The rovers moved across the gray dust plains like beetles crawling across ash.
Elena rode in the lead vehicle, pressed against the viewport, watching the moon's surface unfold through the reinforced glass. There was no horizon here — only the endless curve of rock and dust, interrupted by the jagged silhouettes of distant volcanoes, their peaks barely visible through the atmospheric haze. The moon's thin nitrogen atmosphere created a permanent twilight, a world trapped between day and night.
In her head, the whispers had changed.
They weren't warnings anymore. They weren't afraid. They were... pleased.
"—almost there—"
"—you're close now—"
"—we've waited so long—"
The voices layered over each other, a chorus of anticipation that felt like pressure against her skull. Elena gripped her safety harness, her fingers white-knuckled. She didn't fight it anymore. She couldn't.
Behind her, Kovacs was reviewing mission parameters on his datapad. He hadn't said much since they'd left the station. Professional. Focused. His eyes kept flicking toward her reflection in the viewport, then back to his work. Assessing.
Elena remembered Sofia pulling her aside before they boarded the rovers — the doctor's hand on her arm, her voice lowered. "If anything feels wrong, Elena. If you feel... disconnected from yourself, say something. Don't let pride keep you from asking for help."
She'd brushed Sofia off then. Now the memory felt like something distant, like she was watching it happen to someone else.
He knew something was wrong.
"—he's watching you—"
The voice in her head was new. Clearer than the others. Older.
"—he sees it—the change—"
Elena's stomach tightened. She'd been careful. She'd been professional. But Kovacs was military — he noticed things civilians missed. Changes in posture. Microexpressions. The way someone breathed when they were holding back something they couldn't say.
"Maya," Kovacs said into his comms. "Any updates on power?"
"System stable," the engineer's voice crackled through the rover's speakers. "Fluctuations stopped when you left the station. Whatever was causing the surge, it's gone now."
"—gone from the station—"
"—because it's here now—"
"—because it came with you—"
Elena forced herself to breathe. Maya's observation hung in the air like smoke. The power fluctuations — the surges that had been happening all night — they hadn't been random. They'd been connected to the entity. To her.
"Copy that," Kovacs said. "Continue monitoring. Report anything unusual."
"—nothing will be unusual—"
"—until it's too late—"
The rovers crested a ridge and the caldera spread out before them.
It was impossibly vast — a wound in the moon's surface, kilometers across, its rim rising like shattered teeth against the sky. Inside, the ground sloped downward into darkness, disappearing into shadows that seemed to absorb what little light reached them. Dust storms swirled at the crater's center, caught in atmospheric patterns that defied explanation.
Chen's rover pulled up beside hers. The geologist's voice came over the open channel, breathless with something between terror and scientific ecstasy. "This... this shouldn't exist. Vulcanism in this region stopped four billion years ago. This caldera should be eroded flat by now. But it's not. It's fresh. It's—"
He stopped himself. Elena knew what he'd almost said. *Wrong.*
"—it's not geological—"
"—we made it—"
—or something did—"
"—before the moon was born—"
Kovacs's voice cut across the channel, sharp and commanding. "Chen, stay focused. We're here to investigate, not speculate. Maintain formation. Follow my lead."
The rovers descended into the caldera, their engines straining against the dust. Elena watched through her viewport as the walls rose around them, the rock faces scarred with striations that shouldn't be there — angles too perfect, patterns too regular, shapes that almost seemed to form symbols, then dissolved when she tried to look directly at them.
"—you're seeing it—"
"—the structure beneath—"
"—the architecture that remembers—"
The whispers were excited now. Almost gleeful.
—
They reached the caldera floor an hour later.
Chen's instruments were going wild. "These readings... the composition doesn't match any known lunar material. This rock is older. Much older. It shouldn't be here."
"Where's the signal coming from?" Kovacs asked.
Elena checked her console before anyone else could. "Center of the caldera," she said. "Underground."
Kovacs looked at her, his eyes narrowed. "How do you know?"
"I've been studying the transmission patterns," Elena said. Her voice sounded normal, somehow. "There's depth to the signal. Layers. The source is below us."
"—good answer—"
"—not the whole truth—"
"—but good enough—"
Kovacs held her gaze for a long moment, then nodded. "Alright. Proceed with caution. Watch your footing."
—
They found the entrance twenty minutes later.
It looked natural at first — a crack in the caldera wall, partially collapsed, almost hidden by dust. But when Chen swept it with his sensor array, the readings changed. The rock wasn't natural. It was shaped. Engineered. The angles were too perfect, the surfaces too smooth, the proportions too precise to be erosion.
"This isn't a cave system," Chen said, his voice trembling. "These formations... they're not natural. Look at the symmetry. Something built this."
"Impossible," Kovacs said. "There's nothing on this moon that could build structures."
