A beat of heavy silence stretched across the comms line.
Then, a voice as cold as ice cracked through the static. "Go confirm right now if The Panacea is actually in the laboratory."
Director Silas Kaelen's stomach plummeted. A cold sweat broke out across his spine.
Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Otherwise, The Commodore would never personally intervene to question The Panacea's whereabouts at a time like this.
He instinctively looked up at the security monitors, his gaze locking onto the black static obscuring the lab's feed.
The Med-Tech Quarantine was already in an uproar over the Living Assets. Yet The Panacea remained completely out of sight.
Her camera feeds were blocked, and her communication lines had been entirely severed.
Kaelen pictured her face—strikingly pale and brooding, yet undeniably arrogant.
Ever since she boarded Project Zero-Transit, she had been nothing but trouble. Her audacity knew no bounds.
She had repeatedly tested the limits of their rules, dancing right on the edge of the ship's authority.
Every incident, every minor infraction, began to string together in his mind.
Kaelen's heart seized. A terrifying realization crystallized in his thoughts.
What if her excuse of going into the lab to synthesize a serum was just a smokescreen?
What if she wasn't in there at all?
The hum of the synthesis equipment could just be an elaborate diversion! And the sudden riot outside, the chaos surrounding the Living Assets...
Could she be behind all of it?
The mere thought sent a suffocating wave of dread washing over him.
If she had slipped away on his watch and caused enough chaos to alert The Commodore...
He would be a dead man walking.
Kaelen turned pale, his fingers trembling as he gripped the comms device. "Sir, please rest assured. I will find a way into that laboratory immediately."
"I will confirm if she is still inside!"
He didn't waste another second.
Disconnecting the line, he spun on his heel and barked at his team. "Move! We are going to the secure lab right now!"
"Move!"
The Med-Tech Quarantine
executives exchanged nervous glances Toby Adler, the lead tech hütmedly grabbed his controls terminal and scrambled after him.
A squad of armed guards stationed outside was immediately redirected to join them.
The heavy-footed procession surged down the corridors, making a beeline for The Panacea's restricted workspace.
"Keep trying to establish a
connection," Kaelen ordered, his pace relentless as he tossed the command over his shoulder to Toby: "Find a way to reach her. I need eyes on the inside now!"
Toby was sweating profusely.
His fingers flew across the terminal, desperately attempting to bypass the comms blackout.
But the screen relentlessly flashed the same stark red warning.
[Internal Communications Offline.]
[Connection Failed.]
[Connection Failed.]
Toby blanched. "Director Kaelen, I'm locked out."
"She disabled all network priv net
from the inside. Unless she
manually opens the line we have absolutely no way to reach her.
No way at all?
Kaelen's expression darkened into a scowl.
He pushed the rising panic aside and practically broke into a sprint.
Moments later, the group arrived outside the secure facility.
The sleek, silver blast doors remained hermetically sealed shut.
On the wall panel, a steady green light pulsed, indicating that the synthesis
equipment inside was actively running.
Everything looked perfectly normal.