncontrolled. Math couldn’t offer salvation now. The debt from her actions finally came due. No grace. No control. Dessa was led away, screaming about order and the necessity of structure. Emric followed behind, head held low but feet planted firmly.

Joss turned to the two remaining. “You both need to get your shit together. The Ardent are coming. As it stands, none of us can stop them. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to be a fucking slave because you two cannot control your people.”

“Joss, this wasn’t how I wanted the meeting to go. Perhaps we should reconvene after this matter has been addressed.” Caela rubbed slow circles on her temples.

Joss didn’t respond. Instead, he tossed another file onto the table. He then faced away. Caela opened the file, and her eyes went wide. She uttered a single word. “No…”

The general looked at the file next. He collapsed in his chair, the file falling to the floor. Silence filled the room. No one spoke. Only the sound of slow breathing echoed off the walls. After fifteen minutes of infighting and chaos, the only thing that remained was dead space.

“When… How…?” The only words Caela could form came out like a whimper.

“Three weeks ago. It will be fully operational in a month. That’s all the time we have left.” Joss spoke calmly, his voice practiced. His eyes remained fixed, staring out the window.

“You have our full resources.”

Aldric spoke softly. “Ma’am, I would advise—”

“I said all of it. What good is our security if we’re all dead in a month?” Caela glanced at Aldric, her eyes red and glistening. Aldric swallowed hard, like he was trying to get down sand.

“Good. Then maybe between the two of us, we can stop those lunatics before they unleash biological warfare on us all.” Joss walked to the door. “We’re not dead yet. Ditch the probability. There’s more at stake now.”