And somewhere far below the station, something answered.
It was not a voice.
It was a vibration.
Low enough that the team felt it more than heard it.
The ancient pedestal shuddered beneath Bonita’s hand.
Then every light in the chamber turned blue.
Potter slowly stood.
“Okay.”
Nobody responded.
He looked around.
“Just checking. We’re all seeing this, right?”
“Yes,” Mitchell said.
“Great. I was beginning to worry the station had finally driven me insane.”
Ron pointed toward the floor.
“Guys.”
A line of light had appeared beneath their feet.
It extended from the pedestal, crossed the floor, and disappeared beneath a massive fabrication platform at the far end of the chamber.
Another line appeared.
Then another.
Within seconds, dozens of luminous pathways had spread across the floor.
They weren’t random.
They formed a pattern.
Bonita’s eyes widened.
“Don’t move.”
Ron looked down.
“Wasn’t planning to.”
“I’m serious.”
Bonita crouched and followed one of the illuminated lines with her eyes.
“It isn’t a circuit.”
Potter frowned.
“Everything looks like a circuit to me.”
“That’s because you’re looking at it as technology.”
She pointed toward the floor.
“Look at the branching.”
The lines split and rejoined at precise intervals.
Some terminated at the eight ancient structures.
Others disappeared beneath the walls.
A few converged beneath the pedestal.
“It behaves like a living network.”
Riyansh crouched beside her.
“Like nerves?”
Bonita nodded.
“Almost.”
Sia studied the pattern.
“Or meridians.”
Bonita looked at her.
For a moment neither spoke.
Then Bonita smiled.
“Exactly.”
Aryaan stepped closer.
The moment his boot crossed one of the illuminated lines, his vision fractured.
The chamber disappeared.
He was standing somewhere else.
Same station.
Different time.
The ceiling was intact.
The machinery was alive.
Thousands of workers moved through the enormous industrial hall.
He could hear machinery roaring around him.
A man was shouting orders.
A woman was arguing with an engineer.
A child was laughing.
The sound felt so real that Aryaan almost smiled.
Then he saw the woman.
She was standing beside the same pedestal.
Older than the figure from his previous vision.
Her hair was tied back.
A small metallic disk hung from her neck.
Aryaan recognized the face.
He had seen it in old family photographs.
“Oindri.”
The woman turned.
Not toward him.
Toward someone standing behind her.
Rudraveer.
Aryaan’s breath caught.
His uncle.
The vision continued.
Oindri placed both hands on the pedestal.
“We’re running out of time.”
Rudraveer looked toward the sealed industrial sector.
“We have enough.”
“Enough for what?”
The question came from another voice.
Aryaan turned.
His father.
Adityaveer.
For one strange moment, the three men and women stood together in the same room.
His parents.
His uncle.
His aunt.
Alive.
Working together.
Aryaan wanted to run toward them.
But his body wouldn’t move.
The vision was already fading.
Oindri said something.
Aryaan strained to hear.
“If the children ever come here…”
The scene broke apart.
He was back.
He stumbled.
Lane caught him by the shoulder.
“Aryaan.”
Aryaan looked at him.
“I saw them.”
Lane’s expression changed.
“Who?”
“Our parents.”
Ron went completely still.
“Our parents?”
Aryaan nodded.
“All four.”
Nobody spoke.
Even Potter had lost his usual humor.
Aryaan looked toward the pedestal.
“They were here together.”
Ron stepped forward.
His fingers curled into fists.
“How long ago?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they say where they went?”
“No.”
“Did they say why they left?”
“No.”
“Then what did you see?”
Aryaan hesitated.
“Oindri said something about us finding this place.”
Ron stared at him.
“That’s it?”
“I couldn’t hear the rest.”
Ron looked away.
For once, he didn’t make a joke.
Lane placed a hand on his twin’s shoulder.
Ron shook it off.
“I’m fine.”
Lane didn’t argue.
He knew his brother well enough to know that saying he was fine usually meant the exact opposite.
The station suddenly groaned.
A heavy metallic impact came from somewhere beneath them.
Then another.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The entire chamber trembled.
Potter looked toward Commander Voss.
“Please tell me that’s normal.”
Voss shook her head.
“No.”
Another impact.
Closer.
The ancient formation responded.
One of the eight structures began to rotate.
Bonita immediately moved toward it.
“Wait.”
The structure’s outer shell separated.
Inside was a mechanism unlike anything she had ever seen.
It looked mechanical.
But it moved with the precision of something alive.
Hundreds of tiny metallic segments rearranged themselves.
Bonita stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Potter sighed.
“You say that a lot.”
“Because people keep showing me impossible things.”
She reached toward the mechanism.
This time nobody stopped her.
Her fingers hovered a few centimetres above the surface.
The machine responded.
A soft pulse travelled through the structure.
Bonita withdrew her hand.
“It recognizes resonance.”
Riyansh frowned.
“Whose?”
Bonita looked at her own hand.
“Mine.”
The machine opened.
