Cain didn't use the handle. He didn't look for a keycard.
He pulled back his fist, concentrated his weight to 50x, and punched the "Core Access" vault door.
KRA-BOOM.
The three-foot-thick alloy door didn't just open; it folded like a piece of tin foil and flew into the next room.
Cain stepped inside.
The Engine Room was quiet. It was cold—so cold that Cain's breath turned to mist instantly. In the center of the massive hall was a glass cylinder. Inside that cylinder floated a tiny, swirling ball of white-hot fire.
It was a Micro-Star.
The light was so bright that Isolde had to cover her eyes. "Is that... a sun?" she whispered.
"It is a Dyson-Core," the Administrator's voice echoed, sounding desperate now. "It powers the entire fleet. If you touch the containment field, the heat will vaporize you before your nerves can even feel the pain. You cannot punch gravity, Cain."
Cain walked closer. The heat was pushing against him like a physical wall. His coat began to singe.
"I'm not going to punch it," Cain said.
He stood right in front of the glass. He could feel his skin starting to blister, but he didn't blink.
"Isolde, get on the bird," Cain ordered.
"Why?"
"Because I'm about to turn off the lights."
Cain reached out his hand. He didn't touch the glass. Instead, he opened his Void Inventory right in front of the cylinder.
A black hole of pure darkness appeared, overlapping with the glowing star.
"What are you doing?!" the Administrator shrieked. "You can't store a star! The mass will collapse your dimension! The heat will—"
"My inventory has infinite space," Cain said. "And it's very dark in there. This will make a great lamp."
Cain lunged forward, thrusting his entire arm into the darkness.
[Warning: High-Energy Object Detected.]
[Target: Sol-Class Quantum Core.]
[Attempting to Store...]
The room began to shake. The metal floor started to melt under Cain's boots. The gravity in the ship flickered—Isolde and Snack started to float toward the ceiling.
"Cain! The ship is falling!" Isolde screamed.
Cain ignored her. He gritted his teeth as the heat blackened his arm.
"Get. In. The. Bag," Cain growled.
SHLORP.
With a sound like a giant vacuum cleaner, the white light vanished.
The tiny star was sucked into Cain's shadow.
[Storage Successful.]
[Inventory Item: Miniature Sun (Infinite Fuel Source).]
[Note: Do not open near flammable objects.]
Total darkness hit the ship.
The humming stopped. The cold returned instantly. And then, the most terrifying sound began: the sound of a million-ton metal city falling out of the sky.
The Mothership was dropping.
"Cain!" Isolde yelled in the dark. "We're falling! We're going to hit the ocean!"
Cain felt the floor drop out from under him. He was weightless.
"Don't worry," Cain's voice came from the shadows. "I'm heavy. I'll hit the water first."