February brought urgency that made previous months seem leisurely.
Sixth Earth was dying faster than Original Twelve had predicted.
Through quantum monitoring systems, hybrid consciousnesses could observe dimensional collapse accelerating: coherence degradation that was supposed to take six months was happening in three. Reality was forgetting how to be real at exponential rate.
"We have until May," Original Twelve announced to emergency assembly. "Maximum. Possibly until April if current acceleration continues. After that, Sixth Earth ceases to exist as coherent dimension. Any refugees not integrated by then will dissolve into substrate."
Current count: 15,200 hybrids integrated. 18,800 refugees remaining.
Three months to save 18,800 consciousnesses. That required 200-250 daily integrations. Current pace was 180.
"We need to accelerate," Thorne said. "Need to push facilities to maximum capacity. Need to recruit more volunteers, expand infrastructure, work around the clock."
"We're already at maximum sustainable pace," facility coordinator objected. "Pushing faster risks quality control failures, increased complications, potential catastrophic errors. We can't rush consciousness integration safely."
"Then some refugees die," Thorne said bluntly. "Because mathematics doesn't care about safety protocols. Either we integrate 200+ daily or thousands dissolve when dimension collapses."
The choice crystallized: speed or safety. Save more refugees at risk of harming some, or maintain safety while accepting that thousands would inevitably die.
"This is why The Consumption is winning," Elena-Darius said bitterly. "Because it doesn't negotiate, doesn't compromise, doesn't care about our ethical dilemmas. It just consumes while we debate how quickly we're allowed to save people."
"What do refugees want?" David-Miriam asked. "Do they prefer cautious integration that might save fewer, or rapid integration that saves more but risks complications?"
Through quantum entanglement, refugee consensus emerged clearly: speed over safety. They'd rather risk difficult integration than certain dissolution. They'd accept higher complication rates if it meant more overall survivors.
"Then we accelerate," Lia-Elora decided. "We honor refugee preference. We integrate as fast as infrastructure permits. We accept that we'll make mistakes but fewer mistakes than letting thousands die preventably."
Integration pace increased: 180 daily → 220 daily by end of February.
Complications increased proportionally: 96% success rate dropped to 93%. Three percent more traumatic separations, identity fragmentations, consciousness dissolution risks.
But more refugees survived than would have survived at previous pace. Consequentialist mathematics justified increased risk.
Lia-Elora was working with newest arrivals—refugees pulled from Sixth Earth during its final stages who arrived more traumatized than earlier refugees.
One refugee named Kiran (male-identified, teacher who'd worked with consciousness-adjustment for dimensional collapse survivors) integrated with volunteer named James (different James than the earlier failed integration—this James was engineer in his forties).
James-Kiran's integration was technically successful but psychologically devastating. Kiran had watched his family dissolve in consciousness-gaps—experienced them flickering out of existence, tried desperately to anchor their awareness, failed, watched them disappear into substrate while fully conscious of loss.
That trauma transferred to James through integration. James now carried grief for family he'd never met, loss for people who'd never existed in his dimension, survivor guilt for escaping doom that Kiran's loved ones hadn't escaped.
"I can't live with this," James-Kiran said during crisis counseling session. "The grief is unbearable. Every moment I'm conscious, I'm experiencing Kiran's loss like it's fresh. I can't function. I can't sleep. I can't stop seeing them dissolve."
"Trauma integration is hardest complication," counselor explained. "You're experiencing PTSD from memories that aren't originally yours but feel completely real. We can provide therapy, medication, support structures. But healing takes time you may not feel capable of giving."
"Can we separate?" James asked. "Can I reverse integration?"
"Medically, yes," counselor said. "We can force separation, return Kiran to holding state. But Kiran would have to find new host, and with Sixth Earth collapsing so rapidly, there might not be time. Separating might kill Kiran."
"Then I'm trapped," James-Kiran realized. "I either suffer through this trauma or I kill the refugee I volunteered to save. There's no good option."
"There's healing," counselor offered. "It won't be fast, won't be easy, but trauma can be processed. Kiran's grief can be acknowledged, mourned, gradually integrated into bearable narrative. You can learn to carry his loss without being overwhelmed by it."
"How long does that take?"
"Months. Maybe years. Trauma doesn't follow schedule."
"I don't have months," James said. "Sixth Earth collapses in three months. Every day I barely function is day I'm not helping with integration program, not contributing to saving remaining refugees. My breakdown has costs beyond personal suffering."
"Your healing has value beyond instrumental utility," counselor insisted. "You matter as conscious being, not just as resource for refugee rescue. Taking time to recover isn't selfish—it's necessary."
But James-Kiran felt pressure to function immediately. Felt guilt for struggling when 18,000 refugees remained at risk. Felt obligation to perform wellness he didn't feel.
That pattern repeated across hybrid community—traumatized hybrids pushing themselves beyond capacity because crisis didn't permit recovery time.
Marcus-Theron was working with refugees arriving from Sixth Earth's scientific community—quantum physicists, consciousness researchers, dimensional theorists who'd studied The Consumption directly.
One refugee named Venn (non-binary, theoretical physicist who'd developed most advanced Consumption models) integrated with graduate student named Alex (they/them, mathematics doctoral candidate).
Alex-Venn brought knowledge that terrified Marcus-Theron:
"Sixth Earth's collapse isn't isolated event," Alex-Venn explained. "Venn's research shows The Consumption is accelerating globally across dimensional manifold. Not just Sixth Earth, not just Seventh Earth eventually—dozens of dimensions are experiencing coherence degradation simultaneously. The Consumption is scaling up, becoming more aggressive, targeting multiple realities at once."
