Chapter Four: Beneath the Earth
The staircase descended far deeper than either expected.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen.
The walls changed from concrete to metal.
The temperature dropped.
Eventually they reached a massive underground chamber.
Mika stopped walking.
The room was enormous.
Hundreds of machines surrounded a circular platform in the center.
Above it floated a sphere of blue light.
It was not connected to anything.
It simply hovered.
Daniel slowly raised his flashlight.
The flashlight turned off.
Mika's phone turned off.
Every electronic device stopped working.
The blue sphere brightened.
A hologram appeared.
A woman stood before them.
She looked about thirty years old.
She wore a white research uniform.
"Mika Reyes," the hologram said.
Mika's blood ran cold.
"How do you know my name?"
The hologram continued.
"Daniel Cruz."
Daniel stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
"My designation is Dr. Elena Vale."
Mika stared.
"You're a hologram?"
"Yes."
"Where are you?"
There was a pause.
"I no longer exist in the physical form you understand."
Daniel whispered:
"She's dead."
The hologram looked at him.
"I died 117 years ago."
Silence.
Mika felt her hands become cold.
"What is this place?"
"Station 9 was never a communications facility."
"What was it?"
"A door."
The blue sphere pulsed.
Dr. Vale continued.
"Humanity discovered evidence of an artificial structure beyond the orbit of Neptune in 2089."
Daniel frowned.
"But that's impossible. This is 2026."
"Your calendar is 2026."
Mika stared at her.
"You mean..."
"Your civilization has not yet reached the point in history when the discovery occurs."
Daniel looked confused.
"Then how are you here?"
Dr. Vale smiled sadly.
"Because you're standing inside a message sent backward through time."
Mika's mind raced.
"Time travel?"
"Not exactly."
Dr. Vale pointed toward the sphere.
"That is an information bridge. It cannot transport matter. It can only transmit information."
"Why send it here?"
"Because we failed."
The chamber became silent.
Dr. Vale's expression changed.
"The stars disappeared in our time."
Mika remembered the previous night.
"The same thing happened?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"We never discovered the reason."
Daniel asked:
"What happened after the stars disappeared?"
Dr. Vale looked toward the sphere.
"We received a message."
"What message?"
Dr. Vale spoke slowly.
"WE FOUND YOU."
Mika felt a chill.
"The same message."
"Yes."
"What found you?"
Dr. Vale didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she said:
"Humanity believed the universe was empty."
She looked upward.
"We were wrong."
Chapter Five: The Silent Universe
Dr. Vale explained everything she could.
Humanity had eventually developed faster-than-light communication.
Then came the first signals.
Scientists detected patterns coming from distant star systems.
At first they believed the signals were natural.
They weren't.
They were transmissions.
Someone was communicating across the galaxy.
Humanity answered.
That was the mistake.
"Why?" Mika asked.
"Because we told them where we were."
Daniel looked at the sphere.
"And they came?"
"Not physically."
Dr. Vale showed them an image.
A galaxy filled with stars.
Then one star disappeared.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
"The entity does not travel through space," she explained. "It travels through information."
Mika frowned.
"I don't understand."
"Imagine a message that doesn't simply contain information."
Dr. Vale pointed toward the stars.
"Imagine the message changes the receiver."
Daniel's face became pale.
"Like a virus?"
"Something similar."
Mika looked at the sphere.
"So the signal..."
"Is alive."
The chamber suddenly shook.
A warning alarm sounded.
Dr. Vale looked toward the ceiling.
"They found this station."
"Who?"
"The entity."
The blue sphere turned red.
WARNING. EXTERNAL SIGNAL DETECTED.
Daniel looked at Mika.
"We should leave."
Dr. Vale shook her head.
"Too late."
The walls began vibrating.
Then every machine in the room turned on.
A voice filled the chamber.
Not Dr. Vale's voice.
Not human.
A thousand voices speaking simultaneously.
"WE FOUND YOU."
Mika covered her ears.
The sound wasn't coming from the speakers.
It was inside her mind.
Images flashed before her.
Cities.
Mountains.
Oceans.
Stars.
Then darkness.
She saw Earth from space.
A glowing blue world.
Then something moved across the planet.
A shadow larger than continents.
Mika stumbled backward.
Dr. Vale shouted:
"DO NOT LISTEN!"
Mika closed her eyes.
The voice became louder.
"WE FOUND YOU."
Then everything stopped.
Silence.
Mika opened her eyes.
Daniel was on the floor.
The sphere was gone.
Dr. Vale was gone.
And the chamber doors were opening.