Somewhere beyond the bulkhead, a deep thud reverberated through the floor — something hitting metal, or metal giving way. The vibration in Levi’s sternum flickered and settled. The creatures were still moving out there. Still heading somewhere. The screens just made it possible to watch them do it.
Levi stood at the central console, and Asher came up behind him, sliding his palm over Levi’s lower back before settling on his hip as Elliot approached. Owen began plugging his data pads into a terminal off to the side.
“I’ve been running scans of all areas the creatures have appeared in,” Owen said, his glasses sliding down his nose as he moved between each pad, seeming like he was using readouts from each one simultaneously. “In every area, we are picking up an additional frequency on the relay. I think it’s the creatures.”
“Can you pinpoint just those frequencies so we can see them on the schematic?” Levi asked.If we can track them…
Seventeen dots on the schematic. Six dark — killed by automated purges earlier. Eleven still active, scattered through the ship but not randomly.
“Now show me where they’re heading.”
Owen adjusted the display. Lines extended from each active dot to show the direction of movement, some faster, some slower, some winding through vents and maintenance shafts. But the lines converged. All eleven eventually heading in the same direction.
It’s not random. There is a reason. What is the logic behind this game? Why would the game make these things in this scenario? I need more information.
“Owen,” Levi said. “They came from the excavation samples on LV-347. Do we have any photos from the surface?”
Images filled the secondary screen — the asteroid surface, grey and cratered. Drill sites. Sample collection points with numbered stakes. And in the background of several photos, visible at the edge of the frame: a structure. Metallic. Enormous. A lattice of filaments rising from the asteroid’s surface, intricate and organic-looking, dozens of meters across.
“What is that?” Levi asked.
Owen read from the survey notes. “Metallic crystalline lattice, non-standard growth pattern. Electromagnetic emissions detected. Classified as non-biological — too large and too integrated with the subsurface to extract.” He scrolled. “The team collected samples from around its base.”
“From around its base.” Levi’s voice was even. “The seventeen geological specimens. They were collected from the area directly around that structure?”
“Within a fifty-meter radius, yes.”
The room went still for a moment. Levi stared at the photos — the lattice on the asteroid, the creatures on the sensor display, the eleven dots all heading the same direction…god, he would have killed for a how-to guide about now. Usually, he liked a game with a ton of lore and menus to read in-game books in, but he wasn’t looking to get lost in the Easter eggs of a developer hiding a joke book for once. He was trying to get out of this place as fast as possible.
Breathe. What would Ethan tell you to do if you were stuck on a game like this? He’d ask more questions.
“Owen. Pull up the crew profiles of everyone confirmed dead since the breach.”
The list appeared on a screen, each of the nine confirmed dead with pictures, duty assignments, and personnel details. Levi scanned the list, looking for a pattern that connected them,something that explained why these nine and not others. Shift assignments. Sector locations. Physical proximity to the initial bay they breached from. He couldn’t find it. Reynolds was on the command deck. Two engineers in the lower decks. A medic halfway across the ship. A junior officer in the galley. Their deaths were scattered and Levi couldn’t see the thread.
He clenched his hands into fists, feeling his face flush. He needed a way out. He needed to get out of the game and take Asher with him while Asher was still calm. The longer it took him to figure out, the more chances there were for Asher to backslide and panic.Fuck, fuck, fuck, what is it? What does the game want me to figure out?
Tyler wandered closer to the main screen while Levi was scanning. He was looking at one of the asteroid photos — the lattice structure, the enormous antenna growing out of rock, then at an image of one of the creatures on a security screen. He tilted his head. “Their faces look like satellite dishes.”
“What?” Levi asked.
“The creatures.” Tyler gestured at the screen. “Their faces. They’re satellite dishes. Like, actual satellite dishes. And those things—” he pointed at the lattice in the photo, “—those things look like signal towers. Big ones.” He glanced at Levi. “I used to install them in high school, before I blew my knee out.”
The entire room looked at him.
“What?” Tyler asked defensively. “I’m just saying, if you’ve got a face shaped like a dish and you’re walking around a ship, maybe you’re trying to pick up a signal. Maybe that’s why they’re all going the same direction. That array thing is a big-ass signal, right? So they’re just... looking for a clear channel.”
Owen’s fingers froze over his data pad. “A clear channel.”
“Yeah. Like when you move the dish until the static goes away. Maybe they’re doing that.” Tyler shrugged.
Owen’s fingers started moving faster than his mouth could service — “The broadcast gradient, the frequency differential, if they’re phase-locking to an EM source, then the array would be the strongest signal, but there’d be noise, static from other broadcasts on the ship — oh. Oh.Oh.”
“Owen,” Levi said. “Dumb it down. Please.”
“The ship’s comm network.” Owen was already pulling up the network map. “Every crew member on duty has a comm badge. Every badge broadcasts on the ship’s internal frequency. The signal is tiny compared to the array, but it’s close — it’s in the same band. If the creatures are trying to phase-lock to the array, the badges are interference. Like loud static, right next to them, every time one of us walks past.”
“So they kill them to stop the noise?” Asher asked.
