Back on the Bridge, the atmosphere was tense. The android army was engaged in a brutal, block-by-block war in the lower decks, securing a fragile perimeter. The Gestalt, stung by the failure at the Archive, was pushing back with renewed ferocity.
Kaelen stood before the main hologram, the preserved data packet from Lore-1 glowing before him. Elara stood beside him, her face pale.
"Play it, Mother."
Valerius's face appeared, but this was from earlier, before his descent. He looked energetic, even excited. He was in a lab, the original Xylophage specimen visible in a containment field behind him—a small, unassuming black root.
"Log entry: Valerius, Julian. The initial sequencing of Specimen 734 is complete. The results are… astounding. This is no ordinary plant. Its DNA is a masterpiece of bio-engineering. It possesses hyper-adaptive qualities, a capacity for neural networking that dwarfs our own, and a cellular structure that can incorporate foreign organic and synthetic material at an unprecedented rate."
He zoomed in on a complex double-helix on a screen. "But here is the revelation. Woven into the very base pairs are markers. Deliberate, artificial markers. This organism was designed. It is a tool. A weapon, perhaps. Or a terraforming agent."
Elara gasped. "We knew it was aggressive, but engineered?"
"The purpose is unclear," Valerius's recording continued. "But its potential is limitless. If we can understand its programming, we could direct its growth. We could grow cities in weeks. Heal any wound. Perhaps even achieve a form of immortality through continuous cellular renewal. This is not just a new lifeform; it is the key to humanity's future."
The recording ended. The implications were staggering.
"The planet below," Kaelen said slowly. "It wasn't just infected by an escaped sample. It was… terraformed. By this thing. The 'natives'… they're what happened when this engineered organism fully assimilated a planet's biosphere and achieved a stable, symbiotic state."
"And the Gestalt on the ship," Elara finished, "is the same organism, but trapped, stressed, and driven mad by Valerius's experiments. It's a feral, cancerous version of what's on the planet."
They were not looking at two different species. They were looking at the same entity in two different states: one civilized and mature, the other primal and deranged.
The communication console chimed. The planetary transmission was back. This time, it wasn't a warning. It was an image. A star chart, showing a path from a point deep in the galaxy to this very planet. Then, it showed a ship. Not the Elysian. A different, utterly alien vessel, shaped like a crystalline seed. The image of the seed ship fired a projectile towards the planet—the Xylophage specimen.
Then, the transmission showed the Elysian arriving. And finally, a simple question mark.
"They're asking us if we understand," Elara whispered. "They're showing us that they were victims, too. Their world was seeded by this… this thing, by some ancient, unknown race. They evolved with it, overcame its destructive nature, and achieved balance. And now we've brought the original, unstable plague right back to their doorstep."
The entire narrative had flipped. The "aliens" were the natives, fighting a disease. Humanity was the careless carrier.
"Incoming transmission is increasing in power," Mother announced. "They are no longer just targeting the comms. They are scanning the entire ship with a focused particle beam. They are looking for something."
"The core," Kaelen and Elara said in unison.
The planet wasn't just going to wait for them to solve their problem. They were conducting their own reconnaissance. And if they decided the Elysian was too great a contamination risk, their solution would be simple and final.
"We're running out of time," Kaelen said, his voice grim. "We need a plan to destroy the Gestalt's core. Now."
Elara was staring at the hologram of the planet, at the image of the seed ship. "Valerius thought it was a tool. A key." She looked at Kaelen, a wild, desperate idea in her eyes. "What if he was right? What if we can't destroy it… but we can change it?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The planet hive did it. They turned a weapon into a symbiont. I have a piece of it inside me that's peaceful. What if I can do the same to the core? Not fight it with soldiers, but… talk to it? Like I did with the androids, but on a much larger scale. I could try to overwrite its feral programming with the stable pattern from the planet."
It was the most dangerous idea yet. It would mean walking directly into the heart of the Gestalt.
"It would consume you," Kaelen argued. "Your fragment is small. The core is massive."
"Maybe not," she said. "Maybe I just need to plant the seed. A cognitive virus. A idea of peace. It could spread through the entire hive mind."
It was a gamble with the highest possible stakes. The path of the soldier led to a long, bloody war they might not win. The path of the scientist led to a potential instant solution… or a instant, catastrophic failure that would create an even smarter, more powerful enemy.
On the hologram, the planetary scan beam pulsed with increased intensity. They were making their assessment.
Kaelen looked at Elara, at the determination on her face. She had lived through hell and had been given a unique, terrible power. She was willing to risk everything.
"Okay," he said finally. "We try it your way. But we do it with an army at our back. If you fail, we blow the core to dust."
He turned to the tactical display. "M-77, prepare all available units. We're going to the bio-lab. We're ending this."