Consciousness slammed into Tian Wei like molten lead. Every nerve screamed as if his body were forged in a furnace.
His cracked chronometer flickered: 6:23 AM. Thirty-six minutes since the catastrophe.
The laboratory around him was no longer a sanctum of science.
It was a battlefield.
Cables sparked across the floor like dying serpents. Twisted steel jutted out like broken bones. The air reeked of ozone and burned circuitry, every breath heavy with the stench of failure.
Elena stirred beside him, her cheek bruised, eyes unfocused.
Kai pushed himself upright, his gaze already cataloging the destruction with mechanical detachment—an engineer's instinct masking despair.
Amara checked her neural crown, only to find it fractured… two years of enhancements gone in a heartbeat.
And there—standing like an executioner—was the PEC1R.
Cracked.
Silent.
Its pristine surface now a jagged scar, mocking everything they had sacrificed.
The ERF-7 lay in two shattered halves, its crystalline core glowing faintly—like the last breath of a dying star.
But the true devastation was not what they could see.
It was what the surviving displays revealed:
The main fusion reactor offline, leaving them crawling on 30% emergency power.The hyperloop network dead.Communications unstable.Containment fields barely at 40%, dozens of dangerous projects threatening to unravel at any moment.
The walk toward the residential sector was like a funeral march. Emergency lighting bled red through the halls, turning every familiar wall into the backdrop of a dystopia. Error messages flickered in every language across failing holo-screens.
When they entered the central atrium, silence greeted them.
Not relief.
Judgment.
One hundred eighty-five faces turned toward them.
Fear. Anger. Betrayal.
Four others were absent—still fighting for life in the medical bay because of Tian's midnight gamble.
The four scientists sat on the central sofa like defendants before a tribunal.
The air was suffocating.
Marcus Torres broke it first. His broad frame and gravel voice carried the weight of years.
"What the hell happened down there? The entire complex shook! Billions in equipment—destroyed! My daughter woke up screaming!"
His words cracked the dam.
Others followed—complaints of children crying in the dark, fragile equipment failing, lives teetering on the edge because of one man's choice.
Elena couldn't hold it any longer. She shot to her feet, fury blazing in her eyes.
"You conducted an unauthorized experiment! You bypassed every safety protocol! Three years, Tian! Three years of trust—and you risked everything!"
Kai's voice came next, cold and precise like a blade.
"Seventeen safety protocols overridden. 2.4 terawatts forced through unrated systems. Magnetic fields at 847 tesla."
A flick of his wrist brought up damage reports in cold holographic light.
"Are you insane?"
Amara's voice was quieter, but sharper than either. She raised her broken crown like a symbol of betrayal.
"Probability of success: 0.0003%. Probability of catastrophic failure: 87.4%. You gambled with our lives… for less than a coin toss."
The crowd erupted.
"Reckless!"
"Dangerous!"
"Criminal negligence!"
Their voices merged into a storm.
For the first time, Tian Wei—once their leader—stood alone in the center of the tempest.
Three years of partnership. Three years of shared dreams.
All erased in thirty-six minutes.
But it was Elena's words that cut deepest.
She turned to him, her voice trembling not with rage, but with something far worse.
Disappointment.
"We were partners… I trusted you."
The words hit harder than the quantum shockwave itself.
Tian opened his mouth, desperate to explain—the Archive discovery, the ERF-7, the impossible glimpse of 99.7% coherence. To tell them that for a moment, just a moment, humanity had stood on the edge of eternity.
But when he spoke, his voice cracked.
"Elena, I—"
She cut him off.
Her eyes were cold.
Her voice final.
"No. Don't. Just… don't."
The silence that followed was heavier than steel. Even the emergency systems seemed to hold their breath, waiting.
And in that moment, Tian Wei finally understood.
He had reached for the stars—
And grasped only ashes.