Novels by fairybeany

The monitors in the lounge erupted into a chaotic symphony of green cascading lines, the scrolling data blurring into a static mess that hissed with an unnerving, rhythmic frequency. Bastian felt the hair on his arms stand up, the base's atmosphere suddenly heavy with the taste of ozone."Ariana! Kill the feed!" Bastian shouted, his voice cracking. "Whatever that is, it's eating the station's bandwidth!"Ariana lunged for the primary console, her fingers flying over the keys. Her face was illuminated by the erratic, strobe-like flickering of the screens. "I’m trying! It’s a cascading handshake—it’s not just a signal, it’s a virus injection! If I hard-cut it, the defense turrets might interpret the sudden loss of data as an EMP strike!""And if you don't?" Mika asked, her rifle barrel swinging toward the ceiling as she watched the automated defense turret in the hallway pivot with a low, mechanical whine. "Ariana, the turret in the c

The cold, damp air of the drainage basin clung to Bastian’s skin, but the burning fire of the antidote in his veins was far more distracting. He leaned against the rusted wall of the maintenance shaft, his lungs finally pulling in air that didn't taste of sulfur or rot."You’re doing just fine, big guy," Sera said, her voice dropping into a playful, teasing lilt. She leaned in close, her eyes searching his. "The tremors in your hands are stopping. That’s a good sign. It means your internal systems are finally playing nice with the nanites."Bastian exhaled, his heart rate finally dipping below a frantic gallop. "I’ve had worse mornings. Usually, they involve falling off buildings, though."Sera laughed, a light, musical sound that seemed utterly out of place in the dark, debris-filled tunnel. "Falling off buildings? Is that your hobby? Because I have a list of much more exciting activities I could teach you, provided we survive the next twenty-four hours."Mika stepped into the space

The pale, bioluminescent creatures remained fixed to the walls, their bodies static and patient, watching the trio with unnerving, multi-faceted eyes. Bastian didn’t move. His hand tightened on the grip of his crossbow, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird."They’re waiting for us to make the first move," Mika whispered, her rifle barrel trembling almost imperceptibly. "Don’t give them a reason to jump.""We aren't going to fight them," Bastian murmured back, his gaze flickering from the wall-crawlers to the end of the vault. "Ariana, look. That pod. The one near the back."Ariana’s flashlight beam cut through the darkness, hitting a thick, reinforced glass cylinder. It was pressurized, sealed with heavy-duty steel clamps, and illuminated by a flickering, sickly yellow emergency light. Inside, huddled against the curved back of the glass, was a woman.She wasn't a creature. She was human, wearing a tattered lab

The red eye flickered, the hum of the mech’s internal turbine rising to a shriek that rattled the very teeth in Bastian’s skull. The mechanical arm, a jagged limb of rusted steel and hydraulic pistons, whipped through the air where Bastian had been a second before, pulverizing a concrete pillar into a shower of gravel and dust."Bastian! Get out of there!" Ariana’s voice was a frantic, staticky wail through his earpiece."I can’t!" Bastian shouted back, skidding across the slick floor. "It’s locked onto the tunnel entrance! If I move, it’ll blast the exit shut!""If you stay, you’re scrap metal!" she screamed, her voice bordering on hysteria. "I’m at the breaker! I’m going to pull it now!""No! Wait!" Bastian scrambled over a stack of debris, his lungs burning. "If you pull it while I’m in range of the primary capacitor, you’ll fry me along with it! Give me ten seconds to get to the flank!""I don't have ten seconds!" Ariana retorted. "It’s charging its main cannon again!"Bastian loo

"Lina! Stay by the grow-room door! Keep the manual seals closed!" Bastian shouted into the darkness, his voice tight."I’m trying, but the temperature is already climbing! The water is stagnant!" Lina’s voice came back, thin and desperate.Ariana slammed her hand against the wall, her flashlight beam dancing wildly over the dead, flickering console. "Bastian, the core isn’t just drained. It’s been severed. Someone, or something, tripped the physical circuit breaker in the basement. The whole station is isolated."Bastian didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his heavy-duty flashlight and gestured for her to follow. "Down to the lower level. Now.""If the breaker tripped, it means the surge came from the municipal line," Ariana said, her voice echoing as they clattered down the metal stairs. "That shouldn't be possible. The city grid has been dead for a decade.""Maybe someone—or something—is trying to pull power from

"Grab the other handle, Mika! Lift it! Now!" Bastian roared, his voice nearly drowned out by the deafening screech of fracturing glass above."I’ve got it! Just run!" Mika yelled back, her fingers clawing at the heavy plastic grip of the crop container. "Don't look back, Bastian! Move!""Wait! My seedlings! Don't let them tip!" Lina screamed, her hands clutching her tablet to her chest as she sprinted right behind them. "If they tilt past forty-five degrees, the nutrient gel will spill!""They aren't going to tip!" Bastian shouted, his upgraded muscles burning as he pivoted, carrying his side of the massive case down the steps. "Mika, watch the step! Jump!"Crash!A massive sheet of laminated glass slammed into the concrete right where they had been standing a second ago, exploding into thousands of sharp, crystalline shards. The impact sent a wave of dust and cold air biting at their heels."We're out! We're out!" Mika panted, her boots slamming onto the cracked asphalt of the highwa

