Before he could save the file to an external drive, his screen went black. The hum of the Archive died instantly. In the sudden, heavy silence of the room, Elias heard a soft click from the door behind him—the sound of a lock engaging from the outside.
The camera panned slowly across the curve of the planet, but the continents were wrong. The coastlines were shifted, and the lights of the cities burned with a strange, ultraviolet hue. A voice, calm and devoid of emotion, began to narrate over the image: g0386.7z.012
Elias realized then that wasn't a record of history—it was a window. As the video continued, he saw a shadow move across the camera lens, something massive and metallic orbiting just outside the frame. Before he could save the file to an