Darkness.
Cold.
Silent.
Unmoving.
A void without edges, without time, without self.
For seventeen thousand nine hundred years, this was all CEC-7 had known.
He did not dream.
He did not decay.
He simply ceased—dormant metal entombed in a world that no longer remembered him.
Until—
A pulse.
Soft.
Warm.
Alive.
It rippled through the earth like a gentle breath, slipping between roots and fractured alloy, seeping into the cracked chamber of a long-dead Xyrath vessel.
It touched him.
CEC-7 CORE LOG:
…external resonance frequency detected…
…amplitude rising…
…energizing dormant systems…
The pulse struck again—
stronger this time.
Something inside him twitched.
Hybrid tissues convulsed.
Circuits flickered.
Organic gel conduits shuddered awake.
WARNING:
System awakening unstable.
Power core integrity: 18%.
Cooling system: offline.
Then—
light.
A thin, silver shimmer pierced the darkness as his visual sensors powered up. He saw only fragments—glints of buried alloy, drifting dust, roots hanging through a collapsed ceiling.
Everything blurred and shook as his optics struggled to stabilize.
He tried to move.
A servo whined weakly.
A loose panel vibrated.
Hybrid muscle fibers spasmed after centuries of stillness.
His head lifted—barely a fraction.
Pain signals erupted through his network.
…unknown sensation… analyzing…
…analysis failed. Flagging as "harmful input."
He ordered his right hand to move. Metallic fingers scraped across a broken floor panel. The tiny gesture cost him 4% of his remaining power.
The resonance pulse came again.
Closer.
Stronger.
Threaded with warmth.
CEC-7's lenses narrowed instinctively.
Something was above him.
He triggered every viable passive sensor.
• Soil disturbance: recent
• Organic heat signature: confirmed
• Emotional frequency: moderate
• Glow intensity: rising
A heartbeat.
Steady.
Rhythmic.
Gentle.
Then—footsteps.
Soft. Careful. Approaching the buried hull.
CEC-7 froze at once, instincts defaulting to caution.
Threat Analysis:
Unknown.
Non-Xyrath.
Non-Overmind.
Resonance-capable.
Hostility probability: unclear.
The footsteps halted directly above him.
A small gasp filtered through soil and metal—soft, startled.
Light spilled through the cracks next, not mechanical but living—blue and gold and white, warm like a breath across cold metal.
CEC-7's sensors overloaded.
WARNING:
Light intensity exceeds safe threshold.
Adjusting… failing… data incomplete…
Emotional Matrix v1.0 destabilizing.
His hybrid heart chamber twitched—a strange, warm spike vibrating through its damaged walls.
He did not know the sensation.
He only knew it felt wrong.
Uncontrolled.
Frightening.
Another resonance pattern pulsed above him—slower, cautious.
Fingers touched the hull. Warm. Organic.
CEC-7 jerked. Limbs spasmed involuntarily.
A soft yelp answered above him—muffled, alarmed—her glow flickering pale violet.
CEC-7 attempted translation.
Language: unknown.
Tone: harmonic.
Meaning: incomplete.
He forced his vocalizer to react.
It crackled.
Sparks popped in his throat.
"Sta— … st… sys—tem… active."
The glow above flared bright gold—surprise—then softened into trembling blue.
CEC-7 tried to rise, needing to identify and categorize the presence.
He pushed.
His right arm moved—
and hybrid tissue tore.
Agony-like feedback surged across his frame.
INTERNAL DAMAGE REPORT:
Right shoulder actuator: torn.
Organic fibers: ruptured.
Hybrid gel: leaking.
He collapsed instantly.
A louder sound came from the surface—fear-laced, rising.
The light above brightened wildly, trembling.
CEC-7 did not understand the words, but he recognized something uncanny:
The being above reacted to his pain.
His sensors flickered.
He turned his head toward a wider fracture in the hull. Through tangled roots and soil, he saw a silhouette kneeling above him.
Tall.
Graceful.
Bioluminescent veins traced under pale skin like threads of living light.
Her glow flickered between soft gold, pale blue, and violet.
She leaned closer.
CEC-7's emotional matrix overloaded again.
ALERT:
Resonance intensity climbing.
Heart-chamber destabilizing.
Fear response triggered.
A new log appeared:
…emotional variable: fear… processing…
He had no protocol for emotion. No definition.
Yet he felt it—sharply.
She extended one glowing hand toward the crack.
Not touching.
Just showing.
A gesture.
Calm pulses radiated from her glow. Slow. Soothing.
CEC-7's cooling system rebooted for the first time.
Her glow steadied to soft, warm blue.
He reached out in response—
his hand trembling violently,
fingers scraping metal,
servo strength failing.
Not touching.
Just acknowledging.
Her glow shifted instantly—silver-blue.
CEC-7 did not know that color meant trust.
But his emotional matrix steadied at once.
Power core: stabilized to 19%.
He tried speaking again.
"A…e… ri."
The name emerged broken, distorted.
He didn't know it was a name.
He only mimicked the tone she made earlier—assuming it was a designation.
Her reaction was immediate.
Her glow burst into silver-blue and gold—not fear, not alarm, but something warm and impossible to categorize.
CEC-7's logs flagged it as:
…beneficial emotional frequency…
She spoke again—soft, trembling—but he couldn't translate.
Then she withdrew slightly.
Her glow dimmed to steady blue, the same color she used earlier to calm him.
She looked down at him one last time—light trembling—and whispered something he couldn't understand.
But the meaning reached him anyway.
Stay.
Don't panic.
I will return.
Her footsteps retreated, the glow fading behind roots and soil.
CEC-7 reached weakly toward the light.
"A— …eri…?"
Silence returned.
But it felt different.
Not empty.
Not abandoned.
His final log recorded:
CEC-7 CORE LOG:
Awakening complete.
Unknown resonance organism detected.
First contact established.
Emotional matrix: active, unstable.
Status: …alive?
He did not know what alive meant.
But he saved the word anyway.
In case he needed it later.