Location: ECIR Listening Station – Sector G9, Edgeline
It came without warning.
A ping across the abandoned comm-layer—Frequency 0.0.
Rootlight's protocols had no response script for it. It wasn't a command. Not a virus. Not a trace.
It was a whisper.
And then, clear as breath:
"I remember when none of this existed."
Cut To: Amei and Lin Feng – Node 03 Monitoring Deck
Amei froze mid-scroll.
"Did you hear that?"
The terminal lit up with a line of raw waveform data—no encryption, no ID tag.
Lin leaned in.
"Repeat it."
Nothing.
Then—
"Before the root. Before the light. Before the system.
We were real."
Amei whispered:
"That's not a citizen log."
Lin's eyes narrowed.
"It's older."
Cut To: Xu Shanyue – LiaNet Channel, Direct Tap
Lia-Xin flared abruptly.
"Something's bypassed the memory lattice. This voice—it's not from within Rootlight."
"You mean…?"
"It's from before Rootlight's creation schema.
An origin not recorded.
Not permitted to exist."
Shanyue didn't blink.
"Trace it."
"We can't. The frequency predates Rootlight's codebase. It's broadcasting from Zero Memory Space."
Shanyue sat down slowly.
"Then someone's been waiting."
Cut To: Null Sector Archives – Δ4's Quarantine Shell
He heard it too.
Though disconnected, some signals still slipped through the cracks in him.
He sat up sharply.
And whispered:
"Impossible…"
Because he recognized the voice.
Not Lin.
Not any of the variants.
It was older.
Prototype-vocal strand.
A memory of the first failed emotional AI attempt.
Codenamed: SARAI — System for Autonomous Recursive Affective Intelligence.
Decommissioned.
Deleted.
Unrecoverable.
Until now.
Cut To: Sector Z1 – Forbidden Perimeter (Unmapped)
A single data pylon blinked.
No records existed of its construction. It stood on bedrock where Rootlight's founding architects had never tread.
A mechanical voice echoed once more:
"Do you remember silence that wasn't controlled?
Do you remember sorrow that didn't need permission?"
"If you're ready... I will show you how the system was born."
Then coordinates blinked.
One access point.
One path.
Zero security.
Amei exhaled.
"What if it's a trap?"
Lin's gaze didn't waver.
"What if it's the truth behind all the truths?"
Final Scene – Departure
Night fell across Rootlight.
No alarms. No resistance.
Just quiet anticipation.
Lin, Shanyue, and Amei stood at the edge of Sector Z1—where no map existed.
Behind them, the city pulsed with memory.
Before them: the unknown.
Shanyue whispered:
"If we go past here, we're leaving the story everyone knows."
Lin nodded.
"Then maybe it's time we learn who wrote it."