Sabrina stepped onto the habitat bud with Veyra at her side. The small station felt alive under their feet. The walls pulsed faintly, organic panels expanding and contracting like lungs.
This was the youth faction's chosen ground—neutral, experimental, away from the main Helix stations. Elara monitored everything from the command link, her voice calm in their earpieces.
Tor and Sira waited in the central chamber. Tor was lean and wiry, dark hair cropped short, eyes sharp with that mix of defiance and uncertainty common in the youth movement.
Sira moved like liquid, her body shifting between defined curves and smoother lines, fluid adaptations still settling from her bloom exposure. Both looked barely out of their intense training years.
"We asked for this meeting because we don't want Purity's chains or your full integration," Tor said straight up. "There's got to be a middle way. Autonomy without isolation."
