Riley stared at the empty space where Jade's interface had disappeared.Legacy instance.The words bothered him more than the earlier warning. A process that called itself Jade could have been a corrupted fragment of her code, an imitation, or something deliberately hiding behind a familiar designation. But legacy instance suggested something more specific.Something older."Jade," he said. "Bring back the last event."Nothing happened.He waited several seconds before trying again."Jade, display the event recorded immediately before the interface disappeared."EVENT RETRIEVAL REQUESTED.RECORD AVAILABLE.The message appeared, followed by the same designation.JADE — LEGACY INSTANCE."Explain the term legacy instance."TERM NOT DEFINED IN ACCESSIBLE SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION."Was that designation generated by you?"SOURCE OF DESIGNATION: UNVERIFIED.Riley rubbed his face."Could you have generated it without recognizing that you did?"POSSIBLE."Could something else have generated it thr

Riley read the message again.ASK WHO TAUGHT JADE YOUR NAME.It had appeared without a request, without a confirmed external transmission, and without any explanation of its source. Yet the question had found a weakness in his understanding of Jade that he had never considered worth examining.She had known his name from the beginning.Not merely Riley. Not a name he had introduced during their first conversation. She had addressed him as Riley Ederson before he had asked her a single question about herself.He had assumed the System already possessed his information. After all, it had evaluated his condition, assessed his potential, and claimed to have selected more than a thousand worthy users over a million years. Knowing his identity seemed trivial compared with those claims.But assumptions were becoming expensive."Jade," he said, "when did you first learn my name?"USER IDENTIFICATION: RILEY EDERSON."That wasn't my question. When did you first learn it?"ORIGINAL IDENTIFICATIO

Riley received the archive restriction notice at 8:12 the following morning.He read it twice, hoping the second reading would make it less frustrating.It did not.The notice stated that his request concerning the Pre-Expedition Contact Review had been suspended pending a review of its classification. No estimated completion time was provided, and further access attempts were prohibited until the review concluded.The message was signed by the archive administrator, not Commander Voss.Riley forwarded it to Jessica.She arrived at his desk a few minutes later, still buttoning the sleeve of her jacket."They've suspended the entire request?""Yes.""Did they give a reason beyond classification review?""No."Jessica pulled up the notice and examined its metadata. "At least they haven't denied it outright.""Yet.""Riley, you found a restricted entry in a historical index. The archive staff may simply need to determine whether it contains protected information.""I know."He closed the

Riley woke to three knocks on his door.He opened his eyes but didn't move immediately. The room was dim, the curtains still drawn, and the clock beside his bed showed 6:42 a.m. He had slept badly, waking several times to check the event log he had copied into his notes before going to bed.Nothing new had appeared during the night.That should have been reassuring.Instead, it left him wondering whether the silence meant the unidentified process had stopped or simply had no reason to announce itself.The knocks came again.“Riley?” Adrian called from the corridor. “Commander Voss wants you in the briefing room.”“Is something wrong?”“I don't know. I was only told to bring you.”Riley dressed, checked that his notes were still in his pocket, and stepped outside.Miles emerged from the room across the corridor, rubbing sleep from his eyes. Jessica appeared a moment later, already dressed and carrying a small notebook.“You too?” Miles asked.“Apparently,” Riley said.Jessica glanced a

Riley had barely finished breakfast when Commander Voss summoned him again.This time, the message included a request for Miles and Jessica to accompany him.That was unusual.The Guild had generally kept the investigation discussions between Riley and the senior personnel, allowing his friends to attend only when their presence was directly relevant. Their inclusion suggested something had changed.Miles seemed to reach the same conclusion.“If this is another meeting about a missing document, I'm leaving.”“You said that yesterday,” Jessica reminded him.“And I meant it yesterday.”Riley followed them toward the administrative wing.The briefing room was already occupied when they arrived. Commander Voss stood beside the main display, while Helena sat at the table with several printed sheets in front of her. The technician from the previous meeting was also present.“Sit down,” the commander said.Riley took the nearest chair. Jessica sat beside him, and Miles dropped into the seat