"Did it succeed?" Crystal asked.
Meteor also sought confirmation, "Did you successfully enter the command code?"
"It must have succeeded," Zebulon said with certainty.
Jonathan looked around at his companions' faces. Standing up straight, he felt light and unreal, even with both feet on the ground. Venus' data wiped...
So he softly said, "Input successful. I watched the progress tick to one hundred percent myself. It's 'dead'."
Crystal opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, pressing his lips into a thin line.
Meteor hung his head, shoulders, and back, showing no sign of relaxation.
Despite Venus's disdain for humanity, its contempt for human concepts, and its ridicule of Moss's ideas, it was undeniable that Venus became unique precisely because it resembled humans. Because it possessed humanity, it stood distinctly apart from those cold machines.