Brandon’s fingers scrambled across the keyboard. The report needed to be finished before he started work. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead. Today could very well be his last day at the lab, all because he missed his damn alarm again. If only he had not spent half the night lying awake in bed.

Pausing, he gritted his teeth and adjusted his wristpad, glancing at the Aether crystal lodged in the middle. It emitted a faint red glow. It was almost depleted and he would need to replace it soon.

The door to his room opened and his wife, Marvain, walked in with his breakfast. All he noticed was a plate settling to the right of his keyboard. He lost his focus momentarily, but went right back to finishing the report. He would need to get going in the next few minutes.

An irritated voice spoke from behind him. “I said, good morning.”

He blinked and glanced down at his breakfast. “Morning.”

“Care to explain what this mess is all about?” She dropped a stack of papers to the left of his keyboard.

“What’s that?” he asked, not moving his gaze from the screen.

“A stack of letters from the University,” she scolded. “From your students, to the dean. They’re not flattering.”

Brandon sighed, giving a lazy smirk. “I’m sure they’re not.”

“Uh huh,” Marvain murmured, turning and half-sitting on his desk. “Then you can also be sure the college won’t tolerate their complaints much longer.”

“You know, the students should know that Aetheric Mechanics is not meant to be a class for toddlers.” He shrugged, looking at her. “But hey, they’re the ones with the poor work ethic.”

“Excuse me?” she shouted. “Can you try to take this seriously? This is our reputation, Brandon. I don’t care how many awards you’ve won, if you lose your job at the college, it will be a permanent scar on our name.”

“Well, if I manage to finish this report on time, then I get to keep the arguably more important job, the one which ultimately got me the teaching job at the college in the first place. So, if you’ll allow me just a few more seconds…” He finished up the last few lines as well as the signature.

Marvain had her arms folded, glaring at him incredulously. “You done now?”

“Yep, and now I have to show up to present it,” he chirped, spinning in his chair and popping up to his feet. At the last second, he remembered his breakfast still sitting on his desk, so he reached back and grabbed it. He smiled at his wife. “See you tonight.”

“I don’t appreciate your—” she started to say before he closed the door on her. Sometimes, she talked too much.

In the front driveway, he slid into his silver car and pressed the ignition button, already shoveling his breakfast into his mouth. The moment the Aetheric engine hummed to life and the HUD appeared, he grabbed the wheel and took off. The streets of Eredor’s Capitol, Ridgemire, were lively in the mornings. Aether-powered vehicles were a common sight nowadays, though since the integration of Aether into technology was a relatively new phenomenon, there were still plenty of people who rebelled at the idea. Some people would never change.

Brandon made sure to keep below the speed limit, the real speed limit. It wasn’t the number on the signs, it was the number just below where police would hit him with a speeding fine. He had practice over the last few years. Sometimes he would even get fined on purpose multiple times over the span of a few months to get an idea of where their threshold was at. He had concluded it was usually twenty five percent higher than the advertised limit.

He arrived at Ridgemire National Laboratory with only a minute to spare. He swore silently to himself as he jogged over to the building where the meeting would be held. Perhaps if the Police officers were late as well, he wouldn’t feel that ashamed.

As his luck would have it, everyone was already there. So much for not looking guilty.

He ran his hand through his dark hair a few steps before entering the room. Hector and four other police officers sat at the semicircular table, with the Laboratory Director, Rich Onver, at the far end.

Brandon gave a soft smile to the group nodding to Hector. “Good morning everyone. I apologize for my tardiness. Life hasn’t been kind to me as of late.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I’m sure you have your reasons,” said Rich in a disappointed tone. He looked at Brandon oddly, then wiped his thumb under his mustache in an exaggerated gesture. “But our guests here are eager to hear your report.”

The middle officer adjusted the position of his arms folded across his chest, as if to emphasize the Director’s statement.

Brandon hesitated, only to realize a moment later the Director was signaling that some of his breakfast was stuck to his mouth. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as casually as he could as he brought up his report on the wall screen. “Yes, right. The ultra-top-secret analysis report.”

A slowly rotating view of the crystal appeared. An array of small, spiraling engravings dotted the surface. Each engraving had unique features, with different patterns of dots and dashes. “We ran a full diagnostic on every level of detail, as requested. Starting with the highest level, the crystal shows signs of usage, mostly for power generation. The estimation is between forty and sixty hours powering home appliances, or eight to twelve hours powering the average vehicle.”

