like a fantasy abo
e sulfur-laced stratosphere. Below, the once-blue Earth is sprawled in ruin, fractured, overrun by nature too strange to name. Riko Ayane stared
Still, from up here it felt like a long-ago memory-nature's fury at what mankind had done. She could sense the stor
thrown by the jagged horizon stretching ov
n was interrupted by the soft hum of the devic
o Batch #48B Cleared
ch samples usually come out rather routinely. The genetic material was a
aiting, held by two floating drones. Riko's caught her breath in her throat. She knew tha
ened, and a cold wave of air followed. Suspended like a ghost in mid-fli
n and changed
red, hardly audible. "Wh
of numbers indicating coordinates in the Mongolian Wastes, a
ced over the terminal. The findings flashed on screen-first
nt gene. It was a mirror match to someth
rmant, unlisted line buried in her genetic data-hidden, unnoti
cal artefact. She was observing h
murmured, he
Her body's reaction-and the data-did not lie
he truth sank upon her. She had only found the gene guiding a line