Chapter 100: Chapter 98 Collapse of the Specimen

The cyan room had not lost its coldness after the first phase; on the contrary, it seemed to have become more defined, more aware of its own function, as if every surface had accepted that observation was no longer enough and that, from that point on, every advance would demand a deeper invasion.

The storage tubes remained aligned on the far wall, sealed, with their internal lights active and their records linked to the dermal samples that Selena had classified one by one without allowing fatigue to alter the precision of her hands. The sterile transporter remained extended beside the table, clean in appearance despite the nature of the work it had just supported.

On the central surface, the specimen remained motionless under anesthesia, already without the first layer that had concealed it, turned into a partially revealed anatomy where every line of fiber, every density beneath the cyan light and every reading suspended in the air confirmed that they were not facing an ordinary human body, but a modified architecture whose resistance did not end at the skin.

The silence that remained after the laser cutters were turned off was not rest, it was transition; a pause too precise to be relief, too cold to be doubt, and within it Doctor Jorge observed the projections with the expression of someone who had already left behind the initial discomfort to enter a more severe form of concentration.

The doctor did not speak immediately. His eyes moved over the values collected during the previous phase, comparing cutting depth, thermal response, tissue density, anchoring resistance and residual stability in the preserved samples, not like someone seeking confirmation in order to feel certain, but like someone who knows that a procedure cannot move forward if the next stage is based on a plan that the data has just made insufficient.

His back remained slightly curved, but his voice, when it finally emerged, showed neither weakness nor hesitation, only the professional authority of someone who decides not by impulse, but by accumulated evidence.

—We will proceed with the next phase —he said, and the room seemed to receive the phrase without changing light, without responding with alarm, as if that order had been waiting since before the first sample was sealed—. According to what was observed during the removal of the dermal layer and the preliminary analyses of structural response, it is evident that the specimen’s muscular system exceeds the parameters established in our initial hypothesis. We will not work under the original protocol.

Reichel, still positioned at the upper part of the table, kept the cutter, now turned off, on the side tray and raised her gaze toward the doctor with clean attention. The usual lightness of her face had not disappeared, but it was contained behind the technical shine of her eyes, that uncomfortable mixture of curiosity and presence that did not make her less professional, but harder to read for anyone who confused seriousness with rigidity.

Selena, for her part, did not take her eyes off the data that had just reorganized itself around the body, silently reading the same problem the doctor was naming: removing the muscular system in layers, as had been planned along a more conventional line, could destroy internal relationships they still did not understand.

Helena remained in her supervisory position, with both hands on the cane, without intervening, because the procedure still belonged to the doctor as long as the method retained sense.

—The plan was to remove the skeletal muscular system in sections after the integumentary record —the doctor continued—. That is no longer advisable. If we do it that way, we will lose continuity between deep fibers, anchoring points and internal structural response. Instead of removing first, we will open the system. Completely, but without disorganizing it. We will use the mechanical separator to expose the muscular and skeletal architecture in position, and only afterward will we extract bones, organs and internal components according to analysis priority.

The word “open” remained suspended with a clarity heavier than any additional description. It did not sound like a threat or a punishment, but like a technical decision of a cleaner cruelty precisely because it did not need to raise its voice. Reichel let out a brief exhalation through her nose, not out of rejection, but out of immediate understanding of the work that implied. —So we’re not going to disassemble it in simple order —she said, with a professional tone that still retained a spark of her natural manner—. We’re going to force it to show us how it is built before separating what is useful. That would at least let us calmly review the integumentary system and everything we removed, right? We could rest a little while Selena validates the samples and...

—No —the doctor replied, without unnecessary harshness, but without leaving room for the sentence to extend—. The study of the integumentary system remains under Selena’s control. She will classify, compare and upload the first viability patterns while we work on the internal opening. Each time the mechanical separator exposes a region, you and I will verify the extraction points and begin with bones or internal structures only when the reading is stable. We will not work in alternating rest. We will work in continuity.

