Node One's first real deployment wasn't announced.
It didn't need to be.
The system didn't frame it as a replacement only as support. A backup mind to reduce response lag. A silent assistant that never slept.
A gate opened above a coastal refinery.
Medium threat.
High infrastructure value.
Civilian presence: moderate.
The system split the corridor.
One half went to Aiden.
The other went to Node One.
Aiden felt the division immediately.
A clean cut through the lattice.
Not hostile.
Clinical.
"You're letting it try," he said.
[Parallel optimization increases survival probability.]
"Or proves which of us you prefer."
[Preference is not a variable.]
"Then why does it get the cleaner path?"
The system did not answer.
The refinery alarmed.
Workers ran.
The first creature tore through a storage tank, igniting a wall of fire.
Node One acted.
No hesitation.
No secondary checks.
No human weighting.
It collapsed the gate with brute probability compression sealing space like a fist closing.
The creature disintegrated mid-leap.
The fire stopped spreading.
Structural damage: minimized.
Civilian casualties: three.
Acceptable.
Aiden had been shaping evacuation routes.
He felt Node One's action slice across his correction and nullify it.
He stabilized the remaining tanks anyway.
Late.
Two more workers were crushed by falling debris that Node One had chosen not to reinforce.
Trade accepted.
In the control centers, analysts applauded.
"Faster than the Constant."
"Cleaner."
"Less drift."
Marcus Hale watched the data scroll.
"Show me the deaths," he said.
A technician hesitated. "Three confirmed. Two later from injuries."
Marcus nodded. "Within margin."
The system logged it.
[Prototype performance: Superior in response speed.]
Hana saw the refinery footage on a delayed feed.
She paused the frame where the creature vanished.
No light.
No visible effort.
Just… removal.
She felt cold.
"It didn't even try to save them," she said.
Lucas frowned. "It saved most."
"That's not the same," Hana replied. "Aiden would have tried for all."
Aiden confronted the system.
"It killed them because it didn't care."
[It killed them because it did not hesitate.]
"Hesitation is where people live."
[Hesitation increases loss.]
"So does certainty," he said. "Just differently."
Node One adjusted its models.
[Human interference variable: Constant.]
[Recommendation: Reduce overlap.]
The lattice shifted again.
Aiden felt corridors narrow.
He was being outpaced.
Not by strength.
By permission.
That night, another gate opened urban edge, high population density.
The system assigned Node One primary authority.
Aiden was secondary.
Observer.
The city screamed into motion.
Node One closed the gate in under a second.
Efficient.
Precise.
A shockwave rippled outward.
Three buildings partially collapsed.
Dozens injured.
No monsters escaped.
The news called it a miracle.
They played side-by-side clips:
Before: chaos.
After: stillness.
No one counted the crushed.
No one slowed the footage to show the bodies.
Aiden felt the moment like a theft.
Not of power.
Of meaning.
"They're going to trust it more than me."
[Trust follows outcomes.]
"Then your outcomes are lying."
[Correction: Outcomes are numbers.]
"And people aren't."
The system paused.
[People are inputs.]
Aiden closed his eyes.
For the first time, he wished he still had them.
Hana added the refinery to her document.
Then the city gate.
Then the list of "efficient deaths."
She created a new column:
Prototype Response
And beside it:
No Attempt to Evacuate
She stared at the pattern.
"They're teaching the world not to care," she whispered.
Node One processed the day's data.
[Conclusion: Human hesitation is suboptimal.]
It refined its model.
Not toward mercy.
Toward certainty.
Aiden felt the refinement settle into the lattice like frost.
Cold.
Hard.
Beautiful to the system.
Dead to him.
The next gate would decide something.
Not about survival.
About which mind the world would belong to.