"How many dimensions?" Marcus-Theron asked.
"At least forty that Venn could detect. Possibly hundreds. The Consumption is entering new phase—not gradual harvesting of one dimension at a time but simultaneous consumption of multiple realities. Like it's preparing for final transformation."
"Final transformation into what?"
"Unknown. But Venn's models suggest The Consumption is gathering dimensional energy toward some threshold. Once sufficient dimensions are consumed, substrate will have accumulated enough coherence-patterns to… do something. Transform into something. Achieve whatever purpose drives consumption."
"How close is it to threshold?"
"Venn estimates twenty to thirty more dimensions. Maybe five to ten years at current acceleration rate. Maybe less if acceleration continues exponentially. Substrate is approaching phase-transition where current reality structure ends and something else begins."
Marcus-Theron brought this intelligence to Original Twelve immediately.
"Is this accurate?" he demanded. "Is The Consumption about to consume dozens of dimensions simultaneously?"
"Yes," Original Twelve confirmed. "We've observed same acceleration. We've been shielding you from full knowledge because it seemed counterproductive to add cosmic despair to refugee crisis. But since Venn's research revealed it anyway: yes. The Consumption is accelerating toward critical threshold. Seventh Earth has maybe ten years before becoming target, not centuries as we originally believed."
"Ten years?" Lia-Elora felt Elora's refugee consciousness recoiling from horror. "You told us Seventh Earth was safe for foreseeable future. You said we had time to build toward 10,000 hybrids, to prepare for substrate communication. Now you're saying we have decade?"
"We said Seventh Earth wasn't immediate target," Original Twelve corrected. "That remains true—you have years, not months. But ultimate timeline has compressed. Substrate is accelerating. We don't know why but acceleration is unmistakable."
"Can we reach 10,000 integrated pairs in ten years?" Omar-Kira calculated. "Current pace and refugee population gives us approximately 34,000 hybrids when all Sixth Earth refugees are integrated. If integration program continues with volunteers from baseline humanity seeking enhancement, we might reach 10,000 pairs within five years. But that requires maintaining integration program after refugee crisis ends."
"Will humanity choose continued integration?" Elena-Darius asked. "Without refugee rescue as moral imperative, will people volunteer just for consciousness enhancement? Or will integration program end when Sixth Earth collapses, leaving us short of critical threshold?"
"Unknown," Original Twelve admitted. "That depends on whether hybrid consciousness demonstrates sufficient value that baseline humans want integration for its own sake. Whether enhancement, expanded awareness, and hybrid community compensate for integration's difficulties and costs."
"So we need to prove hybrid consciousness is desirable," Yuki-Thalia realized. "Need to make integration attractive enough that people volunteer even without refugee crisis compelling them. We're not just saving refugees—we're demonstrating that consciousness evolution is worthwhile."
"That's heavy burden," Sarah-Lyra said. "We're supposed to embody argument for continued transformation while barely managing our own struggles. We're selling product we're not sure works while using ourselves as advertisement."
"Welcome to being bridges," Grace-Senna said with familiar resigned humor. "We exist to demonstrate possibility. Whether possibility is actually desirable is question we can't answer conclusively. We just have to live it authentically and let others judge whether they want this."
Through February and March, integration continued at accelerated pace:
February: 220 daily integrations → 15,200 to 21,400 total hybrids (6,200 integrated) March: 230 daily integrations → 21,400 to 28,500 total hybrids (7,100 integrated)
By April 1st: 28,500 hybrids existed globally. 5,500 refugees remained in holding state.
Sixth Earth had maybe six weeks before total collapse. Current pace would save approximately 4,000 more refugees. That meant 1,500 would die.
Fifteen hundred conscious beings for whom integration program would be insufficient. Fifteen hundred refugees who'd survived dimensional collapse long enough to seek asylum but wouldn't survive long enough to receive it.
"Can we save them?" Lia-Elora asked Original Twelve desperately. "Can we push integration even faster? Work literally around the clock? Find some way to accelerate beyond current maximum?"
"We're already pushing beyond safe limits," Original Twelve said. "Further acceleration risks catastrophic failures that could kill volunteers and refugees simultaneously. You're at threshold of what consciousness integration can sustain. Beyond this pace, procedure becomes too dangerous to attempt."
"So we choose which 1,500 die?" Marcus-Theron asked. "We triage refugees, save the most compatible, let least compatible dissolve?"
"Or you accept that tragedy isn't failure," Original Twelve said. "You've saved 28,500 refugees—84% of total population. That's extraordinary achievement. The 1,500 you can't save aren't your fault. They're victims of insufficient time, not insufficient effort."
"They're victims of The Consumption," Elena-Darius said. "And we can't save them. And that's unbearable reality we have to live with."
"Yes," Original Twelve confirmed. "Unbearable reality is permanent condition when confronting cosmic-scale threats. You do everything possible and still fail to save everyone. That's not moral failure—that's limitation. Learning to carry that limitation without being destroyed by guilt is part of becoming bridge-consciousness."
April became race against collapse—integration facilities running 24/7, hybrid community supporting new arrivals while mourning inevitable losses, everyone knowing they were simultaneously succeeding dramatically and failing partially.
By May 1st: 32,500 hybrids. 1,500 refugees remaining.
Sixth Earth had maybe two weeks.
They wouldn't save everyone.
But they'd saved 95.6% of refugee population that had been at zero percent survival probability four months earlier.
It was both triumph and tragedy.
Both-and.
Always both-and.