The invitation sat on the mahogany desk like a live grenade. It was thick, cream-colored, and embossed with a gold wax seal that smelled faintly of arrogance.Velmira tapped a manicured fingernail against the paper. "A gala at the Oakhaven Estate. Public. Televised. And, according to this, 'strictly couples only'."Jorvan didn’t look up from his tablet. He was still obsessively scrubbing the metadata from their offshore accounts. "It’s a trap. We’re in the middle of a tactical retreat from the Syndicate, and you want to walk into a room full of federal prosecutors and socialites?""It’s not a trap, Jorvan. It’s an insurance policy." Velmira stood, her heels clicking against the hardwood with surgical precision. "We’re being hunted in the shadows. If we show up as a united, happy couple at the season’s biggest event, we become untouchable. Nobody executes a billionaire’s heir in the middle of a charity waltz.""And if we’re seen together?" Jorvan’s eyes finally flickered up, his expres

"We aren't leaving the memory box," Velmira said, her voice sharp enough to cut the gloom of the storage unit.Jorvan didn’t look up from his stack of legal binders. "It’s sentimental clutter, Velmira. It’s the definition of a liability. We’re in a city-wide manhunt, and you’re worried about a box of polaroids from our first year in that roach-infested studio?""It’s not just photos." She pulled the heavy cardboard container from the back of the shelf, the dust puffing up like a dying breath. "It’s the access code to the server you used to build that studio apartment. The one you said you 'wiped' when we moved out."Jorvan froze. His pen hovered mid-air, a dark ink blot blooming on the contract. "I didn't wipe that server. I redirected the traffic.""You did a lot more than that." She set the box on a crate and flipped the lid.It smelled of ozone and cheap cologne—the scent of their poverty. She reached in, her fingers brushing over a crumpled receipt from a pizza place that had clos

"Three years," Jorvan said, his voice as dry as parchment. He didn't look up from the tablet, his thumb rhythmically scrolling through the ledger of their impending ruin. "I’ve checked the depreciation on the shared assets. The apartment, the investments, the cat. It’s a clean break."Velmira tapped her fountain pen against the mahogany table. Click. Click. Click. "Barnaby isn't an asset, Jorvan. He’s a golden retriever with a nervous disposition.""He’s a liability that requires a monthly upkeep of two hundred credits," Jorvan countered, sliding a document toward her. "I’ve calculated the split based on our initial capital contributions. It’s fair."Velmira finally lifted her eyes. They were grey, cold, and utterly devoid of the warmth that had characterized their courtship. "Fair is a subjective metric. You’re factoring in the equity from the first year. We were living in a studio, eating ramen to afford the down payment on this place."Jorvan leaned back, his chair scraping against

"Is she alive?" Jorvan’s voice was a jagged blade, cutting through the hum of the electronic frame.Velmira didn't look at the screen. She was staring at the front door, watching the digital light cycle from amber to a steady, predatory red. "If they have her, they have the frame. If they have the frame, they have the keys.""She’s seventy-two, Velmira. She doesn't even know how to update her cloud storage.""She knows how to hide things," Velmira countered, backing toward the kitchenette. She grabbed the heavy cast-iron skillet from the stove. "She’s been hiding her jewelry in the lining of that frame for a decade. She wouldn't let anyone touch it.""They're going to kill her.""They're going to use her to get us to unlock the server," Velmira corrected. "There’s a difference."A heavy thud vibrated through the floorboards. Someone was standing directly outside the apartment door. They weren't knocking; they were waiting."Why are they waiting?" Jorvan whispered, hauling himself up t

The silence in the aftermath was worse than the explosion. It was the sound of a vacuum—a world with the air sucked out. Velmira sat amidst the debris of her own life, her skin mapped in grime and jagged red lines. She gripped Mochi’s carrier. It was shattered, but the cat was breathing. A thin, wet, rattling sound."Jorvan," she croaked. The name felt like glass in her throat.Jorvan didn’t move. He was slumped against a rebar-pierced support beam, his head lolling at an unnatural angle."Don't you dare," she hissed, scrambling over the rubble. "You signed a contract. Two weeks of mandatory cohabitation. You don't get to breach that for the sake of a headache."She grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. His body felt heavy, unanchored. His hand fell against the concrete with a dead, hollow thwack."Jorvan!"He let out a sharp, choked gasp, his lungs catching on a lungful of pulverized drywall. His eyes fluttered open—vacant, then frantic, then focused. He looked at the smoking crater wh

The smell of rotten eggs was thick enough to taste.Velmira clawed at the darkness, her nails raking against cold, damp concrete. "Jorvan? Move. Now.""I’m trying," he wheezed, his voice vibrating with the tremor of a man who’d just realized he was sitting on a bomb. "My ankle. I think it’s snapped.""I don't care if it’s missing. Crawl."A match flickered to life in the crawlspace above. A thin, golden thread of light drifted through the splintered floorboards. Someone was peering down."Found them," a voice echoed—hollow, metallic, and devoid of humanity.Velmira didn't scream. She rolled, her shoulder slamming into a rusted support pillar. She fumbled in the dark until her hand closed around a heavy, damp mass of fur. "Mochi?"The cat let out a weak, rattling exhale. He was alive, barely.Click.The distinct sound of a shotgun’s safety disengaging drifted down from the ceiling."Jorvan," Velmira whispered, her lips ghosting against his ear. "On my mark. The furnace. You rigged it,