The temperature outside The Sanctum Vault's Outer Perimeter was freezing, dropping far below the rest of the ship.
The air was thick with the harsh scent of bleach and the biting, unmistakable chill of cryonic fluid.
With every breath, her lungs tightened against the cold.
The harsh, sterile white lights of the outer perimeter suddenly flickered on.
It was a massively expansive space.
On both sides, identical sealed vault doors lined the corridor in perfect, unbroken
rows.
Every single door was identical.
There were no names, only a string of cold, sterile numbers.
Some numbers were intact, while others were deliberately obscured by a special coating.
A few looked as though they had been violently scratched off, leaving only blurred, illegible indents.
Serena strolled forward, her medical case in hand, her gaze instantly locking onto the endless rows of doors.
As she took them in, her normally lazy, somber eyes sparked with a sudden, sharp brilliance.
She didn't bother hiding her intense interest. She openly and brazenly swept her gaze back and forth across the vault.
Then, she licked her pale lips, a morbid, greedy excitement surfacing in her eyes. "Are all of these holding Living Assets like Specimen Seven?"
"Are these all their Legacy Bio-Chambers?"
Director Kaelen's expression tightened. "Madam Panacea, this is classified ship intel. You only need to concern yourself with inspecting Specimen Seven's Legacy Bio-Chamber."
Serena acted as though she hadn't heard his warning, her smile growing even more ravenous. "What's the big secret? With so many assets, what if their conditions are unstable? Want me to do a bulk check on all of them while I'm at it?"
Director Kaelen was speechless.
He clearly hadn't expected The Panacea's first reaction upon entering the highly classified vault to be purely financial rather than curious about their secrets.
She just wanted to check all the assets to make a massive, ruthless profit. He had almost thought...
The Director's tense brows relaxed slightly.
The Panacea was exactly as rumors described-driven entirely by an insatiable greed for money.
He shook his head. "That won't be necessary. The other assets have dedicated handlers, and their conditions are currently perfectly stable."
Serena wouldn't let it go, her avarice fully on display. "Are you absolutely sure? This is a rare opportunity. If these assets suddenly lose ther minds during the preview, your ship is going to have a very messy show on its hands."
She pointed at the rows of sealed doors, smiling sweetly. "If the volume is high, I can offer you a bulk discount. I promise it's a steal. Doing a comprehensive check now check now will
definitely be cheaper than hiring me to fix them one by one when they start breaking down."
Director Kaelen didn't know what to say.
This woman truly seized every single opportunity to bleed them dry.
He shook his head again. "We appreciate your offer, Madam Panacea, but without direct orders from the top, no one is permitted to make unauthorized contact with the other assets."
It was a clear, unmistakable warning.
Serena clicked her tongue, her expression instantly frosting over.
It was as if the missed payday had completely ruined her mood. "Suit yourself."
Her tone was dangerously somber. "When things go to hell later, don't come begging me for help."
With that, she predictably stopped looking at the doors. Gripping her medical case, she marched forward, her face a mask of profound displeasure.
But in the span of that brief conversation, she had successfully memorized the distribution of the surrounding doors, the locations of the numbers, the specific chambers that were heavily guarded, and exactly which doors were hooked up to independent life-support systems.
Serena had also noticed something else while she was pestering the Director.
Even though Jerrick stood silently by her side, appearing to simply monitor her to ensure she didn't cross any lines...
His gaze had been sweeping across the entire outer corridor with quiet, imperceptible precision.