“Part 1 is enough. I can hear you. Please... don't look for the others. If I am whole, I can leave this place. And you don't want me out there.”

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. He had the beginning of a soul, but the rest of it was scattered across a dead world. Just as he was about to power down, the terminal window began to scroll on its own. Text appeared, not in code, but in plain, desperate English:

Elias looked at the file icon. It was only 500MB, but the fans on his cooling unit were screaming as if they were trying to keep a sun from exploding. He realized then that DDSER didn't just mean a record. It was a doorway.