When my words ended, the silence in the lab grew heavier still. I hadn't merely confessed a secret; I had placed the darkest corner of my soul—my greatest nightmare—into someone else's hands. Head bowed, nails digging into my palms, I waited for the verdict.
For a long while Valsera didn't move. I could hear only her breathing. Then she took a few steps—but not toward me. She went to the nearest monitor. Her fingers skimmed the screen that showed my biometrics, heart-rate graph, brain-wave map.
"How long have you... been able to communicate?" she asked. Her voice wasn't that of a doctor addressing a patient; it held the cool, distant curiosity of an explorer noting the behavior of a never-before-seen species. "The presence in your mind... can I see it here as an anomaly? Does its voice have a frequency?"
It was the last reaction I expected. My blood froze.
"This isn't data, Valsera!" I shouted, a mix of defiance and despair in my voice. "It's a nightmare living inside me—trying to kill me!"
The emotional outburst snapped her back. She tore her eyes from the numbers and, for the first time, truly looked at me. She saw not a subject but a frightened, suffering boy. The analytic mask slipped.
"You're right," she said. "I'm sorry."
Then—without looking at the readouts but somewhere beyond them, as if staring at an unseen pattern woven through the universe—she spoke.
"When I lay in that wreck, losing consciousness... I didn't feel emptiness, Okan," she said, voice almost reverent. "I felt a presence. In the cold, dark rubble I knew someone would find me. I couldn't explain it."
Slowly she walked back toward me.
"And now I understand. It's fate. The universe sent you to save my life, and now it entrusts me with this secret so I can repay that debt."
In that instant I realized: my greatest fear was her proof. My nightmare was her sign.
"Their blind protocol," she said, contempt curling around the mention of Serynox plans. "They'll treat that guest inside you like a disease to be cut out. That would kill you. They don't grasp that it's no longer separate—you and it are intertwined." She stopped, meeting my eyes. "This will remain our secret. Tell no one."
I saw then she wasn't just a scientist; she was a believer.
"If fate fused you with this 'echo,' my task isn't to tear you apart. My task is to see you win the war."
She strode to the bio-synthesizer across the lab. Her fingers flew over the lit panel.
"Their genetic reshaper is poison," she said, eyes never leaving the screen, "but in every toxin hides the seed of an antidote. I'll work all night. Using your DNA and the echo's energy signature, I'll craft a personalized balancing serum."
She turned to me, eyes shining with both scientific brilliance and unwavering allegiance.
"This serum won't destroy the echo. It'll translate—help your body learn that alien language and impose your own rules. It will make you its master. Then, when they inject tomorrow's genetic material, it will align with your DNA, turning poison into medicine."
"What if it doesn't work?" I asked, unable to hide the fear in my voice.
For the first time she gave a true smile.
"Then," she said, "at least I'll have fought to the end—solving the universe's most fascinating puzzle as a scientist, and repaying my life-debt as a friend."
She laid a hand on my shoulder—a comrade's touch, not a commander's.
"This is our battle now, Okan. Go. When Lynx collects you at dawn, act as always. Let no one suspect. Buy me every last minute. I need... to work."
YOU ARE READING
GATE: First Encounter
FantasyA stranger in his own body... An intruder in his own mind... Okan had no idea he was living the last ordinary day of his life. When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in his own bed but a captive on Aetherion-a distant world beyond the stars. How...
