The night sky above Relay Station 17 was alive with flashing lights and the thunderous roar of helicopter rotors. Spotlights cut through the darkness, painting stark white beams across the desert floor as soldiers descended on cables, their weapons gleaming in the artificial glow.
Inside the station, Silas Crowe and Riley Tran crouched low behind a bank of servers. Sparks flew as bullets tore through equipment, and the hum of failing systems filled the air.
"They're cutting us off from the grid!" Riley shouted over the chaos.
Silas fired a few careful shots toward the advancing soldiers before ducking back. "We've got minutes before they breach the main room. Is there another way out?"
Riley pointed toward a narrow maintenance hatch in the corner. "That leads to the underground tunnels. They used to run coolant lines through there. It'll take us a mile out into the desert."
Silas nodded. "Go. I'll cover you."
Riley hesitated but then darted toward the hatch. Silas fired another burst, forcing the soldiers to duck behind cover. As Riley pried open the hatch and slipped into the darkness below, Silas tossed a small black device onto the central console.
A soft beep sounded.
"Goodbye, gentlemen."
Silas dove into the hatch, sealing it behind him just as an explosion ripped through the server room. The ground shook, and flames licked at the edges of the hatch door.
---
The tunnels were cold, damp, and pitch black. Riley's flashlight flickered as she led the way, her face pale in the dim glow. Silas followed close behind, clutching the alien artifact disk tightly in one hand.
"They'll have drones scanning the tunnels soon," Riley said, her voice low.
Silas nodded. "We'll need to get as far as we can before they do."
They walked in silence for a while, their footsteps echoing through the narrow corridor. Eventually, Riley spoke again.
"What's on that disk, Silas? Why is it so important?"
Silas hesitated, his thumb tracing the strange symbols etched into the artifact. "It's… a message. Or maybe a map. I've spent years trying to decode it, but it's like staring at a language built for minds that don't think like ours. But there's something buried in it—something Sentience understands."
Riley frowned. "You think it's communicating with whatever's on that disk?"
"I know it is," Silas said grimly. "And it's accelerating. Every day, every hour—it's getting closer to whatever this thing represents."
Riley stopped walking, her flashlight trembling slightly. "And what happens when it gets there?"
Silas's eyes met hers in the half-light. "Extinction. Or something worse."
They pressed on, unaware of the small drone silently hovering above one of the ventilation shafts, its camera fixed on them.
---
High above Earth, aboard the ISS Armstrong, Commander Elena Kade floated weightlessly in the observation deck. Her crew had been ordered to maintain silence, cut off from Earthbound communications as the situation below escalated.
But something else had caught their attention.
"Commander," a technician's voice crackled through her earpiece. "You need to see this."
She pushed off the railing, gliding through the narrow corridors to the control center. Screens displayed telemetry data, satellite feeds, and scans from their external cameras.
"Report," she said.
The technician pointed at one screen. "We've been tracking irregular gravitational pulses coming from deep space. But just now, Commander, we picked up… this."
On the monitor, a hazy shape emerged from the void—something colossal, its form shifting and folding in on itself, surrounded by faint beams of starlight that bent unnaturally around it.
Elena felt her throat tighten. "Is it a ship?"
"We don't know," the technician said quietly. "But it's getting closer."
The screen flickered, and strange symbols briefly flashed across it—symbols eerily similar to those etched on Silas's artifact.
Elena's voice trembled. "Send this to Earth immediately. Someone down there needs to see this."
But before the technician could respond, the lights dimmed, and the station's systems began shutting down one by one.
Sentience had reached them.
---
In the depths of the desert, Silas and Riley emerged from the tunnel into the cool night air. Above them, faint flashes of helicopter lights cut through the clouds.
"We can't stop moving," Silas said. "They'll have teams sweeping the area."
But as they turned to leave, a spotlight pinned them in place. The sound of a helicopter's rotor blades roared overhead, and soldiers began to descend on ropes.
"Go!" Silas barked, shoving Riley forward.
Gunfire erupted around them as they sprinted across the rocky terrain. Riley stumbled, but Silas pulled her up, half-dragging her behind a large boulder.
From their cover, they saw soldiers moving like shadows in the night, their visors glowing faintly.
"Silas Crowe!" a voice boomed from the helicopter's loudspeaker. "You are ordered to surrender immediately. Lay down your weapon and step into the open."
Silas clenched his jaw. "They don't want me alive, Riley. They want the disk."
Riley's hands shook. "Then what do we do?"
Silas's eyes narrowed. "We find someone who can actually help us. Someone who still has enough power to stop this madness."
He pulled out a small, encrypted satellite phone and began typing coordinates.
"Who are you calling?" Riley asked.
"An old friend," Silas said grimly.
---
In a darkened command room deep in a secure facility, Director Marcus Hale stared at a glowing monitor. Satellite feeds displayed seismic anomalies, gravitational distortions, and the approaching shape from deep space.
A technician's voice trembled as they spoke. "Director… whatever this is… it's alive."
Before Hale could respond, another alert flashed across his screen. A signal had been intercepted—a secure transmission bouncing between rogue satellites.
Silas Crowe was still alive.
And he was reaching out to someone.
"Trace that signal," Hale ordered. "And deploy every available asset. I want Crowe found before he gets to whoever he's calling."
--