Dr. Wei stood in the operating bay long after the lights had dimmed
The monitors still blinked in rhythm
The smell of antiseptic lingered like a ghost
He hadn't moved since they pulled the sheet over her face
Someone had tried to speak to him earlier a nurse maybe or one of the interns who never looked him in the eyes for long
But the words slid past him
The only thing he could hear now was the low static hum of the life support machine that should have been turned off
Her body wasn't there anymore but the echo was
A quiet absence that screamed in his ears
Lina
He pressed his fingers against his temples trying to keep the memories from spilling out
It was supposed to be a routine procedure a minor neural calibration for a QSI test subject
Lina wasn't even part of the surgical team that day she'd only stopped by to say hello
And yet the containment field ruptured the energy surge fried three monitors blinded an intern and sent her flying across the room like a rag doll
The Hive called it an accident
An equipment malfunction
But equipment didn't surge like that not with two redundancies in place not in a facility that prided itself on safety ratings that bordered on obsessive
He knew because he designed those protocols
So why did he sign the report?
Why did he nod like a puppet when they told him not to speak to anyone
Why did he let them wheel her away like she was just another casualty in a job that was never supposed to have casualties
Why?
He didn't have answers only noise
Only the hollow drumbeat in his skull and the way his hand wouldn't stop shaking when he reached for her access card in his pocket
It still worked
That much they hadn't revoked
Maybe they didn't think he'd do anything with it maybe they thought the great Dr. Wei Cheng would curl into a ball and mourn like the rest of them
But Wei wasn't like the rest of them
Not because he was strong, but because his mind refused to be still
Even grief couldn't kill the instinct
The need to know
The need to understand
And now that instinct whispered something foul into his ear something that tasted of rot and ozone and lies
They killed her
Not directly, not with a blade or a bullet
But with silence
With deliberate sabotage
He didn't have proof- not yet
But he had suspicion and suspicion in his hands was more dangerous than any weapon
So he moved.
------
He didn't sleep that night not really
He went back to the lab at dawn, bypassed the retinal scan with Lina's clearance then disabled the logs before anyone could notice
The Echo prototype was still on the pedestal sealed in its cradle of chrome and glass
It looked like a silver crown without thorns thin and delicate designed to rest just above the occipital lobe like a whisper of thought
They'd shelved it after the last test subject's brain liquefied in under twelve seconds
Too unstable they said
Too unpredictable
But Lina had been studying it hadn't she
Not just its design but its firmware
And the day before she died she told him there was something wrong with the core architecture- something misaligned, something that didn't make sense for a noncombat support interface
She never got to finish that sentence
Now here he was standing in front of the thing like it could tell him what she meant
Like it owed him something
His fingers hesitated only a moment before reaching for it
The cold bit into his skin like it knew what was coming
He lifted it free from its cradle and turned it over in his hands then without ceremony pressed it to the back of his neck
Pain lanced through his spine like lightning his knees buckled and he hit the floor hard
Static roared through his skull followed by a cascade of images numbers voices words that weren't his
—Initializing...
—QSI NODE: ECHO [Prototype Variant 0.91.8]
—Warning: Core destabilization probability exceeds 72%
—Warning: Synaptic overlay mismatch
—Warning: No authorized pairing found
—Override accepted
—Welcome, Dr. Wei Cheng
The pain receded leaving behind a crackling emptiness
Wei gasped for air sweat soaked through his collar but his heartbeat remained steady
Somewhere deep in the implant he felt something move
Not alive exactly but aware
Watching
Echo spoke
Not in words but in sensation
A flicker of warmth at the base of his skull like the memory of a voice
It wanted something
No
It needed something
A trait
A signature
The base code of another QSI user
Wei staggered to his feet his vision still pulsing at the edges
This wasn't just a medical support system
It was a predator.
And now it had bonded with him
He didn't know what it would do
He didn't know what it meant, but Lina died for this. She was gone and right now he couldn't stop to process what had happened and something told him that he would never have answers if he hadn't just bonded with this thing
And if there were answers buried inside this cursed thing he would dig them out one by one
Even if it killed him.
------
Wei stepped out of the lab as the first security alarms began to wail
The corridor lights flickered as he moved
Too fast too loud
His boots thudded on the tile like war drums
Every camera he passed turned to follow him
He knew the layout of this wing better than anyone- after all he helped design it
QSI research was supposed to be top secret but nothing in the Hive stayed hidden forever
Not from someone with clearance and desperation
His breath caught in his throat as he rounded the maintenance corridor, an access hall few ever used, and pulled open a narrow service panel
He slipped inside just as the security shutters slammed down behind him
Not perfect, but enough
He kept moving
Echo pulsed behind his eyes
Not just sensory—it was syncing
Adjusting
Each pulse was like a buffer wheel completing another lap, driving some progress bar
Testing his balance his ocular response his sympathetic nervous system
One moment he felt cold to the bone the next hot flashes and nausea
His thoughts frayed at the edges like static trying to dissolve meaning
But his mind held firm
It always had
That was what Lina had said the night before her last dive
"You're stubborn to the edge of madness, Wei. That's what makes you brilliant."
