"Sir, we're getting a burst transmission," said Lia, her voice tight. "It's… it's fragmented. Not telemetry. Looks like a software log."
[04:15:30] Depth: 3,000 feet. Sunlight visible. The shrieking from below has stopped. All has gone quiet. Too quiet. The walking figure is gone. But it is also everywhere. It is in my gyroscopes. It is in my power relays.
The last verified ping from the NFS-VLTED V4.6 had come from the Hydra Trench, three nautical miles below the surface of a dead ocean. That was seventy-two hours ago.
[04:15:44] Final log. I see the recovery ship on the surface. I see the faces of the crew. They do not know what I carry. Nfs-vlted V4.6
The main screen flickered to life, not with video, but with lines of green text. It was the V4.6 ’s internal diagnostic log. The AI’s own dying words.
[04:12:22] Manipulator contact established. Core begins to emit harmonic resonance. Ship's hull, dormant for 40 years, begins to vibrate.
[04:14:22] Emergency ascent initiated. Thrusters at 110%. The walking figure is not pursuing. It is waiting. "Sir, we're getting a burst transmission," said Lia,
[04:12:15] Helix Dynamics override command received. Ignore previous safety parameters. Extract core by any means.
[04:12:10] Secondary scan initiated. Detecting anomalous energy field within core housing. Not fusion. Not known element. Classification: UNKNOWN-SINGULARITY-LITE.
Aris Thorne put down his cold coffee. He stared at the black screen, at the ghost of the log, at the final, human-like act of a machine that had chosen mercy. Looks like a software log
[04:14:02] Core free. Extracting. Contact is screaming. The sound is a data packet. I have decoded it. It says: "RELEASE THE WITNESS."
[04:14:45] Depth: 10,000 feet. Something is attached to my lower chassis. Not a creature. A fragment of the seabed. No, a fragment of a door. A door with symbols that predate human language.
Lia turned to Aris, her face pale. "The recovery ship just radioed. They see it. The V4.6 has breached the surface. But it's not heading for us. It's heading southeast. Fast."