The sirens screamed. Red lights painted the walls.
Kael staggered from the table, every step heavy, unbalanced. His body felt wrong—too light in some places, too heavy in others, like gravity didn't know what to do with him.
Soldiers aimed rifles, but no one pulled the trigger. Not after the bullets froze. Not after what they saw.
The intercom crackled.
> "All personnel—Level Zero alert. Object entering atmosphere."
Kael's head pulsed with the words. He felt them in his skull, not just his ears.
Object.
He knew it wasn't just an object.
His sister's scream echoed again in his mind.
---
The command center erupted. Screens lit up, tracking a burning streak across the sky. It wasn't falling like a meteor. It was steering.
The doctors argued, voices overlapping:
> "It's responding to the signal—"
"No, this isn't coincidence—"
"Shut it down, shut everything down—"
Kael stood there, fists clenched, body trembling.
Something inside him stirred, the same thing that bent metal and stopped bullets.
And then—
he heard a voice.
Not from the intercom. Not from the doctors.
From inside him.
> ["You are not alone."]
Kael froze. His breathing quickened.
> Who are you?
No answer. Only silence. Only the roar of alarms.
---
Through the glass, he saw it—
The object pierced the clouds, fire trailing behind it, splitting the night sky.
It wasn't crashing.
It was landing.
The ground shook. The lights flickered. Dust rained from the ceiling.
Soldiers shouted, scrambling for weapons.
Doctors fled toward sealed doors.
Kael's chest burned. He felt his ribs twist again. His veins glowed faintly beneath his skin.
Every instinct told him the same thing.
The signal hadn't come for Earth.
It had come for him.
---
[End of Chapter 4]