The memory struck like a hammer
He almost stopped moving
But Echo surged then a whisper of command not in words but in pressure behind the eyes
He has to keep moving.
Wei slowed only when he reached the utility crawl beneath the eastern block
No cameras here, no retinal scanners
Just coolant pipes and the stink of copper and mold
He crouched beside an unused interface port and slid a cracked tablet from his coat
Bootleg firmware loader custom-built for underground QSI sandboxing. It wasn't legal, but he never thought it would be used for this purpose.
It worked.
The boot screen flashed, three lines of code opened like a locked diary
He input Lina's encryption key- he knew it by heart
Half of it was redacted the other half fragmented into raw kernel code but it was enough
One line stood out in all caps
PROTOTYPE ECHO = REVERSED SYSTEM TYPE
Reverse system?
What did that mean?
Before he could parse it Echo jolted him again
Not pain this time
Instinct- Warning- Footsteps above
Too heavy for scientists
Soldiers
Most likely Hive internal response team
Their suits would be reinforced, stun projectors at the ready- No negotiation.
They weren't here to ask questions. They were here to disappear him.
Wei bit his lip hard enough to taste iron. He couldn't fight- not yet. Not without weapons, Not without something to even the playing field.
He glanced down at Echo's sync level—22%
Too low for combat- Too high to remove
That left only one option
Run
But then Echo did something unexpected
It projected an image into his retina
Faint translucent like a ghost hovering in the air: A layout of the floor above
Four bodies, Three armed, One unarmed
A technician
Echo flashed again
A pulsing node over the tech's chest
TR = Minor Trait Present
Wei froze
When he looked at that node he felt something... something akin to glancing at the fridge when you're hungry late at night.
The trait was probably harmless—maybe a low-level pain inhibitor or reaction timer.
Even then the technician was lucky. While all of upper society were blessed with traits, the majority are unlinked- no trait. Either they genetically don't qualify for a trait when the obtained a Quantum System Interface, or couldn't afford one to see at all. Wei could easily afford one, but he was one of the unlucky without the talent.
Whatever that feeling was wasn't worth doing whatever Echo would do to the person to feed on their trait-
But Echo wasn't asking
It was offering. Take it.
Or die here
Wei clenched his jaw
He'd sworn an oath once
Do no harm.
And he knew traits are too ingrained in a person to be taken harmlessly. This was a line he couldn't cross
But they had crossed all of them already
They had killed Lina
They had made this decision for him, and he wasn't going to die here alone in the dark
He stood slowly, one hand on the pipe above
Then without another thought he moved like a ghost through the access hatch
A breath behind the technician's neck
One jolt
One hand to the temple. Instinctual. Animalistic. Wei had trained martial arts before in his teenage years, but that felt- robotic
Echo did the rest after his hand
A burst of synaptic heat
A scream that barely started before it ended
Then silence
The armed guards never saw him
He slipped back into the shadows and vanished into the wall, his deft surgeons hands pulling the panel back into place behind him with adrenaline filled swiftness before he- or the guards- could process what happened.
Behind his eyes Echo processed the stolen signature
[Trait Acquired]PULSE-TYPE MODULATION: PAIN INHIBITION (LVL 1)Classification: Tier-0.5 Support TraitTrait Type: Neural Dampening / Biocognitive OverrideOrigin: Hive Biomedical Ops Subdivision 6
Description:A first-generation support trait designed to suppress acute pain signaling and autonomic flinching during high-risk technical operations. While active, the trait reduces all perceived physical pain by 15% and delays panic-based neurochemical responses, allowing the user to maintain precise physical control under trauma, shock, or environmental hazard.
+15% Pain Tolerance
+10% Stability Under Neural Stress
+5% Motor Control During Hemorrhage
Passive Effect: Suppresses tremors and flinch reflex below threshold damage
Note: Does not accelerate healing. Psychological trauma is unaffected. Prolonged use may lead to dissociation.
"Designed for Hive field techs to keep soldering wires with burnt hands. Now, it's your edge in a world that wants you broken."
Trait Sync Level: 12%Stability: ModerateCompatibility Risk: Negligible
It was weak
Barely more than a dampener
But already he could feel the edge dulling in his nerves
The tremble in his hands subsided, the chill in his bones began to lift
Wei didn't feel good about it, and it certainly wasn't enough to
But he felt alive- for now
He surfaced into the alley five blocks from the Hive medical complex. Somehow he had escaped, but it still felt like walls were closing in on all sides.
Dawn was just breaking
The city lights dimmed by cloud and exhaust
He leaned against the wall of a condemned supply station and looked up at the gray sky
Lina was gone.
His name was on a kill order.
And something ancient and hungry now lived inside his skull
But he had survived, He had stolen his first trait
And now the Hive would learn what it meant to create a man with nothing left to lose.