Chapter 246: Entering the Fracture
Corven’s hand had already dropped toward his sidearm, though he kept it carefully lowered, weighing the two visible security personnel against whatever additional numbers might be waiting elsewhere in the outpost.
"Supervised," Corven repeated, voice tight. "That’s an interesting word for whatever you’re actually planning here."
"Supervised," Director Ashwood said, unbothered, "means precisely what it implies. Meridian is prepared to fund and equip a properly resourced crossing attempt — considerably better resourced than whatever improvised solution you’ve cobbled together with a disgraced academic and a fringe salvage pilot, no offence intended to either of you." Her gaze flicked briefly toward Dr. Farr, something almost respectful crossing her composed features. "Dr. Farr. I confess I’m impressed you managed to reconstruct workable theoretical models from nothing but scattered, unverified fragments. Consortium leadership was rather too hasty in dismissing your original research, in my private assessment, whatever official position I’m obligated to maintain publicly."
"Save your flattery," Dr. Farr said coldly. "I know exactly what Meridian’s interest in this phenomenon actually amounts to. Exclusive commercial rights, quietly secured before public scientific interest ever has the chance to properly scrutinise what you’ve found."
"An uncharitable characterisation," Director Ashwood said, "though not entirely inaccurate. Meridian is a commercial enterprise. We fund research because research, properly directed, produces value. I make no apology for that." She turned her attention back to Rohan, expression sharpening into something more direct. "Here is my offer, Mr. Roy, and I’d advise you to consider it carefully before responding. Cooperate. Allow Meridian’s team to properly document and assist your crossing attempt, in exchange for exclusive rights to whatever commercial data that crossing produces. You get your passage home. Meridian gets confirmed, documented evidence of a viable boundary crossing, along with whatever else your unique circumstances might reveal about the phenomenon’s underlying mechanics."
"And if I refuse?"
Director Ashwood’s expression didn’t shift, though something colder settled behind her composed, assessing eyes.
"Then Meridian proceeds with its own investigation regardless, considerably less encumbered by concern for your personal safety than I’m currently offering to extend. I’d rather not need to discover, through less considerate means, whatever unique properties allowed you to locate this fracture in the first place." She let the implication hang, unhurried, entirely confident in the weight of her own position. "I would strongly recommend cooperation, Mr. Roy. It costs you considerably less than the alternative."
Rohan felt the pull in his chest surge sharply again, the resonance detector in his hand chirping with a rising, insistent tone that made Dr. Farr’s breath catch audibly beside him.
"The spike," she said quietly, urgently. "That’s the beginning of the pattern I described. If my model holds, we may have only minutes before the actual window opens."
Director Ashwood’s gaze flicked toward the detector, something calculating crossing her features as she registered exactly what its readout implied.
"Then I’d suggest we resolve this conversation considerably faster than either of us would prefer," she said. "Choose, Mr. Roy. Cooperation, or complication. I don’t have patience remaining for a third option."
Rohan’s mind raced through the narrowing options with the same desperate, focused clarity that had carried him through the Gilded Heron’s engine room, through the raiders’ boarding attempt, through every genuinely dangerous moment of the past seven months.
She wants control. Documentation. Exclusive rights. She doesn’t actually want to stop me from crossing — she wants to own the fact that I did.
Which means she needs me alive, and needs that fracture intact, considerably more than she needs an actual fight right now.
"I’m not signing away anything to Meridian Holdings," Rohan said, meeting Director Ashwood’s gaze directly, keeping his voice as steady as he could manage despite the resonance detector’s rising, urgent chirp. "But I also don’t have time to fight you for this fracture with that window closing. So here’s what actually happens next, Director. You let us through to that platform, right now, without interference. Whatever your teams observe, whatever data they gather from a safe distance — that’s yours to keep, free of charge. But the crossing itself, and everything I carry into it, stays mine. No contracts. No exclusive rights. No supervision beyond simple observation."
Director Ashwood studied him a long moment, weighing the offer against whatever calculations were running behind her composed, assessing expression.
"That’s a considerably smaller concession than my original offer requested," she said.
"It’s also considerably faster than continuing this argument while that window closes entirely,"
Rohan said. "You said it yourself — you don’t have patience remaining for a third option. Neither do I."
The resonance detector’s chirp climbed sharper, more urgent, and Dr. Farr’s voice cut through the tension with genuine alarm. "Rohan, whatever you’re deciding, decide quickly. The spike’s accelerating faster than my models predicted."
Director Ashwood held Rohan’s gaze a moment longer, some final calculation resolving behind her sharp, composed eyes, before she finally stepped back from the platform, gesturing her security personnel to lower their weapons.
"Very well," she said. "Observation only, for now. Meridian reserves the right to revisit these terms once we’ve confirmed exactly what your crossing actually produces. But I won’t stand in the way of a window this narrow over a negotiation we can continue afterward, assuming you survive to have it."
Rohan didn’t wait for further discussion. He moved past her toward the platform, Corven and Dr. Farr close behind, the fracture’s shimmering light pulsing faster now, brighter, the green landscape beyond it rippling with an intensity that made his chest ache with an anticipation he could no longer fully separate from fear.
[Great System Note: Resonance spike detected.]
[Analysis: Boundary permeability increasing rapidly. Estimated window duration: Unknown. Proceed immediately.]
[Warning: Crossing conditions are volatile. Maintain physical contact with established anchors throughout attempt.]
"This is it," Dr. Farr said, voice tight with focused urgency, already moving to activate the portable containment generator they’d carried this far. "Whatever’s about to happen, it’s happening now."
Rohan drew Liora’s charm and Hestia’s warm white token both into one hand, spear gripped tight in the other, and stepped toward the platform’s edge, the fracture’s impossible light washing over him like the first genuine warmth he’d felt in seven long months of ash and desperation and stubborn, hard-won survival.
Home. Whatever this costs. Whatever’s waiting on the other side. I’m not stopping now.