Dr. Norvel Mathis : At thirty-six orbits, Norvel is the rarest kind of genius: a phenom who can build a gravity resonator from battlefield scrap if provided with the right tools.
Mathematician, physicist, and engineer—he’s a walking renaissance in a universe that doesn’t tolerate brilliance it can’t control. In his reckless youth, that brilliance landed him in an IGB prison for unsanctioned vitalerium experiments. Freedom came at a price: Overseer Zerris Aganon opened the cell door and closed a collar of absolute loyalty around Norvel’s mind.
Now serving as the Primary Investigator of XSEC’s Physics Division—the Coalition for Prosperity’s most classified, black budget research arm—Norvel’s job title is simple: solve impossible problems. Translation: inventing the next generation of weapons to foster the CP’s hidden expansion agenda.
However, the man who designs planet-killers still believes science should serve truth, not just power. He’s happiest elbow-deep in coolant and sparking conduits, chasing elegant solutions instead of elegant lies. The lab is his sanctuary; the outside world, with its politics and body counts, feels like someone else’s equation.
Norvel is indebted to Zerris, and thus, finds himself chained to the Overseer. Every breakthrough he delivers tightens the restraint—yet every barking order adds a cut to the rope…
