Phase Titan: Omnibus by Leo Hull

Author:Leo Hull [Hull, Leo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

“It’s the only hope,” Ava said. She stood in front of an empty biovat, the Specimen cradled against her shoulder. “And more importantly, you know this is right.”

But Ethan could not imagine anything more wrong. Titan Six’s skeleton in the biovat was bad enough. The corruption he felt whenever Theus opened the conduit to the bones terrified Ethan. It had been Zihan’s idea to stabilize the Specimen in a biovat. She’d discussed the approach with Theus before bringing it to the broader group. To Ethan’s horror, the others immediately took to the idea of placing the Swarm-derived Specimen into the same biovats they used to entangle.

“Theus will keep it isolated,” Ava continued. “Not that it needs to be. The Specimen is an empty vessel. A biological construct with no higher thought.” Or so she and the others claimed based on preliminary scans from Theus and the Hybrid’s intuition. Ethan did not understand the evidence. Doubt seeped into that gap. “We have to keep the Specimen alive.”

So far, the attempts to do so outside of a biovat had not gone well. With her speed and endurance, Ava had reached Theus an hour before the Hybrids. In that time, she started futile rescue attempts, but she also investigated her own suspicions about the Specimen. Ever since coming to Harper, her ears had itched. Since those same ears were sensitive to a Beacon, the itch was a worrying signal even if the sensation differed from that produced by a Beacon.

As soon as Ava had touched the Specimen, she had known it caused the itch. She had told no one until after deciding that the Specimen, while sharing the structure of a Beacon, was something entirely different.

“I don’t get the big deal,” Skye said. “If Theus can perform surgery in these things without leaving a scar, why not put the Specimen in one?”

But, of course, Skye would not understand. A hurried and confusing explanation about Psy and Titans and Harmonics could not prepare her for the reality of entangling, the intimacy of sharing the experience with those you cared about, or the unsettling nature of something other.

On the other hand, they seemed to have no other choice. Separated from Bradley, the Specimen was shriveling before their eyes. Even Mai and Zihan had been unable to slow its withering. Ava knew more about the Swarm than anyone else on Earth, and she was insistent that while the Specimen shared certain biological structures with a Beacon, it was as devoid of the Swarm’s Psy taint as the Hybrids.

“Fine,” Ethan said at last. “But Theus, under no circumstances are you to remove the Specimen’s biovat from isolation. No little peeks of exposure. Nothing except keeping it alive until we have a better handle on what it is.” It was as direct an order as Ethan could think of on the spot. He hoped there was no way for the AI to misinterpret it.

Ava moved quickly, as if afraid he would reconsider. With the Hybrids, Skye, and Olivia

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