Chapter 11 — Cognitive Fracture
Rishikesh — 02:14 AM.
Vansh woke without knowing when he slept.
The room felt misaligned.
Not physically.
Temporally.
For half a second, he believed the compression was still ongoing.
Then memory corrected.
Compression terminated at 1.8 seconds.
Peak drift 0.0097%.
Safe.
Barely.
He sat up slowly.
Something was wrong.
He tried to model a simple probability — the likelihood of rainfall tomorrow.
Normally instant.
Now—
Latency.
A noticeable delay.
His internal interface did not respond immediately.
He closed his eyes and attempted micro-activation.
0.4 seconds.
Pain.
Sharp.
He terminated instantly.
Energy recovery incomplete.
But this was not simple depletion.
This was overextension residue.
He stood and walked to the mirror.
Eyes steady. Breathing normal. Motor function stable.
But cognition felt… granular.
Normally, thought flowed as continuous simulation.
Now it came in pulses.
Discrete frames.
He tested working memory recall.
Compression threshold 1.0065. Tertiary phase shift 0.18 seconds. Peak drift 0.0097%.
Correct.
But slower.
Approximately 14% slower.
Unacceptable.
He recalculated the risk.
If latency exceeds 20%, predictive edge collapses under multi-actor conflict.
He had crossed safe duration under unstable coherence.
The background noise amplified neural strain.
This was the cost of scaling under turbulence.
He sat down and forced himself not to activate again.
Recovery requires restraint.
Overcorrection would deepen fracture.
Helix Headquarters — 08:00 UTC.
Aaryan studied tertiary harmonic data.
The micro-phase shift was elegant.
Minimal. Efficient. Optimized for maximum damping with minimum disruption.
That meant one thing.
The stabilizer understood cost.
He projected harmonic shift curves.
"If we increase sensor granularity by 12% and isolate tertiary coupling, we can triangulate interference origin within 0.3% spatial variance," he said calmly.
General Voren nodded. "Proceed."
They would not attempt compression immediately.
They would prepare a harmonic trap.
Beijing.
Liu Wen reviewed peak data.
"Coherence nearly crossed threshold," an analyst said.
"And yet did not," Liu replied.
"Which means someone prevented it."
He authorized Echo Sweep 2 — but at reduced amplitude.
Not aggressive.
Observational.
If the stabilizer intervened again, pattern would sharpen.
Rishikesh — Morning.
Vansh opened the bookstore.
Normal street. Normal sky.
Inside, abnormal cognition.
He reached for a book.
For half a second, he forgot why.
That had never happened before.
He paused.
Reconstructed context.
Dark matter. Helix. China. India.
Memory intact.
Latency increased.
This was dangerous.
If Aaryan escalated soon, he might not have sufficient clarity to respond precisely.
He calculated recovery projection.
Without activation: Full baseline restoration in 36–48 hours.
With minor activation: Recovery delayed to 72+ hours.
Conclusion: No interface use unless existential threshold crossed.
Professor Mishra entered.
"You look pale," the old man said.
"Sleep misalignment," Vansh replied calmly.
The professor watched him for a moment.
"You calculate everything. But the body is not a machine."
Vansh did not argue.
Because for once, his body had imposed a constraint.
Global coherence drift: 0.0091%.
Stabilized slightly after compression halt.
But still high.
China initiated Echo Sweep 2.
Minor resonance ripple.
Vansh felt it.
He did not activate.
He waited.
If the ripple remained below threshold, no intervention required.
Echo Sweep 2 amplitude lower.
Coherence drift increased only to 0.0093%.
Within tolerable band.
Good.
Restraint preserved recovery time.
Helix.
Aaryan finalized harmonic trap architecture.
Next compression would include controlled tertiary coupling variance.
If stabilizer intervened again, signature amplification would expose interference geometry.
He leaned back calmly.
"You are careful," he murmured softly.
"But everyone leaves pattern."
Rishikesh — Night.
Cognitive latency reduced slightly.
From 14% down to 9%.
Recovery progressing.
But something unsettled him.
For the first time since adolescence—
He had hesitated.
Not emotionally.
Biologically.
Limits existed.
He recalculated something deeper.
If background coherence crosses 0.015%, energy cost doubles.
If cost doubles, safe duration halves.
If safe duration halves, precision margin shrinks dangerously.
He would need evolution.
Not more force.
More efficiency.
He closed his eyes.
No activation.
Just analysis.
Helix preparing trap. China probing cautiously. India waiting. US monitoring silently.
And he—
Recovering.
For now.
Global coherence drift: 0.0093%.
Stable. But stretched.
The duel paused briefly.
But pressure was building.
Because next time, Aaryan would not seek anomaly.
He would seek location.