Chapter 5 — Strategic Silence
New Delhi — Strategic Advisory Complex.
The room had no windows.
Screens displayed orbital telemetry, dark matter compression logs, and probability deviation curves.
India's Strategic Science Council did not panic.
They calculated.
National Security Advisor Kavish Rao spoke first. "Coherence deviation now confirmed at 0.0051%."
A defense analyst responded. "Still below catastrophic threshold."
"Acceleration rate?" Rao asked.
"Nonlinear. If Helix attempts 1.007 or higher, projection crosses 0.01% within months."
Silence.
India had not led the compression experiment.
But India had studied its models.
And quietly funded independent gravitational damping research for years.
Not publicly.
Never publicly.
Rao leaned back. "What's Helix's posture?"
"Officially stable. Unofficially divided. Their lead physicist wants escalation. Their military partners want leverage."
"And the anonymous advisory source?"
"Predicted instability precisely. Two times."
Rao's eyes narrowed slightly. "Domestic origin?"
"No trace. Layered academic shells. Financial routing extremely clean."
That meant one thing.
Intentional invisibility.
Rao did not ask for identity.
He asked a better question.
"Are they aligned with stabilization?"
The analyst nodded. "All advisories push toward damping, not exploitation."
Rao allowed himself a single thought.
Someone understands the risk.
That was valuable.
Rishikesh.
Vansh monitored international responses.
China's orbital command requested joint anomaly review.
The United States classified the instability as strategic-level threat.
India remained silent.
Correct move.
Public panic reduces coherence.
He activated the interface.
Duration: 1.6 seconds.
Energy cost moderate.
Projection: 63% probability Helix board fractures internally within 72 hours.
Opportunity window emerging.
He ended the activation.
Background noise slightly reduced after compression halt.
Temporary relief.
But structural stress remained.
Back in New Delhi, Rao spoke again.
"We do not publicly criticize Helix. We offer cooperative stability modeling."
A junior advisor frowned. "Would that not reveal our predictive advantage?"
Rao shook his head. "No. It reveals responsibility."
India did not need to dominate loudly.
Stability was leverage.
He authorized a formal proposal:
Joint Gravitational Coherence Review Initiative.
Officially collaborative.
Unofficially containment.
Helix Headquarters — Geneva.
Dr. Aaryan Mehta stared at anomaly overlays.
The unknown advisory source had predicted both deviations.
That was statistically impossible without internal access.
He disliked unknown variables.
Unknown variables implied hidden intelligence.
He ordered deep forensic tracing.
No direct breach found.
Financial patterns suggested layered academic shells.
Whoever it was—
They understood compression physics intimately.
And they were intervening.
He smiled slightly.
"Good," he murmured.
Finally, someone worth calculating against.
Rishikesh — Night.
Professor Mishra sat quietly across from Vansh.
"You look more distant than usual," the professor observed.
"Adjustment period," Vansh replied.
"Adjustment to what?"
"Acceleration."
The professor chuckled softly. "The world has always accelerated."
Vansh did not correct him.
This acceleration was structural.
Not cultural.
His terminal displayed India's cooperative proposal to Helix.
He had not influenced that directly.
But he had seeded damping research years earlier.
Sometimes influence required no active manipulation.
Only preparation.
He reviewed the global coherence metric.
0.0049%.
Slight reduction after compression halt.
Temporary.
He calculated something colder.
If Helix refuses cooperation and attempts higher threshold—
Probability of forced regulatory intervention must increase.
He might need to allow a larger failure next time.
Controlled.
Localized.
Unavoidable.
He closed the terminal.
Energy reserve recovering.
Mind steady.
Geopolitical actors now engaged.
Foundation expanding.
He remained unseen.
That was optimal.
In New Delhi, Rao reviewed one final classified note.
"Unattributed predictive intelligence source — likely domestic."
He did not request investigation.
Instead, he issued a quiet directive.
"If the anonymous stabilizer continues assisting, we do not interfere."
Some threats are external.
Some assets are invisible.
The wise do not expose invisible assets.
In Rishikesh, Vansh stood at the bookstore window.
Mountains unmoved.
World recalibrating.
Helix hesitating.
India positioning.
China calculating.
The United States monitoring.
The anomaly had moved from science to strategy.
And this was only 0.0051%.
He wondered briefly—
If coherence crossed 0.02%, would governments still cooperate?
Or would fear dominate?
He did not speculate long.
Speculation wastes energy.
He optimized.