CHAPTER 21: THE AETHER HARVEST

  [LOCATION: THE IN-BETWEEN]

  [MANA RESERVES: 12%]

  [STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 91%]

  The desert was gone, replaced by a pressurized, iridescent screaming. I sat at my desk, my fingers steepled. Outside the reinforced basalt viewports, the world had been swapped for a swirling, violet slurry of raw potential. We were no longer in the physical realm; we were in the 'In-Between,' the thin, caustic membrane that separates reality from the source.

  I didn't feel the awe of a pioneer. I felt the anxiety of a man watching a leaky bucket.

  "Gray, the vibration is shaking the teeth out of the men's heads," Lilo’s voice crackled through the comms. He sounded like he was shouting from the bottom of a well. "Sector 4 is reporting hairline fractures. The air feels... wrong."

  "I didn't bring you here for the atmosphere, Lilo," I said. My voice was the only thing in the room that wasn't vibrating. "The air feels wrong because the Oasis is currently a foreign object in a dimension that doesn't recognize the concept of 'matter.' We are a glitch in the system. And the system is trying to delete us."

  "How long do we have?"

  "At current consumption? Thirty-four minutes."

  I looked at the mana-ticker. It was a countdown to a very expensive funeral. Phasing a mountain-sized facility into the void required a constant, massive output to maintain the 'Logic-Field.' If the field dropped, the Oasis would be unwritten.

  I didn't panic. I opened the structural layout of the 'Resolute,' the Imperial cruiser half-fused to my eastern flank.

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  "Lito," I said, switching the channel.

  The former Warlord appeared on the monitor. He was in the barracks, his hand on the hilt of his weapon, watching the walls as if they might bite him. "Gray? The men are saying we're in hell."

  "I didn't authorize any theological debates. I need a retrieval team. The 'Resolute' is carrying an auxiliary Aether-Drive in its stern. It’s a self-contained mana-generator designed for emergency flight. I need it stripped, moved, and integrated into the Oasis Core."

  "The stern is outside the primary shield-zone, Gray," Lito said, his brow furrowing. "If we open the bulkhead to get to the drive, we’re exposing the men to raw void-leak. It’ll melt their eyes out of their sockets."

  "I didn't say it was a safe assignment. I said it was the only way to keep the lights on. Take twenty men. Give them the heavy-duty lead-lined mining gear. They have twelve minutes to complete the transfer before the primary reserves hit zero."

  I watched them on the security feed. It was a brutal, ugly operation. The men moved through the 'Resolute’s' twisted corridors, their boots clanking against the silver hull. When they reached the stern bulkhead, Lito hesitated. He looked at the seam of the door. A faint, violet light was leaking through the seal—the void-pressure looking for an entrance.

  "I didn't ask you to stand there and admire the view, Lito" I said into his ear-piece. "Open the door."

  They opened it.

  The screaming came from the air. The void rushed in, a hungry, non-physical force. I watched as the lead-lined suits of the first three soldiers began to pit and corrode instantly. One man tripped, his glove touching the raw hull. His hand didn't burn; it simply ceased to exist, the space where his fingers had been replaced by a shimmering, violet static.

  He didn't scream. He looked at his wrist in a state of shock before the pressure collapsed his lungs.

  "Keep moving!" Lito roared, his own voice distorted by the interference.

  They reached the Aether-Drive. It was a massive, glowing cylinder of copper and crystal. They had to haul it manually, sliding it over the vibrating floorboards. Every second they spent in that room, the 'Logistical Cost' rose. Two more men collapsed, their mana-signatures flickering out as the void drank their life-force.

  I didn't look away. I didn't feel the sting of the loss. I watched the clock.

  [TIME REMAINING: 4 MINUTES]

  They dragged the drive across the threshold and slammed the bulkhead shut. Of the twenty men who went in, twelve came back. Lito was shaking, his armor blackened by 'void-burn.'

  "We have it," he gasped. "Connect the damn thing, Gray."

  I initiated the integration. The Core roared as the auxiliary power flooded the system. The flickering lights in the Oasis stabilized into a steady, predatory violet. The mana-ticker jumped from 1% to 25%.

  [MANA RESERVES: STABILIZED]

  [REMAINING DURATION: 12 HOURS]

  I leaned back in my chair. The black iron box on my desk hummed, a low, satisfied sound.

  "I didn't ask for your approval," I whispered to the box.

  I picked up my quill. I didn't feel like a hero for saving the mountain. I felt like a manager who had just successfully replaced a blown fuse at the cost of eight lives. It was an expensive repair, but the facility was still operational.

  I recorded the names of the dead in the 'Loss' column. I didn't give them a eulogy. I gave them a line of ink. We were still in the void, and the void was just getting started with us.