The Frontier

Unwelcome Guests

The sound of the stone doors closing behind him echoed for what felt like an eternity.

BOOOOOM...

Darkness swallowed everything.

Aiden stood perfectly still.

"...Well."

He cleared his throat.

"If this turns out to be an alien escape room..."

"...I'd just like everyone to know I'm terrible at puzzles."

Silence answered him.

He reached toward his belt and unclipped his flashlight.

Click.

Nothing.

He frowned.

Click.

Still nothing.

"...Seriously?"

He smacked it against his palm.

The flashlight flickered once before dying completely.

"Iris?"

No response.

The communicator emitted only static.

He tapped the earpiece.

"Iris?"

Nothing.

His smile faded.

"That's... less funny."

Taking a slow breath, Aiden reached into his backpack and removed a compact emergency glow stick. With a sharp c***k, pale blue light spilled into the corridor.

The passage stretched far beyond what the glow could illuminate.

Its walls weren't carved.

They looked...

grown.

Like polished black crystal that had slowly woven itself into arches and pillars over thousands of years.

He knelt beside one wall.

"No seams."

"No tool marks."

"No weathering."

His scientist brain immediately took over.

"Either someone had technology that's making humanity look like toddlers with rocks..."

"...or this place built itself."

Neither answer was comforting.

His boots echoed softly.

Every footstep came back...

twice.

Once immediately.

Another...

a second later.

From somewhere deeper.

He stopped walking.

The second footsteps stopped too.

"...Echo?"

He took another step.

Again.

His own footstep.

Then another.

Slightly delayed.

He smiled nervously.

"Okay."

"So either acoustics are weird..."

"...or somebody's following me and has excellent rhythm."

The corridor widened into a vast circular chamber.

Aiden slowly lifted the glow stick higher.

His jaw dropped.

The ceiling disappeared into darkness hundreds of meters above.

Massive statues ringed the chamber.

Each stood nearly thirty meters tall.

Humanoid.

Elegant.

Their faces smooth.

Featureless.

Except...

Every statue had both hands covering its own eyes.

"Huh."

He walked closer.

"That's... incredibly creepy."

He examined the nearest one.

The craftsmanship was impossible.

Not a single c***k.

Not a grain of dust.

As if they had been sculpted yesterday instead of thousands of years ago.

Something was carved beneath its feet.

Symbols.

Hundreds of them.

He activated his handheld scanner.

It beeped once.

Screen flickered.

Then displayed:

GOOD LUCK.

Aiden sighed.

"You too."

He shoved it back into his pocket.

The chamber suddenly vibrated.

Very gently.

Like someone striking an enormous bell somewhere underground.

The statues moved.

Barely.

Aiden froze.

"...No."

"Nope."

"I've watched enough horror movies."

"Statues don't move."

He stared for several seconds.

Nothing.

He exhaled.

"I'm hallucinating."

Probably dehydration.

Definitely dehydration.

He reached into his bag for a water bottle.

As he drank...

One of the statues slowly lowered its hands.

Just an inch.

Aiden didn't see it.

He continued walking.

The room opened into another hallway.

Unlike the first corridor, this one was lined with enormous circular windows.

Except...

They weren't windows.

Beyond them wasn't another room.

It was space.

Stars.

Galaxies.

Nebulas.

Aiden blinked.

"...That's impossible."

He approached one carefully.

The stars shifted as he moved.

Real.

Not projections.

He looked down.

The structure should have been buried inside a mountain.

So why was he looking into open space?

He reached toward the glass.

His fingers passed straight through.

"...Excuse me?"

He yanked his hand back.

Nothing happened.

Slowly...

he pushed his entire arm through.

It vanished beyond the surface.

Cold.

Vacuum.

He could actually feel it.

He immediately pulled back.

"No."

"No."

"I'm not emotionally prepared for whatever physics this is."

Further ahead...

something glowed.

A soft silver light.

It floated gently through the hallway.

About the size of a basketball.

Aiden crouched behind a pillar.

"...Alright."

"Unknown floating glowing thing."

"Step one..."

"Absolutely do not touch it."

The sphere drifted closer.

It wasn't mechanical.

It wasn't alive.

It simply...

observed.

Then it stopped directly in front of him.

For several long seconds...

nothing happened.

Aiden slowly waved.

"...Hi."

The sphere pulsed once.

Then projected hundreds of tiny symbols into the air around him.

The symbols rotated rapidly.

Rearranging.

Changing.

Learning.

Finally...

Every symbol merged into two human words.

WELCOME BACK.

Aiden's smile disappeared.

"...I have literally never been here."

The sphere pulsed again.

The words remained.

WELCOME BACK.

A cold chill ran down his spine.

Somewhere...

far deeper inside the ruins...

something had mistaken him...

for someone else.

The words hovered in the air.

WELCOME BACK.

Aiden stared at them for a long moment before looking over his shoulder.

"Uh..."

He pointed at himself.

"You sure you've got the right guy?"

The floating sphere pulsed.

WELCOME BACK.

"...Okay, that's either heartwarming or deeply concerning."

He waved a hand through the holographic letters. They dissolved into hundreds of tiny blue fragments before reforming into the exact same message.

Persistent.

"I respect the commitment."

The sphere floated closer until it hovered inches from his face.

Aiden instinctively leaned backward.

"Personal space."

The sphere ignored him.

A thin beam of blue light swept across his body from head to toe.

His boots.

His backpack.

His hands.

His eyes.

The scan lingered on his chest for several seconds before disappearing.

The floating sphere froze.

