Chapter 24 · The Vessel List

The vault door wasn't locked.

That should've been the first warning. Elara's hand hovered over the biometric pad, her pulse hammering in her ears, but the door just slid open. Smooth. Silent. Like it'd been waiting for them.

"That's not right," Nora said behind her.

Kane was already inside. His hand went to his weapon, scanning the rows of crystalline memory cores that lined the walls. Each one pulsed with a faint blue glow, thousands of them, stacked floor to ceiling in a grid that stretched back into the dark.

"Stay close," he said. Not looking at her. His voice had that flat edge it got when he was remembering something he didn't want to.

Elara stepped in. The air tasted metallic, cold enough to sting her throat. The cores hummed, a low frequency that made her teeth ache. She'd worked emergency dispatch for three years and never once been cleared for memory vault access. Nobody got cleared. Not unless Silas Morn signed off personally.

"We're looking for vessel candidates," Nora said, moving to the nearest terminal. Her fingers flew across the interface. "Should be flagged in red. Anyone tagged for core compatibility.