485137i -

Elias didn't turn around. He just watched the screen as the numbers began to count down.

He assumed it was a prank from the day shift until he looked at the suffix: . In their system, i stood for Intermittent Variable , but the wave pattern attached to this file wasn't a star’s pulse. It was rhythmic, structured, and—to his horror—reacting to the room’s ambient noise. 485137i

"485," Elias muttered, glancing at his station number. "Cute." Elias didn't turn around

At 3:14 AM, the terminal at Station 485 blinked. A new string had bypassed the filters, originating from a sector of the sky that should have been empty: . i stood for Intermittent Variable