The corridor that opened before Hale and Gray was no longer the rusted skeleton of the old industrial ring. It moved.

The walls pulsed faintly, patterns of light rippling through old steel as if veins of energy ran beneath its surface. What had once been cables and coolant pipes now shimmered with translucent threads—alive with data.

Gray stopped short, hand tightening on her scanner. “It’s adapting again.”

The readings jittered and looped, struggling to interpret what she was ...