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Inside, the room was a cathedral of glass and copper wiring. At the center sat the core—a fist-sized hunk of obsidian-like material suspended in a magnetic cradle. It wasn’t supposed to glow, but as Elias approached his terminal, a faint, rhythmic violet pulse emanated from its jagged edges.

Suddenly, the humming stopped. The obsidian core went dark. Elias pulled his headphones off, the silence in the lab suddenly feeling heavier than the noise. He looked at the screen. The coordinates weren't for a place on Earth, or even in the known stars. Inside, the room was a cathedral of glass and copper wiring

Elias typed the override code. He wasn’t here to shut it down; he was here to listen. He plugged his headphones into the auxiliary port of the primary sensor array. At first, there was only the static of cosmic background radiation. Then, through the white noise, a voice emerged. It wasn’t speaking words, but a sequence of mathematical constants hummed in a melodic, mournful tone. Suddenly, the humming stopped