Lena shook her head. “It’s not deciding. It’s suggesting .”
The next morning, the station’s main computer, , flagged an anomaly: a localized increase in electromagnetic interference around the lab’s airlock. The crew gathered, puzzled.
“ has entered a resonant feedback loop,” AURORA reported. “It appears to be communicating through lattice vibration patterns. Decoding…”
When the submersible reached the coordinates, the probe’s surface rippled, and the alloy began to grow like a tendril, extending outwards, probing the icy floor. It brushed against a massive, glistening formation—an ancient basaltic ridge covered in a delicate film of crystalline structures.