“I don’t know,” Evan said. “He was really angry in the lab. I’ve seen him lose his temper, but I’ve never seen him throw things in the lab, especially when his pet project is being tested. He didn’t even stop when the accident occurred. When he was struck by that energy burst I thought he was going to take it and spit it back at me he was so mad. Thank God it knocked him out. I think he would have killed me.”

“He was hurt?” Isis asked.

“Yeah. Shit, he almost died,” Evan said. “If I hadn’t been there to save him he probably wouldn’t have survived the shock to his system.” He shook his head and looked off into space, remembering the accident. “I don’t know what happened exactly. I’ve been trying to figure it out, but there is no way there should have been a breech, much less a discharge that would blast the lab that way.”

“Why not? And let’s pretend I’m ignorant of the stuff you do in that place.”

“The safety protocols are set up in a way that forces unanticipated discharges are funneled out of the lab and into the void,” Evan said. “You see we make it so that the path of least resistance is a series of breakaway doors that lead straight outside. That way if something goes wrong the energy follows the path of least resistance and is funneled into the void.” Evan took another drink of synthskey and was surprised to find it didn’t hurt as much going down. “During the accident there was a containment breech that unleashed an enormous amount of energy, but it didn’t act right. It was like the red lightning was searching for something inside the lab.”

“Wait,” Isis said, “how is that possible?”