The room held its breath. Elias, wired to the Cradle like a fly in amber, gave a weak thumbs-up. Aris nodded. "Engage Capture Perfect 3.1."

Someone had deleted the core file. Not a glitch. Not a bug. Sabotage.

His lead technician, Mira, tapped the sequence. "Handshake stable. Preparing core transfer."

The gold turned to angry crimson. Alarms bleated.