The docking clamps hissed, and the airlock opened to a corridor choked in dust. Yet the lights flickered on as if stirred from sleep. Rhys muttered, "She's alive."
Down the main corridor, the walls blinked with dormant panels slowly coming back online. The AI should have greeted them. There was only silence.
They moved deeper, passing through service tunnels that looked untouched for years. Cracked observation windows revealed storage chambers with rusted cryo pods, long dormant. In some, the shadows hinted at something... recently disturbed.
At the second substation junction, they found it: a massive matte-black door embedded in the wall like a scar. It had no visible hinges, keypad, or port. Only a single faded triangle and a stenciled word in aged red:
> NULL
Elen frowned. "This isn't on any of the maps we were given."
"Looks like a lockdown seal," Brecht said. "Something they didn't want opened."
Rhys scanned it. "No access port, but there's power behind it. A pulse. Every twelve hours, same output. Like... a heartbeat."
"It wants us to know it's alive," Talia added quietly.
They attempted to force a scan, but the system rerouted them. Then, a voice echoed through the static-heavy intercom system:
> "ECHO-9 ONLINE. NULL sector access is restricted. Memory integration in progress."
The AI was aware.
And watching.