Lt. Solari Rath's Arc

Chapter 6 of 12

Solari's hand slipped during the twelve-second hold. The energy sphere exploded outward in a wave of blue fire that knocked her backward into the wall. Her modified glove melted at the fingertips. The lab's safety systems engaged, flooding the room with dampening foam. She sat in the foam for a full minute, breathing hard. The emergency rods mounted above her workbench discharged the excess energy in crackling arcs. Lightning danced between the twin metal poles as they vented the dangerous buildup into the ground. Without them, the whole lab would have blown. She pulled off what remained of her glove and dropped it. The focusing strips she'd spent weeks perfecting were charred black. Outside the lab, she walked past the monument near the plaza. Jagged crystal shards pierced through scorched metal plates, a reminder of the last major containment failure before she arrived. That explosion had killed two researchers and destroyed half the eastern wing. She stopped and touched the cold metal surface. Six months of progress, and she was still making mistakes that could end the same way. Her demonstration footage was already broadcasting across research stations, showing her ten-second success. Now she couldn't even hold twelve. The metal tree stood near the settlement's edge, its iron branches reaching upward as electricity arced between the limbs. Someone had built it after the first year of failed experiments, a marker of survival through repeated disaster. Solari leaned against its trunk and watched the energy flow through the branches in steady pulses. The planet wasn't getting easier to master. Her body wasn't adapting fast enough. She flexed her burned fingers and looked back at her lab. Tomorrow she'd need new gloves, new focusing strips, and a better plan. But tonight all she had was proof that twelve seconds was still too far beyond her reach.