Reichel closed her eyes for an instant, tilted her head slightly and released a sigh that would have seemed theatrical in another person, but in her worked as a way of accepting that the night had just stretched out again. —I had a small hope that “next phase” meant something like coffee, sample review and a comfortable chair —she said, opening her eyes with a minimal smile, cheerful on the surface, disciplined underneath—. But of course, we are in a cyan room with a human being open on the table. It would have been too kind of the universe.

Selena gave her a brief look, without any real reproach. —Your hope was not compatible with the procedure.

—I noticed —Reichel replied, and although her voice kept that playful nuance that distinguished her, her hands were already arranging themselves into a working position, as if the complaint had been left behind at the very instant it stopped being useful.

Helena did not smile. Nor did she censor the exchange. Her gaze held on the doctor, then on Reichel, then on Selena, evaluating not the words but the stability of each function. There, trust was not a decorative feeling, but an assignment of competence. The doctor directed because he understood the body as a technical problem; Reichel assisted because she could adapt without losing precision; Selena processed because her mind turned the impossible into record; Helena authorized because someone had to hold the line between what was necessary and what could still become excess without usefulness. —Continue —she said simply.

Doctor Jorge raised his voice only slightly toward the system. —Activate mechanical separator. Configuration for complete skeletal muscular exposure. Force limit: variable, subject to reading. Priority: preservation of internal continuity.

The room responded without delay. A section of the ceiling opened silently above the table, wider than the one that had allowed the anesthesia arm to descend, and from inside it a much heavier structure began to lower. At first only its base could be distinguished, wide, reinforced, held by an articulated axis capable of supporting pressure and separation movements without transmitting unnecessary vibration to the rest of the room.

Then the main form appeared: a large mechanical hand, not designed to imitate the delicacy of a human hand, but to reproduce its ability to distribute force across multiple points. The palm was thick, opaque, covered by functional plates that overlapped like layers of an industrial instrument, but the fingers contrasted with that initial mass. From the joints toward the tips they became increasingly thinner, elongated, exact, until ending in extensions so slender that they did not seem like fingers, but controlled blades, articulated edges capable of inserting, separating and holding without uselessly tearing what had to remain legible.

The separator descended slowly, and that slowness was not theatrical. It was calibration. Every centimeter it advanced activated new readings in the projections around the body, comparing distance, angle, expected resistance and zones where contact could compromise information. Reichel observed the machine with an expression that once again held something of technical fascination. —It still looks like a hand made by someone who does not believe in mercy —she murmured.

—It was not designed to believe —Selena replied, without taking her eyes off the readings—. It was designed to separate.

—That explains its charm —Reichel said, but her tone was already lower, because the machine had reached working height and any additional comment would begin to be unnecessary.

The separator’s fingers unfolded one by one over the specimen’s body without touching it yet. The image had an unsettling precision: an enormous hand suspended over an exposed anatomy, not closing like a claw, but opening like a tool of study.

From the inside of each finger a red energy began to emerge, not in the form of flame or disorderly glow, but like a contained line that ran along the core of the thin extensions until lighting their edges in an intense, deep, almost solid tone. The red light did not illuminate the room as an open source would have; it remained attached to the blades, disciplined within its own form, indicating that the tool would not cut by brute force, but through a combination of heat, vibration and directed pressure.

The difference from the laser cutters was evident. Those had been manual instruments, controlled by human pulse. This was an architecture of separation designed to work with the patience of a machine and the brutality of a decision that could no longer be stopped.

The doctor stepped closer, reviewing the parameters without touching the separator. —Reichel, you will remain on the upper left flank. You will monitor anchoring readings, fiber response and any irregular tension before the machine increases opening. Selena, do not remove samples during the first separation. First we need a complete exposure map. Afterward you will classify by priority. Helena, I request external intervention lockout during the first eight minutes of the procedure.

