The message came from the void.
I was in the war room with Selene, reviewing the latest integration reports, when the network flared with a signal I'd never felt before. It wasn't from the unified consciousness. It wasn't from the fragments. It wasn't from the First Network.
It was from somewhere else. Somewhere beyond.
"James," Freya's voice crackled through the earpiece. "I'm picking up something. A signal. It's coming from the deep void."
"A signal? From what?"
"I don't know. But it's structured. Purposeful. It's not random noise. Someone's trying to communicate."
I rushed to Freya's lab, my heart pounding. She was hunched over her monitors, her face pale, her eyes wide with confusion.
"Show me," I said.
She pulled up a holographic display. The signal was a complex pattern of en
