Chapter 28: The Prometheus Protocol

 

The interior of the starship was a cathedral of silence and sleeping steel. Scarlett’s footsteps echoed on the grated floor as she ran toward what looked like the command deck. The air here was sterile, recycled for centuries, and smelled faintly of ozone and old lightning.

Her hand was still clutching the Stellar Navigator, which was now vibrating with a frantic, rhythmic pulse. It wasn't just a compass; it was a key.

“Interface detected,” a dispassionate, synthetic voice echoed through the cavernous room. It spoke in a language that wasn't English or the Lycan tongue. It was Ancient Celestial—the root language of Scarlett’s original sect.

Scarlett froze. “System, identify!”

A holographic avatar materialized in the center of the room. It wasn't a robot, but a projection of a woman wearing the same Taoist robes as the figure in the tomb mural. Her eyes were made of streaming binary code.

“Identity confirmed: Subject 001-Alpha lineage. Welcome back, Navigator,” the AI responded, its voice shifting to English. “Project Prometheus has been in stasis for 3,400 years. The 'Void-Seal' is at critical failure. External threat detected: Void-Constructs.”

Scarlett’s mind reeled. The “Gods” were scientists. The “Magic” was technology so advanced it had become indistinguishable from the arcane. And her sect... her ancestors were the crew.

“Can you target the hostiles outside?” Scarlett demanded, rushing to the main console. A panoramic screen flickered to life, showing the chaotic battlefield outside the tomb.

The scene made her heart stop.

Caleb was fighting a war he couldn't win. He was a blur of silver and blood, surrounded by hundreds of Void-Soldiers. His armor was shattered, his left arm hung uselessly at his side, and Julian—now a monstrosity of metal and shadow—had him pinned against the broken obsidian doors.

“Pathetic,” Julian’s amplified voice sneered through the ship’s audio sensors. He raised his void-claw, aiming it at Caleb’s exposed throat. “The Witch ran, Caleb. She left you to rot. Just like everyone else.”

Caleb spat a mouthful of blood onto Julian’s metal mask. He was barely standing, but his golden eyes were still burning with a defiant, feral light. “She didn't run, Julian. She’s reloading.”

Scarlett slammed her hand onto the console, funneling her spiritual energy directly into the ship’s interface. “System! Activate Point-Defense Cannons! Target all Void-signatures! Fire!”

“Authorization accepted. The Prometheus Protocol engaged.”

The ground beneath the glacier didn't just shake; it groaned. From the hidden silos buried deep within the ice, three massive, kinetic railgun turrets emerged. They didn't fire explosives. They fired concentrated beams of “Spirit-Particle” energy—the same energy Scarlett used for her exorcisms, but amplified a million times.

BOOM!

The first beam hit the center of the Void-Army. There was no explosion, only a blinding flash of white light. When it faded, fifty soldiers were simply... gone. Erased from existence.

Julian spun around, his metal faceplate registering shock for the first time. “What—”

BOOM!

The second beam vaporized the reinforcements trying to flank Caleb.

BOOM!

The third beam struck Julian directly. He screamed—a sound of tearing metal and shattering soul—as the energy blast blew his void-arm clean off his body and sent him flying into the side of the mountain.

The remaining soldiers panicked. They were fighting a King, and now, the mountain itself was fighting back.

“Retreat!” Julian shrieked, clutching his stump as black oil sprayed onto the snow. “Get me out of here!”

The battered remnants of the Black Sun army scrambled into their dropships, fleeing the terrifying, divine wrath of the "Ancestors."

Scarlett didn't watch them go. She sprinted back through the tunnel, her lungs burning, her heart hammering against her ribs.

When she burst out of the tomb entrance, the silence was deafening. The snow was stained black and red. In the center of the carnage, Caleb was on his knees, his body swaying.

“Caleb!”

She slid across the ice, catching him just as he collapsed. He was heavy, so heavy, and his skin was terrifyingly cold. But when she touched his face, his eyes fluttered open. The gold was dim, but it was there.

“Told you...” he wheezed, a bloody, triumphant grin stretching across his face. “...reloading.”

Scarlett let out a sob that was half-laugh, half-cry. She pressed her forehead against his, her hands glowing with healing light as she poured every ounce of her remaining energy into him.

“You idiot,” she whispered, kissing the blood from his brow. “You absolute, magnificent idiot. You held off an army.”

“For you,” Caleb murmured, his hand weakly coming up to touch her hair. “I would fight... the universe... for you.”

Above them, the Aurora Borealis ignited—not just green, but a swirling mix of gold and silver. The ship’s activation had re-aligned the planet’s magnetic field. The “Gods” had returned, and for the first time in three thousand years, the North was truly awake.

But as Scarlett held her King in the snow, the AI’s voice echoed softly in her earpiece, delivering a message only she could hear.

“Navigator, scanning Subject 001-Alpha. Anomaly detected. His genetic markers match the ‘Project Chimera’ prototype. He is not just a descendant. He is the Weapon.”

Scarlett froze. Caleb wasn't just the pilot’s heir. He was the biological counterpart to the ship.

The lock and the key. The pilot and the weapon.

Their love wasn't just fate. It was a design flaw that had saved the world.