On the main terminal, a single line of text flickered into existence:
As they watched, the air in the room grew heavy with the scent of ozone. The string of characters began to repeat, scrolling faster and faster until it blurred into a gray horizon. They realized then that the text wasn't a message for them—it was a command. Crcrcvtcvtdvscgdscvdsavva rar
The monitors in the deep-scan lab hummed with a low, electric fever. For years, they had listened to the silence of the void, but tonight, the static began to take shape. It wasn't a voice, and it wasn't a song. It was a jagged pulse of data that refused to be decoded. On the main terminal, a single line of