Helena inclined her head only slightly, and her voice addressed the system with the same calm with which she would have ordered a door closed. —External intervention lockout during initial phase. Helena authorization. Register exception only in case of risk of total loss of the specimen.

The lights of the room shifted barely at the edges, not changing color, but state. The doors sealed with an almost imperceptible adjustment. The lateral systems reduced their secondary activity, and the cyan room closed around them like a lifeless organism that still knew how to protect the procedure it contained.

The specimen’s body remained motionless under anesthesia, but the readings showed a slight response to the proximity of the red energy, a minimal rise in certain values, an internal contraction so brief that it would not have been visible without sensors. Selena detected it before the system highlighted it. —Anticipatory response —she said—. Not conscious. It probably reflects thermal interaction or residual defensive mechanism.

—Registered —the doctor replied—. Do not stop.

Reichel breathed slowly, her smile now gone beneath full concentration. —The structure knows something is coming, even though he cannot know it.

Selena did not respond, but her eyes hardened by one degree. Not out of compassion, out of interest. A body that reacted without consciousness, that anticipated invasion through residual systems, was more dangerous as an object of study than as a prisoner. Helena understood it as well. Her cane did not move, but the pressure of her fingers on it changed barely, enough for anyone who knew her to understand that she had taken note.

The separator descended a little further. Its red fingers remained at a short distance from the body, aligned over points that the projections marked with thin lines. There was no contact yet. The room did not allow it until every reading was within margin.

Doctor Jorge kept his gaze fixed on the indicators, waiting for the exact point. Reichel positioned herself in her place, with her hands ready to intervene if a zone gave way incorrectly. Selena remained beside the transporter, but now she was not waiting for skin or superficial samples; she was waiting for the moment when the internal map began to open before them. Helena observed from behind, not as a moral judge of the act, but as the one responsible for making sure cruelty had direction.

—Contact authorization —announced the room’s voice.

The doctor did not respond immediately. He allowed the phrase to exist for one full second, for everyone to absorb it, for the difference between preparing and beginning to become clear in the air. Then he spoke in a low, firm, professional voice.

—Initiate phase two.

The mechanical hand obeyed. The fingers descended in a slow synchronization, almost impossible to bear because of how exact it was, until the red energy blades touched the first marked points. There was no burst, no abrupt movement, no theatricality; only controlled contact, the beginning of a pressure designed to open without erasing, separate without destroying and reveal without allowing that thing to stop being useful.

The projections filled with new readings in the same instant. Reichel leaned her body forward, Selena fixed her gaze on the data, the doctor held command of the procedure without taking his eyes off the opening zone and Helena remained motionless. Under the cyan light of the room, with the intense red of the separator reflected in everyone’s transparent glasses, the second phase began not as an act of fury, but as something much colder: a methodical decision to open the internal architecture of a being that was still breathing.

The mechanical separator began the work without asking for authorization again, and this time there was no symbolic pause or new preparation to soften what was about to happen. The hand suspended over the table descended with its thin fingers lit in red, not like a savage claw, but like a tool built to open without losing information, separate without turning the sample into useless residue and force the specimen’s body to reveal its internal architecture layer by layer, zone by zone, without allowing the horror of the procedure to interrupt precision.

Doctor Jorge kept his gaze fixed on the main readings, one hand near the secondary control panel and his eyes hardened not by cruelty, but by concentration. Reichel occupied the upper flank with an extraction instrument prepared, while Selena remained beside the preservation system, ready to receive any component that stopped belonging to the body and began belonging to the archive. Helena observed from behind, without intervening, with the cane motionless between her gloved hands, because at that point authority did not consist of giving more orders, but of allowing the order already given to continue to its final consequences.

The machine began with the head. It did not do so with open violence, but with a precision that made the scene harder to look at, because every movement seemed to deny any possibility of accident. Two fingers of the separator fixed lateral points, others adjusted tension over the zones marked by the system, and the red energy traced separation lines with an impossible cleanliness, gradually removing the external tissues until leaving the bone structure exposed under the cyan light.