"Unless whatever it is..." Elena started, then stopped. She'd almost said it aloud. *Came from elsewhere.*
"—yes—"
"—from outside—"
"—from beyond—"
Chen looked at her, his expression shifting. "What did you just say?"
"Nothing." Elena felt the entity surge through her, and had to fight to keep her voice steady. "Just thinking aloud."
Kovacs moved to the entrance, flashlight cutting through the darkness. The tunnel beyond stretched downward, the walls smooth and wrong, covered in inscriptions that Chen's instruments couldn't parse. Not language. Not mathematics. Something else.
"We're going in," Kovacs said. "Stay together. Watch each other's backs."
—
The descent felt like walking into a throat.
The tunnel walls curved downward at an angle that defied gravity, the surfaces warm to the touch despite the ambient cold. Elena's boots made no sound on the floor — the material absorbed vibrations, swallowed them whole.
Chen was in front, his instrument lights playing across the walls, his breathing audible in the silence. Kovacs followed, weapon drawn but not raised, his eyes scanning for threats. Elena came last, and the entity in her head grew louder with every step.
"—you're close now—"
"—you're going to see—"
"—you're going to understand—"
The whispers showed her images: the door, the light beyond it, the shape that waited. Not images from her mind — they were too detailed, too real. Like memories she'd never formed.
—
They reached the first chamber, and Chen stopped dead.
The space was vast, a cavern large enough to hold the entire station, its walls covered floor-to-ceiling in inscriptions that glowed faintly in the darkness. Not written in any language Elena recognized. Not carved with tools she could identify.
Chen drifted toward the nearest wall, his hands reaching out to touch the symbols, then pulling back at the last second. "This... this is... I can't even..." He turned to look at them, his face pale. "The writing system, it's not anything I've ever seen. It's not language. It's not mathematics. It's... it's memory? Or thought? I don't know. I can't parse it. It's beyond anything human comprehension can encompass."
Kovacs moved toward him, his expression grim. "Focus on finding the signal source. Record everything. We'll analyze it later."
"It's deeper," Elena said. The words came out before she could stop them. "The signal's coming from further down."
Everyone turned to look at her.
Kovacs's eyes narrowed. "How do you know?"
"I've been studying the transmission patterns," Elena said again. The same lie, but Kovacs didn't believe it this time. "There's depth to the signal. Layers." The words were hers, but the entity was speaking through her now, feeding her the lines.
"Chen," Kovacs said. "Check her readings. See if they match."
Chen moved to Elena's console, scanned the data, then looked up, confused. "They're... they're correct. The signal does have depth. I don't know how she knew that, but she's right."
—
Kovacs pulled Elena aside while Chen examined the inscriptions.
They stood in a corner of the chamber, out of earshot, the silence stretching between them. Kovacs's expression was no longer professional assessment — it was something darker. Fear. Recognition.
"Elena," he said. "What's really going on?"
"What do you mean?" Elena's voice was calm. Too calm.
"You're not telling us everything. I can see it. Maya can see it. Sofia warned us before we left."
Elena felt panic surge through her, then the entity's presence washed it away, replacing it with something that felt like calm but wasn't. The whispers rose in her head, and words came out of her mouth that she didn't choose to speak.
"Commander. There's something here that doesn't fit into your protocols. Something that doesn't belong in this universe. You're not equipped to understand it. But I am."
The voice was hers, but the cadence was wrong. The inflection was wrong. The certainty was wrong.
Kovacs stared at her. "Elena. Who are you talking to?"
"—let me—"
The entity surged, and Elena's lips moved, but the words were not hers.
"Commander Kovacs. Your crew is safe. For now. But you need to return to the station. Send Maya the rover. Continue without you."
Kovacs's hand moved to his sidearm. Military training took over, his body reacting to something his mind couldn't process. "Elena. Step away from the edge."
"I can't." The voice was Elena's, but the words weren't. "I have to go down there. To the door. To see."
"What door?"
Elena laughed, and the laugh wasn't hers. It sounded like something cracking, like something vast and ancient expressing something it had never felt before. "The one you're not supposed to see."
Kovacs drew his weapon. Chen looked up from the inscriptions, confused by the sudden tension — then his eyes went wide as he saw the weapon leveled at Elena, his face shifting from scientific absorption to stark alarm. He stepped forward, his hands raising instinctively, his mouth opening to say something that never came out.
And the station comms crackled to life.
"Maya here. I'm picking up... something. From Elena." The engineer's voice was distorted, almost breaking up. "I think the signal's changed. It's not coming from the surface anymore. It's coming from inside the rover. From Elena."
Kovacs stared at Elena, his weapon leveled at her chest. "What are you?"
Elena looked at him, and the entity looked through her eyes.
"We are what you will become."
[end of chapter]