Elara's presence was like cold static—silent but charged. She moved with precision, every step calculated, like someone who'd stood in both labs and warzones.
The five stared at her, not one of them reaching for a weapon, but none letting their guard down.
Pulse crossed his arms.
> "We don't take outside jobs. We're freelance now."
Elara raised an eyebrow.
> "Freelancers don't fold into classified zones and steal government antimatter. That's not freelance—that's suicidal."
Vian stepped forward.
> "You said you're from the Entropic Syndicate. We've never worked with ghosts."
> "You've worked around us," Elara said, pulling out a small device and placing it on the crate between them. "We've made sure you never got caught."
The device glowed. Projected into the air was a silent, rotating image: a structure—half alien, half mechanical—floating inside a red void.
> "This," she continued, "is called The Cradle. It exists in a time-locked region inside the collapsed remains of the Epsilon Rift. Sealed, buried, erased from known maps. And yet, it's still alive."
Ravi frowned.
> "Alive?"
> "Biotechnological," she explained. "Part machine, part sentient. It contains a pre-collapse relic… one that can rewind spacetime in a local sector."
Everyone went still.
Ishan leaned forward.
> "You're talking about a reset drive. A functioning one?"
Elara nodded.
> "One-of-a-kind. And the Syndicate wants it retrieved before the Earth Core Intelligence gets there first."
Pulse let out a long breath.
> "And you want us because we're the only ones stupid enough to enter a rift fold."
> "No," Elara said. "I want you because you're the only ones who already survived one."
They all looked at each other.
Sairaj finally spoke.
> "What's the cut?"
Elara smiled faintly.
> "Fifty percent of the tech, full amnesty in seven systems, and a new foldship. Clean IDs. You vanish—forever."
It was everything they'd ever wanted.
But Ravi shook his head.
> "If this Cradle thing is sentient, it won't just let us take anything. Especially not something that controls time."
Elara locked eyes with him.
> "That's why you're going in first."
A long silence fell over the vault.
Ishan turned to the team.
> "We vote. One fold, one job. Then we vanish."
They nodded, one by one.
Pulse last.
> "One last heist."
The light of the Cradle's image flickered in their eyes—red, ancient, waiting.