Ethan woke to a scraping sound, raw and insistent, cutting straight through his skull. His eyes opened reluctantly, vision swimming as he searched for its source. He lifted a hand to his temples, pressing against the dull, pounding ache, and that was when memory began to seep back in.
"AIMI, apply the revised genomic lattice. Advance the primary trigger by zero-point-six-three milliseconds. Commence synthesis of Aeternum Serum V3.3."
The walls of the lab rose around him. The white, sterile lights, cold counters, the slightly audible hum of the sequencer tower.
AIMI's hologram emerged beside him, her form building itself from pixels into a tall, slender, blue-lit silhouette.
"Recalibration complete," she said. "Overall serum stability increased by zero-point-zero-five percent. Trigger-node volatility reduced by two-point-six. Cellular overgrowth probability now registering at point-four."
"This progress is not adequate." Months of refinement and simulations, and the serum had not reached his desired threshold.
Ethan drifted toward the observation window. Beyond the crystal pane lay XE3495B—humanity's most beautiful discovery, and its most dangerous.
Below, blue and green vegetation glimmered with faint internal light. Creatures moved through it, tearing and reforming, bodies knitting themselves back together after wounds that would have ended any Earth-born life.
They lived beyond death. A living record of continuity, sustained by an unseen lattice of microorganisms threaded through every organism on the planet, feeding, repairing, refusing decay.
For almost ten years, Ethan had worked to decipher the parasite's gift of immortality. Yet every trial collapsed into disaster. The micro-organism inevitably overpowered the host's mind, stripping away identity and leaving behind a reanimated shell—another drone absorbed into the hive mind.
AIMI's voice cut in again.
"Sir… incoming transmission. Titan Foundation Fleet commander Ralvek."
Static swept across the speakers before a heavy voice settled into the room.
"Dr. Vance, this is Commander Ralvek. You are ordered to evacuate immediately. Planet XE3495B will undergo full sterilization in ten minutes."
Ethan stiffened. "You intend to destroy the only stable immortal ecosystem we have ever discovered. Do you comprehend the magnitude of what you're about to erase?"
"The risk level has exceeded acceptable limits," Ralvek replied, voice clipped and cold. "Multiple factions have learned of this facility and are preparing a joint operation to seize the planet. You are to secure essential data and report to the space elevator for evacuation. That is a direct order."
Ethan's voice dropped, sharp as a blade. "The Titan Federation already misused my research on Andraste's Moon colony. You triggered an outbreak you were never equipped to contain. And now you intend to wipe out the only world holding the key to humanity's next evolution?"
Ralvek said nothing more and cut the transmission.
AIMI flickered beside him.
"Sir… neutron reactors are surging. Cannon charges exceed normal thresholds. They are preparing to destroy the planet's core."
Ethan looked upward. Blue veins spread through the sky, an ominous glow threading across the clouds.
"They always choose destruction over understanding. Idiots."
He grabbed the containment case holding Aeternum 3.3 and ran out of the lab.
His coat fluttered as he ran through the glass corridor. Before him, the space elevator stood piercing the clouds.
AIMI drifted beside him, her projection glitching from interference.
"Sir, at your current velocity you will not reach the elevator before impact."
"I am aware," he said, breathing turning rough. "Continue monitoring blast progression."
The sky began to brighten. Veins of blue lightning threaded through the cloud layers, and the air around him quivered, as though the atmosphere itself were drawing breath.
A column of light descended, brighter than any star he had studied, tearing through the sky before driving deep into the planet's crust.
The shockwave followed a heartbeat later. It caught Ethan mid-step and flung him across the deck, the containment case wrenching free from his hands as metal and glass shattered around him.
Ethan struck hard, ribs colliding with steel, the force rippling through his body and stealing the air from his lungs.
The case shattered on impact. The vial inside burst, and blue-silver serum washed over him, finding every open cut, flooding his mouth, searing his eyes as it burned its way inward.
"DAMN IT."
AIMI's hologram reached toward him, her form breaking apart, voice fracturing into static.
"Si…rrrrrr…"
Her final syllable dissolved into silence.
Light engulfed him. The sound collapsed into nothing. Gravity folded in on itself. The planet burst open.
For a brief moment, Ethan's consciousness drifted in absolute darkness.
Ethan woke again to the scraping sound.
