Neural Bleed
The tunnels breathed. Every time Jackie took a step, the ground responded with a slow metallic pulse, as if the entire mine remembered pain. Her optical implant cut narrow cones of light through the dark, catching glints from the ore veins—threads of violet light pulsing like arteries under translucent rock.
"Visual stream's coming through," Lyra's voice murmured in her ear, low but steady. "Tally's running surface scans on your feed. Hold position for a sec."
Jackie crouched beside a fissure where liquid shimmered faintly against the wall. Her ocular implant magnified the texture—crystalline dust suspended in viscous flow. "It's bleeding," she said softly. "The ore is actually alive, or close enough."
"Copy that." Lyra's tone fully of curiosity. "Sura, do you copy?"
A second voice filtered through the comms, crisp, patient—Sura's. "I'm here, Jackie. Your vitals are elevated. Regulate your intake. I'm synching your heartbeat with mine."
Jackie felt the faint tug in her chest as the link settled. "I'm fine. Just… hearing things."
"Describe," Sura prompted.
She hesitated. The ore's hum had deepened into rhythm—a whisper shaped like thought. 'Move deeper. You're part of us now.'
"It's resonance," Jackie said finally. "Not words. Patterns that want to be words."
Her internal display flickered, and BDJ's ever calm voice moved through her neural net.
> WARNING: Low-frequency neural interference detected.
Correlation: Psycho-reactive resonance. There is a 78.53% chance that the Subaquilus Ore is the primary cause of the resonance.
She brushed her gloved fingers over the glowing wall. The light rippled at her touch.
Her ocular implant began to dissect the scene around her. A lattice of sonic-mental resonance surrounded her and moved out toward the surface. The deeper it went the stronger it was, and as it moved to the surface it weakened and changed, becoming more precise and insidious.
"Is this another Nexus experiment?"
"I would say yes." Lyra's voice accusatory.
"We don't know that for sure." Sura tried to sound confident, her loyalty firm, but Jackie could hear the doubt in her new friend's voice. Lyra continued speaking, staying focused on the task.
"Equipment ahead's still running—looks like old Nexus rigs, twenty-year tech. Power drain's minimal but enough to shake things loose."
Jackie started forward. "They left the drills running?"
"Probably abandoned mid-operation," Lyra said. "Those systems don't know how to shut themselves off."
Sura added quietly, "If the drills are cycling at the wrong frequency, they could be amplifying the psychic field. Like hitting a wineglass until it shatters."
"Except the glass is the entire ocean," Jackie muttered.
She reached the first platform—a collapsed steel deck half swallowed by mineral growth. Three inactive mechs hunched nearby, fossilized under a crust of glittering ore. Beyond them, a single rig still twitched, its servo arms grinding against stone. The sound was soft but constant, a heartbeat in metal.
Even as her recently upgraded optical implant scanned the scene before her Sura, Lyra and Tally were correlating data. Her optical implant focused in and calculated the rig and the frequency it was operating at.
The data scrolled across her HUD as information was collated and processed, and equations and estimations were run and made. Jackie's eyes went wide, her summations arriving seconds before Lyra spoke.
"Jackie, that thing's operating outside approved frequency. The modulation's erratic. It's hitting psychic bandwidth."
"I see it. The rig is causing all of this. A single piece of equipment abandoned improperly causing a world of trouble." She clinched her fist, anger welling deep within her. "Nexus only cares about gains and assets."
"That's not true," Sura said, her voice dying before the words were fully said.
"Go ahead and say it again. Maybe you will convince yourself. The truth is Nexus caused the Neural Bleed. Tally and I will dig for the data to prove it." Lyra's sarcasm dug deep, Sura bit her lip and Jackie heard her small gasp.
Sura was learning more than she bargained for.
Jackie stood in silence, her upgraded defensive systems continually tracking Orion's approach.
BDJ spoke calmly into her neural net: Operative Orion approaches with an intent based in stealth and violence. His posture is stiff and ready to initiate combative action. There is a 95.63% chance that he will react without warning.
Jackie's ocular implant began analyzing the structure of the Subaquilus crystal around her, without direction.
"The ore and the crystal are one, stripping the ore has caused the crystal to essentially call out blindly in pain. It truly is sentient. Can we fix this? Sura?
It took a long moment before she spoke. "I … I… I don't know. I will speak to Dr. McGregor. We will figure this out Jackie."
Jackie smiled, as she felt Sura's heart race, she actually believed her. Someone else cared about this world and the people in it.
Jackie stepped closer to the rig. Its arm twitched once, gears squealing like an animal in pain. She crouched, pulling a service port cover aside. Inside, fiber cables pulsed with dull orange light.
> SYSTEM LINK ESTABLISHED.
Data rushed through her network, wild and erratic. For an instant, she saw flashes: miners screaming in flooded tunnels, engineers overriding safety codes, command consoles flashing Production Targets Unmet.
