Aris Thorne was given a promotion and a cage.
His new "office" was a stark white room in the secure R&D wing of the Chronos Dynamics headquarters. It had one window overlooking the sealed laboratory below, where half a dozen white-coated technicians meticulously prodded and calibrated his machine—the Chronos Lock. Lena had been relegated to "Lead Ethics Consultant," a purely advisory role designed to keep her out of the actual engineering loop.
Director Thorne frequently visited, not to collaborate, but to observe, like a zookeeper checking on a prized exhibit.
"The energy fluctuation is down another 0.4% this cycle, Dr. Thorne," Thorne announced one Tuesday, leaning against the window frame with a self-satisfied smirk. "Your 'adjustments' have made this thing incredibly efficient. We project we can power the entire Eastern Seaboard within five years."
"You still haven't solved the core problem," Aris said, sketching absentmindedly on his data-slate.
"Which is?"
"The temporal displacement field," Aris said, locking eyes with the Director. "You can draw power from the static effect, yes. But you can't use it to travel through time, or create another bubble of subjective time. The moment you try, the power draw spikes again, just like the day in my lab."
"Be careful," Aris warned, thinking of his endless, silent weeks alone. "You're playing with the fundamental fabric of existence. It broke my partner once." He gestured down at the lab. "It will break your engineers too."
Thorne dismissed the warning with a wave of his hand. "We manage risk, Aris. That’s what we do." He left the room, his footsteps echoing down the sterile hallway.
That evening, Aris received a discreet message from Lena, sent via a compromised janitorial channel they had set up.
Meet me in the Atrium after the third shift change. We have a problem.
Aris found her by the artificial waterfall, a small oasis of nature in the concrete structure. Her face was pale.
"They're not just trying to optimize the power," Lena whispered, keeping her eyes fixed on the water. "I accessed the deep logs from the engineering bay. They've found a way to use the static field to observe the past."
Aris froze. "Observation? Like a window?"
"Exactly. A viewing port into any moment in history," Lena continued, her voice trembling. "They aren't trying to save the world, Aris. They're trying to monetize history. Imagine knowing exactly where the Titanic sank before it happened, or watching market crashes in real-time history."
"The ethical implications are staggering," Aris murmured, the reality hitting him hard. The silence of his subjective imprisonment felt peaceful compared to the chaos Thorne was about to unleash on the world.
"It gets worse," Lena said, leaning closer. "The process of observation creates a feedback loop. Every time they 'look' at the past, they destabilize it slightly. Not enough to shatter reality, but enough to create micro-tremors in the timeline. History is starting to fracture."
Aris thought back to the infinite time he had spent alone, the clarity he had achieved. He had chosen to re-enter the chaotic world because it was real. Now, Thorne was turning reality into a spectator sport, and breaking it in the process.
"We have to stop them," Aris said, his resolve hardening. The silence had given him purpose. "Thorne thinks he controls the Lock. He doesn't realize that the machine controls everything, and it's trying to warn us."
Lena looked at him, hope flickering in her eyes. "How? We're prisoners in our own lab."
Aris smiled, a genuine smile that hadn't appeared since before the Stasis. "Thorne only manages risk, Lena. He doesn't manage genius. I built that machine. I know its secrets, and I know exactly how it trigger fail safe".
Thorne straightened up, the smirk fading. "Our physicists are working on that. We are a temporal engineering firm, Aris, not a power company. We will crack the travel component."
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