The cranial structure became defined, almost unreal because of the controlled cleanliness of the procedure, and the room immediately registered the transition from soft zone to rigid structure, marking new readings around the specimen’s head. The only eye it still retained remained visible for a few seconds within that severe exposure, intact in its position, held by connections that the system still considered useful, and that permanence, that organic point inside a head already reduced to anatomical reference, made the silence heavier. Reichel made no comment. Her face maintained the professional concentration the scene demanded, although in her eyes there still existed that living lucidity that made her react to the impossible not with paralysis, but with controlled interest.

—Extraction of ocular component —the doctor indicated, without raising his voice—. Preserve the component and any residual connection that retains response.

Reichel nodded slightly. She took from the side tray a curved tool, designed to contain without compromising the sample, verified the pressure of the mechanism and proceeded with measured movements, without accelerating the gesture or allowing the instrument to invade zones not marked by the system. The extraction was clean, controlled, executed under constant reading, and the cranial region was reduced to one more anatomical reference within the procedure, stripped of any feature that could still sustain visible identity beneath the cyan glow.

Selena received the component in a specialized preservation module, placed it inside an independent tube and dictated with the same stable voice she had used throughout the night. —Organic ocular component. External integrity preserved. Residual connections pending analysis. Sample associated with phase two, cranial region.

The tube closed, adjusting pressure, temperature and internal field. Reichel did not wait for any comment. The separator kept the cranial region open with controlled pressure, enough to allow intervention without compromising the structure that still had to be studied. The next tool was thinner, prepared to remove oral tissue without altering the reading of the cavity, and Reichel proceeded with the same seriousness, handing the sample to Selena for immediate preservation.

There was no gesture of rejection in Selena, nor fascination. The sample passed from gloved hand to container, from container to record, from record to archive. —Oral sample. Low residual response. Immediate preservation —she said, and the system responded with a neutral tone confirming storage. In a matter of minutes, the specimen’s head had stopped functioning as a face and had become a processed section of the procedure, a region opened to analysis with such exact calm that its cruelty did not need exaggeration to feel complete.

While Reichel finished with the cranial zone, the separator continued advancing over the torso and the remains of the arms with a coordination that no human operator could have maintained manually. The red energy fingers positioned themselves around the chest, separated muscle groups with calculated tension and kept each region open through microsupports that emerged from the table. They were not yet removing everything exposed; they were unfolding it, keeping it visible, forcing it to preserve internal relation so that the doctor could read the system before dismantling it.

The upper part of the thorax opened under that methodical pressure, revealing an internal organization that did not match common anatomy. The muscles were not simple tissues of movement, but dense, reinforced structures, with anchoring patterns that seemed designed to withstand impacts and partial loss of mass without collapsing immediately. Even the zones near the already damaged limbs retained response, as if the body were still trying to act as a complete system even though parts of it had been torn away before reaching the room.

Doctor Jorge raised one hand to stop direct extraction. —Hold opening. Do not remove structures yet. I need a complete reading of the thoracic region.

The separator obeyed without stopping the entire procedure. It reduced pressure at secondary points and held the exposure within the range authorized by the system, keeping the internal architecture open without compromising what still had to be read. Under that controlled arrangement, vital functions remained active. The heart maintained a stable rhythm, breathing continued assisted by the containment system and by the specimen’s own internal mechanisms, and the readings confirmed that this was not residual survival, but sustained function. The body remained alive; not in the full sense of will or consciousness, because the anesthesia kept it sunk in an imposed stillness, but as a biological architecture that refused to shut down, like an organic machine that continued fulfilling processes even while it was studied and stripped of its external layers.

Reichel turned her gaze toward the exposed zone and let out a low exhalation. —It keeps functioning as if this were an extreme condition anticipated by design.

