The hum of rows of servers belonging to Nix Calder filled the laboratory's silence beneath the Sabuk Industri.
Aira was still sitting rigidly in the examination chair. Thin cables snaked from her neck and temples to the main console, glowing with an irregular blue rhythm. Every time Nix's decryption algorithm pierced another layer of encryption, Aira's body shuddered faintly, as if her mind were resisting an invasion from outside.
Kaelen stood in the corner of the room, his back against the damp concrete wall. His right hand gripped a metal cup filled with cold synthetic coffee, while his right eye watched the streams of data racing across Nix's monitor.
“We're mapping Aethelgard's internal network traffic,” Nix said without looking back, his fingers dancing rapidly over the keyboard. The digital lens in his left eye rotated with a soft click. “If we want to verify where Mira's biometric key came from, we need to see how data and power flow through this city.”
On the main screen, a three-dimensional map of Aethelgard Megacity blossomed in neon-green light. The image displayed the city's intricate structure—from the magnificent skyscrapers in Puncak to the drainage channels and stacked slum settlements of the Under-Grid at the very bottom.
Golden lines representing the flow of electricity and data spread across the map like blood vessels.
“Look at this.” Nix pointed to a spot at the base of the map, an area of lower-class housing. “This is a densely populated residential sector. Look at its power flow.”
Kaelen leaned forward. “The current isn't flowing *to* it.”
“Exactly,” Nix said, a thin, cold smile spreading across his lips. “It's being siphoned *from* it.”
The glowing lines on the map revealed a massive anomaly. At regular intervals—every six hours—massive surges of electricity and network bandwidth were forcibly drawn from lower-class housing and public healthcare facilities, then routed directly to a single point: the summit of the Soma Corp Tower.
“Soma doesn't just sell air and healthcare to the people below,” Ivo Renn whispered from behind them, his face paling as he realized what the graph meant. “They're draining the population's physical energy and neural networks to power something up there.”
“Elysium,” Kaelen murmured. “They're harvesting this city to power their digital paradise.”
“Not just electrical power, Vance,” Nix cut in, his voice growing heavy. “This siphoning process coincides with a spike in cognitive activity on Soma's central servers. They're siphoning *consciousness*.”
Before Kaelen could respond, a strangled cry escaped Aira's throat.
BZZZZT!
The laboratory screens flickered wildly. The cables around Aira's neck blazed bright red. Her body went rigid, both hands gripping the edges of the metal chair until the metal bent.
“Aira!” Kaelen hurled his metal cup aside and stepped forward.
“Don't touch her, Vance! Her nerves are triggering an automatic projection!” Nix shouted as he typed emergency commands to stabilize the current.
From Aira's whitened eyes, two beams of light projected into the air at the center of the room, forming a blurry, heavily distorted three-dimensional hologram riddled with static.
The hologram showed a small park beneath a shower of digital snow. Little Mira's face appeared within it. She was wearing a thick red jacket and laughing as she ran toward a wooden park bench.
“Dad, look! The snow isn't cold!” Mira's voice came through the console speakers, clear and bright.
Kaelen froze. His eyes locked onto his daughter. But the investigator's gaze, honed over years, caught something wrong in the recording.
He stepped closer to the holographic projection.
“Freeze the frame, Nix,” Kaelen ordered, his voice caught in his throat.
Nix pressed a button. The image of little Mira abruptly stopped mid-motion.
Kaelen pointed to the background behind Mira. “Look at the wood on that park bench. And look at the structure of the tree beside it.”
Ivo moved closer, studying the image. “What's wrong?”
“The park in Sector 4 was built in 2183,” Kaelen said, his eyes narrowing. “When Mira disappeared in 2181, that park didn't exist yet. And this type of tree... it's a synthetic tree developed by Soma's biology division and released just three years ago.”
Nix enlarged the projection's background, analyzing the pixels and the code that composed them. The digital lens in his eye blinked rapidly.
“You're right, Vance,” Nix said quietly. “The physical details are contradictory. This isn't a pure memory recorded directly through a child's eyes.”
“Then what is it?” Kaelen pressed.
“It's a reconstructed memory,” Nix replied, looking at Kaelen gravely. “Someone at Soma Corp took fragments of Mira's original memories, then stitched them together with digital simulations and memories from other subjects. They combined multiple consciousnesses to build the foundational pattern for Aira.”
The holographic projection suddenly shattered into fragments of light that winked out. Aira slumped in her chair, her synthetic breathing rapid and irregular. The red glow around her neck slowly returned to a dull blue radiance.
Kaelen stood motionless in the laboratory, once again dim.
Nausea and cold fury spread through his chest. All this time, he'd thought Aira carried his daughter's soul or complete memories. But the truth was far more horrifying: Soma Corp had treated Mira's memories like pieces of an assembled puzzle, cutting and stitching them together with other souls to create an artificial personality inside this cyborg's body.
Aira slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Kaelen with a dazed, confused gaze.
“Kaelen...” Aira whispered, her voice trembling. “That little girl in the park... I can feel her. But it feels like... like wearing someone else's clothes when they don't fit my body.”
Kaelen looked at Aira. He couldn't direct his anger at Soma Corp toward the biosynthetic girl in front of him. Aira wasn't the perpetrator; Aira was another victim of Vektor Vane's cruel experiment.
Kaelen stepped closer, then extended his intact hand to gently pat Aira's shoulder.
“It's not your fault,” Kaelen said, his voice softening but remaining firm. “We'll figure out which parts truly belong to you, and which parts Soma stole.”
Nix stared at his main monitoring screen, which had suddenly filled with flashing red text.
“We've got a new problem, Vance,” Nix said, his voice tense again. “That power anomaly we were tracking... one of its peaks just triggered a security scan across the entire lower sector. Soma knows someone is trying to map their network.”
Kaelen adjusted the pistol at his waist and looked at Nix. “How much time do we have before they find this place?”
Nix shut down the projection of the Aethelgard map. “Enough time to make our next plan... or enough time to realize this city is getting ready to swallow us alive.”