The medical bay's harsh lights cast Sarah's shadow across Kasper's diagnostic readouts. Her fingers moved with practiced precision over the holoscreen, but something about the gesture seemed... rehearsed.
Too perfect.
His nanobots tingled beneath his skin, responding to his unease.
"Your nanobots are eating themselves." Sarah's voice was clinical, her eyes fixed on the readings instead of his face. "At this rate, you have maybe three more combat engagements before permanent system failure."
The words hit like physical blows. Kasper's fists clenched.
"That's not possible." His voice came out rougher than intended. "The maze barely—"
"The maze did exactly what it was designed to do." Sarah's scanner hummed as she pressed it against his temple. The metal felt wrong somehow – a fraction too cold.
Status alerts flashed across his vision:
[WARNING: NANOBOT INTEGRITY - 58%] [COMBAT SYSTEMS - SEVERELY COMPROMISED] [REGENERATION PROTOCOLS - CRITICAL FAILURE IMMINENT]
Sarah's lips pressed into a thin line. "I can synthesize a temporary stabilizer, but—"
The facility's perimeter alarms cut her off, their wail drilling into Kasper's skull.
[SECURITY BREACH - SECTOR 7] [UNKNOWN ENTITIES DETECTED] [ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY]
His tactical comm crackled to life with Sean's voice: "Team, emergency protocol six. Lucas found something. Engineering lab. Now."
Kasper was moving before Sarah could stop him.
"You're not combat-ready!" Her words chased him down the corridor.
He didn't look back.
The recycled air burned cold in his lungs as he ran, emergency lights painting everything in shades of blood and shadow. His HUD filled with cascading warning messages:
[COMBAT MODE INITIATION - FAILED] [ATTEMPTING EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS...] [SYSTEM INTEGRITY DROPPING...]
The engineering lab's sealed doors came into view. Valerian stood beside them, cybernetic eye whirring as he worked the security override.
"Status?" Kasper demanded.
"Lucas accessed something he shouldn't have." Valerian's voice was tight. "Security responded... oddly."
The doors slid open with a pneumatic hiss.
Inside, Lucas hunched over his workstation while Maria maintained a shimmering healing field around them both. The air crackled with ozone and unspoken tension.
Sean paced behind them, combat shields already activated.
"Show them," Maria said quietly.
Lucas's screens displayed fragmented security footage. "I was tracking quantum signatures from the maze incident," he explained, fingers flying across haptic controls. "Cross's training programs kept triggering similar patterns, so I dug deeper—"
"Into classified Project Lazarus databases?" Commander Cross's voice sliced through the room like a blade.
The lab's recycled air turned sharp as ice, burning their lungs with each breath.
Everyone turned. Cross stood in the doorway, her cybernetic eyes gleaming with predatory focus. Her combat heels clicked against the floor as she entered – each step precisely measured.
"Interesting choice of evening research, Mr. Chen." Her smile was razor-thin. "Especially given the multiple security protocols you bypassed to access it."
"Ma'am," Sean started, shifting subtly into a defensive stance. "There's been a security breach—"
"Indeed there has." Cross's gaze swept the room. "Though perhaps not the one you think."
The overhead lights flickered.
"The maze wasn't just reading fears," Lucas said quickly. "It was scanning for specific genetic markers. The same ones that—"
Sarah burst through the door, medical scanner pulsing with urgent readings. "Professor, the intruder alerts—"
"Are right where they need to be." Cross cut her off. Her cybernetic eyes locked onto Sarah with unnatural intensity. "Wouldn't you agree, Dr. Chen?"
The moment stretched like a wire about to snap.
Sarah's scanner emitted a single, steady tone.
Then everything went dark.
[CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE] [FOREIGN CODE DETECTED] [EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN IN 3...] [2...] [1...]