Chapter 4: The Last Door

Omar asked to speak with Mara privately on the fourth morning. His skin glowed with a steady blue-green light that illuminated the medical bay without need for artificial lighting. His eyes had developed a reflective quality, like the surface of a mineral pool, and when he spoke his voice carried harmonics that had not been there before. 'I can hear it,' he said. 'The signal. It has been broadcasting from beneath the island for thousands of years, but there was never anyone here to receive it.' 'What is the signal saying?' 'It is a greeting. The crystalline structures in the volcanic vents are not natural formations. They were placed there by something intelligent, something that lives in the deep geology of the planet. Not on the surface. Below it. Miles below, in environments we have never been able to reach.' Mara sat down. The implications reorganized her understanding of the world so thoroughly that she needed a moment to find her balance. 'There is a civilization living inside the Earth?' 'Not a civilization as we understand the concept. An intelligence. Distributed through mineral networks across the planet's interior, communicating through seismic vibrations and geothermal emissions. It has been aware of surface life for millennia but had no way to make contact until it engineered these crystals.' 'The crystals that are growing inside your body.' 'They are not harmful. They are translators. When the process is complete, I will be able to relay between the deep intelligence and the surface world. It chose this island because the volcanic activity provides a direct conduit, and it chose atmospheric scientists because we were already listening to the planet without knowing what we were listening for.' Mara looked at the quarantine timer. Thirty-one hours remained before the military vessel arrived with orders to sterilize the station. She had thirty-one hours to convince the outside world that the threat they were preparing to destroy was actually the most important discovery in human history.