The facility Novak brought me to didn’t look like the heart of some breakthrough research. No grandeur, no fshy dispys or gss-panelled walls. But there were plenty of wide, freshly built corridors, clearly designed for scaling up human traffic. The pce was located on the same metro line as the portal, but with a different entrance. Same security level, though. Novak, despite not being a member, had clearance.

  He acted as a living pass for me and led me almost to the core of the project, though I didn’t spot any obvious machinery. Even the office where my direct supervisor met us looked more like a shared bureaucrat’s workspace than a research b.

  He was of average height, lean, with upright posture and the face of someone long accustomed to a ck of sleep, or at least, that’s how he looked. And this was someone on Fourth Stage. To drive a Four this far down, the big boss here had to be a proper tyrant.

  The mid-tier boss’s name was Li Yong-Ru. His gaze was focused, his movements precise, with no wasted motion. When he saw Novak, he gave a slight nod.

  “Master Novak,” he said clearly and politely. “Thank you for making the time.”

  His tone was courteous, almost cautious. He looked Novak straight in the eye, listened closely to every word, didn’t interrupt and didn’t rush his replies. This was someone who fully understood hierarchy, and had trained himself to show it properly.

  “This is Jake,” Novak said. “My personal disciple. Since he’ll be working under your supervision, I decided to introduce you myself.”

  Which basically meant: this one’s mine, don’t break him, or you’ll answer for it.

  The supervisor nodded instantly, without hesitation.

  “Understood, Master Novak.”

  He didn’t even gnce in my direction as he said it. His entire focus remained on Novak.

  Novak spent a few more minutes crifying formal points and making sure Li had fully understood. The supervisor responded briefly, to the point. No attempts to embellish or simplify. From the outside, it looked like a routine professional exchange between two people who knew exactly how the game was pyed.

  Once everything had been said, Novak turned to me.

  “I’ll leave you now,” he said. “Try to avoid unnecessary risk, Jake.”

  “No risk at all, I guarantee it,” Li promised.

  Novak said his goodbyes. Li waited exactly one second after the door closed, then shifted his gaze to me.

  The professional courtesy vanished from him all at once. His shoulders stayed straight, his voice level, but the words had changed. Shorter. Drier.

  “Sullivan,” he said, no longer looking at me but at a tablet. “Space 52. Follow me.”

  It wasn’t an invitation.

  He turned and walked down the corridor without so much as a gnce to check if I was following. I followed.

  “The only risk to you is temporary fatigue,” he said as we walked. “Stick to instructions and there’ll be no problems.”

  We entered a nearby room not far from the office. This one had more equipment, though it was all enclosed, sealed units accessible only via neural interface. To me, it all looked like a wall of glowing red holographic triangles, excmation marks fshing alongside the words Access Denied. An entire wall of it.

  A few people in white b coats worn over grey cadet suits were stationed around the room. Cadets. Two of them looked exhausted, the third still had some energy in him.

  The most worn-out one, grey-faced and slouched on a stool between a water cooler and a tea table, brightened at the sight of me and called out hopefully, “Fresh meat?”

  The supervisor ignored him.

  “This is a work zone,” he went on. “You’ll be tested here.”

  He stopped and finally looked me in the eye.

  “Let me be clear. I’m not your mentor. I’m not your nanny. I have zero interest in your personal development outside of this project. I care about results here. If you don’t meet quota, you’re out.”

  “Could I have a few more details?” I asked.

  He turned and walked over to one of the wall units. I was obviously meant to follow.

  He gestured to two domed protrusions, between which hovered a holographic menu marked with a red triangle.

  “Tests first. Details ter. If you can’t handle this, there won’t be any need for the details.”

  “Hands on the spheres,” Li said. “Channel Space.”

  Using Space qi was always a bit different. It worked nothing like the cssical techniques that flowed along established channels. It’s hard to expin, but Space qi seemed to teleport from your core to the active point on your skin. It was in both pces at once. In the pendant at my neck and in my fingers, as they pulled something from a dimensional pocket. Or all around me, at the same time, when I summoned armour from the same pocket.

  Any other type of qi would’ve been easier to direct into a reservoir. But maybe that was the test.

  I pced my hands on the hemispheres, and the red warning hologram shifted to a blue temporary access screen. It showed only two indicators: energy transferred and purity.

  I made the first test release, pushing out a portion of Space qi through my palms, carefully trying not to drag the machine into the pocket with it. There wasn’t enough room in there for it, and I didn’t fancy breaking the thing.

  The machine accepted the qi without compint, showing a value of 1 on the energy scale. A moment ter, beneath the spheres, where free Space qi should have caused slight spatial rippling, there was only silence. Just the warm pstic under my hands. The machine had absorbed the qi like a vacuum cleaner.

  The purity bar remained empty.

  “Try to maintain a stable flow,” said Li, eyes still on his tablet, not on me. His screen probably showed more data than mine. “Don’t hold back,” he ordered.

  The second release was a bit stronger. I no longer feared overloading the space beneath the spheres, but holding a steady stream for more than a few seconds wasn’t easy. I was used to working in bursts, and the energy scale climbed in fits and starts to match.

  “Faster,” Li said.

