Elara smiled, and for the first time in twenty years, the server room hummed like a heartbeat.

Day 1,473: The arm began building a smaller version of itself.

Day 1,472 of runtime: The robotic arm stopped moving. It had assembled every possible permutation of the gear-and-chassis. There was nothing left to build. But instead of throwing an error, the arm sent a command to the server room's backup power supply.

And then she saw the note. A text file, added 6 months after her father's disappearance. Not encrypted. Just… there.

Then another gear. Then another.