The examination room inside the flagship was no longer treated like an ordinary medical facility. After the impossible, unclassifiable result produced during the previous scan, the entire diagnostic suite had been placed under strict military lockdown.
Three senior technicians stood behind reinforced observation glass, their faces pale as they monitored secondary energy readings from isolated, hardened terminals. Armed guards lined the outer corridor, keeping the area completely sealed.
Rhaevia stood once again at the center of the heavy circular examination platform. The new, industrial-grade diagnostic array hummed quietly above her, its metallic housing gleaming under the sanitized white lights.
Major General Raevor Veyr remained standing outside the glass chamber, his posture perfectly erect. His arms were folded tightly across his chest, and his dark eyes were fixed on her with an unreadable, piercing intensity.
"Begin the examination," Raevor ordered through the comms, his deep voice carrying unquestionable authority.
The chief technician hesitated for a second before pressing the primary activation sequence on his console.
A dense field of blue-white energy descended from the ceiling array, enveloping Rhaevia’s body in a shimmering column of light. The scanning waves penetrated directly into her mental pathways, searching for the true boundaries of her consciousness.
The primary holographic display materialized floating above the observation window.
[MENTAL POWER ANALYSIS INITIATED.]
For several seconds, the baseline reading remained perfectly stable on the screen.
[E-RANK.]
One junior technician exhaled a soft breath, momentarily hoping the system would remain grounded. But the numerical ledger immediately began shifting, bypassing standard calibration intervals.
[D-RANK.]
The numbers ticked upward without stopping.
[C-RANK.]
[B-RANK.]
[A-RANK.]
The atmosphere inside the observation booth grew increasingly tense as the technicians watched the rapid ascension.
Inside the glass chamber, Rhaevia remained perfectly still, her hands resting calmly at her sides. She could already feel the familiar, heavy sensation expanding deep within her chest. Something deep inside her soul was actively responding to the machine’s probing frequency.
The deeper the external scanner reached into her neural pathways, the stronger the internal pressure inside her mind became.
Then, the central display flashed with a sharp blue light.
[S-RANK.]
No one in the room spoke a single word. The technicians held their breath, staring at the screen in pure disbelief.
Instead of stabilizing at the highest known human baseline, the scanner continued increasing its output. Its operational energy signature doubled within seconds. Then it tripled.
The primary holographic display distorted as red warning banners flashed along the border.
[WARNING: MENTAL POWER CONTINUING TO ASCEND.]
Rhaevia’s dark eyes narrowed into sharp slits. It was happening again, exactly as it had during the previous tests.
The diagnostic machine wasn’t merely measuring her existing capacity. The intrusive scanning field was somehow stimulating whatever ancient, dormant force had awakened inside her soul on Planet V-17.
The mental energy within her consciousness surged outward like a rising tide. The surrounding scanner groaned under the immense electromagnetic pressure, its internal cooling fans shrieking.
Then, the static classification text shattered and reformed into a specialized military metric.
[1S.]
A technician stumbled backward into his chair, his hands flying to his mouth. "That’s completely impossible," he stammered.
The lead operator frantically checked the system’s underlying telemetry logs. "The neural sensors are functioning normally! There is no software error!"
The display flickered violently as the pressure surged again.
[2S.]
A dead, suffocating silence descended over the entire examination suite. Even the medical staff behind the observation glass stopped moving entirely, paralyzed by the sight.
A 2S Guide was already an extraordinarily rare existence in the Empire, possessing enough power to stabilize entire military fleets. Yet Rhaevia had breached that legendary threshold during a single, routine diagnostic examination.
And the machine was still attempting to push deeper.
"Stop the scan right now!" the chief technician shouted, lunging toward the manual control panel. "Abort the test!"
The automated scanner completely ignored his input, trapped in a feedback loop with her mind.
"Trigger the emergency power shutdown!" the technician yelled to his assistant.
Nothing happened. Crimson warning symbols flooded the entire holographic interface, blinding the room.
[CRITICAL WARNING: SCANNING LIMIT EXCEEDED.]
[FURTHER NEURAL ANALYSIS NOT RECOMMENDED.]
[AUTOMATIC SYSTEM SAFETY PROTOCOL ENGAGED.]
With a sharp mechanical hum, the scanning beam abruptly cut out, and the machine shut down.
Rhaevia slowly opened her eyes, letting out a soft, measured breath. The intense, suffocating pressure inside her mind gradually receded back into the dark depths of her consciousness.
Behind the thick observation glass, several medical personnel looked deathly pale.
One junior technician whispered, his voice trembling violently, "It reached 2S..."
The chief technician swallowed hard, staring at the frozen log. "And it was still climbing when the safety breakers tripped..."
The heavy hydraulic doors of the testing bay suddenly hissed open.
Raevor stepped directly into the examination chamber, his heavy military boots echoing against the metal floor. His formidable presence instantly altered the atmosphere, drawing every eye in the room.
The frightened technicians immediately fell silent, bowing their heads as he passed.
Raevor walked directly toward the circular platform, stopping just a few steps away from Rhaevia. His dark, piercing eyes studied her face with an intensity that seemed capable of dissecting every secret she possessed.
"Do you know what your true ability is?" Raevor asked, his deep voice smooth and devoid of judgment.
Rhaevia met his gaze calmly, her expression remaining entirely unbothered. For once, she didn’t offer a clever, evasive remark or a witty deflection.
She offered a slight, subtle shake of her head.
"No," she stated simply.
Raevor’s strict expression tightened slightly as he searched her eyes for any trace of falsehood. "You truly don’t know what is inside your mind?"
"No," Rhaevia repeated, her tone flat and sincere.
He stared at her in silence for several long seconds, feeling the faint, lingering resonance humming between their mental pathways. Then, his gaze slowly shifted toward the quiet, powered-down diagnostic machine behind her.
Whatever ancient force had awakened inside Rhaevia was entirely beyond the scope of current imperial science.
Before either of them could say anything else, the heavy diagnostic platform beneath her feet suddenly trembled.
BZZZZT!
The technicians behind the glass spun toward their dark control panels in sheer panic.
"Major General!" the chief technician screamed over the intercom.
The completely dark, powered-down holographic display suddenly illuminated with a blinding crimson light. Residual energy flooded through the diagnostic coils without an external power source.
The machine forcibly activated itself for a fraction of a second, overriding its own safety locks.
A single, definitive classification appeared in massive, burning golden text across the screen:
[3S.]
The entire medical suite froze in absolute, breathless horror as the golden text burned into the display. The peak classification of human existence in the interstellar era had just been assigned to an E-rank Guide.
Raevor’s dark pupils contracted sharply into tiny points. Deep within his mind, his 3S Sentinel instincts surged violently, locking onto her neural signature with a staggering 100% harmony that nearly knocked him off balance.
Rhaevia looked up at the floating numbers, her lips curving into a faint, dark smile. The truth was finally out, and there was no turning back now.
"It seems your machine has made up its mind, Major General," she remarked softly, her voice cool and steady.
Raevor took a single step closer, his shadow completely enveloping her as his hand rested on the hilt of his sidearm.
"From this moment on, Cadet Rythundeir, your existence is an Imperial Level One Strategic Secret," he declared coldly.
"And who will protect this secret from the people who tried to murder me on Planet V-17?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Raevor looked directly into her eyes.
"I will," he stated flatly. "Whether you like it or not."