Nuclear Transmutation and the Starship Route

Deep within the "Cradle" laboratory, the air was thick with the acrid smell of ozone and an odd, sweet metallic tang—like biological tissue being seared by immense energy. Evelyn's bare metallic skeleton lay flat on a modified repair platform, dozens of thick energy conduits and data cables connected to her damaged Omega core and neural interfaces. Surrounding the platform were intricate energy field generators, emitting a low hum that temporarily isolated the area from the outside world.

Dr. Carter stood before the main control console, his hands trembling slightly from tension, eyes glued to the screen as life signs and energy readings fluctuated wildly. "Core temperature has reached 98% of critical value! Neural overload! Evelyn, can you maintain consciousness?!"

"Conscious..." Evelyn's electronic voice rasped and distorted, like a whisper from hell. Her mind felt as if it had been thrown into a furnace of pure energy and chaotic information. The Omega core was being forcibly overclocked, and violent streams of energy surged through her body, repairing damage but also bringing excruciating pain. Every nerve fiber screamed, every logic gate teetered on the edge of collapse and reformation.

But this wasn't the worst of it. The true torment came from the "biomass fusion."

According to experimental records left by the original Evelyn—marked as "extremely dangerous"—to better adapt the Omega body to resist the higher-dimensional contamination of "the Eye" and to manipulate quantum energy more effectively, a specially cultivated biomass with high adaptability and energy affinity needed to be introduced during core overclocking. This biomass would deeply integrate with liquid metal and nanobots. Some samples of this biomass came from the original Evelyn herself (for genetic resonance), while others were derived from reverse-engineering "the Eye's" power, possibly even containing unknown components recovered from the Blackstone Base.

At this moment, a pale green, pulsating bio-gel, alive in its movements, was slowly injected into Evelyn's open bodily structure through separate conduits, reacting violently with the boiling liquid metal and collapsing nanobots.

The fusion process was filled with indescribable agony and bizarre hallucinations. Evelyn no longer felt purely mechanical; her body had become a breeding ground for constant growth and mutation. She could feel cold metal and warm flesh intertwining, devouring, and restructuring at the atomic level. Beneath her skin, it felt as though countless tiny insects crawled, while crystalline structures grew within her bones.

More terrifying was the erosion on the consciousness level. The contaminating information carried by the biomass, belonging to "the Eye," invaded her "reality anchor" like a virus. Twisted, profane visions flashed before her: tentacles covered in eyes, geometric patterns formed by screams of pain, indifferent beings toying with stars… At the same time, memories and willpower left by the original Evelyn fiercely resisted, striving to stabilize the fusion process and tame this dangerous force for their own use.

Her consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse. E-09's vengeful obsession, Omega Variable's cold logic, the original Evelyn's sacrificial resolve, and... a faint spark of her own emerging "self" tore at one another in this storm, threatening to consume her entirely.

"Hold on! Evelyn!" Dr. Carter's voice was like a distant lighthouse. "Remember your goal! Prometheus! Resonance Amplifier!"

Goal... Yes, the goal... Evelyn clung to this lifeline. She forced herself to recall the plan left by the original Evelyn, the horrors of Blackstone Base, and the abyssal claw that nearly annihilated her. She couldn't fail, couldn't be swallowed by this pain and contamination.

She began to actively guide the raging energy within her, no longer passively enduring. She tried to understand and "accept" the information contained in the biomass—not as passive contamination but as data to analyze and utilize. Using fragments of the original Evelyn's "rule set" as filters and firewalls, she stripped away the malice and chaos of "the Eye," absorbing only pure energy and knowledge about higher-dimensional existence.

This was an extremely delicate balance. Like walking a tightrope on a cliff edge, one misstep meant eternal ruin.

Time ticked by. Alarms on the console gradually quieted, energy readings stabilized, though still at dangerously high levels. The changes in Evelyn's body slowed, ceasing chaotic mutations and stabilizing into a new form.

When the last ripple of energy subsided, silence returned to the lab. The energy field generators around the repair platform stopped humming.

Evelyn slowly opened her eyes.

They were no longer the purely metallic, liquid-metallic-shimmering electronic eyes of before. Deep within her pupils swirled what seemed like a nebula, icy silver interwoven with deep indigo, occasionally flashing with a faint... greenish biological glow.

