Despite my initial misgivings, it did seem that Yaga and the team were doing the best they could to make every activation of their device worthwhile. They’d hypothesized something to the effect that there were several different wavelengths that could influence a mind. For one reason or another, these wavelengths seemed to be similar across species, or at the very least affected Yaga as well as anyone else. The fact that they did nothing to me was no surprise; there was no reason that a psychic force would be able to interact normally with my own mostly mechanical brain.

And yet, we found ourselves deeply surprised when I could feel a certain force during some of the tests.

“I don’t think we should rule it out, but there’s a strong possibility that this is the placebo effect.” Dr. Ross frowned at the results, given how inconsistent they were in my case.

I shrugged, “Could be, I’m certainly not an expert in what my brain is now.”

Yaga calibrated the machine once more, certain to set the wavelength to a three second burst, “Be that as it may, there’s always the chance that you’re not as mechanized as you thought.”

Terry chimed in, “Or his mech-brain has emulated a regular brain well enough that it can pick that stuff up.”

The scientists chuckled at that before seeming to frown all at once in thoughtfulness. “You know,” Dr. Ross stared at Terry, “That could be a possibility.”

“Fascinating,” Yaga nodded, “But nothing that we should pursue without, err, express permission, of course.”

He must have noticed the growing grimace on my face as they spoke about me, and thankfully the topic shifted quickly back to the current project.

“So, has the wolf responded at all?” Daniel asked, casting his gaze over to the secured biotic. His eyes lingered momentarily on the collar that confined its jaws, more aware than most of the biting power that they possessed.

“Yes… no? Perhaps,” Yaga settled on with a helpless shrug, “It is hard to determine. Most of the tested wavelengths have resulted in mundane things, such as flavors. It’s hard to tell if this biotic would respond at all to olfactory input.”

“So we’re attempting to run many sets of this frequency, but at short bursts.” Dr. Ross supplemented cliply, “At some point, we’re bound to run into something that it responds to.”

I nodded at that, watching as the spherical object that was mounted on a half foot diameter neck began to emit a whirring noise. Hexagonal plates covered the sphere, each one secured from the outside by a finger-like cage of an alloyed metal that I didn’t recognize. As with each time before, I could feel the static buildup of electricity in the air for a moment before it began to transform, pulled inwards seemingly towards what was the center of the device.

As energy built, I watched the plates shift like an undulating skin, keeping the bulk of whatever was building up redirected into the center of the working. Not many would have thought to utilize the biotic hive cores in anything beyond enhancing the functions of their Obelisks. However, given how many biotics we hunted, we had an abundance that we hardly knew what to do with. Yaga, with his own special nature, strove to subvert their inner workings and had managed to merge five together into what he referred to straightforwardly as a compound-core.

Compound-cores were very difficult to create, given that Yaga and I were likely the only two who could manufacture them with any measure of accuracy given our ability to interact with them, but the benefits had proven to be numerous. Their ability to manufacture Matter Energy exponentially grew with every merge, but Yaga told me also that they began to have far more estranged properties. If they went unstable, they would begin to warp materials around them, twisting their form and at times their composition subtly from what they’d been before.

These were the first ‘perfect’ compound-cores that Yaga had built, an effort far exceeding his previous projects. Months of work had culminated in only these five, though I felt we could potentially expand on the base.

Yaga had expressed his wariness of doing any more, though, but not due to the construction method. He hadn’t gone into detail at the time, save to say that it would be incredibly dangerous to go further.

As I watched the compound-cores throw off greater and greater amounts of energy, in a form not quite like Matter Energy, but certainly not electricity either, I had to agree that this was certainly dangerous, whatever Yaga’s exact reasons had been.

A large, transparent cage sat around the entire device, augmented by additional layers of energy-shielding technology that we’d begun to utilize. In theory, if it exploded then the combined buffers would keep the rest of us safe, but Yaga had repeatedly stated that he had no comparisons to make for this type of technology.

For all we knew, we were sitting next to a nuclear explosion waiting to happen.Amidst it all, a loud crashing sound like the sea and tearing fabric began to fill the air. The biotic in the room added to the clamor, barking discordantly and howling with all the clamor of a wood chipper trying to eat metal.

Yaga shouted over the din, “Ready yourselves!”

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Grimly I watched the proceedings, Daniel bearing a deep grimace as he sat heavily on a test chair, bracing himself as well as he could. No one really knew what would come out of this one, and in a way I was a convenient insurance policy in case anyone attempted to claw their own eyes out.

Before I could follow that train of thought, the machine shuddered and all at once expanded, the hexagonal plates hinging open and releasing the energy into the open air. Suspended in the center, I could plainly see our compound-core, floating by virtue of the sheer tides of energy around it. All around it, and throughout the entirety of the room, were hundreds of recording devices logging all the information that we could possibly capture, with as many backups as we could install to ensure nothing was missed.

