Chapter 9: Almost Normal?
She paused the video and turned to him, her voice lowering. "This stays between us, but do you remember when we were kids and Planet Cradle got exiled after the civil war and the nuclear fallout?"
Elias's face tightened, and he looked away. "Yeah, I remember. I don't like thinking about it."
Elara nodded slowly, giving him space before continuing. "Well, the cube that hovered above their planet back then? It's activated again. And this time, it's different."
"The cube?" Elias repeated, frowning. "What does that mean—'activated'?"
"It means," Elara said, leaning forward, "it's done something no one expected. Pieces of it shot across the globe, and the military believes it's chosen hosts—for reasons we can't begin to understand."
Elias let out a short, humorless laugh. "Hosts? That's a hell of a leap. Maybe it just blew up. Random chance, nothing more."
Elara studied him closely for a moment, her expression unreadable. Then she stood, undoing the buttons of her Platoon Commander jacket. Her movements were calm and deliberate, but Elias tensed, a flicker of unease crossing his face.
"What are you doing?" he asked, his tone wary.
Underneath the jacket, she wore a white, skin-tight shirt with a faint hexagonal pattern that caught the hospital's sterile light. Just above her right breast, a small blue rivet gleamed faintly, its surface almost crystalline. The light from it seemed alive, shifting subtly as she moved. Elias's eyes widened, his breath catching.