The most dangerous beings do not want more.
They want better.
⸻
The first sign is not disruption.
It is efficiency.
Jason notices it while recalibrating the arrays that no longer need recalibrating. The numbers settle too quickly. Adjustments resolve before he finishes inputting them.
“That’s… wrong,” he murmurs.
Zane looks up immediately.
“What kind of wrong?”
Jason hesitates, then answers carefully.
“Nothing is pushing. Nothing is pulling. The system is correcting itself with almost no energy loss.”
Silence stretches.
“That’s good,” Zane says slowly.
Jason swallows.
“No,” he replies. “That’s intelligent.”
⸻
The counterweight hums softly in the background of reality, stable and present, but this is not it.
This is something else.
Something that does not feed.
Does not e
