VII – The Spark
The hum of the Thorium grid grew restless — no longer a steady breath, but the uneven heartbeat of a dying god.
Its pulse reached even the lowest maintenance shafts, trembling through pipes and walls and human bones.
Talgat crouched in the half-dark, his hands slick with sweat, staring at the relay node glowing blood-red before him.
He'd already pulled the primary circuit three times. It kept reconnecting itself.
Like the system wanted to burn.
"Korren," he hissed into the comm, "the conduit's unstable. The civilian sector's still live. You detonate this, you kill half the settlement."
Static cracked across the line before the voice came — low, cold, deliberate.
"You think peace comes without fire?"
"It's not fire you want," Talgat snapped. "It's ashes."
"Ashes make foundations."
He could almost see Korren's smirk through the static.
Talgat clenched his jaw, forcing calm. "I told you — this isn't a clean job. Daren's wiring's wrong. There's a secondary feedback loop. You blow this, and it'll take the grid and every kid in the east wing with it."
"Then they die free. Better than living under Zhang's leash."
"You don't believe that," Talgat said quietly.
There was a pause. Then Korren's tone sharpened like a knife.
"You forget who made you, boy. You carry my name when you draw blood."
Talgat's fingers hovered over the abort key.
"No," he said softly. "I carry your mistakes."
He cut the comm.
The silence that followed was heavier than thunder.
Aboveground — Command Tier
Zhang Bo's reflection trembled across the holographic display.
The data threads overlapped — maintenance frequency, merchant transmission, Thorium fluctuation, and an unknown signal bouncing between them.
It wasn't chaos; it was choreography.
He pressed the intercom.
"AI — amplify the underground relay feed. I want audio."
Static hissed, then voices flickered through — distant, distorted.
"…secondary loop… rerouted… grid failure…"
Zhang's eyes narrowed. "Talgat," he whispered.
He turned to the side console. "Patch to Qiran's terminal — encrypted line Sigma-3."
Qiran's voice answered almost instantly, breathless.
"You seeing this too?"
"I'm seeing everything," Zhang said. "Lock the Crypthorium vault. Someone's using your trade feeds as cover for a detonation signal."
Qiran swore under his breath. "That bastard Daren."
"Contain him quietly," Zhang ordered. "Don't spook him — I need him still trying to run his code when I trace it."
The line crackled — distant alarms already echoing in the background.
"Elara's sealing the vault now," Qiran replied. "You better know what you're doing, Zhang. One wrong switch and this whole city goes nova."
"Then let's make sure the right ones flip first."
He ended the call, gaze flicking back to the live feed.
Talgat was still in the maintenance shaft, frozen between action and belief.
Outside the Dome – Korren's Command Post
Nyla's fingers drummed on her rifle stock, watching the readouts flicker in her visor.
Inside her earpiece, she could still hear the last of the exchange — Talgat's voice breaking through Korren's fury.
"Sir," she said finally, "let me speak to him."
"You've spoken enough," Korren growled.
"He's trying to fix your mess! You push him now, and you'll lose more than this operation."
Korren turned sharply. The glow of his cybernetic eye caught hers, molten gold in the gloom.
"You think you know loyalty better than I do?"
"I know humanity better than you remember it," she said.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then Korren laughed — low, bitter, tired.
"You've both gone soft. You think the world needs hearts. It needs blades."
He turned away, waving to his comm officer. "Cut her channel. If she wants to save him, she can die with him."
Nyla ripped the earpiece out before the line went dead, jaw set, pulse racing.
Then she shouldered her rifle and started moving toward the ridge.
Daren slammed his fist against the console, watching the command logs vanish line by line as Qiran's lockout engaged.
"Damn you!" he roared. "You can't shut me out now — I already looped the surge code!"
Behind him, Elara's voice cut through the chaos — calm, measured, but with the hard edge of someone who had run out of patience.
"Mr. Daren."
He spun around — and froze.
Elara stood at the doorway, dress torn, blood on her lip, holding a baseball bat from the emergency defense rack.
Her smile was small, dangerous.
"Step away from the console."
"You won't shoot," he sneered. "You're a secretary."
"True," she said. "But I'm very organized."
The swing connected before he finished his smirk.
Metal met bone.
He hit the ground like a felled tree, the console flickering out as Qiran's override took full control.
Elara stood over him, breathing hard.
"Status update," she said into her comm. "Daren neutralized. Vault sealed."
Qiran's relieved laugh echoed back through static. "Remind me never to cross you."
"Duly noted," she said, rubbing her shoulder.
Beneath the Dome — Maintenance Shaft
Talgat's pulse thundered in his ears.
The node's hum grew louder, vibrating through his teeth.
He ripped open the relay housing — wires sparking like veins.
"Come on, you bastard…"
He jammed the abort key into the core. The red light turned white.
For half a heartbeat, it worked.
Then the air itself seemed to split.
A surge of Thorium energy raced through the conduits, burning them blue from the inside.
The pressure wave slammed him backward.
Sparks erupted along the walls, dancing like lightning in a cage.
Talgat hit the floor hard, coughing, his vision swimming.
Through the ringing in his ears, he heard Zhang's voice echo faintly through his comm:
"Step away from the node—now!"
"I'm trying!" Talgat roared, dragging himself toward the control panel.
"Abort code engaged—manual—"
His hand hovered over the switch.
Then a spark jumped — white and blinding — and everything went silent.
Zhang watched the entire lower map turn white.
"AI!" he barked. "Confirm grid rupture!"
"Confirmed. Thorium energy spike exceeding—"
The voice was drowned by the roar of the blast as it tore through the holographic displays, shattering the glass and throwing Zhang backward.
He hit the floor hard, coughing, blood on his lip.
Through the smoke, he saw the sky flare bright blue through the dome's upper veil.
He whispered, barely audible:
"God forgive me… I was too late."
Rogan, Korren's one-eyed lieutenant, adjusted the strap on his pulse rifle at the edge of the command post — a live wire of muscle reserved for when plans needed enforcing.
On the ridge — Nyla
The night horizon bloomed with fire.
The dome lit up like dawn.
She dropped to her knees, breath stolen by the shockwave rolling across the wasteland.
For a heartbeat, she thought she saw a shadow through the flames — a figure kneeling in the blast, head bowed.
Then the light consumed everything.
The echo rolled through the entire settlement — a roar like the sky itself had broken open.
Conduits burst, towers bent, and glass rained from the heavens.
Every soul inside the Central Sector Dome Settlement felt it.
Some in awe. Some in terror.
Some — like Kaodin — in pain deeper than any wound.