For a moment, there was nothing.

No sound. No light. No pulse.

Then the world inhaled.

The dome shuddered, its fractured geometry beginning to twist back into place. Shattered data bridges reassembled in bursts of radiant static. The golden-white light that had consumed everything dimmed to a trembling glow, its edges still humming with barely contained energy.

Hale blinked against the brightness, one hand braced against a support beam that hadn’t existed a second ago. His ears rang with ...