2149 Timeline - Quantum Creche Resonance Chamber
Lynette's palms bled onto the holographic sutras as she synced her neural implants with the infant's quantum cradle. The child's eyes – now permanently reflecting Caelium's wolf-gold irises – tracked her every movement with unsettling precision.
She's learning to hate me already, Lynette thought, watching the baby turn away from her milk-smeared biosuit. The feeding monitor flashed crimson warnings in 8th-century Sanskrit.
Memory Echo - 1906 San Francisco
Caelium's wolf-form shielded her from falling debris as the opera house collapsed. "Why save me?" 23rd iteration Lynette coughed through marble dust. "You know I'll just die again."
His claws retracted with a metallic snikt. "Because your anger gives the equations texture." The aftershock tremors made his voice fracture into static. "Hate calibrates the variables better than love."
Modern Intimacy - The Scar Algorithm
The infant's cry spiked at 501Hz. Lynette's old wolf-bite scar glowed azure – a quantum tether to Caelium's consciousness. "Activate resonance protocol!" She slammed her scarred wrist against the nursery's central console.
The walls dissolved into:
1. 1589 Prague's mercury-filled alchemy lab
2. 1927 Shanghai's speakeasy dripping with radioactive gin
3. Their current quantum creche overlaid like vellum layers
Caelium materialized simultaneously in all eras, his form flickering between human and wolf. You shouldn't have access to these memory archives.
"Since when do I follow your protocols?" Lynette's fingers danced across eras, stitching equations from:
· Prague's quicksilver puddles
· Shanghai's cocktail napkins
· 2149's breastmilk spectrographs
Quantum Confrontation - The Binding Variables
Isolde's laughter oozed through the temporal static. "My sweet equation... You think domesticity can override five centuries of elegant math?"
The infant's sudden wail tore through quantum layers. Lynette grabbed Caelium's 1906 wolf-paw and 2149 holographic hand simultaneously. "We're not variables anymore," she snarled. "We're the goddamn constants."
Their merged touch:
1. Reforged the nursery walls with Mogao Cave minerals
2. Trapped Isolde's consciousness in recursive lullaby code
3. Etched their combined equations into the infant's DNA
Aftermath - Milk and Static
Lynette collapsed against the reborn quartz walls, the infant's fist tangled in her hair. Caelium's hologram flickered weakly by the air filtration unit.
You've given her the master key, he murmured. Now Isolde will–
"Let her come." Lynette pressed the baby's ear to her scarred heartbeat. "We'll weaponize the lullabies."