—Do not state design yet —Selena said—. It could be adaptation.

—Yes —Reichel replied, without taking her eyes away—. An adaptation too orderly.

The doctor did not intervene in that exchange. His attention had been captured by something located on the right side of the heart, a form that did not correspond to any human organ, nor to a simple mechanical implant, nor to a conventional support device. The separator held the opening and the sensors intensified the analysis over that zone. There, contained within a wrapping integrated into the tissue itself, there was a translucent sphere. Its surface did not seem like glass or flesh, but a mixed matrix, organic and metallic, smooth on the outside, difficult to classify, connected to the thoracic system through links that were not merely vascular. Inside the sphere floated a ministars, small, contained, pulsing with a faint light that did not illuminate the room, but did alter the nearby data every time it varied. The real heart beat to one side. The sphere did not beat the same way. It emitted. It pulsed. It sustained something that did not behave like blood or electricity.

The doctor brought his face slightly closer, without invading the safety area. —Analyze spherical component adjacent to the heart. Immediate priority.

The answer did not come from Reichel or Selena, but from the room’s technical system, whose voice came from the nearby modules with a drier coldness than the general voice of the facility. —Uncatalogued component. Estimated function: secondary cardiac core. Energy generation with igneous properties. Complete energetic structure unidentified. Vessel composed of organic and metallic matrix under analysis. Partial integration with thoracic system through vascular, nervous and energetic connections. Risk of destabilization if extracted without isolation.

Helena took one step forward. The cane touched the floor with a contained sound, but enough to cut through any doubt about the room’s priority. —That will be the first thing extracted.

The doctor turned toward her. —If we remove it before mapping the entire cavity, we may lose important internal relationships.

—We already have enough relationships to know it must not remain there uncontrolled —Helena replied, without raising her voice—. It is the third object of that type we have and the first integrated into an active organism. If it degrades, we lose information. If it reacts, we lose much more than information. Extract it.

There was no further discussion. The doctor held Helena’s gaze for one second and then nodded. It was not blind obedience, but acceptance of a higher priority. —Prepare energy container and organic-metallic support. Reichel, stabilize visible connections. Selena, continuous recording of emission, temperature, energetic pulse and response of the real heart. Separator, maintain opening without increasing pressure.

The room responded with exact speed. From the side wall emerged a container different from the tubes used until that moment, more robust, translucent, with internal rings that began to rotate slowly before receiving anything. It was not designed to preserve common tissue, but something that could alter its surroundings.

Selena moved toward the panel associated with the container, opened continuous recording and synchronized the readings with the projections of the thorax. Reichel took fine stabilization tools and positioned herself beside the doctor, focused, with no trace of a joke now. The separator held the torso open, its red fingers motionless in pressure positions, while the specimen’s body continued breathing under anesthesia, stripped of a functional face, with the cranium exposed, the mouth intervened, the chest open and that impossible sphere beating beside the heart like a second will enclosed in a vessel.

The doctor took the extraction instrument and waited for the container to reach synchrony. The internal rings rotated with greater stability, the isolation field activated inside the vessel and the mini-star suspended within the sphere pulsed once more, as if it had felt the attention of every system concentrate on it.

Selena registered the change before the room announced it. —Brief increase in emission. It does not exceed safety margin.

—Maintain recording —the doctor said.

Helena did not take her gaze away. —Proceed.

The doctor brought the instrument closer to the edge of the matrix that held the sphere, without touching the core yet. Reichel fixed the visible connections. Selena kept the record open. The separator did not increase pressure. The cyan room was suspended in a calm worse than urgency, because everyone understood that the procedure had changed meaning.

They were no longer removing parts to study a body. They were about to extract a source.

The doctor breathed once, slowly, professionally, and spoke in a low voice. —Extraction of the secondary core. Controlled start.

