Page 55 of Destined For Her Alien Daddy

The concentric black plates beneath our feet are glowing now, faint silver light spreading outward in synchronized rings. The archive case against my chest hums harder in response.

Sira kneels near the edge of the chamber, studying the patterns. “The fragments are resonating with the deeper structure.”

“That sentence contains several things I wish were not true,” Brakk says.

The silver light intensifies.

Across the far wall, thin lines appear where solid stone stood moments before. Geometric seams unfold silently through the black surface until a narrow corridor reveals itself beyond.

Cold air spills from the opening.

Not ordinary cold.

The same impossible absence I felt near the archive interface.

My pulse stutters.

Ghar notices immediately. Of course he does.

“You feel it too,” he says quietly.

I nod before realizing I’m doing it.

From somewhere above us, distorted voices filter faintly through the ruin network.

“Recover the archive.”

“Seal lower routes.”

“No contaminated witnesses survive.”

The Choir is getting closer.

I kneel carefully and place the archive case on the illuminated floor. My hands shake slightly while I unlatch the damaged seals. Silver light spills across my gloves from the cracked scanner core inside.

The chamber answers instantly.

The newly revealed corridor brightens with faint geometric patterns flowing beneath the walls like submerged lightning.

Brakk takes one horrified step backward. “Every survival instinct I possess is screaming.”

“You possess survival instincts?” I ask weakly.

“Beneath the personality defects, yes.”

Sira rises smoothly beside me. “The structure is guiding us.”

“That is somehow not comforting.”

Ghar crouches beside me without touching. The restraint in that alone feels strangely intimate now that I understand it is deliberate.

“We do not have many options,” he says.

“No,” I whisper, staring into the revealed passage. “I guess we don’t.”

The corridor descends into darkness so complete that our emergency lights seem reluctant to enter it.

Teren should be here.