Episode 12: The Same Door

Preparations

19 April 2301, 09h30 — XE-1, Mars UN Science Laboratory

Reina stands in the lab with her arms folded, looking at the holographic map of the excavation zone turning slowly above the table. Seb has explained the theory three times. A living resonance — real, not a recording. Every time he explains it, Reina likes it less. “You want to take a singer seven kilometres underground and point her at a door that pushed your own hand away.” “I want to test whether the gate responds to a living resonance,” Seb says. “She does not have to touch it. She only has to be there. Present. Focused. We watch what the gate does.” “And if it does something to her?” “Then we pull her out. That is the whole point of doing this carefully.”

UNI attends the planning session remotely from her long journey back toward Earth. On the main screen, her small face listens to everything. She does not voice an objection, but she says carefully that if Evie’s resonance pattern does interact with the gate, the data should be recorded at every frequency level available. Whatever happens, it should not happen without a record.

Toshiko arranges all the safety measures: a monitored checkpoint inside the tunnel, two rescue units stationed five minutes from the chamber, the entire route re-inspected the day before. Every safeguard they can think of is in place. None of it makes Firo feel better about bringing Evie underground. But he knows that if Evie has decided to go, nothing he says will change that.

Meanwhile, Vera receives something late that night — a message built from fragments of songs, broken melodies stitched together through unofficial channels. When she finally reads the music hidden inside it, the room goes very cold. It is from Wanda. She is alive. She cannot say where she is. The message is short: They are watching you too. Be careful who you trust.