The tip of the instrument touched the first connection around the sphere. The ministars pulsed again inside the translucent vessel. The real heart continued beating to one side, and under the cyan light of the room, the second phase stopped being an anatomical opening and became the recovery of that which perhaps explained why that body, even destroyed, still remained alive.

Doctor Jorge did not try to tear out the sphere or force it from the first contact. After the start signal, his work became a succession of small, measured movements, almost unbearably slow because of the precision they demanded. The extraction tool remained beside the organic-metallic matrix without touching the core directly, while the sensors of the cyan room adjusted every variation in temperature, energetic pulse and response of the real heart. Reichel held the visible connections with fine stabilization instruments, apparently motionless, although her hands made minimal corrections every time an internal fiber changed tension. Selena recorded the orb’s behavior from the side panel, associating each variation to an exact timeline, without allowing concentration to be broken by the pressure of the procedure.

Helena remained behind, with the cane firm, observing not only the body on the table, but the way everyone responded when the method approached a boundary where an error no longer meant losing a sample, but releasing something no one fully understood. The translucent sphere did not remain passive. The ministars suspended inside it pulsed with a regularity different from that of the heart, as if it did not obey blood or electricity, but a form of energy that used the body as a container and not as an origin. Each pulse minimally altered the thermal reading of the intervened zone, generating small variations that the room immediately isolated so as not to confuse them with normal cardiac response.

The doctor needed to remove part of the structure that interfered with access, not out of brutality or haste, but because the zone protected the component in a way too closed to allow safe extraction. The mechanical separator held the opening with stable pressure, and two auxiliary arms emerging from the table immobilized the points the system marked as critical. The removal of those obstacles was not broad or disorderly; each segment was separated under record, moved to an analysis tray and numbered before being set aside. The doctor did not look at Helena to request additional approval. The order had already been given. He spoke only when the route was clear. —Isolation field ready.

Selena replied from the panel without taking her eyes off the readings. —Continuous record open.

Reichel, with her voice lower than usual, not out of fear, but because the margin of error did not allow her normal lightness, added: —Visible connections stabilized.

The doctor inserted the tool to the edge of the matrix that held the sphere and began to release the connections one by one. There was no great rupture. There was no explosive reaction. There was gradual resistance, an internal opposition that seemed to come from the entire body, as if the organism recognized that what they were removing from it was not a secondary implant, but a central piece of its continuity. The readings rose and fell at irregular intervals, the mini-star pulsed three times with greater intensity, and the real heart altered its rhythm for a few seconds before being compensated by the room’s systems.

The separator did not advance toward the lower part during that interval. It remained fixed, holding the opening with a mechanical obedience that made it even more evident that the entire procedure depended on keeping the body on a narrow border between function and collapse. Reichel tightened the stabilization instruments slightly, keeping the remaining connections in position while the doctor released the final union. Selena did not take her eyes off the panel. —Brief increase in emission. Within margin. Container synchronized.

The doctor did not respond. His fingers were occupied holding the instrument with the firmness of someone who could no longer allow himself to think about the complete body, but only about the exact point where the extraction had to be completed. The sphere finally separated with an almost imperceptible movement, and for an instant remained suspended between the body and the vessel, held by the isolation field, without touching metal, without touching glove, without touching the table. The mini-star inside it did not go out. It contracted slightly, as if it had felt the change of environment, and then began pulsing again with lower intensity.

The container opened its internal rings and received the orb with a mechanical softness that contrasted with the tension of everyone present. When the sphere was sealed inside, the translucent walls of the vessel darkened slightly and the readings went from active risk to unstable preservation, but controlled.

—Secondary core extracted —Selena said—. Vessel integrity preserved. Emission reduced. Active preservation, but it requires continuous observation.

The doctor released the air for the first time since he had begun the extraction. Reichel withdrew her instruments carefully and let the auxiliary arms assume residual stabilization. Helena took one step forward and looked at the container without touching it. There was no triumph on her face, because that was not a simple victory; it was a piece recovered before it could be lost. The translucent sphere, with its small star suspended at the center, remained in the isolation unit like an incomplete answer, valuable precisely because it did not yet explain anything by itself.

