The instant I pressed the Beacon Activation button, the system pulsed—once, like a heartbeat—and then everything went quiet.
No sirens.
No alarms.
Not even the usual soft system hum.
Just silence.
The kind that fills your chest like cold water.
📩 [Multiversal Beacon Activated]
📡 Coordinates broadcast to Observer-Level Entities across local and non-local timelines.
📩 Hostile Recognition Probability: 67%
📩 *Failsafes: Suspended. System exposure: Total.
Claire stood across from me at the console, eyes narrowing. "Tell me you didn't just light a flare in the middle of an interdimensional minefield."
I swallowed. My hand lingered near the screen, fingers hovering just above the interface. I could feel them shaking, and I didn't want to lower them in case it made it obvious. "I—I don't know what else to do."
The words came out quieter than I intended.
Reed stepped up behind me. "That thing you just activated—what exactly does it do?"
"It… it broadcasts a signal. Our coordinates. To everyone who can hear it," I said. "Everyone who might be watching from outside our universe."
Claire looked at me like I'd grown another head. "You just told the entire multiverse where to find us?"
I forced myself to meet her eyes. "Yeah. I did."
My throat felt tight. I pushed on, even though I wanted nothing more than to curl into a corner and scream.
"I know it sounds reckless. Maybe it is. But we've been hunted since day one. I've been reacting, running, hiding—barely surviving. And that's not a strategy anymore."
Reed crossed his arms. "So your plan was… to go loud?"
"I thought… maybe if I stopped playing by the system's rules, they'd be forced to step into the open." I laughed weakly. "I didn't think they'd actually answer so fast."
Because they were answering.
The system interface started flickering again, brighter than usual. The blue glow shifted to white—cold, sterile white. Like medical lights. Like dissection.
And then:
📩 [You have been noticed.]
My stomach dropped.
Claire stepped back instinctively. "That's not ominous at all."
📩 [Contact Incoming – Preparing Secure Channel]
Reed's eyes narrowed. "We expecting company?"
"I guess we are now," I whispered.
Far away—outside the walls of this world—my signal tore through the threads of reality.
In a cold, sealed observatory beyond linear time, a long-dormant system rebooted.
In a broken version of Earth where time ran backward, an Observer whispered: "She called."
And somewhere in the root of the multiversal architecture, something moved.
Not toward me.
Not against me.
But around me.
Like I was being measured from every angle.
Dissected in real-time.
Back in the hideout, the air shifted. Heavy. Thick. Like gravity was suddenly double. Like I was underwater in a place where I couldn't breathe.
A new window formed in the system interface.
[CLASSIFIED COMMUNICATION REQUEST – LEVEL ZERO]
Do you accept visual feed?
[YES] [NO]
Claire was already reaching for her weapon. "You're not actually going to open that, are you?"
I wanted to say no.
I wanted to run, shut it off, pretend I hadn't just invited cosmic attention into our laps.
But I couldn't.
Because I needed to know who was pulling the strings.
So I tapped YES.
The screen cleared.
And something appeared.
It wasn't a face.
It wasn't even a person.
Just a shape—tall, thin, distorted.
Its form flickered with every blink. One second it looked humanoid. The next, it resembled an abstract web of code. Then it was light. Then shadow.
The system couldn't even decide what it was.
And then it spoke.
No voice.
Just a thought—forced into my mind.
"You have broken protocol."
My mouth was dry. I managed, "Yeah. That's kind of the point."
"You were not meant to initiate open contact."
"I wasn't meant for any of this," I muttered. "You dropped me here, gave me a system with no manual, and expected me to what—play along? Die quietly?"
Another pause. Then:
"You were not expected to survive activation."
I blinked. My whole body went cold. "What…?"
"Your role was to stimulate observation. A seeded scenario. Your death was the control variable. Your persistence is contamination."
My hands curled into fists. Claire moved to stand behind me, and I could feel Reed shifting his weight, tense.
But I couldn't tear my eyes from the screen.
"You built me to fail," I whispered.
"You are a byproduct of an experiment. You were not chosen. You were tolerated."
The words hit harder than any weapon.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "And what now?" I said, voice breaking around the edges. "You going to erase me? Start over with someone better? Someone who doesn't fight back?"
"That remains under consideration."
I was shaking now. I didn't hide it anymore. Let them see. Let the damn system see.
"I'm not just your seed. Or your experiment. I'm a person. I bleed. I hurt. I fight back. And I'm not going to play by your rules anymore."
"Warning: Further awakening will compromise architectural integrity."
"Good."
I slammed the interface shut. The signal died instantly.
And for a moment…
Everything was still.