And the designation was quietly removed from the registry.

The methane storm swallowed her instantly. But deep beneath the ice, the WUNF array began to hum. Not with static. With a symphony. And somewhere in the silence between frequencies, a long-dead thing finally heard an answer.

Not in words. In shapes .

Cycle 409 had been Carolyne’s assigned shift for six years. She knew the hiss of the cosmos better than the sound of her own heartbeat. But on the 1,247th day of her solo tour, the hiss stopped.

Silence.