The data flood forth and her newly evolved neural net consumed and made sense of it. The information moved across her HUD like streaks of multi colored light, her processors easily working to decipher it all.
BDJ spoke: Upgraded neural net has increased processing speed of 73%. Personal AI system evolution 96% complete.
Jackie maintained the connection, not wanting to let the people go, not wanting them to ever be forgotten. "Lyra, these systems weren't malfunctioning—they were ordered to ignore containment warnings. Nexus forced maximum yield."
Lyra's breath hissed through the channel. "So it wasn't an accident."
"No," Jackie whispered. "It was protocol."
The ore pulsed brighter. Her vision blurred, overlays cascading with new streams of code she didn't recognize. Sura's voice pierced the noise. "Jackie, pull back. Something is happening."
"I can handle it," Jackie said, though sweat beaded under her collar. "I need to know how deep this goes."
"Then let me stabilize the feed," Lyra replied. "Tally is routing counter-resonance."
The static in her mind softened. Patterns aligned—shapes within the data twisting into coherent architecture. Beneath the mine's map, a hidden system glowed: conduits, nodes, power reroutes. Someone had built an amplifier here.
"Hmm… I see."
"What do you see!?" Lyra's voice was eager.
"This is not just about Subaquilus Ore. It seems the crystal byproduct was under testing. There is a transmitter below me."
Silence filled the channel. Only Sura's calm breathing steadied the link.
"Jackie," Lyra said at last, "you're telling me Nexus Directive designed the Neural Bleed?"
"I'm telling you they're using it. Maybe it was their goal, or maybe it is a side-effect, either way they know about it and they are allowing it to do what it is doing."
"So not an accident. We have to stop this. We need more information." Sura's voice was frantic now.
"Agreed. Tally and I are on it."
Jackie began disconnecting everything she came across. She wanted to ensure nothing was left to keep this atrocity running.
Her boots scraped over rock as she advanced deeper. The walls closed in, the glow intensifying until the air shimmered with violet haze. The hum of the crystal resonated with her pulse, making every heartbeat feel foreign. She passed more equipment—drones petrified mid-motion, monitors frozen on static. The deeper she went, the louder the whispering became.
> Join us… she is part of the circuit now…
Sura's tone sharpened. "Jackie? What's going on?"
"I'm fine."
"Define fine."
"I can hear the mine thinking," she said. "That's new."
Lyra groaned. "Great. Psychic rocks. My favorite."
Sura sucked her teeth, "It sounds dangerous."
Jackie smiled faintly, the expression gone as quick as it came. "I'm close to something—a core junction. Power readings are climbing."
She entered a broad chamber. The walls curved into a dome of light, every surface lined with the glittering crystal. In the center, a single column of machinery rose from the floor—a massive drill fused with crystal, cables branching like roots into the earth. It pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat.
"This is it," she breathed. "The core interface."
"This is an odd reading," Lyra said. "Tally's mapping—hold still."
The map assembled in her HUD: interlocking rings of ore veins and tech, a fusion of organic and synthetic design. Not random—engineered. Someone had carved circuitry into the planet itself.
- Through the crystalline core of the Subaquilus Ore.
Sura's analysis streamed across her display. "Energy signatures correspond to Nexus Directive's proprietary designations. The core's output is rerouted to communication arrays above the Dome. Jackie, they're channeling this resonance into the city's systems."
Jackie's pulse quickened. "That's why the Leviathan attacked. The crystal was crying, and the Leviathan is now part of this 'circuit'."
"Is that what it's telling you? That you are part of the circuit?" Sura's voice was demanding but Jackie did not answer her.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Nexus Directive must be stopped."
High above, in the upper shafts, Orion froze.
Her voice carried through the open comm bands, echoing against his helmet speakers. He'd been listening since she entered, tracking her vitals, watching her cross lines no operative should cross. Now the words hit him like a trigger. Must be stopped.
He opened his private channel. "Control, this is Orion. Subject has declared hostile intent toward Nexus. She's compromised."
"Observation only," came the filtered reply. "Do not engage."
"She's syncing with the ore. If she keeps going—"
"Do not engage."
The line cut. Silence.
Orion stared into the darkness where her beacon flickered far below. The glow of the psychic ore reflected in his visor, turning his eyes violet. He thought for a long moment.
"They never learn," he whispered.
He knew what he had to do.
---
Jackie stood at the center of the chamber, palm pressed to the humming column. The vibration coursed through her bones, steady, rhythmic, almost human. She turned her head slightly, voice low but sure.
"It's time you come out, Orion," she said. "I know you've been watching me this entire time."
As she spoke, the core powered down and she felt the collective sigh of all the Subaquilus crystal around her.
Footsteps echoed from the tunnel mouth. The light behind her shifted, catching metal and shadow.
"I figured you'd say that," came his reply.
She didn't turn. "Then let's talk."