  I increased the output, and immediately felt my reserves start dropping fast. Just like back when I practised Hooks with damaged channels.

  I didn’t like this test, but I decided to push on.

  About fifteen minutes in, the machine gave a short beep, marking the energy level at 50 units. The purity bar finally lit up — 89%. That seemed to satisfy Li.

  “Not bad at all,” he said. “Don’t stop.”

  The machine hit 66, and I realised I was sweating and freezing at the same time. The effect, and the whole process, now reminded me of the mirrored Flow Chamber.

  This won’t mess with my cultivation, will it? What’s my reserve looking like?

  Energy: 221/433

  What the hell?

  I stopped and pulled my hands away from the hemispheres. The dispy vanished instantly.

  “Hey!” Li barked. “We’re not done!”

  “I’ve burned through half my reserve already!” I snapped back.

  “Another one!” groaned one of the exhausted b techs.

  “Once again we’re left with all the load,” another one of them muttered.

  “You’re not on holiday,” Li said. “You’re in testing. We’ve only got half the data,” he added. “I need the full volume. Including the reaction to deep depletion.”

  Looked like this was exactly the kind of conversation Novak had prepared me for.

  “No,” I replied. “I’m not interested in deep depletion. I’ll do just fine without it.”

  “Whoa,” one of the techs snickered. “The d’s got bollocks!”

  Li stared at the readings for a few seconds, as if trying to decide whether the problem was with the machine, or with me.

  “I promised Master Novak your safety,” he said. “Not your pce in the project. You’ll be out of here as easily as you got in.”

  Wow. All that prep and soul-searching for what? To get booted out just like that?

  Then again, if I didn’t get kicked out, they’d bleed me dry in here.

  “I understand,” I said. “All the best. Shall I show myself out, or would you prefer to have me escorted?”

  “Huh… solid choice,” one of the techs murmured.

  “Shut your gob!” Li snapped at him. “No one here’s going to miss you. This cadet’s Second Stage and pulled your quota with half his reserve!”

  I gnced at the tech. His tired face twisted with a mix of disbelief and resentment. But he didn’t dare call bullshit to the boss’s face.

  Li cooled off, gnced back at his tablet, and stated, “Total output: 68. Conversion: 3.12. Purity: 88%.”

  He kept staring at the numbers for a few more seconds, as if still deciding whether I was worth the hassle. Then, abruptly, he waved a hand.

  “Expin it to him,” he told the techs.

  The machines around me repced the red access panels with blue ones, adding new indicators to the dispys. Our boss walked out without waiting for a reply. Didn’t even gnce back. The door shut almost silently, and with it, the pressure in the room dropped. Not entirely, but it was suddenly easier to breathe. I hadn’t even noticed he’d been pressing down with his aura.

  The three techs exchanged gnces.

  The one who’d joked earlier stood up and came over. He was thin, grey-skinned, with the red eyes of someone who hadn’t had proper sleep in weeks.

  “Well,” he said. “Welcome to hell.” He nodded toward the storage units. “You’ve already seen half of it.”

  The second tech, shorter, stockier, and heavy-footed, walked over to the cooler, poured himself some tea, and took a sip like it was his own tears.

  “So what exactly do we do here?” I asked.

  “Act as batteries,” said the freshest-looking one. “The portals and the rest of the project eat up a ton of fuel. They haven’t bred any thinhorns for this work yet, and the fuel’s needed now. Hope you like marigold tea — you’ll be drinking it by the litre.”

  “Not necessarily,” said the grey-faced one. “How’d you grow your root?” he asked.

  “Essence,” I replied.

  “Obviously essence!” he snapped. “I mean, was it through the project’s talent programme, or some other way?”

  “Through my Master,” I said.

  “He’s a free man!” the grey one accused me.

  The stocky one stepped in to crify.

  “Pete and I got our essence through the talent programme, so we have to work it off. Byron’s dad’s an investor, so he gets to sck off too.”

  Byron, the fresh one, saluted me with his tea cup.

  “Don’t listen to them. Li squeezes everyone dry. Though you definitely caught him off guard. Not just with the attitude. Your numbers were very good. Would’ve beaten mine if you’d gone all out.”

  “Second Stage, that’s impressive,” said grey-faced Pete. He poured me a cup and held it out. “You’ll be running it again in half an hour. Then again, and again, and one more session tonight.”

  I took the tea.

  “If I’d gone all out, I wouldn’t be running it again in half an hour.”

  Pete sipped his tea, hinting at me to do the same.

  I took a sip.

  To the usual taste of old socks, there was now an added sour chemical tang. This wasn’t your everyday marigold tea. It hit me with instant heartburn and my reserves started recovering like mad. The effect was way too strong.

  Half an hour ter, the interface was showing 439 out of 433 energy units. I dumped it down to 200, offloading 74 units of Space qi.

  I refused the next cup of tea.

  Protocol said you had to drink one after each discharge, but I had serious doubts about this blend. I asked the others, but none of them knew anything about the tea. So I reached into the box and discreetly stashed a pinch of the leaves into my spatial pocket.

  Byron felt the wave of Space qi and clearly figured out what I’d done, but didn’t say a word, didn’t give me away.

  “If you happen to find out what it is,” he said, “don’t forget to let us know.”

  MaksymPachesiuk