The Restoration of Flaws (The Phantom of the Earth Book 5) by Raeden Zen Page B

familiar to Oriana. “Dr. Kole Shrader you know. Dr. Luella Shrader and Dr. Ivo Ludlow you do not. They perished during an earlier Regenesis procedure … gone wrong. We’ve developed metamorphic synsuits that will disguise you as these scientists. The primary entrance inspectors won’t know you’re imposters until it’s too late.”
    “And if they do?”
    The hologram shifted to an island of glaciers, mountains, and volcanoes. The view plunged to the body of water labeled THINGVALLAVATN. On the island in the lake’s center, the portal through space-time remained. On one of the smaller islands near the lake’s edge, a green beacon moved to the cove labeled TRIPLE DROP CAVE.
    Heywood pointed. “An alternative entry point, on the far end of the facility. The ramps will on occasion line up near this cave to allow for small engineering crews to enter. Our schematics suggest the cave is narrow, dangerous, with deep pits. Whether from the primary entrance or Triple Drop Cave, your mission is to descend to the Hexagon, connect to the primitive mainframe through the zeropoint field, retrieve the synthesis for the Reassortment Strain, and escape as fast as possible.”
    “To what time in the past do you send us?” Oriana said.
    Heywood looked at Ruiner. “With your skill in the zeropoint field, Captain, I expect you to manipulate the quantum numbers of the dense exotic matter, allowing for entry to Iceland in the year 2, Before Reassortment.”
    Ruiner seemed to ponder this comment. He held both his hands at the collar of his bodysuit and squeezed, looking up, then to Heywood, he said, “Don’t you think that’s too close to the Death Wave? Don’t you think 10 BR or 15 BR would be safer?”
    Heywood pushed his disheveled hair away from his forehead. “Captain, you must be precise, you must take your team to the year 2 BR, for this is when we believe the final iterations of the Reassortment Strain were synthesized, and it is the data from these final iterations that Antosha seeks.”
    Ruiner hesitated. “Fine.”
    “If your surveillance bots obtained this much information,” Pasha said, “why not program them to traverse the facility or download the data externally?”
    “The z-wall and defenses are too powerful,” Heywood countered, “and Antosha will not place the fate of this mission in the hands of bots.”
    “But he’d trust it in the hands of inexperienced, ineffectual neophytes,” Mintel said. He laughed. “Apologies, Supreme Scientist Querice, submit my insubordination if you will, but what you speak is such folly I cannot sit here in silence.”
    He stood up and swayed through the holograms to the twins. “I have no doubt you two are skilled. A top performance in the Harpoons among thirteen-million-plus transhumans is admirable, but this isn’t a simulation. This isn’t a game or an exam. The battles waged upon the Earth were unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed, and the Western Hegemony Guard will kill you. They’ll kill our captain—”
    “I won’t allow that,” Pasha said.
    “We’ll prepare them,” Dahlia said. “We’ll—”
    “No,” Mintel said, pointing at her, “don’t you give in to this travesty.”
    “Please, end this,” Ruiner said. Toward Mintel, he gently raised and lowered his hand. “These are the parameters set forth by the commonwealth, and we must execute the mission the way the chancellor expects.”
    Mintel sat down and crossed his arms with a scowl.
    “Antosha mentioned that I’d be … enhanced,” Pasha said. “What did he mean?”
    Oriana turned to him, eyebrows raised.
    “Yes!” Heywood said. “You shall be fused with a prototype synsuit, which I understand is the most powerful we’ve ever created, forged from the alien species known as the Lorum.”

ZPF Impulse Wave: Verena Iglehart
    Hydra Hollow
     
    300 meters deep
     
    Verena looked upon the long and weary faces of the BP spread about the bazaar. They all sensed an inevitable end. She