—Transfer that component to reinforced preservation —Helena ordered—. It will not leave supervision until we understand its structure.

The system responded immediately with a neutral tone. —Understood.

The isolation unit closed inside a second transparent casing, thicker, with containment marks that lit up faintly before going out, and two internal rails began to move it toward a lateral security module, not removing it completely from the room, but separating it from the body enough so that any later reaction could not reach it. Selena followed its trajectory with her gaze until confirming that the seal had been completed. Reichel also watched it, although her attention soon returned to the body, because the operation remained open and the subject, despite having lost what the system had defined as a secondary core, still showed activity.

The mechanical separator continued with the original protocol for only a few more seconds, shifting its attention toward the lower part of the body, as if the extraction of the orb had not altered the complete logic of phase two. Its red energy fingers repositioned, the readings adjusted, and the specimen’s body seemed to remain in that impossible condition of contained life. But then the first anomaly appeared.

It was not a voluntary movement nor a conscious contraction. It was an internal alteration, a liquid shadow that began to expand from the zones not yet removed, first as a deep stain beneath the exposed tissues, then as a more defined substance that advanced with a speed incompatible with any normal bleeding. The color was black, thick, opaque, and as it moved it seemed to degrade what it touched from within, compromising the structures that still maintained residual function.

The room detected the change before the smell arrived, but the smell arrived anyway: dense, acidic, hot, a physical sign that this was not only biological collapse. The temperature rose around the table and the projections, which until that moment had maintained the cold order of a controlled intervention, changed to risk indicators. The body no longer seemed simply opened for study; it seemed to activate in the opposite direction, destroying itself to prevent the study from continuing.

The real heart lost regularity. The lungs stopped responding with the same assisted rhythm. The connections that had held the sphere began to darken, not like ordinary dead tissue, but like routes consumed by a substance that used the body itself as fuel for closure.

The doctor was the first to verbalize the useful reaction. —Step back —he said, without raising his voice, but with an urgency that did not need shouting.

Reichel was already moving away. She did not run, she did not lose control, but she abandoned the upper flank quickly enough to avoid the first emanation of heat that came out of the body. The doctor stepped back with her, withdrawing his hands from the work zone and letting the automatic arms assume the initial isolation. Selena moved toward the preserved samples, not to approach the body, but to protect the material already extracted. She immediately closed the transporter’s manual access and activated the contamination lock over the tubes with a dry movement.

The black substance began to emerge from the body through the openings generated during the procedure, not in a wide burst, but in a heavy advance that sought to occupy the table, compromising part of the affected internal structures and generating steam under the cyan light. The heat increased. The projections changed color. The room stopped behaving like a surgical room and shifted into a state of biological threat.

Helena did not step back more than necessary. She observed the expansion of the substance, measured the distance, watched as the separator rose to avoid direct contact and spoke with the same calm with which she had authorized the extraction. —Proceed with containment of toxic residue.

The room responded with an immediate robotic voice. —Preliminary analysis of substance in progress. Corrosive and thermal risk confirmed. Proceeding with containment.

The mechanical separator ascended until it was outside the contamination zone, its red fingers turning off one by one while the system withdrew it from the active area. From the left wall a wider compartment opened, and from inside it emerged a different machine, lower, more compact, built not for dissection but for neutralization. Its front end was formed by two triangular, asymmetrical structures, similar to pincers of scalene geometry that opened and closed with contained force.

From inside those pincers came flexible cables, black at their base and white at the ends, which shot toward the table with dry precision. They did not seek to hold the specimen as a patient, but as dangerous residue. They fixed themselves around the body without penetrating more than necessary and began dragging it toward the opening of the pincers, while the black substance continued reacting against the surface of the table and the isolation systems contained the steam.

