Static

Morgan seems to have the same thought. She’s already at the console, her fingers flying over the dials and switches, her brow furrowed in concentration. “I think…I think I can get it working. But I’ll need time.”

“You’ll have it,” I say, my voice grim. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

I turn back to the hidden room’s entrance, my heart pounding in my chest. The static is rising, building to a fever pitch, and I know what that means. They’re coming. The things the message warned us about…the things that consumed the last expedition.

I don’t know what they are. I don’t want to know. All I know is that I have to keep them away from Morgan, away from the console, for as long as I can.

“I love you,” I say, the words tumbling out before I can stop them. “I know it’s a terrible time to say it, but I—”

“I love you too,” Morgan cuts me off, her voice rough with emotion. “Now go. Buy me that time.”

I nod, blinking back tears, and then I’m moving, scrambling back through the hidden panel and into the corridor beyond. The static is a living thing now, a physical presence that presses in from all sides, but I push through it, my heart a frantic drumbeat in my chest.

I don’t know how long I can hold them off. I don’t know if Morgan can get the message out in time. All I know is that we have to try. We have to warn someone, before it’s too late.

The static rises to a deafening crescendo, and I know they’re close. I can feel them, a presence in the back of my mind, hungry and alien and utterly inhuman.

I take a breath, my hand tightening on the wrench I grabbed from my toolkit, and step forward to meet them.

Behind me, in the hidden room, I hear the faint, desperate crackle of the old transmitter coming to life. Morgan’s voice, low and urgent, speaking the words that could save us all.

And then, abruptly, the static dies.

The silence is absolute, a suffocating blanket that presses in from all sides. For a moment, I stand frozen, my heart pounding in my chest, waiting for the attack I know is coming.

But nothing happens.

Slowly, I turn, my eyes straining in the darkness, and that’s when I see it. The light, spilling out from the cracks around the hidden panel. Not the flickering beam of a flashlight, but something stronger. Brighter.

Hope.

I scramble back to the panel, my hands shaking as I pull it open. Morgan is standing by the console, her face pale but triumphant in the glow of the transmitter’s lights.

“It’s done,” she says, her voice hoarse with emotion. “The message…it’s sent.”

I stare at her, my heart leaping in my chest. “Does that mean…are we safe?”

Morgan shakes her head, her expression grim. “I don’t know. The static…it’s gone. But I don’t know what that means.”

I step into the room, my arms coming up to wrap around her, and for a moment we just stand there, holding each other in the sudden, blessed silence.

“We did it,” I murmur, my voice thick with tears. “We actually did it.”

Morgan nods, her head resting against my shoulder. “We did. But now…now we have to get out of here. Before they come back.”

I know she’s right. The static may be gone, but the threat it represented is still out there. Still coming.

But for now, in this moment, there’s only Morgan and the silence and the fragile hope that we’ve bought ourselves a second chance.

“We’ll find a way,” I say, my voice firmer than I feel. “Together.”

Morgan smiles, a real smile this time, and in that smile I see the future we might still have. The one we’ll fight for, no matter what comes next.

“Together,” she agrees, and hand in hand, we step out of the hidden room and into the unknown.