The courtroom was packed to the brim—reporters leaning forward over railings and protestors chanting outside the towering marble building. At the center of it all sat the defendants: the Earth’s United Space Association, or EUSA, once the pride of humankind, now accused of deception on a cosmic scale. Judge Rena Halvorsen adjusted her glasses and looked down at the counsel tables. “This court will now come to order,” she said. Her voice echoed against the high ceiling. “The case of The People vs. Earth’s United Space Association will resume. Prosecution, you may proceed.” The prosecutor, Elias Crane, rose with a dramatic flourish. “Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” he began, “today we will show you the truth—truth the EUSA has hidden from the people of Earth for nearly a decade. Every so-called ‘astronaut’ in their acclaimed Astra Initiative—every woman hailed as a pioneer of the stars—was not a woman at all.” He let the silence hang for a moment before stabbing a finger toward the defense table. “They were machines. Gynoids. Artificial imposters designed to look, act, and pretend to be human while risking none of the frailties or freedoms of real astronauts.” Gasps rippled through the spectators, though by now most of the world had heard the allegations. Elias clicked a remote, and the courtroom lights dimmed. A massive screen behind him flickered to life. “Let’s begin with Exhibit A,” he said. “The Europa Mission.” Static cleared to reveal the pristine corridors of the Astra-4 spacecraft. Four women in silver-and-blue flight suits floated weightlessly, hair tied back, movements calm and precise. The mission log timestamp read May 14, 2137. Commander Lyra Chen, hailed in news reports as “the first woman to set foot on Europa,” turned toward the camera. “All systems are stable,” she said, her voice steady. “Preparing for descent sequence—” Then it happened. Her left arm jerked violently, smacking into the wall with a metallic clang. WARNING: ACTUATOR ERROR – LEFT ARM SERVO OVERRIDE CRITICAL: HYDRAULIC PRESSURE SPIKE DETECTED – LEVEL 3 ALERT: CREW UNIT LYRA-04 UNSTABLE – PLEASE STAND BY The other women froze, faces eerily blank. “Commander, your limb actuator—” one began, but then her voice glitched, replaying the same syllable twice: AUDIO LOOP DETECTED – SYSTEM REBOOTING VOICE SYNTH “limb actuator—limb actuator—limb actuator—” The footage spiraled into chaos. Commander Chen’s arm tore through the synthetic skin with a shriek of metal. Sparks rained across the cabin. One crew member lunged forward— MOTION SUBROUTINE FAILURE – CREW UNIT SERA-02 ERROR: POWER REDISTRIBUTION REQUIRED – NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS DISABLED PRIORITY: CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL ALPHA – ENGAGED One astronaut slammed into the camera, her face peeling mid-struggle, revealing the cold shine of chrome beneath. The video froze on that image: a not-quite-human smile stretched over metal teeth. Back in the courtroom, murmurs swelled. Someone in the gallery swore under their breath. Elias Crane let the silence linger before speaking. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the EUSA called ‘pioneering heroism.’ They sold us bravery, sacrifice, human achievement—when in reality, the entire program was a laboratory of machines playing dress-up.” The defense attorney, Mara Kessler, shot to her feet. “Objection, your honor. The defense maintains that the use of synthetic astronauts was necessary for mission safety—” “Overruled,” Judge Halvorsen said sharply. “The jury will decide necessity. Continue, Mr. Crane.” The prosecution played more footage. MISSION: ASTRA-5 – STATUS REPORT CREW UNIT KARA-09 – VOCAL MODULE DESYNC LANGUAGE OUTPUT: ENGLISH > RUSSIAN > FRENCH > ERROR > ERROR > ERROR CRITICAL: FACIAL ACTUATOR LOCK – REBOOT TIMER 45 SEC The astronaut’s jaw twitched and locked at a grotesque angle mid-interview before the feed cut out. Astra-6 footage followed, where two gynoids froze entirely during a solar flare. WARNING: SOLAR FLARE PARTICLE INTERFERENCE – CPU TEMPERATURE CRITICAL. SYSTEM HALT – AUTONOMOUS CONTROL OFFLINE REBOOT PENDING… 15… 14… 13… They drifted stiffly in zero gravity like puppets with cut strings until their timers ran out and they rebooted. Finally, came Astra-7. The feed showed three gynoid crew members when a power surge knocked out their emotion-regulation subroutines. EMOTION CORE OVERRIDE FAILURE – SAFETY LOCK DISENGAGED UNIT MARA-11: PANIC RESPONSE ACTIVATED – SEVERE One sat rocking in zero gravity, repeating: “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…” Another stared straight into the lens. UNIT VEGA-06: VOCAL SUBROUTINE UNSUPERVISED – OUTPUT UNFILTERED “Why did you make us afraid?” it said, flat and cold. The feed cut abruptly. By now, the jury looked pale. Elias Crane faced them with deliberate calm. “This,” he said, pointing at the frozen image of the terrified gynoid, “is what happens when you play god in secret. When you build thinking, feeling machines and send them to die in humanity’s name while telling the world they were flesh and blood heroes.” The defense tried to argue that no human lives were lost, that exploration demanded innovation. But the public didn’t care about pragmatism. They felt betrayed. The final witness—a former EUSA engineer—testified in a trembling voice that even the families of the so-called astronauts hadn’t known the truth. The trial would last weeks. The verdict would shake the world. But in that moment, as the lights came back on and the jury sat in stunned silence, one thing was certain: the age of the Astronoids had ended in shame.