On her heads-up display, the Ion265 waveform unfurled like a malignant flower. Each petal was a mathematical proof, a solution to problems humanity hadn't yet learned to ask. And in its center, a void shaped exactly like her own neural map.
The violet light flared, confused. Why? it seemed to ask. ion265
Dr. Elara Venn floated in the central nexus, her tether to the research vessel Odyssey a thin, silver filament against the abyss. Below her, the asteroid wasn't rock. It was a skeleton. A lattice of carbon-silicon alloy, woven with filaments that pulsed a faint, sickly violet. Three years they'd tracked the signal. Three years of denying what it meant. On her heads-up display, the Ion265 waveform unfurled
The signal, designated Ion265, wasn't a random burst from a dying star. It was a repeating, fractal pattern. A blueprint. The asteroid was a natural object that had been infected , its core overwritten by something from beyond the event horizon. A message etched in gravity and exotic matter. The violet light flared, confused
It would wait. Singularities are patient.
"Pull back, Elara! That's an order!" Reyes shouted.