[SUBJECT IDENTIFIED]
[ELIA VOSS]
[CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT ESTABLISHED]
Marek read the final line.
Controlled Environment.
The laboratory was still there.
The fire alarm continued. Researchers moved emergency supplies between the workstations while people shouted somewhere in the corridor. Professor Halden remained beside him.
Nothing around Marek had changed.
Except his attention.
The sounds were farther away now. Movement beyond Elia still registered, but it no longer pulled his attention from her as easily.
The effect reminded Marek of the sealed rooms used when handling hazardous samples. A subject was separated from everything else. The environment was controlled so changes could be observed and anything dangerous could be prevented from spreading beyond the defined boundary.
The name made sense.
Marek still did not like it.
Controlled Environment sounded like something Professor Halden would put in a report before spending several pages explaining ventilation pressure.
The Quiet Room.
That was easier.
Marek returned his attention to Elia.
Her body became clearer beneath his hand.
The red force was no longer moving through her abdomen. The damage it had already caused remained. Blood had collected beneath her ribs, and the vessel that had been repeatedly forced open was still injured.
Her body had begun responding on its own. The vessel had contracted. A clot was forming. It was not enough. Marek had not healed her.
He had only removed the thing that kept making the injury worse.
More words appeared.
[PRIMARY CONDITION: INTERNAL RUPTURE]
[CAUSE: UNCONTROLLED FIRST MOTION]
[ACTIVE CONDITION: ISOLATED]
[CURRENT LOCATION: CASE SEAL 01]
His awareness moved toward the dark-red scale beneath his right collarbone. For a moment, he could see past its surface. There was no muscle behind it. No bone or blood vessel.
Instead, a hollow space existed somewhere beneath the scale and the black circle.
Marek did not understand where that space actually was. The scale remained smaller than his thumbnail. Whatever existed behind it did not feel that small.
The red force moved inside.
It struck the boundary, changed direction, then continued.
The rupture existed with it.
Not part of Elia’s body. But the condition itself.
Marek watched. The force moved. Impact followed. The vessel ruptured. Bleeding began. Then the vessel returned to the state immediately before the impact.
The force struck again.
The same sequence repeated.
Movement. Impact. Rupture. Bleeding.
Nothing weakened. Healing did not take place as well. However, the condition remained active. It was simply no longer happening inside Elia.
A scream came from the corridor. Marek barely registered it. He watched the sequence once more before someone touched his shoulder.
The Quiet Room disappeared.
Sound returned immediately. The alarm. People shouting. Equipment being moved.
Professor Halden was calling his name. "Marek."
Marek blinked.
"I called you several times."
"I was examining her."
"You stopped responding."
"I was concentrating."
Professor Halden indicated Elia. "What did you see?"
"The active condition is no longer inside her."
"You already knew that."
"The damage is."
Professor Halden waited.
"She already lost blood. The vessel and surrounding tissue are still damaged. Removing the force did not repair any of that."
"So you did not heal her."
"No."
"Is she stable?"
Marek checked her pulse again. "For now."
Professor Halden’s attention shifted to Marek’s shoulder. "And the condition?"
"Still there."
"Can you remove it from yourself?"
Marek lightly shook his head.
"Can you return it?"
Marek focused on Elia again.
The Quiet Room partially returned.
The laboratory did not disappear from his awareness this time. Its sounds only weakened as his attention moved toward the occupied scale.
Words appeared.
[IMMEDIATE RETURN NOT RECOMMENDED]
[SUBJECT CONDITION: UNSTABLE]
[PROBABLE RESULT: RENEWED INTERNAL HEMORRHAGE]
Marek read them. The Quiet Room faded.
Professor Halden waited. "Well?"
"Returning it now would start the bleeding again."
"Then do not return it."
"I was not planning to."
Professor Halden checked the dark-red scale. "Can you keep it there?"
Marek concentrated on it.
[CASE-SEAL PRESSURE: WITHIN CURRENT TOLERANCE]
[CONTAINMENT STABILITY: ACCEPTABLE]
"It says the containment is stable."
"For how long?"
Marek waited. Nothing else appeared.
Professor Halden noticed. "It did not tell you."
Marek shook his head again.
"Ask."
Marek focused on the scale. "How long can I keep it contained?"
Nothing happened. He waited a little longer. The interface remained silent.
"Nothing?" Professor Halden asked.
"It ignored me."
"That is possible?"
"The toilet ignored me several times."
Professor Halden turned toward the testing room. "This is not the toilet."
"I am beginning to suspect that distinction matters less than we thought."
The wall monitor nearest the testing room flickered. The message welcoming them to the Prime Continuum disappeared. For several seconds, the original diagnostic interface returned.
Lines moved across the display.
[PROJECT MERIDIAN CONNECTION LOST]
[LOCAL DIAGNOSTIC FUNCTION: ACTIVE]
[EXTERNAL OPERATING SYSTEM: UNKNOWN]
Professor Halden approached the monitor. "What is Project Meridian?"
Marek turned to him. "You are asking me?"
