Chapter 37 - The Glass Room Nightmare
On Deck One, high above the churning sea, Daniel Prime stood inside a sterile, soundproof glass laboratory that overlooked the command bridge.
Surrounding him were banks of high-end supercomputers, their monitors flashing lines of genomic data. In the center of the room was an examination chair made of polished chrome and white leather, equipped with biometric restraints and an overhead array of fiber-optic retinal scanners.
The door to the lab hissed open.
Two operatives entered, carrying Lily between them. She was kicking, biting, and screaming, her small shoes leaving scuff marks on their pristine white armor.
"Put her in the chair," Prime ordered without looking up from his monitor.
"Get off me! Daddy! Daddy's going to kill you!" Lily screamed, her face flushed red with tears of rage.
The operatives strapped her small wrists and ankles into the cushioned restraints. A mechanical arm lowered from the ceiling, centering two bright blue laser apertures precisely one inch from her eyes.
Prime walked over to the chair. He leaned down, placing his hands on the armrests, bringing his face directly into hers.
"Look at me, Lily," he said softly.
Lily squeezed her eyes shut, clamping her lids together with all her might.
Prime sighed. "You have your mother's stubbornness. It got her buried at the bottom of the ocean, you know. Claire thought she was being righteous. She thought she could hide the Black Horizon keys inside your blood and that the world would be saved. But the world doesn't want to be saved, Lily. The world wants order. And order requires a single hand on the throttle."
Prime tapped a command into his tablet.
A high-frequency tone resonated through the room. Lily’s eyelids twitched involuntarily as the acoustic pulse triggered an autonomic reflex, forcing her eyes wide open.
The blue lasers fired.
A dazzling web of ultraviolet light scanned her retinas. On the main monitors, an encryption sequence began to unravel:
*BIOMETRIC CONFIRMED: SUBJECT LILY CROSS.*
*GENOMIC CIPHER UNLOCKED: 12%... 24%... 48%...*
A sudden shudder rattled the entire ship.
The lights flickered, shifting from sterile white to flashing crimson as the deck tilted beneath their feet. A low, thunderous explosion rumbled from the deep lower decks, followed by the terrifying scream of emergency pressure relief valves blowing out.
"Status!" Prime barked into the wall comm.
*"Sir! The auxiliary fuel lines have been ruptured!"* a technician screamed over the speaker. *"Fire is spreading through Deck Four! The turbine shafts are overheating! We've lost steering control!"*
"Lock down Deck One!" Prime snarled. "Vent the lower compartments with halon gas! Burn him out!"
*"We can't, sir! He's not in Deck Four! He used the service elevator shaft—he's right outside the—"*
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The technician's voice was cut off by the sound of shattering reinforced glass.
***