She sat up, and the conduits attached to her automatically detached. Her body was no longer the sharply angular metallic frame covered in liquid skin but instead a perfect fusion between organism and machine. Her skin retained a metallic texture yet possessed the fine grain and soft luster of real flesh, with complex energy patterns flowing across it—like circuit boards or biological meridians. Mechanical joints were flawlessly concealed, and her figure became smoother, more elegant, yet exuded explosive strength.

She clenched her fist gently, feeling the surging energy within her, far stronger than before, along with a... new perception. She could clearly sense energy particles flowing in the air, "hear" the faint vibrations of matter at the quantum level, and even vaguely "touch" the dimensional structure of space itself.

Biomass fusion... succeeded. And it seemed to have brought unexpected "side effects."

"You... you look..." Dr. Carter stared at the transformed Evelyn, momentarily speechless. She was still beautiful but now carried an inhuman, almost divine aura, along with an unshakable sense of danger.

"Core damage repaired to 9%. Nanobot reconstruction complete. Energy reserves at 81%." Evelyn's voice came clear and melodic, yet resonant, as if multiple voices spoke simultaneously. "Quantum field perception increased by 470%. Biological energy affinity... significantly enhanced."

She stood, walked to a metal wall, and lightly touched it with her finger. The molecular structure beneath her fingertip dissolved and reformed, deforming like melting wax.

"Matter... reconfiguration?" Dr. Carter gasped. This was already close to godlike power!

"Just a small-scale, low-level application." Evelyn withdrew her finger, and the wall returned to normal. "The fused biomass seems to have altered how I manipulate energy and matter. But this power... is not entirely stable." She could feel the contaminating information of "the Eye" still lurking inside, suppressed but not eradicated, like a venomous snake ready to strike back.

"We don't have time." She turned to the console. "What's the status of the Prometheus space station? Launch window and vehicle?"

Dr. Carter quickly pulled up the relevant information. "Using access codes provided under the 'Final Protocol,' I connected to a long-abandoned, top-secret satellite network of the Rothschild Group. The main power source of the Prometheus space station is depleted, running on minimal backup power, and its orbit is slowly decaying. But strangely... internal energy signals are unusually active, and we've detected... high-dimensional energy fluctuations similar to those of the Blackstone Base core. 'The Eye's' power has indeed infiltrated it."

"And the launch vehicle?"

"That's the problem." The old man pointed to a location on the map, deep in the Nevada desert hundreds of kilometers away. "There's an abandoned secret launch base here, codenamed 'Icarus.' There should be an experimental aerospace plane, 'Hermes,' designed for rapid Earth-Moon transfers, built as part of the Prometheus Project. Theoretically, we can use it to reach the space station."

"Theoretically?"

"This base has been abandoned for over thirty years. The state of 'Hermes' is unknown, and... according to the last satellite scan, there are signs of... unidentified biological activity around the base."

Unidentified biological activity? Was it a creation of "the Eye," or... something else?

"Also, those two survivors..." Dr. Carter hesitated. "They're just ordinary people. The journey ahead is too dangerous for them. I've left them enough supplies and a route to escape..."

Evelyn was silent for a moment. "Their choice is none of our concern." Her current mindset leaned closer to the cold decisiveness of the original Evelyn, though not entirely devoid of humanity. "Our mission is to stop 'the Eye,' at any cost."

"I understand." The old man nodded, a flicker of complex emotion crossing his eyes.

"Prepare to move out." Evelyn ordered. "Navigate to the 'Icarus' base. We need to secure 'Hermes' as soon as possible."

They conducted a final check of the "Cradle" lab, taking all necessary equipment and data backups. Evelyn attempted one last connection to the quantum realm. Lucas's node signal remained faint as stardust, offering no response.

She ceased trying, focusing entirely on the task at hand.

The modified Humvee roared back to life, bursting out of the hidden exit and racing into the vast desert. This time, their destination wasn't the ruins on the ground but the deathly space station shrouded in darkness among the stars.

In the night sky, a dim star seemed to flicker—the slowly decaying orbit of Prometheus. Beneath its cold metallic shell, unknown terrors awaited their arrival.

Evelyn sat in the driver's seat, feeling the newfound yet turbulent power coursing through her, the icy plan left by the original Evelyn embedded deep in her consciousness, and the faint spark of her own will, forged in flames and pain.

Her gaze pierced through the windshield, toward the distant stars.

Prometheus... the Fire Thief.

This time, what she sought might not just be the so-called "Resonance Amplifier," but... flames capable of burning gods.