Echo in Statics

A shower of sparks and the sharp smell of burning metal filled Kenji's lab. The little scout robot on the workbench convulsed for the last time and then its single optical eye went out with a pathetic sound

"Cheap junk," Kenji muttered, dropping into his chair with palpable frustration. He had been working on the prototype for weeks, and every test ended the same way.

"If you keep using third-party plasma stabilizers, you'll keep building very expensive toasters." Kenji turned around. Leaning against the doorframe was Luce, one of the few synthetic biologists at the base that he considered a true genius. Her short black hair contrasted with her intense amber eyes and the sly smile that always seemed to grace her lips. She was barely six feet tall, but her presence filled the room.

"Not everyone has priority access to good components, Luce," replied Kenji, running a hand through his already messy hair.

Luce walked in, rounding the table and examining the robot with a professional curiosity. "Maybe if you spent less time worrying about ghosts, you'd have more time to concentrate." He picked up a burned circuit board. "I heard an interesting rumor today, from some cargo pilots. They say Central Command is in a silent panic. Apparently, they lost connection with a deep scan probe about a month ago."

Kenji stood still. He too had heard whispers, but never anything concrete. "A probe?"

"One they sent a long time ago. Far, far away," Luce said. She tossed him the burned circuit board; Kenji caught it by pure reflex. "It's just a rumor, of course. But be careful Kenji, I don't want you to get in trouble."

He turned and walked out of the lab, leaving a silence laden with new and dangerous questions.

Days later, Kenji was about to give up. He had searched the entire Nepantla public network. There was no record of any missing probes. Not a single mention. It was as if the rumor didn't exist. He had almost dismissed it as just another base paranoia, until he remembered something from his days at the academy: the High Command network. A separate, encrypted intranet, completely isolated from the rest of the system.

That night, under the pretext of "needing a change of scenery," Kenji rented a private capsule in one of the "fun zones" of the civilian sector, a euphemism for the small, discreet love nests that offered guaranteed anonymity. From there, surrounded by synthetic velvet walls and tacky ambient lighting, he unleashed his true talent. With a cold sweat running down his back, he jumped firewalls, broke encryptions and slipped into the private garden of the gods of Nepantla.

He knew he didn't have much time. He searched frantically. Probe. Scan. Lost. And then, he found it. A folder. "PROJECT ODYSSEUS II." An interstellar probe, launched years ago, with a target beyond the Kuiper Belt.

He barely managed to read the mission summary before the silent alarms he had set off detected it. A digital wall rose out of nowhere and he was ejected from the network with a force that nearly fried his terminal. But he already had what he needed. A name.

For the next few days, Kenji kept a low profile. He went about his work, avoided conversations and acted like the clueless scientist everyone expected him to be. It was during that time that he found Lion in the training room. He told him everything: the rumor, the secret network, the Odysseus II. He needed to tell someone, and Lion was the only person he trusted.

As he left the training area, a sense of relief and dread washed over him. He had shared the burden. But as he returned to his lab, the relief evaporated. On his workbench, where the broken robot had once been, now lay an envelope. An envelope of a sleek, ominous black color, with no return address.

With trembling hands, he opened it. He read it. And the contents made his blood run cold in his veins. It was not a threat. It was an invitation, couched in a politeness that made it all the more terrifying.

He sat down heavily, scratching his head in despair. After several minutes of paralyzing panic, a cold clarity came over him. He burned the letter in the lab's incinerator until only ashes remained. He stuffed his most important datapads and a handful of belongings into a briefcase and ran out.

That's when he bumped into Lion in the hallway. He saw the confusion on his friend's face and could only stammer out a few words about being discovered before running away. He couldn't tell Lion where he was going. He couldn't put him in any more danger.

He stepped into an elevator in the central core of the base, just as the doors were closing. Already inside was another person, a tall, silent figure dressed in a gray uniform with no insignia. No words were exchanged. The elevator did not go up or down. It moved sideways, then descended to a level that did not appear in any public directory.

They came to a dark corridor, lined with polished obsidian. At the end, a door opened, revealing a circular room. Five imposing figures sat on raised thrones, their faces hidden in the gloom.

"Kenji Tanaka," boomed a voice. "He has a very dangerous curiosity."

"Your incursion into our systems is an act of treason," said another voice. "A crime to be paid for by execution."

Kenji felt short of breath. But at last, a third voice, the central one, spoke with frightening calm. "However, his genius is undeniable. It would be a waste. We offer him a chance. The same mystery that haunts you haunts us. We know that something big is approaching from outside the solar system. But we don't know what it is. Work for us. Figure it out. Or disappear."

"I accept," Kenji said, the word barely a whisper. It was either that or die.

They took him to a new lab, a technological marvel that made his old workshop look like a relic. For days, he analyzed the fragments of data they gave him, but it wasn't enough. Until he came up with a bold idea. Using his new authority, he linked the network of the Large Arecibo Telescope on Earth with the observatory on the far side of the Moon, creating an interferometer of unprecedented scale.

He targeted the last known sector of Odysseus II and waited. For hours, the data was processed. Finally, an image formed on the holographic screen. It was grainy, distorted by the immense distance. But it was unmistakable. A smudge of unnatural blackness, darker than the void itself. And from it, there seemed to emerge... tentacles.

The instant his eyes registered the image, his mind snapped.

The creature in the picture became present in his head. He saw galaxies being devoured. He felt a cold that froze his soul. And he saw, with frightening clarity, two images: the Earth, his home, cracking like an eggshell. And Kalisto's icy moon, being consumed by a horde of shadows as a small ship called Quetzal burned on its surface.

Kenji came out of the vision with a scream, falling out of his chair. Panic, pure and utter, flooded him. There was no time. I had to warn him.

He crawled to his terminal, his trembling fingers searching for the communicator. "Lion! Lion, pick up!" he shouted, knowing it would take minutes for the signal to come through, perhaps too late. "Lion, no... it's a trap.... they're not human... They have to cancel... Listen to me, it's... GOD!..."