Hector leaned forward. “Have the engravings altered the behavior of the crystal in any way? Forensics hasn’t been able to find a reason for the experimentation.”

Brandon nodded. “That would bring us to the lowest level of detail. Every electrical conductivity test came back nominal, but a few Aetheric capacitance tests showed conflicting results, which is something we’ve never seen before. The engravings seem to have created some sort of imperfection in the way they store Aether. Normally, the distribution of Aether within Aetherite is uniform, but these tests clearly show that the Aether is denser the closer you get to the engravings. This is equivalent to a pond having a standing ten-foot-tall wave in the middle of it without any means of sustaining its structure.

“Furthermore, the Aetheric extraction rate changes depending on the extraction distance from the engravings. Our measurement instruments measured at least a tenfold increase from the center of each engraving compared to untampered surfaces. This only shows a difference in extraction rate, not overall capacity. The crystal still drained by the predicted amount, but we have yet to confirm our hypotheses on why we are seeing these results. We will have to delay further testing as one of our instruments broke due to the unusually strong magnetic fields the tests generated. Yet another unexpected behavior. On the positive side, this could be grounds for new physics.

“Now, we were particularly alarmed by this next observation. Normally, crystals such as this should be virtually indestructible at this level of Aetheric charge. They can’t even be scratched by other crystals, let alone the world’s strongest metals. Since recharging crystals is like asking water to flow uphill, it couldn’t have been drained first and then experimented on. Whoever got their hands on this also has access to technology the world has never seen.”

The officers looked at each other in disbelief.

“Any questions?” he asked.

“Nothing in particular,” the middle officer said, “but we do ask that you share this report with our forensics department. An investigation like this calls for the sharing of critical information.”

“Oh, of course.” He flicked his hand to the side. “I will send them immediately.”

The Director grunted, giving Brandon a disappointed glare. “After getting the required approval.”

He let out a nervous laugh, nodding sharply. “Ah, right. I forgot.”

After a few awkward moments of silence, the officers stood and shook both their hands. They left the Laboratory.

They were on their way to Rich’s office when Brandon spoke up. “Did they tell us anything about the investigation?”

“We’ll discuss that in my office,” Rich said, still a bit irritated. Brandon rolled his eyes.

Once they were both seated, the Director adjusted his bifocals and clasped both hands on his desk. “Do you have any idea how confidential our data is?”

“Of course!” Brandon scoffed. “That’s why only five of the highest-ranking officers showed up.”

“That’s also why most scientists at this facility have no knowledge of what we’ve been doing. I want to keep it that way, and I hope you’re on the same page.”

Brandon shrugged. “Can’t say I’m not tempted to brag about it.”

“Glad you have some self-awareness,” Rich said. “We are not sending the report until we officially coordinate the transaction between the Laboratory and the police department. We want zero chance of this getting leaked.”

Brandon raised an eyebrow. “To avoid mass panic?”

“Sure, there’s a chance of that.” Rich tilted his head. “But mostly we don’t want the public getting any ideas. Aether crystals are dangerous enough, and the government is just waiting for a good reason to outlaw their usage altogether. The last thing we need is to have to get on our knees and beg to let us continue our research.”

“Eh.” Brandon dismissively waved his hand. “To be honest, I think they’d want us to do more research. If all crystals suddenly become government property, the government would want to know everything we could know about them.”

“That’s possible,” Rich said, gazing at the ceiling in thought. “Or maybe we don’t hear anything from them because they’re in the middle of the massive national uprising that would occur as a result of outlawing the world’s most useful resource. It could lead to civil war.”

Brandon pursed his lips and looked at the floor. “Yeah, that would suck.”

“So we’re in agreement, then.” Rich leaned forward with his hands on his desk. “Let’s keep this information secure.”

Brandon flinched inwardly as his response escaped his mouth. “You bet.”

Rich nodded his appreciation. A few seconds passed before Brandon remembered something. “Director, about this morning’s meeting, did they tell you anything about their investigation?”

“I know just as much as you, Brandon. And trust me, I’m just as eager to find out.” Rich turned in his swivel chair and stood. He patted Brandon on the shoulder on his way out of his office. “But that is not our job. I trust you enjoy this place more than you would a jail cell.”

Brandon snorted. No way they would put someone as valuable as him in a jail cell.