Observation Deck, Skel Terminus Cradle Facility
Ballas stood alone before the glass, arms folded behind his back, watching the boy struggle on the cradle platform. Half-naked, limbs shaking, skin slick with sweat. The training implants hadn't settled yet, and the Helminth culture had only just begun to bond with his nervous system.
But it wasn’t the Helminth that interested him.
It was the light.
Not bioluminescence. Not energy leakage. Something else—something… disobedient. His skin shimmered at times, veins pulsing with a pale, almost translucent glow. Like Voidlight caught under flesh. Not constant—only under stress. And now, awake and disoriented, the patterns danced like living calligraphy.
“Aberrant genetic oscillations,” Ballas murmured.
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No known pathogen. No void exposure—not officially. No progenitor patterns. The boy’s genetic code was clean, but incomplete. Synthetic in places, overwritten in others. A patchwork, but not one of his own design.
He turned to the hovering meditech drone.
“Has the lineage been traced?”
The drone pulsed once. Negative.
“Is it synthetic?”
Another pulse. Uncertain.
“Then it is naturally occurring,” Ballas said, voice low. And that makes it more valuable than any lab-grown defect.
He tapped the glass once with an ivory fingertip.
“We won’t stabilize it. Not yet. I want to see what the oscillation does under stress—under strain. Begin Helminth integration, but delay full protoframe bonding until I give the word.”
He tapped the comms rune.
“Catalog the oscillation markers and file a dormant transfer requisition to Lua archives. Don’t log it locally. And send an encrypted request to House Entrati. Tell them… I’ve found something they might like to look into.”
The meditech hesitated. “They’re in isolation, sir. Refused external comms, stating Sir Albrecht is involved in some risky experiments.”
Ballas’s smile was thin, amused.
“Then send a seed packet. They’ll answer if they’re curious.”