Then, for the first time, the message changed.

IDENTITY...

Three dots blinked.

...ERROR

"...That's reassuring."

GENETIC MATCH...

Another pause.

0.03%

Aiden frowned.

"Three percent?"

The sphere corrected itself.

0.03%

"That's... significantly less impressive."

Another pulse.

ACCESS GRANTED.

Before Aiden could ask what exactly he had been granted access to, the floor beneath him vibrated.

A deep metallic rumble echoed through the corridor.

He looked down just in time to see glowing lines spreading across the black stone beneath his boots.

"Oh, come on."

The lines raced away from him in every direction like rivers of light.

Walls that had stood motionless for thousands of years began to awaken.

Symbols glowed.

Pillars hummed.

Ancient mechanisms hidden inside the mountain slowly came alive.

The floating sphere spun happily around him.

"...Did I just accidentally turn the whole place on?"

The sphere flashed brightly.

Aiden sighed.

"I'll take that as a yes."

A section of the wall slid open with astonishing silence.

Not a c***k.

Not a scrape.

It simply...

ceased to be a wall.

Beyond it stretched another corridor illuminated by floating blue crystals embedded in the ceiling.

Unlike the previous passage, this one felt...

occupied.

Aiden couldn't explain why.

The air carried a faint scent of rain mixed with ozone.

His instincts screamed at him to leave.

His curiosity laughed in their face.

"Congratulations, Aiden."

He adjusted his backpack.

"You've officially reached the point where common sense has filed for resignation."

He stepped inside.

The hidden corridor sealed behind him.

"...Of course it did."

The new passage was lined with murals unlike anything he'd seen before.

Massive images carved into black stone stretched for hundreds of meters.

Entire civilizations.

Stars.

Strange worlds orbiting impossible suns.

Humanoid figures standing beneath enormous rings suspended in the sky.

One mural caught his attention.

It depicted two planets connected by a bridge of light.

On one side...

a lush green world.

On the other...

a gray, dying planet wrapped in smoke.

Aiden's chest tightened.

Earth.

It looked disturbingly familiar.

"...No."

"That's impossible."

The mural had clearly existed for thousands of years.

Long before humanity had even invented electricity.

So why...

why did one of the planets resemble modern Earth?

He lifted his scanner again.

The screen flickered.

For once...

it worked.

Estimated Age: Unknown

Material Composition: Unknown

Translation Probability: 0.7%

"...Thanks."

"Very informative."

He zoomed in on the strange symbols beneath the carving.

One symbol repeated several times.

Always between the two planets.

His scanner finally translated a single word.

PATHFINDER

Aiden frowned.

"The Pathfinder..."

The title felt strangely familiar.

Not because he'd heard it before...

Because somehow...

it felt like it belonged to him.

He laughed nervously.

"No."

"No, we're not doing destiny."

"I believe in science."

"...Mostly."

A sudden clang echoed somewhere ahead.

Metal against stone.

Aiden froze.

That...

wasn't ancient machinery.

It had rhythm.

Intent.

Footsteps.

Someone else was here.

He quickly extinguished his emergency glow stick.

Darkness swallowed the corridor.

Only the faint blue crystals overhead remained.

The footsteps grew louder.

Slow.

Measured.

Not hiding.

Almost...

patrolling.

Aiden crouched behind a broken column.

His heartbeat thudded in his ears.

The footsteps stopped.

Silence.

Then...

a beam of white light swept across the corridor.

Artificial light.

Human.

Aiden's eyes widened.

"...Someone brought a flashlight."

Three figures rounded the corner.

Not aliens.

Humans.

They wore armored exploration suits unlike his own.

Black.

Military grade.

Their helmets bore the silver insignia of OmniCore.

Aiden frowned.

"What the hell..."

His mission had been classified.

No one else was supposed to be here.

The lead soldier removed his helmet.

A scar cut across his left cheek.

His expression was hard.

Professional.

He studied a handheld tablet.

"Energy surge originated here."

Another soldier looked around.

"But Dr. Cole's beacon disappeared three hours ago."

"We assumed he was dead."

The scarred man smiled faintly.

"I wasn't hoping."

Aiden's stomach dropped.

They weren't here to rescue him.

They were here to confirm he hadn't survived.

The third soldier pointed farther down the corridor.

"Sir..."

"The doors are open."

The leader's smile widened.

"Excellent."

"So the old fool activated it."

Aiden clenched his fists.

"Old fool?"

He was thirty-four.

Rude.

Very rude.

The soldiers continued deeper into the ruins.

Only after they disappeared did Aiden slowly emerge from cover.

His mind raced.

OmniCore had lied.

About the mission.

About being alone.

About everything.

More importantly...

They already knew something was hidden here.

Something valuable enough to send an armed team in secret.

He looked back toward the mural.

Then toward the direction the soldiers had gone.

The mystery had just become much bigger.

"So..."

He whispered.

"I'm officially trespassing..."

"...on my own expedition."

A faint chuckle escaped him despite the danger.

"I should really start reading the fine print on contracts."

At that exact moment...

A distant scream echoed through the ruins.

Human.

Sharp.

Terrified.

It ended abruptly.

Silence followed.

The OmniCore team had found something.

Or...

something had found them.

Aiden swallowed.

"Well..."

He tightened the straps on his backpack.

"I was hoping for a quiet first day."

He started running toward the sound.

Behind him...

high above the corridor...

hidden inside the ceiling itself...

hundreds of tiny silver eyes slowly opened.

Watching.

Waiting.

Learning.