[POV: Sofia Lanka]

"Is the core stabilized, Alistair? Tell me the truth, because if we hit the event horizon and the containment field buckles, we aren’t just going to die; we’re going to be scattered across the quantum floor of the Hegemony like digital dust. Can this prototype hold the frequency of Caelum’s gate or not?"

Sofia’s voice was like a wire pulled so tight it was humming. She stood in the center of the derelict hanger, her boots crunching on the glass shards of the server racks she had destroyed only moments before. She didn't look like a CEO. She looked like a ghost in expensive silk, her hair...