Lisven University's Quantum Computing Lab gleamed with a sterility that felt foreign after months in the lower sectors. Clean white surfaces, functioning climate control, lights that never flickered, it was like visiting another world in the future, or the past. Tera's forged badge got her through the outer security checkpoints, her carefully constructed identity holding up under the preliminary scans.
Dr. Eliot Chen was exactly as his personnel file had described: brilliant, methodical, and deeply focused. At thirty-five, he was already heading one of the most advanced computing research teams outside of corporate control. Tera and her collaborators had been observing him for a long time, but now, posing as his new research assistant, she could see the weight he carried.
Her first day in the lab was spent carefully establishing her cover, demonstrating enough knowledge to be credible without drawing too much attention. By the evening, most of the researchers had left, leaving just her and Dr. Chen working late.
"You have an unusual approach to quantum state interpretation," he noted, reviewing her work on a shared screen. "Not conventional training."
"Self-taught in some areas," she replied carefully. "My previous place of education was subpar, so to say."
He nodded, seemingly understanding. "Sometimes limitations breed innovation. Traditional education can become an intellectual prison."
Something in his tone caught her attention, a subtle emphasis that seemed personal. She decided to take a calculated risk.
"Do you mean like the limitations Luminex places on consciousness research?"
His fingers paused over the keyboard, and he turned to look at her directly for the first time. "That's a provocative observation from a new assistant."
"I've been following your father's early work," she said quietly. "Before he disappeared."
Chen's expression didn't change, but his posture stiffened. "My father's work is not a topic of discussion in this lab. University policy."
"University policy or Luminex policy?" she pressed.
He stood abruptly. "I think we're done for today, Ms. Cantwell."
"He's in the limited server," Tera said quickly. "Along with others who believed, as he did, that consciousness technology shouldn't be monopolized."
Chen froze, his back to her. "That's a serious claim. And a dangerous one to make without proof."
Tera took a deep breath. "I can prove it. Because I know exactly when he was sent there, and why. The same reason my sister and two others were just banished three days ago. For voting to share Zenith's technology with the outside world."
Slowly, he turned back to face her. "You're not a research assistant."
"No."
"Returner?" he asked, his voice barely audible.
She nodded.
To her surprise, he didn't call security. Instead, he walked to the lab door and engaged the privacy lock. When he returned, his demeanour had completely changed, the cautious academic replaced by someone carrying a hidden fury, a person on a personal quest.
"Three years," he said. "Three years of official reports saying my father chose 'premium isolation' in Zenith. Three years of being told he didn't want contact with the physical world anymore." His voice was tight with controlled anger. "I never believed it. Not for a second."
"He didn't choose isolation," Tera confirmed. "None of them did."
"How do you know he's there? In this limited server?"
"Because I was in communication with the board members who were just sent there. One of them mentioned your father by name."
Chen sank into his chair. "Is he... intact? Conscious?"
"Yes. And apparently part of a resistance within the limited server itself."
A spark of pride flashed across Chen's face. "That sounds like him." He looked up at her sharply. "What do you want from me?"
Tera pulled out her father's data chip. "A way to reach them. To establish communication without Luminex knowing."
Chen took the chip, examining it with professional curiosity. "Ancient tech. Pre-Collapse?"
"My grandfather's research. He was developing alternative neural interfaces, ones that could potentially bypass Zenith's protocols."
He connected the chip to his secure terminal, eyes widening as he scanned the contents. "This is remarkable. Primitive by today's standards, but the conceptual framework is sound, especially for how old it is." He looked up at her. "With quantum computing resources, we might be able to adapt this. Create a narrow-band consciousness frequency that Zenith's security wouldn't recognize as communication."
His fingers flew across the interface. "I've been working on something similar, trying to locate my father in Zenith's architecture without alerting their security. But I was missing key elements of the consciousness transfer protocol."
Hope surged through Tera for the first time in days. "How long would it take to develop?"
"With these foundational algorithms? Weeks instead of months." He hesitated. "But I'd need access to specialized hardware. Components that would raise flags if I requisitioned them through my own channels."
Tera smiled slightly. "That's where the rest of my team comes in. We have ways of acquiring things off the record."
Chen nodded slowly, a new determination settling over him. "If there's even a chance of reaching my father, I'm in." He looked at her intently. "But I need to know what your endgame is. What happens if we establish contact?"
"Coordination," Tera explained. "The limited server prisoners have knowledge, insights into Zenith's architecture that could help us. And one of them, Zac Voss, still has considerable assets in the physical world that might be used if we can connect him with his proxies."
"The ultimate goal?"
"The same as it's always been. Democratizing the technology. Making immortality, or at least extended consciousness, available to all by filtering out the outrageous premium functions." She thought of her father in his wheelchair, slowly fading. "No one should have to watch their loved ones die when the technology to save them exists."
Chen was quiet for a long moment. "My father has the same principles." He stood up and offered his hand. "I'll help you reach the limited server. But this stays between us for now. The rest of the lab can't know."
Tera clasped his hand, feeling confident in her new acquaintance. "Agreed. We start tomorrow."
As she left the lab that night, navigating back through the pristine university corridors toward the rough reality of the lower sectors, Tera felt a shift in their fortunes. They had lost the direct confrontation, but found new paths to follow to achieve their goal.
Back in her small apartment, she got her encrypted phone out from behind the hidden door of the safe. She proceeded to check her secure messages from the other Returners. Omega had already begun sourcing the components Chen would need. Rivera was establishing new safe houses. The network was rebuilding, adapting.
Tera opened the last message, a brief update on her parents. Her father's oxygen levels had dropped again. The new medicine was helping, but not enough. Never enough.
Time was running out, not just for her family but for millions struggling in a world where resources were increasingly diverted to maintain digital paradises for the wealthy dead.
She closed her eyes, picturing her sister and the others trapped in the limited server. "Hold on," she whispered to the empty room. "We're coming."