Ellara placed the black cube inside *The Nameless*'s **quantum isolation chamber**, its walls glowing with the eerie blue aura of Lyman Crystals. The light cast web-like patterns across the cube's surface. She peeled off her gloves — scorched by sulfuric exposure — and adjusted the focus of her cybernetic eye, tracking the subtle shifts in the cube's engravings. "Initiate Level One scan," she said softly, tapping the control panel. Three beams of differing frequencies swept over the object simultaneously. Saint Dove Core's holographic projection solidified beside the lab table, data streams flowing around her like liquid light. Unexpectedly, the standard scans yielded nothing. X-rays passed through as if it were air. Neutron beams detected no atomic structure. Even the quantum resonance scanner remained silent. Frowning, Ellara increased the scanning intensity. "Wait—" Saint Dove Core suddenly interrupted — and for a brief moment, the chamber's light twisted unnaturally. A single engraving on the cube flared violet, and instantly, the entire lab's power grid began to fluctuate. In the red glow of emergency lighting, Ellara saw her own shadow split across the wall — three distinct silhouettes: one operating controls, one raising a weapon, and one… vanishing. **"Temporal interference!"** She slammed the emergency containment button. The Lyman Crystal barrier surrounding the chamber surged to maximum output. The cube lifted into the air, slowly rotating within the shield. The engravings became clear now — a star map of some kind, but not aligned with any known coordinate system. Ellara pulled up the holographic recording from the canyon. When the two images overlapped, the main display flickered with an unexpected burst of encrypted data. Saint Dove Core initiated decryption immediately — but the progress bar froze at 15%. "I need more processing power," Ellara muttered, then without hesitation, she directly linked her neural interface to the console. Pain exploded behind her temples as a flood of raw data surged into her mind. At the edge of consciousness, she saw— A massive ring-shaped construct floating near the edge of the Milky Way, large enough to dwarf a star. Countless Phantom-class warships streamed from its docking ports, each carrying a black cube. The image shifted — a magma-covered planet (was it Blackstone?) cracked open, revealing the truth beneath: the entire world was a planetary-scale factory, producing blackstone crystals in vast quantities… **"Commander!"** Saint Dove Core's voice yanked her back to reality. Ellara found herself on her knees, blood filling her nostrils with a metallic tang. The cube had stilled — but a new marking now glowed on its surface. It was a countdown. **[71:59:59]** — and ticking down. Saint Dove Core displayed the damage report. "Your hippocampus has been exposed to trace temporal particles. Recommend immediate quantum purification." Ellara wiped the blood from her nose, eyes locked on the countdown. Then came the piercing wail of the ship's alarm. The radar officer's voice cut through the comm: **"Massive spatial distortion detected! The Corridor above the Wastes of Time is expanding rapidly!"** She burst onto the bridge just as the main screen displayed the impossible. Over the **Wastes of Time**, countless time rifts were weaving together like a net. And beyond them, faint yet unmistakable, was the outline of the colossal ring-structure she had just seen in her vision. The countdown blinked silently in the corner of her vision. **[71:48:32]** "All hands, battle stations," Ellara's voice was eerily calm. "Prepare for jump to the Wastes of Time. Saint Dove Core, begin decrypting the cube's navigation data." As she reached for the console, she noticed something chilling — fine black engravings had begun to crawl along her fingertips, spreading slowly, invisibly.
