Zedd slid the silver-framed aviators into place, feeling the weight settle against the bridge of his nose, perfectly balanced. Blue light flickered to life from inside the royal blue lenses, the HUD scrolling crisp lines of data across the display—environmental readings, structural integrity mapping, thermal differentials.

  No lag.

  No stutter.

  Seamless function, finally tuned down to the microsecond.

  Perfect.

  His old goggles sat somewhere in his workshop, looking like scrap in comparison. Hard to believe he'd been using them just a week ago. The new design was clean—sharp, optimized, no excess bulk. Professional enough to wear in a meeting, casual enough not to scream 'mad scientist.' The gloves he'd found in his workshop had helped more than he wanted to admit, the kind of precision they gave him bordering on unfair. If I had these a year ago, I could've started this without any help. Hell, with how steady they made his hands, brain surgery was probably on the table. Actually…

  No, shelve that for later.

  His omni-tool chimed, a sharp note cutting through his thoughts. Again.

  Third time this week from the colonial development board. He didn't bother opening it. Knew what it said—same thing they'd all been saying. Custom solutions. Specialized engineering.

  Smaller-scale military applications.

  The requests had been piling up in his inbox for weeks now. Fix the water purification system. Upgrade the militia's shield generators. Improve the defense turrets. Then, more and more, the real requests. Weapons like the ones you used. His jaw locked as he archived the message without opening it, irritation curling tight in his chest. They thought they knew what the colonies needed, what he should be focusing on. As if they had any idea what he was actually capable of.

  The HUD sharpened, shifting to a diagnostic overlay, running predictive modeling in the background. Colony atmosphere was stable. Temp fluctuations within normal range. The optimization had taken three straight days of coding, but the results? Flawless.

  Through the wall, the sound of voices swelled, the murmur of a crowd filtering through the reinforced glass. The convention hall was filling up with excited chatter, the pitch of it shifting as more people arrived. Reporters looking for their headline. Officials trying to steer Victory Innovations in the "right" direction. Investors waiting to see if the 'teenage engineering prodigy' had any intention of letting them buy a stake. Aliens from other colonies near the Terminus looking to see what they could get.

  He didn't have anything against most of them but something about some of them just… rubbed him the wrong way. Krogan were fine; obvious, in your face. They reminded him of scaly bears more than anything and even the Turians…

  Well, his reason for liking them was more reasoned than instinctive.

  But the Asari? No, something about those 'blue space babes' made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Uncanny fuckin' valley.

  His fingers brushed the temple of the glasses as he tried to take his mind off them, feeling the precision in every cut, the subtle weight of the embedded processors.

  The colonies needed more than patches and half-measures, more than Earth's cast-off tech or the Council's carefully controlled release of innovation. They needed real solutions, something built for them. Not retrofitted scraps, not last-generation prototypes dripped down from megacorp boardrooms. They needed weapons that worked, defenses that held, infrastructure that could withstand more than a few weeks of peace before breaking down.

  They needed tech that actually changed something.

  Another ping from his omni-tool. Militia command this time.

  Zedd exhaled hard through his nose, already knowing who it was before he even glanced at the sender. Martinez. Again. Probably another push about defensive applications. Fucking hell, woman. Let it go. His lip curled as he dismissed the notification with a flick, irritation flaring hot before he forced it down. They wanted better tech?

  Fine.

  But they were getting it on his terms.

  A soft indicator flashed in his HUD—blood pressure elevated, heart rate spiking. The glasses' medical suite was probably better than the colony's actual assigned medic. Between ADAM's monitoring and the real-time biometric tracking, they could probably diagnose him before he even noticed symptoms. Still, he made a mental note to dial back the sensitivity later.

  A dry voice cut through his spiraling thoughts. "Here."

  Zedd turned, his focus snapping back to the present. Adele stood beside him, one hand extended, two small white tablets resting in her palm. Her face carried that same careful balance of detachment and concern she always pulled off so well. "Pressure's up again."

  Zedd started to wave her off, but the look Adele gave him froze the motion halfway. That same quiet, flat stare from the hospital, the one she'd thrown over Nina's shoulder when he'd said the stim damage wasn't that bad. She didn't say anything then, either. Just kept watching him like she already knew he was lying and was waiting to see if he'd be dumb enough to try it again.

