Trevor tapped his fingers on the metal tabletop. The room was too quiet, the kind of quiet that made Jamaal's shoulders stiffen.

  "I need to tell you now," Trevor said, "that our conversation is being recorded and monitored."

  Jamaal shifted in his seat.

  "Including your union representative, Ms. Kysliac," Trevor added. "So you needn't worry."

  Easy for you to say, Jamaal thought.

  "This concerns the death of your brother, Tyrone Singh."

  Jamaal rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.

  "Again? We went over this a hundred times during the court-martial."

  "I understand this can be upsetting," Trevor said, his tone flat. "But there are still some unresolved details - both before and after the incident. We'd like your perspective."

  Jamaal kept his eyes on the dark screen behind Trevor. He didn't want to look at Jenna, who was tapping on her tablet like she was logging every breath he took.

  "First," Trevor continued, "what can you tell us about your brother's memory project?"

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  Jamaal let out a sigh. His voice came out low.

  "Not much. I'm no computer expert. And definitely not a neurologist."

  "Still. Anything you can remember could help us locate it."

  Jamaal leaned back, arms crossed.

  "Ty always loved cutting-edge tech. Especially brain-computer stuff. He used to go on about how the brain was the ultimate hard drive -massive capacity, insane processing power. When some neuro-scanning SDK dropped, he basically disappeared into it for days. Burned all his R&E just to nerd out."

  A small smile flickered at the corner of Jamaal's mouth -gone as quickly as it came.

  "He even built a scanner. Like, from scratch. Started digitizing his... hippocampus, I think? Said it was the memory center. But the data size was ridiculous. The captain kept complaining about storage, but Ty always found a way to compress it."

  Jamaal looked down at his hands. His voice was quieter now.

  "I really don't know what else to say. Please understand -this is traumatic. I've been through hell and back. I'm still recovering."

  He took a breath.

  "I stand by my sworn testimony. And I won't recount it here. Not again. I think I can do that, right?"

  Trevor said nothing. He glanced at Jenna's tablet -Jamaal could tell they were getting instructions from someone else. Maybe from the people listening in.

  After a pause, Trevor nodded.

  "All right. We'll add your statement to the official record."

  His face hardened.

  "Did you know Tyrone was still linked to the memory project through a neuro-implant... even at his time of death?"

  Jamaal froze.

  He hadn't known that.