The moment Jack stepped into the room, he froze.
He stared ahead with a mixture of confusion and irritation, his eyes locked on the strange object displayed in the center of the room. It was a large rock encased in glass—its core embedded with a pitch-black stone, like a shard of void pressed into hardened ash. Jack blinked a few times, then tilted his head, unimpressed. This? This was what they dragged him all the way here for? A black pebble inside a fancy rock?
He slowly turned his head toward the woman beside him, raising an eyebrow like she had just asked him to build a spaceship out of mashed potatoes.
"This is a joke, right? You brought me here to stare at a painted rock? Am I supposed to build a doomsday laser with this or what?"
The woman didn't respond right away. She looked at Jack calmly, letting his sarcasm fizzle out before she finally stepped forward. Her heels clicked softly on the cold metal floor as she placed a palm on the transparent glass casing.