  He sighed and plucked the tablets from her palm, dry-swallowing them before she could shove a glass of water in his face. His HUD flickered, logging the medication and running an automatic breakdown of expected effects, as if he needed a reminder. Yeah, definitely need to dial back those settings later.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Outside the room, the convention center was a low hum of sound, voices layering over each other, a steady build of movement and energy. His HUD picked up the pitch shifts—excitement, anticipation. Half of them thought Victory Innovations was about to drop some military breakthrough that'd change the whole sector. The other half thought it'd be some mining tech that would make refineries lose their minds.

  Both were wrong.

  Warmth pressed against his back, Nina's arms sliding around his waist, her chin barely reaching his shoulder even with her tiptoes straining. He barely held back a laugh. "You're thinking too loud again, babe." Her voice was low, teasing, the kind that didn't need to be a whisper to sound like one. "They're gonna love it. Love you."

  "I'm not worried about that." And he wasn't. Not really. The tech would work. It always worked. It was everything around it—expectations, the way people kept trying to shape him into whatever they needed. Colony officials looking for infrastructure support. The militia trying to slide defense contracts under his door. Earth interests sniffing around, waiting to see if the "teenage engineering prodigy" was a problem worth dealing with.

  His fingers skimmed over his glasses, feeling the weight, the precision in every line. The difference between what he used to be and what he was building now.

  Nina hummed against his back. "Good luck charm, huh?"

  "Something like that." He turned to face her, smoothing his hands over the waist of her jacket. She rolled her eyes but didn't pull away, letting him straighten the lapel like he was doing something important.

  The door clicked open before she could say anything else. Kira slipped inside first, sharp and quiet as ever, taking up position like she was scanning for threats. Which, knowing her, she probably was. Dev followed after, dragging the energy level back up with him, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets, patrol gear already scuffed. Zedd barely held back a sigh. "You had that for what, two weeks?"

  "Three." Dev's grin was unbothered, a little too pleased with himself. "Looks better broken in."

  A chime hit his ear—one minute. His HUD flared with the final system checks, numbers scrolling across the lenses, every single one reporting back blue. Of course they were. The glasses ran another silent diagnostic sweep, making sure the presentation would go off without a hitch.

  "Everything's set," he murmured. More to himself than them.

  Kira's voice carried from the doorway, tight, like she was holding something back. "Give 'em hell."

  Zedd caught Dev's reflection in the mirror, right before the bastard smirked. "Any words of wisdom?"

  "Your fly's down."

  "These pants don't have a zip."

  Dev blinked, processing, then just shrugged. "Well, I tried."

  Zedd snorted, adjusting his sleeves. "Yeah, give it a few more years. Maybe you'll crack humor."

  "Maybe you'll crack an actual joke." Dev's grin stuck for a second, then softened. "Try not to kill anyone this time."

  He smirked back, the sharp edge of his lips natural. "I'll do my very best."

  The stage doors loomed ahead, polished wood shipped all the way from Earth like that meant something. His HUD tagged weak points in the grain without him asking, another instinct he hadn't shaken since the raid. Behind them, the crowd's energy had shifted—anticipation coiling tight, buzzing through the floor. That quiet that always came before something hit.

  His omni pinged. Some military attaché, another contract request marked urgent. Zedd archived it without opening it, another unread message in a pile of people asking for things they didn't understand. Later. Maybe never.

  Final system check scrolled across his vision, seamless. The demo units were already waiting, arranged like museum pieces, primed to rewrite expectations. No Mass Effect, no reliance on expensive eezo bullshit. Just clean, precise engineering.

  The future, built with his hands.

  A hand found his shoulder, warm. Nina. He caught her reflection in the polished door panel—eyes sharp, mouth pulled into something caught between pride and worry. She squeezed, just once, then let go. Kira and Dev were already in position, bracing like this was a battlefield instead of a tech reveal.

  Adele's voice cut through the noise, calm, unshaken. "Monitoring vitals from the booth." No opening for protest. "Try to keep your heart rate under 140 this time. We still don't know the long-term side-effects of those stims you huffed."

  I do, but he didn't say that. "No promises." He answered back as he tapped the side of his glasses, calibrating one last time. The HUD sharpened to crystal clarity, every readout confirming perfection.

  "ADAM?"

  The AI's voice slipped into his ear, smooth, confident. "All systems nominal, boss. Ready to make some noise?"

  "Always." Zedd's lips pulled into something half a smirk, half a challenge, his pulse settling into the rhythm of movement.

  The doors began to part, blue light spilling through the gap.

  "Let's show them the future."

  Just with less property damage this time.