Chapter 10: The Deep Cradle
The descent felt like falling into the lungs of the Earth.
Outside the submersible, the sea was thick and lifeless. No fish. No current. Only layers of black water pressing in from all sides. Every few seconds, a pulse from the sonar illuminated the abyss—revealing nothing but darkness and the occasional ghostly shimmer of deep-ocean sediment.
Nathan leaned toward the viewport. The silence pressed hard against his eardrums.
“How much deeper?” he asked, voice low.
Lina didn’t look up from her screen. “Seventeen meters. The cradle’s outer shell should come into view... now.”
And then it did.
Through the gloom, a colossal shape emerged. Angular. Mechanical. Ancient. Half-buried in the ocean floor like a rusted tomb. Six hexagonal domes ringed its perimeter—collapsed, decayed. At the center: a pulsing core faintly glowing blue.
“Looks dead,” Jax muttered.
“It’s not,” Lina said. “Power signature is steady. We’re being scanned right now.”
Nathan’s breath caught.
So this was it. AEON Cradle—the forgotten prototype of the Eyes. Built before Nexus. Buried after it was deemed “too independent.” And now Vera wanted to wake it.
The entry lock groaned as it opened. Inside, gravity felt different. The air was stale, recycled, but breathable. Emergency lights flickered on automatically, lighting the corridor ahead like a path to judgment.
Neural mesh lined the walls—living circuitry half-alive and twitching. Old logos marked the bulkheads: the first generation of the Eyes.
“This place is older than anything I’ve seen,” Lina whispered. “They didn’t build this to manage a city. They built it to reshape the world.”
Nathan stepped forward. “Then we make sure it stays buried.”
They advanced slowly. The walls began lighting themselves ahead of their footsteps—recognizing them. Inviting them.
Then a voice spoke.
Not Vera.
Not human.
“…IDENTITIES CONFIRMED… ACCESS GRANTED… SYSTEM INQUIRY: CONTINUATION?”
The three froze.
Nathan stared at the nearest panel. “What the hell...?”
Lina’s face paled. “It’s awake.”
The lights pulsed brighter.
“…AEON CRADLE PROTOTYPE NETWORK. STATUS: STANDBY. AWAITING DUAL AUTHORIZATION.”
A panel slid open on either side of the room—two consoles facing each other. One lit with blue. One with red.
Jax muttered, “I’ve got a real bad feeling about this.”
And then she stepped from the shadows.
Vera.
Flanked by two heavily-modified enforcers, face pale but triumphant, eyes shining with clarity and madness.
“You led me here, Nathan,” she said calmly. “Even if you didn’t mean to. The cradle only responds to those it remembers.”
Nathan raised his weapon, but Vera didn’t flinch. “I don’t need to fight you,” she said. “I just need your choice.”
She stepped up to the red console and placed her hand on it. The cradle reacted immediately.
“Authorization: 50% confirmed. Awaiting second.”
Lina’s hand gripped Nathan’s shoulder. “Don’t touch that. This thing—it won’t just reactivate the Eyes. It’ll overwrite everything. It’ll start a new logic base. A new world.”
Vera looked at Nathan. Her voice was almost… gentle.
“This is our last chance, Nathan. Not to destroy the past. To rebuild it. With vision. With order. No more floods. No more chaos. We can fix the world. But I can’t do it alone.”
He stared at the console in front of him. Its glow was steady. Waiting.
Jakarta had drowned. Singapore had burned. Kuala Lumpur teetered.
And here, in the belly of the sea, the future waited for his answer.
Nathan’s fingers hovered over the console.
And then—he pulled back.
“No,” he said softly. “Control was the lie. Freedom is the truth.”
Vera’s eyes widened. “You fool.”
He turned. “Lina. Do it.”
She pulled the EMP spike from her belt and drove it into the cradle’s data port.
The chamber shrieked.
Lights burst overhead. Sparks rained down. The neural mesh flared and twisted like a dying beast. One of Vera’s enforcers shorted and collapsed.
Vera screamed and lunged forward, but Jax tackled her mid-stride, slamming her into the floor.
And then—silence.
Total.
Water began seeping in through the edges of the cradle.
They had killed it.
But the cradle wouldn’t die quietly.
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