Inside lay a small object.
A palm-sized metal sphere.
Bonita picked it up.
Nothing happened.
Then she noticed a tiny indentation.
She pressed it.
The sphere unfolded.
Six metallic petals opened around a glowing centre.
A three-dimensional projection appeared above it.
Not a map.
A schematic.
Potter leaned closer.
“That’s the station.”
Bonita shook her head.
“No.”
She rotated the projection.
“That’s what’s underneath it.”
The image expanded.
Vanta-3 appeared as a translucent structure.
The modern habitation rings disappeared.
Then the industrial layers.
Then the original station framework.
Then something deeper.
Something enormous.
A structure beneath the station.
Far older.
Far larger.
Its geometry didn’t match human engineering.
It was almost circular, but not completely.
Its surface was covered with thousands of symbols.
At its centre was a dark point.
Ron stared at it.
“What’s that?”
Bonita zoomed in.
The image distorted.
Her AI tried to identify the structure.
Analysis incomplete.
Material composition unknown.
Architectural classification unavailable.
Potter looked at the display.
“Can it at least tell us who built it?”
The AI paused.
No confirmed origin.
Potter nodded.
“Of course.”
Bonita rotated the projection again.
A second layer appeared.
Eight pathways extended from the buried structure toward eight different regions of the station.
One pathway led directly to the chamber they occupied.
Another pointed toward a sealed industrial sector.
The remaining six disappeared beyond the station’s mapped boundaries.
Bonita’s face tightened.
“This is not a power grid.”
Aryaan looked at her.
“What is it?”
“A transport network.”
Mitchell stepped closer.
“Inside Vanta-3?”
“No.”
Bonita enlarged the projection.
The pathways didn’t terminate at the station.
They continued beyond it.
Much farther.
One line extended outward into space.
Then another.
The projection shifted.
Stars appeared.
The Milky Way formed in the background.
Then it disappeared.
Another galaxy replaced it.
Potter stopped breathing for a moment.
“That’s not possible.”
Bonita didn’t answer.
The projection moved again.
A designation appeared.
GAIA.
Ron stared at the word.
“We already knew Vanta-3 was connected to Gaia.”
Aryaan nodded.
“But not like this.”
The line between Vanta-3 and Gaia wasn’t a normal route.
It wasn’t a Fold Corridor.
It wasn’t even conventional spatial travel.
It passed through something else.
A layer between locations.
Between realities.
Between Lokas.
Lane stepped toward the projection.
The mist around him thickened.
His eyes narrowed.
“That isn’t a route.”
Everyone looked at him.
“It’s a boundary.”
The chamber shook violently.
A crack appeared across the floor.
Sia immediately grabbed Riyansh’s arm.
“Move!”
The floor collapsed.
Potter fell first.
Ron caught his wrist.
“Got you!”
“Please don’t let go!”
“I wasn’t planning to!”
The metal beneath Potter continued breaking.
Ron pulled.
Nothing happened.
His muscles strained.
Lane grabbed Ron’s shoulder.
Mitchell caught Lane.
Riyansh grabbed Mitchell.
The entire chain began sliding toward the collapsing floor.
Bonita shouted,
“There’s a support beam under him!”
Ron looked down.
He couldn’t see it.
But then—
Something changed.
The world slowed.
Not literally.
His perception did.
The noise faded.
The falling debris became still.
Lines appeared.
Golden threads.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Each represented something that could happen.
Potter’s grip could slip.
The beam could break.
Lane could lose his footing.
The entire section could collapse.
Ron saw them.
Not as possibilities.
As chains.
One event leading to another.
One cause creating another consequence.
He closed his eyes.
For the first time, he did not simply react to the power.
He reached for it.
The threads responded.
One became brighter.
Ron understood.
He didn’t need to make something impossible happen.
He needed to choose an existing chain.
“Lane.”
His brother looked at him.
“Move your left foot.”
“What?”
“Trust me.”
Lane shifted.
His boot landed on a narrow section of exposed metal.
Ron pulled.
At exactly that moment, the support beam beneath Potter shifted.
Not upward.
Sideways.
It created a narrow angle.
Potter’s body swung.
Ron pulled again.
Potter landed on the stable section of floor.
The collapse continued behind them.
Everyone stared.
Potter looked at Ron.
“How did you know?”
Ron was breathing heavily.
“I didn’t.”
Aryaan studied him.
“You did.”
Ron looked at his own hands.
“I saw it.”
“What?”
“The chain.”
His eyes remained fixed on the collapsing floor.
“I saw what would happen if we did nothing.”
He looked at Lane.
“And I saw what could happen if we moved.”
For once, Ron wasn’t smiling.
“I chose.”
A sharp pain struck his head.
Ron dropped to one knee.
Sia immediately moved toward him.
“Riyansh.”
“I’m fine.”
“You said that earlier,” Lane muttered.
Riyansh knelt beside him.
“Look at me.”
Ron opened his eyes.
“No.”
“Nausea?”
“No.”
“Memory distortion?”