"You spent the last several minutes connected to the machine."
"You supervised the experiment."
"I supervised the medical side."
"You received the machine."
"The university received it from the National Environmental Health Division."
Professor Halden read the screen again. "Project Meridian was not listed in the documents."
The display changed.
[UNREGISTERED ASTRAL SYSTEM DETECTED]
[LOCAL HOST CONNECTION CONFIRMED]
Then the monitor went black.
Professor Halden pressed one of the controls. Nothing. He tried another. Still nothing.
Marek considered the testing room.
The diagnostic toilet had reacted to his Mark almost immediately after it appeared. At first, it had identified the structure as a possible parasite and activated emergency sanitation.
Now the same equipment was using the word Astral.
Either somebody had designed the machine to recognize something nobody on Earth should have known existed, or the machine itself had changed during the Awakening.
Marek did not know which possibility he preferred.
Someone struck the laboratory door. For the nth time.
Everyone turned.
"Professor Halden!" The voice came from the corridor.
From the back of the laboratory, the woman with the twin Marks repeated it in the exact same voice. "Professor Halden!"
She immediately covered her mouth.
The person outside hit the door again. "Please open the door!"
Several other voices were behind him. Some were shouting. Someone was crying.
The pale markings around Professor Halden’s wrists brightened. His attention remained on the entrance for several seconds before shifting to Elia and then to the other researchers.
"What?" Marek asked.
"The situation outside is worse."
"That was already obvious."
"I mean—"
"Did you sense something else?"
Professor Halden took a moment before answering. "I cannot tell what is happening out there. Only that several conditions beyond that door are farther from normal than anything else I am sensing inside this room."
Someone struck the door again.
A different voice shouted, "She cannot breathe!"
Professor Halden’s expression changed. "Move away from the entrance."
The researchers obeyed.
The woman with the twin Marks remained near the rear wall with her eyes closed. The researcher with the blue markings moved farther from the sink.
The man with the golden Mark approached the door.
Professor Halden pointed at him. "Slowly."
The researcher stopped in front of the handle. "You told me not to touch anything."
"I told you not to lift anything unnecessarily."
"This is technically lifting."
"You are turning a handle."
The researcher wrapped one hand around it. He hesitated before turning it carefully. The handle came free.
Everyone went quiet.
The researcher stared at the piece of metal in his hand. "I turned it gently."
Professor Halden closed his eyes for a moment.
The door moved slightly. The latch had withdrawn before the handle broke, and someone outside was already pushing against it.
The researcher stepped away. The door opened.
"Wait," Professor Halden said.
The person outside stopped pushing. Professor Halden moved close enough to see through the opening.
Marek could see part of the corridor behind him.
People were sitting against the walls. One man had blood running down the side of his face. Another person was supporting a woman who could barely remain standing. Farther down the corridor, someone was lying on the floor while two people crouched beside him. Part of the ceiling near the stairwell had collapsed.
"Professor," the man outside said. "We need somewhere to put them."
Professor Halden checked the laboratory, then Elia. "Bring anyone unconscious inside first. Anyone who can still stand stays in the corridor for now."
The man stared at him. "The corridor is not safe."
"Neither is the laboratory."
Another crash came from farther down the hall.
Professor Halden pulled the door wider. "Quickly."
Two people began carrying an unconscious researcher toward them.
The golden-Marked researcher still held the broken handle.
Professor Halden pointed toward the floor. "Put it down."
He crouched carefully and placed it there.
Nothing broke.
He seemed relieved.
Marek returned to Elia. More injured people were coming. They barely understood the conditions already inside the laboratory.
The dark-red scale pulsed again. The force struck its boundary. Marek’s shoulder tightened.
Then words appeared.
[CASE 001 REGISTERED]
[PATIENT: ELIA VOSS]
[HAZARDOUS CONDITION: UNCONTROLLED FIRST MOTION]
[CURRENT VESSEL: MAREK VALE]
Marek stopped at the fourth line.
Vessel.
He knew what the word meant. Something used to contain something else. That was apparently what he had become.
Another message appeared.
[CASE STATUS: STABILIZED]
Marek checked Elia.
She was alive. Her pulse had improved slightly, and the active force was no longer repeatedly damaging the vessel inside her abdomen.
The system was correct.
She was stable, but she was clearly not fine.
A patient could survive the immediate emergency and still die later from blood loss, organ damage, infection, or something nobody noticed until it became another emergency.
Marek had known that before tonight.
Another line appeared.
[RESOLUTION STATUS: INCOMPLETE]
Behind him, the unconscious researcher was being carried through the open door. Someone else in the corridor called for Professor Halden.
The fire alarm continued. Sirens were still sounding below the sixth floor.
Marek focused on the dark-red scale. The force moved again. Elia’s condition still existed. It was simply somewhere else.
Professor Halden approached him. "What does it say?"
Marek checked Elia, then the injured people entering the laboratory. "It says the case is stabilized."
"And?"
The red scale pulsed.
"Unresolved."
[RESOLUTION STATUS: INCOMPLETE]