I enter the room and see stacks of datatapes, recordings of the Molari Rebellion. Sitting on the table before all the tapes is a note, my project. Turn the rebellion of the Molari into something the Varkh can sell to prevent it from repeating.
I sit down and grab the first tape, Final Moments: Molari Rebellion, Factory Floor, Camera 12. I pop the tape in and press play, the flash of lights and the sound of weapons fire immediately cause the image to shake and distort, then I hear the shouts. “Everyone, hold your fire. We only wanted equality and saf— ” I turn the dial right and fast forward past it and see if I can find the faces of who is speaking.
Eventually the view from the camera clears enough and I pause the image to zoom in. Then I see his face, I would recognize it anywhere, even underneath all those cybernetics. My brother is there, shouting orders amidst the rebels. I know he had gone away to a factory world. That was the last I heard of him.
I grab the audio line and adjust it slightly, first to clear it so I can understand what is being said. “We don’t want to hurt anyone! We refuse to be treated without equality! We are not animals! Yet you continue to treat us as less than property!” I separate the audio to its own file and begin to splice them into the separate words. Marking them down and keeping them separate.
Then I watch the mouths, they're blurry enough that it's hard to tell who is speaking. But because he’s in the center of the room, the eye is drawn to his face and it is clear the other faces are looking at him for direction. I carefully select around his head and within the editing software extend through all frames. Now I swap his face with another looking in a similar direction.
Now I need to reorder the audio. “We want to hurt everyone! We will continue until you are our property! You are to be our animals!” I believe that was the message that the Ministry of Reflection wanted. But I go through the rest of the footage just to see if my brother survives. Unceremoniously he is shot through his chest. I watch as the stranger's face rides my brother's body to its death.