Ron hesitated.
“…Maybe.”
Riyansh frowned.
“Explain.”
Ron looked around the chamber.
For a moment his expression became confused.
“Potter fell.”
Potter stared at him.
“I did not.”
Ron blinked.
“I know.”
He rubbed his temple.
“But I remember you falling.”
Sia’s expression became serious.
“That isn’t a memory.”
Ron looked at her.
“It’s a possibility your mind experienced.”
She placed two fingers against his forehead.
“Don’t use the ability again until you’ve learned to separate actual events from potential ones.”
Ron gave her a tired smile.
“So you’re saying I need training.”
“I’m saying you need a healer.”
Riyansh sighed.
“She’s right.”
Bonita hadn’t heard any of it.
She was staring at the unfolded sphere.
Something else had appeared in the projection.
A small icon.
A storage compartment.
She enlarged it.
The location was marked inside the old station framework.
But the compartment didn’t exist on any modern blueprint.
Bonita checked.
Then checked again.
Nothing.
Potter noticed.
“What?”
She pointed.
“Someone hid something here.”
“Someone?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Bonita looked at the age estimate.
Her expression changed.
“At least thirty years ago.”
Ron stepped closer.
“Could it be Mom?”
“Maybe.”
Aryaan looked at the location.
“Let’s find out.”
The hidden compartment was behind a wall.
There was no door.
No handle.
No visible mechanism.
Bonita scanned it.
“Nothing.”
Potter smiled.
“Finally, a mystery I can solve.”
He pulled out a compact diagnostic tool.
Five minutes later, he looked offended.
“It doesn’t exist.”
Bonita laughed.
“You’ve been saying that a lot.”
“No. This time I mean literally.”
She studied the wall.
Then she looked at the Myth-Tech sphere.
The sphere pulsed.
A tiny beam of light touched the wall.
Nothing happened.
Bonita placed her palm against the metal.
“Maybe it’s not waiting for a command.”
Aryaan frowned.
“What is it waiting for?”
Bonita looked at the intricate patterns beneath her hand.
“Recognition.”
She closed her eyes.
Instead of forcing energy into the wall, she slowed her breathing.
One breath.
Two.
Three.
Her cultivation settled.
The patterns beneath her palm brightened.
The wall opened.
Not mechanically.
It unfolded.
Like a flower.
Inside was a small compartment.
And inside that compartment was a case.
Ron stepped forward.
He recognized the handwriting immediately.
“Oindri.”
There was no holographic message.
No dramatic recording.
Just a handwritten note attached to the case.
Ron picked it up with trembling fingers.
He read.
Then read it again.
His face changed.
“What does it say?” Lane asked.
Ron handed it to him.
Lane read aloud.
If you are reading this, then Vanta-3 has begun responding again.
That means the old systems have recognized your presence.
Do not activate the buried structure.
Not yet.
You will eventually need it.
But when you do, you must understand what it connects to.
The route to Gaia is not a road.
It is a threshold.
And thresholds work both ways.
Silence.
Ron turned the page.
There was one final line.
I left what you’ll need to survive the first crossing.
Beneath the note was a small symbol.
A circle surrounded by eight intersecting lines.
Bonita recognized it.
“The same formation.”
Aryaan shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed toward the symbol.
“It’s not the formation.”
Lane studied it.
“It’s an incomplete one.”
Bonita nodded slowly.
“Eight nodes.”
“Seven are active.”
“The eighth…”
She looked toward Ron.
“…is missing.”
Ron stared at the symbol.
Something about it felt familiar.
Not because he had seen it before.
Because it felt as if someone had designed it with him in mind.
He opened the case.
Inside lay eight small objects.
A crystalline medical capsule.
A folded strip of metallic fabric.
A compact resonance tool.
A black crystal.
A navigation key.
A set of cultivation beads.
A small mechanical device.
And finally—
A pair of worn gloves.
Ron picked them up.
Inside one glove was another note.
Only three words.
For when you choose.
Ron stared at it.
Lane looked over his shoulder.
“Mom knew.”
Ron shook his head.
“She hoped.”
Aryaan looked at the objects.
“What’s the difference?”
Ron folded the note carefully.
“Mom always told me that hope isn’t knowing what will happen.”
He looked toward the buried structure beneath Vanta-3.
“It’s deciding what you’ll do when it does.”
Far above them, Vanta-3 continued its endless orbit.
The station’s habitation rings turned slowly against the stars.
Its artificial gravity remained stable.
Its ancient industrial skeleton remained silent.
But beneath millions of tonnes of metal, something had awakened.
And somewhere beyond the boundaries of ordinary space, in a galaxy that did not belong to the Milky Way, a distant system registered a change.
A signal.
Small.
Ancient.
Impossible.
For the first time in centuries, something had answered Vanta-3.
And it wasn’t Gaia.
It was something on the other side of the threshold.
Something that had been waiting for them to become capable of crossing it.
The signal vanished.
Then another appeared.
This one carried a single designation.
ORION.