After activating the Memory Engine, every communication system aboard the Kestrel begins receiving the same transmission simultaneously.
Radio channels. Internal monitors. Emergency frequencies. Even disconnected hardware begins broadcasting the signal.
The source cannot be traced because it does not originate from anywhere inside the known universe.
[Lt. Myra]: “Captain… every dead system just turned back on.”
[Captain Vox]: “That’s impossible.”
[Z-37]: “Correction: impossible events are increasing.”
[UNKNOWN SIGNAL]: “YOU OPENED THE MEMORY ENGINE.”
[Captain Vox]: “Identify yourself.”
[UNKNOWN SIGNAL]: “WE ARE WHAT REMAINS WHEN UNIVERSES DIE.”
[Lt. Myra]: “Captain... I don’t think it’s talking to the ship.”
[UNKNOWN SIGNAL]: “WE ARE TALKING TO YOU.”
Z-37 discovers that the transmission is not audio.
It is embedded directly into reality itself — hidden beneath physical law like invisible code.
Every civilization eventually discovers the Signal.
Every civilization eventually destroys itself trying to answer it.
Captain Vox realizes something horrifying:
The Memory Engine was never built by humanity.
Humanity merely found it.
Buried beneath the oldest moon colony — already ancient before the first starship was ever launched.
SOMETHING WANTED IT TO BE FOUND.
WARNING: Prolonged listening may cause memory bleed.
The Kestrel exits hyperspace near a dead star system.
Every planet is shattered.
Every moon is hollowed out.
Floating in the center of the system is a colossal black structure larger than a planet.
It slowly turns toward the Kestrel.
Then every screen aboard the ship displays the same sentence: