The cabin lights dimmed. Outside, the Atntic had become a mirror of ink. Beneath its surface — something ancient breathed.

  Ren stood over the map table, fingers gliding across digital overys. Bathymetric lines twisted like veins, tracing the skin of a sleeping giant. ??“Right there,” he muttered.??“It doesn’t match the tectonic grids. This isn’t a fault line… it’s deliberate.”

  Sky stepped beside him. Together, they stared at the anomaly — an elongated trench, unnaturally even. ??“Coordinates align with the Sphere’s st orientation,” she said, tapping the dispy. ??“Whatever this is… it was buried on purpose.”

  The chamber. A vault beneath the crust. Not a myth. A mechanism.

  Ren whispered: ??“A door.”

  He leaned closer to the screen, heart pounding. ??“We’ve been searching for ruins. But what if we’re the first to open it?”

  Behind them, the others remained silent. Some dozed. Some watched. But they all felt it — the pull of something vast and real, just beyond reach.

  Sky broke the silence, her voice low: ??“Do you think they knew we’d come?” ??“Who?” ??“The ones who built it. Left the Cube. The Sphere.”

  Ren considered. ??“Maybe they hoped someone would. Maybe they left us a warning.”

  He stared out the window again. The sea had lost its glow. Now it looked like stone — bck, absolute.

  “When I was a kid,” he said,??“my mother used to tell me bedtime stories.”

  His voice was soft, but clear. ??“Not the nice ones. The old ones. Stories about forbidden knowledge. Doors that should stay closed. The kind of myths that end in silence.”

  Sky turned to him, curious. ??“And did she believe them?” Ren nodded. ??“She believed some truths are dangerous. That if you dig too deep, the Earth remembers.”

  A pause. His jaw tightened. ??“She died on a dig. Fault line colpse in Anatolia. She was trying to uncover a forgotten nguage.”

  He didn’t say more. He didn’t need to.

  Sky id a hand on the console. ??“I didn’t know.” Ren shook his head. ??“She wouldn’t have stopped, even if she’d known. She was like me.”

  He looked up — eyes no longer hesitant. ??“And I won’t stop either.”

  The screen hummed. Coordinates locked. Estimated depth: eight miles. Seismic stability: uncertain. Below them — pressure, darkness… and a riddle waiting to be broken.

  Sky’s voice was steady. ??“Then we go. All the way.” Ren smiled faintly. ??“We’re already falling.”

  For a long moment, the cabin held its breath. Then: a flicker from the Sphere inside its case. A pulse. Soft. Blue. Echo gnced up. Pixel froze mid-keystroke. The Sphere turned. The needle pointed. Down.