Chapter 37: The First Echoes
A thunderous silence was the first thing to greet Zen's returning consciousness... The alarms had fallen away, leaving only a deep, low thrum that vibrated in a steady rhythm... Thrum... thrum... thrum...
He opened his eyes slowly. His body felt impossibly heavy, as if crushed by an immense pressure. He pushed himself to sit up. The first thing he saw was the lab in ruins, equipment strewn about from the concussive force. But at the room's center... the Soul Core levitated with serene calm, the gold and blue light within it pulsing like a living heart. He felt... different. His Resonance was sharper, clearer than it had ever been. He could faintly "feel" the presence of the others lying unconscious around him.
"Ngh..." A groan came from his side. Zaria was slowly stirring. She sat up, dazed. "What... what happened..." Suddenly, a soft, golden luminescence began to pour from her very skin! "What!?" Zaria cried out in shock, holding up her hands to stare at the light emanating from her own body in disbelief.
"Hey! My shadow! My shadow's moving on its own!" Karess's voice yelled from the other side of the room. He had staggered to his feet and was pointing at his own shadow on the floor, which was writhing, twisting into a seated position even as he stood.
Zip! Dr. Aris's body, just as he was about to rise, vanished and reappeared in a corner of the room, before blinking out again and reappearing on top of an experiment table. "I'm losing control—I can't stop!" he cried out in terror.
"Everyone, be quiet! Please, just be quiet!" Lina, clutching her temples, screamed, tears streaming down her face. "The voices... everyone's voices... they're too loud in my head!"
Zen scrambled to his feet amidst the chaos. He tried to make sense of the situation before turning to Zaria. "Zaria... are you alright?"
Zaria shook her head, the light on her body flickering before slowly fading. "I'm fine... but what was that... and everyone else..."
Before they could draw any conclusions, an emergency alert from the main comms system blared across all channels. Holographic screens projected CCTV footage from all over the command center and the orbiting "Aurora's Path"... images of chaos erupting among every single person.
"Shut down all external communications, now!" Zaria commanded swiftly. "Dr. Aris, Lina, Karess... regroup here!"
When the core team of five was once again assembled amidst the wreckage of the lab, Zaria turned to ask the question on everyone's mind. "Zen... can you explain what just happened?"
Zen nodded slowly, his eyes still fixed on the living core. "I... I think I'm beginning to understand," he said. "It must have been the Solen rune... the one I created myself from studying the runic language."
He used his finger to draw the Ƨ symbol in the air. It appeared as a faint, golden line of light, much like how Tony Stark would construct a model. "I call it 'Solen'... 'Sol' from soul... 'Len' from lens, or to see... When we can see the soul, we can change anything."
He continued, "Its power is a mirror. It reflects what is, what the user thinks, and manifests that thought into reality if we have enough 'belief'... Our Runic Cell experiment... its equation was: Brain > Ore > Rune. The Resonexium ore acted like a BCI, receiving thought waves from the brain, sending them to the inscribed rune pattern, and then the rune drew fusion energy to make it real."
"And the reason we all have powers... is likely because when the Soul Core fused with Eidolon... the Solen rune unleashed its energy and amplified the 'thought waves' of every one of us in that split second, turning them into reality. Because it was exactly what we were thinking at that moment."
He turned to Karess. "Karess... when the light flashed, what were you thinking?"
"To escape, obviously! Why would I stick around!?" Karess answered instantly. "I thought it was going to blow, so I had to get out!"
Dr. Aris added, "Yes! I thought the same, that it was definitely going to explode! If I could just warp out, I would have made it in time!"
"I thought I had to rush to you..." Zaria said, looking at Zen. "But why didn't I get wings?" she smiled, amused.
"It might be what's deep in your subconscious, or your true nature... what you truly desire... which is to 'protect'," Zen answered. Now they understood... the powers that had just awakened came from the deepest parts of their own minds.
Suddenly, the damaged lab door slid open. Sylvester and Lysera walked in with four guards, who still looked on high alert.
"Alright, now that we have some understanding of the situation," Sylvester said, his voice flat and cold. "We don't know the extent of what's happening outside from those alarms, or if the workers have experienced the same strangeness as you all have... Zaria... I want you to make an announcement for everyone outside and on the ship to assemble in the central conference hall. Immediately."
Zaria nodded. "Everyone! To the central conference hall, now!" her voice boomed through the command center's comms system. "I repeat, everyone must come now!"
When the first group of 198 awakened individuals had gathered in the grand conference hall, the atmosphere was filled with confusion and fear. A cacophony of panicked voices filled the air. Zen tried to explain, but his voice was swallowed by the chaos. But then, when Lysera stepped forward and spoke with a calm voice, just a single sentence, "Everyone... please listen to me," everything went quiet, subdued by her strange new power of persuasion.
Zen then got the chance to explain the events and the theory he had just discovered, before Sylvester appeared on the main hologram screen, his expression stern and decisive.
"What has happened here is a matter of the highest secrecy," he declared. "From this moment forward, this planet enters a state of absolute quarantine. All communication with the outside world will be severed. All of you will be transferred to become personnel of Solendel Corporation... and any violation of this order or attempt to contact outsiders... will be met with fatal consequences."
The chilling threat silenced everyone... they realized in that instant that their lives had been changed... forever.