Nichia slithered through a shifting time-current, her plasma-cutter already hissing against the vault door's outer shell. She tasted ozone on the air and heard the distant wail of a hundred star-police sirens, their ships scattering like startled minnows.
The cutter sparked wildly, promising a breach in minutes. Each flare painted her features in quick bursts of white fire against the dark vault wall.
Inside the vault chamber, she aimed the device at a seamless golden seal, but the laser simply bounced back and burned a smudge on her boot.
She scrubbed at the dark mark with a cloth, then tried a sonic resonator that made the walls hum until they shivered dust from the ceiling.
Frustrated, she switched to a temporal key that froze the lock's mechanism in place.
With the lock finally still, she turned the heavy dial and pushed the massive door open. Cold, stale air rushed out carrying the scent of ancient dust.
Her breath caught in the silence, and she stepped across the threshold into absolute emptiness.
She walked to the center of the vast, hollow room and dropped to her knees, running her hands over the perfectly smooth floor.
A giggle escaped her lips, building until she was laughing so hard her shoulders shook and her helmet tapped against the ground.
The sound echoed endlessly, bouncing off the empty walls and racing out through the open vault door into the cosmos.