The night winds over Hope Island carried a strange stillness.
Dilli stood inside the subterranean command chamber—deep beneath the lush forests, deeper than any eyes of the world could see. Project Veda's crystalline core hummed faintly, like a slumbering star.
Betal materialized beside him.
"The world is watching, Dilli.
Every move. Every signal. Every shadow."
Dilli nodded slowly.
"Then we adapt.
We protect Veda with silence, shadows… and misdirection."
What followed became known only to Betal, Dilli, and a sealed log the world would never read—
The Veda Safeguard Protocols.
Protocol 01 — The Veil of Illusion
To hide Veda's emissions, Dilli initiated Ananta, a quantum veil system that bent data itself.
Any satellite scanning the island received falsified environmental readings.
Heat signatures were redirected to appear as geothermal vents.
Electromagnetic spikes were scrambled into background noise.
Structural outlines of labs were masked as farming terraces or windbreak forests.
To outsiders, Hope Island became a quiet eco-village—boring, harmless, unworthy of second glances.
Betal smiled faintly.
"The world sees a painting. Not the truth behind it."
Protocol 02 — Fractured Operations
Dilli ordered all major research divisions to be split into disconnected fragments:
One fragment on Hope Island
A second buried in Cosmos United's mainland backup hubs
A third encoded into Betal's memory lattice
A fourth stored in deep-sea vaults beneath the Indian Ocean
No single place, system, or person held the full blueprint of Veda.
Even if an enemy captured a facility, broke into a server, or seized a scientist—
they would find only a meaningless puzzle piece.
Protocol 03 — Red Sand Mirage
A psychological counterintelligence operation.
Dilli leaked false but believable research trails—
harmless technologies like biodegradable batteries or agricultural sensors—
to make Cosmos United appear like a small eco-tech company trying to survive.
The world saw a shrinking, unambitious corporation.
Exactly what Dilli wanted.
Meanwhile, any attempt to trace deeper would lead to mirage subsidiaries,
companies that didn't exist but appeared legitimate enough to trap and mislead foreign intelligence.
Betal monitored their confusion with quiet satisfaction.
Protocol 04 — The Silent Perimeter
Hope Island's defense grid was transformed into something almost mythical.
Biometric fog layers scanned all approaching life forms.
Soundless anti-drone nets snared any unauthorized UAV.
Deep-sea hydro-sonar mines detected submersible drones without making a sound.
Invisible sky-lattice beams camouflaged aerial signatures.
To intruders, nothing seemed out of place.
But anyone attempting a breach would simply… disappear from detection, never reaching the island.
Protocol 05 — The Veda Sleep Cycle
Dilli implemented a strict sequence:
Veda would power down entirely every 36 hours.
During these windows:
No energy spike
No data flow
No thermal trace
No quantum resonance
No detectable activity
This "dead zone" confused analysts worldwide.
Their reports became contradictions:
"There is something there."
"No, there is nothing."
"But the signature returned yesterday!"
"Now it's gone!"
The uncertainty worked in Dilli's favor—
no nation would launch a mission based on inconsistent evidence.
Protocol 06 — Sanctuary Shield
The island's residents were the first line of secrecy.
Dilli addressed them personally in the assembly hall.
"You are my family.
Hope Island is your home.
What we build here is for humanity's future, not its destruction.
Protect it—not out of fear, but out of pride."
Every worker, scientist, and family member signed the Sanctuary Oath,
binding them in trust and loyalty.
Betal created memory filters in all public communication—
preventing accidental leaks while respecting human freedom.
Protocol 07 — Betal's Watchtower
The final safeguard.
Betal created a neural observation grid—a virtual watchtower that analyzed:
Global satellite realignments
Naval movements
Intelligence traffic
Cyber intrusions
Social media rumors
AI-generated threat predictions
Political shifts in foreign governments
Every potential threat was detected hours, days, or weeks before it manifested.
If danger approached…
Hope Island would become invisible long before the world reached its shores.
The Final Moment
Betal turned to Dilli.
"Veda is now shielded.
Not even the world's combined intelligence can find the truth."
Dilli placed his palm on Veda's crystalline core.
"Good.
Let it sleep.
Let humanity chase its illusions of power.
When the world is ready…
Veda will awaken."
Hope Island returned to its serene rhythm—
a paradise on the surface,
a cosmic secret beneath.
Unseen.
Unreachable.
Untouchable.