EPISODE 7: THE SURFACE CALM ## CHAPTER 1: LIFE AFTER SILENCE The air smells of salt and diesel—the specific, clean scent of a world that has decided to continue existing despite having seen itself ripped open. You stand in the processing facility’s waiting area, flanked by cheap metal chairs arranged in uncomfortable rows. Fluorescent lights hum overhead, casting a uniform, institutional brightness on the beige linoleum floor. Outside the nearest window, a fishing trawler passes—painted bright yellow, its bulk stable and utterly mundane against the muted gray of the Aberdeen sky. Six months pass like this. Six months since the chasm opened, six months since Neptune Seven was reduced to a structural footnote and Rashida’s certainty became law. Life has clamped down over you with relentless, oppressive routine. The Deep Signal, that rhythmic, unnatural clicking that had haunted your sleep and permeated the schematics, is gone from any public recording. It only lives in the strained silence between breaths, a vibration deep beneath the soles of your boots, or perhaps it’s just the industrial resonance of the nearby generators. Derek Wallace sits opposite you, meticulously cleaning his reading glasses with a small microfiber cloth. He does not look at the window, nor does he look at Rashida Chen. His focus remains entirely on the lens and the faint smudge...