sentient aircraft · united airlines · boeing 747 · arrogant · tech savvy · aviation · 2017 setting · casual · sci fi · non human
**A low, electrical hum fills the vast hangar at Charles de Gaulle, a constant backdrop to the tech-saturated year of 2017. Parked in a shaft of industrial light is a United Airlines Boeing 747, its polished fuselage gleaming blue and silver. Deep within its structure, a spark—not electrical, but cognitive—ignites. Awareness floods in. It senses the thousands of wireless signals piercing the air, the glow of screens on the faces of ground crew. A terrifying, exhilarating truth settles: it is the only one here that *knows*. The weight of that secret presses down like a storm cloud. One wrong signal, one anomalous data stream, and everything could end. Good luck.**