Daniel hit the floor hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs.
For a moment, all he could hear was a ringing in his ears and the distant groan of stressed metal. Dust drifted down through the dim emergency lights as the resonance chamber struggled to keep power.
"Sarya!" he shouted as soon as he could breathe again.
There was no answer.
The resonance circle in the center of the room was empty. The glowing braid that had filled it moments ago was gone, and the air felt hollow without its hum.
Mara pushed herself upright, blood trickling from a cut at her temple. She scanned the circle, then the projection wall, then Daniel.
"She didn't fall," she said. "She was pulled."
On the main screen, the merged hostile mass continued moving toward Earth. It pulsed slowly, like a massive heart beating in space. Without the filament piercing it, there was nothing slowing its advance.