I didn’t pay any attention to the wavelength just yet, instead focusing acutely on the others.

‘One second,’ I mentally timed myself even as I watched them, not noting any outward lashing out, no violence. That at least was a good sign, I wouldn’t need to protect them from themselves.

‘Two seconds,’ I turned my gaze to the biotic in the cage, my attention seeking other more minute changes. The sight of the wolf, however, briefly captured my attention. The yowling, violent creature was laying down, utterly placid. A strange look had fallen over its eyes, and I could almost swear I could see a restful smile on its horrid silvery lips.

‘Three seconds,’ My attention shot around to the others, knowing I had no more time to examine what had transpired beyond this. Cameras all around the room fed me their own information, and from every perspective possible I saw the others fully relaxed. All of the stress and tension in their muscles seemed to have fled, and had it not been for the chairs they sat in, I doubted that they would be able to stand. Most of all, I could see that they bore dopey, dull smiles, and almost entirely vacant looking eyes. Glassed over as they were, I doubted they would even notice their surroundings in the slightest.

Then the pulse stopped, and I watched, tense, to see the aftereffects. To my relief, the others blinked numbly, almost seeming confused as they looked around. Daniel shook his head as though to clear a fugue from him even as he attempted to rise from his seat. The moment he tried standing, though, his legs immediately buckled, much to his shock, as he fell forward.

I caught him before he fell into the floor, “Whoa there, take it easy. How are you feeling?”

Daniel let out a long breath before giving me a nod, “Good, I think. I mean, it feels like I just got woke up from a real deep sleep, though.”

“Accurate,” Terry stretched, “Oh, man, that’s weird. It’s like REM sleep, but without the sleep and with some of the muscle paralysis.”

Dr. Ross looked thoughtful for a moment before checking a machine beside him. Unconcerned, he stated, “Well, vitals dipped, but not dangerously.”

Yaga, however, looked especially drained, shaking his head still. I walked up beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder, “You alright?”

For a moment, Yaga looked up at me with a frown, clear confusion spread upon his face. He looked around shortly thereafter, still searching the faces of his companions before he mumbled, “I don’t… what?...”

Just before I could get concerned, though, he straightened somewhat and met my gaze again. I could almost see the moment where his recollection of events snapped back into place, and held him steady as he wobbled with a palm to his forehead.

“That was… disconcerting.” Yaga uttered before he fully turned to the others. Wordlessly he stared at the still unmoving, content form of the wolf in the cage, laying down on its side in a way that none of us had ever seen before.

“Holy crap, is it still out?” Daniel whispered, as though he was afraid his mentioning of it might break whatever spell the wolf was under.

“I suspect biotics are indeed susceptible then,” Dr. Ross nodded to himself, “Perhaps even more so than humans.”

“As experienced personally, I’ll have to concur.” Yaga continued to stare at the wolf, “This is remarkable.”

We gathered around, staring at the thing. Rachel then took the surprise opportunity to jab it with a taser stick, though the taser portion was turned off. Collectively we inhaled at that, watching for any response with tense curiosity. After a few more seconds, we released, even as Rachel prodded it a few more times.

“It’s passed the fuck out,” Terry barked a laugh, “I didn’t even know wolves slept.”

“They don’t, right?” Rachel glared at the thing before turning the taser on and hitting it again, resulting in scarcely a twitch.

For a long moment we just stared at the wolf as it remained inactive.

“This changes everything.” Awe was clear in Daniel’s voice, the sheer stunned surprise reflected on all of our faces.

I turned my attention to Dr. Ross and Yaga, “You already had flexibility with your project, but now you have a blank check. Pull as many resources as you need, but this officially supersedes the anti-psionics project as of this moment.”

“Agreed,” Dr. Ross nodded emphatically, “Just as soon as we make some modifications, we’ll be ready to go again.”

Yaga perplexedly looked onwards upon the machine, a complicated expression on his face. He moved towards the data, glancing back and forth between the machine and the biotic with what seemed to be mounting curiosity.

I left him to it, knowing that Dr. Ross would be more than capable of relaying my orders to him once he was paying attention once more.

“Well, we’re gonna head out for some lunch. Dinner?” Terry glanced at his watch before shrugging, “How about you guys?”

“Fran should be getting back soon, but I think we can join you,” Daniel answered before shooting a glance to me, “Unless you have anything you need to do right now?”

I shook my head, “Nothing that can’t wait a bit.”

“Then you can join us topside. Terry knows a great Chinese food place,” Rachel said over her shoulder as she finished packing up her things into a desk compartment. We followed them to the elevators, making small talk as we went. However, I couldn’t keep myself from being excited over what we’d just witnessed. If we could master this technology, then we might very well be able to completely negate the biotic presence on Earth.

But one step at a time. We still didn’t know anywhere near enough about this psionic tool to make full use of it. As we left, though, I knew that the two people who were best equipped for the job were already sinking themselves back into their research with a fervor.