The image did not have the order of dissection, but neither was it chaos. It was industrial containment applied to an organic collapse, a brutal transition from study toward elimination of risk.

Reichel watched with her jaw tense, the cheerful tone completely absent for the first time in several minutes. —That is not blood.

Selena, reviewing the data from the samples already sealed, replied without looking toward her. —No. It is a degradation mechanism.

The doctor did not take his eyes off the containment machine. —Or self-destruction.

Helena looked at the container where the sphere had been sealed. —It activated after losing the secondary core.

No one contradicted that conclusion.

The body was dragged into the pincers and the machine closed its structure with a heavy sound, not entirely metallic, more like an industrial seal designed to contain heat, pressure and contamination at the same time. From inside, the sound of pressurized foam began to emerge, a constant, dense release that could not be fully seen from outside, but that covered the toxic residue and neutralized it layer by layer.

The table was partially isolated by secondary containment fields, and several smaller arms descended to seal the zones where the black liquid had touched the surface. The process was not immediate. The foam reacted with the substance in brief pulses, each one accompanied by a reduction in temperature and a partial decrease in corrosive emission. The ceiling filters activated in a deeper sequence than usual, absorbing the acidic vapor before it could expand completely toward the sample zone.

The robotic voice returned after several seconds. —Neutralization in progress. Degrading substance contained. Expansion risk reduced.

The sound of foam continued a little longer, gradually lowering until it became an internal vibration. The acidic smell began to decrease under the filtration system. The readings stopped rising. Selena verified the preservation tubes one by one and confirmed that no dermal sample or extracted component had been contaminated.

Reichel began breathing more normally again, although she did not immediately recover her smile. The doctor rested one hand on the edge of a clean tray, not out of extreme exhaustion, but because of the concentrated tension of having been seconds away from losing everything that remained of the specimen as useful material. Helena remained still until the room’s voice issued the final confirmation.

—Danger neutralized. Toxic residues under containment. Secondary core preserved.

The containment machine did not release the body immediately after neutralizing the substance; it compressed it inside an internal capsule that sealed over itself, separating the degraded remains from the table and from any ventilation route. A secondary arm descended to collect the minimal residues that had remained on the surface, not with surgical delicacy, but with dry efficiency, scraping, absorbing and encapsulating every point where the black had touched the white of the room.

The cyan room gradually recovered its original color, but not its purity. Something had happened there that cleaning could not deny, even though the systems eliminated smell, heat and contamination with perfect discipline. What remained was not visible dirt, but a new understanding: that body had been prepared to prevent its secrets from being taken whole.

Only then did Helena turn her gaze toward the sphere’s container. The second phase had not ended as planned. They had lost the complete body as continuity of study, but they had recovered something more valuable before the collapse. The specimen was no longer an open body on the table, but contained residue, a threat reduced to neutralization protocol.

However, the mini-star kept beating inside the preserved sphere, isolated from the organism that had sustained it, and that persistence turned the partial failure into a more unsettling victory. The doctor understood the same thing a few seconds later. Reichel too. Selena had understood it since the emission readings did not fall to zero.

Helena did not need to say it, but her silence made it clear: the body had died as a source of immediate answers, but the true object of study had just been left in their hands.

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END OF Chapter 98

The path continues...

New Chapters are revealed every

Sunday, and also between Wednesday or Thursday,

when the will of the tale so decides.

Each one leaves another scar on Sebastián’s journey.

If this abyss resonated with you,

keep it in your collection

and leave a mark: a comment, a question, an echo.

Your presence keeps alive the flame that shapes this world.

Thank you for walking by my side.

If this story resonated with you, perhaps we have already crossed paths in another corner of the digital world. Over there, they know me as Goru SLG.

I want to thank from the heart all the people who are reading and supporting this work. Your time, your comments, and your support keep this world alive.

If this story resonated with you, I invite you to support me — your presence and backing make it possible for