This time he tried his best to remain conscious. His head throbbed with a dull ache as he opened his eyes. He searched for the source and found it.
A ceiling fan, ancient and crooked, hung from above, and one bent blade was grinding into the plaster with every rotation.
"What is this place," he muttered.
As his awareness widened, another sensation hit him. The smell reached him first. A mix of iron, feces, urine and rotting dead things.
It took some time for his eyes to adjust to the dim light.
Bodies lay scattered throughout the room. Dozens of them. Most wore similar uniforms, suggesting they were part of the same group. Red armbands marked with a black cross clung to many of their arms, although some corpses no longer had arms attached at all.
Something had torn through them brutally. Limbs were ripped open, torsos split wide, and several bodies bore unmistakable signs of having been eaten.
Inspecting the scratch wounds and the big bite marks gave Ethan goosebumps.
A group of rats scurried away from a shredded corpse as Ethan sat upright. Ethan jumped back, but the effort launched him farther than expected. His body felt unnaturally light. He crashed into the wall.
He stared at his hands. Small scratches from the broken concrete formed on his skin. The skin stitched itself closed under his gaze.
"What happened to me?"
Instinctively he called for AIMI, but the silence was absolute. No hologram appeared. No voice answered.
Looking at his body in a broken mirror, his muscles were defined and proportioned.
He was no longer the middle-aged, half-bald scientist who spent more time in labs than in daylight. His new body looked like someone engineered it to perfection.
Even his face resembled a Fibonacci circle.
He rose and began exploring the facility. It was a compact structure made of crude metal and sand-colored stone. The technology was astonishingly primitive. Every console, every device, every piece of equipment seemed centuries, even millennia behind his era.
The weapons lying around were simple ballistic firearms. Metal bullets. Gunpowder. He recognized the crude design from a museum he once visited.
The smell of decay grew worse as he moved from room to room. Chunks of flesh and dried blood stained the floors and walls. Several doors had been torn off their hinges. It looked as if something had rampaged through the entire place without resistance.
He searched the rooms for anything that could help him survive outside the facility.
He found preserved rations, a metal canteen with drinkable water, two functional firearms with ammunition, and a set of clothing that roughly fit his new physique. He also discovered a large jacket that, though oversized, still suited his taste.
After gathering what he could, he exited the facility. The moment he stepped outside, cold desert air swept against his face. The silence stretched in all directions. Under the moonlight, the landscape revealed itself as an endless desert with no sign of civilization.
Ethan looked back at the building and considered the carnage again. Could he have done this? Had the serum twisted him into something uncontrollable? He pushed the thought aside.
Even with his enhanced strength and speed, the level of brutality inside exceeded anything he believed any human could produce. Something else had been present. Something powerful and hungry.
He refused to wait for it to return.
Ethan adjusted the jacket over his shoulders and began to walk. The moon hung above the desert in a calm, steady arc. He chose to follow it because it was the only constant in this strange, eerie place.
The silence was broken only by the crunch of sand beneath his boots. Eventually, a deep rumbling sound reached his ears. It was heavy and mechanical.
Ethan climbed over a sand dune. Below him, a squat, oddly balanced vehicle crawled across the desert trail… belching thick black smoke from a pipe at its rear.
Human silhouettes stood on the back platform.
Ethan felt a flicker of relief finding some living human. He ran toward them, waving.
The vehicle slowed, then came to a complete stop.
The driver leaned out of the cabin, eyes wide with fear as he stared at the stranger approaching from the dunes. He shouted something, but Ethan could not understand a single word.
Two men jumped down.
One held a rifle pointed directly at Ethan.
The other approached slowly, speaking in a language Ethan did not recognize.
Ethan listened, observed their gestures, and pieced together the intent.
"They want a name," he murmured.
He placed a hand on his chest. "Ethan."
The two men exchanged glances. Their confusion deepened. Their gazes fixed on the red cloth with a black cross on the left hand of his jacket.
Ethan assumed they were asking about the symbol, so he ripped off the cloth and handed it to one of them. Their eyes widened at the red strip.
The one with the rifle circled behind him. Rough hands searched his clothes.
They took his food, his water, and the two handguns he had tucked into his belt. The other man stepped forward and tied Ethan's wrists with coarse rope and pushed him toward the back of the vehicle.