Light tore open inside the Time Ring's return bay.
A violent tremor rolled through the metal floor as the pod forced itself back into existence. The air rippled like stretched fabric that was about to split. Alarm lights flared. A sharp hum, thin and metallic, settled in the corners of the room and made the technicians wince.
Four silhouettes solidified inside the arrival field.
Only four.
Li stumbled the moment her boots touched the ground. Panic cracked across her face. "Rae!" The name escaped her before she could stop it. She turned, searching for a fifth figure that was not there.
Jonah caught the railing, chest rising and falling too fast. A raw sound broke in his throat. He slammed his fist into the wall. The metal dented. Blood spread across his knuckles, bright against the cold steel. He did not react.
Tessa's legs gave out. She sank to the floor, eyes wide and unfocused. Her breath shook. Amira turned away, both hands covering her mouth, trying to hold herself together without making a sound.
Technicians rushed in. Their voices tangled over each other.
"Missing a return signature"
"Temporal readings are wrong"
"The field is still vibrating"
"Get stabilisation on their suits, go"
A lead technician forced the mission logs onto the main screen. The room fell into a stunned silence.
The footage was broken in ways no one had seen before.
Time stamps doubled back on themselves.
Frames mirrored and folded into each other.
Audio cut out, returned, then vanished again as if pieces had been carved out of the moment they were recorded.
One fragment flashed for barely a second.
The temporal corridor was bending.
Not collapsing.
Not tearing open.
Bending, as though something unseen had pressed a hand against reality and twisted.
Then the image died.
A dead monitor across the room flickered on.
A single line appeared on the cracked glass.
OUT OF CORRIDOR // VECTOR UNKNOWN
It disappeared at once.
A young technician whispered, "That is not from any system we use."
No one corrected him.
The commander stepped into the bay with a cold, composed steadiness.
"Seal the room. This event is classified."
Security fields locked into place.
Doors closed.
The air felt heavier.
She faced the four survivors.
"Your report."
Li swallowed. Her voice was unsteady, but her words held firm.
"He is not dead."
"Mission failure," the commander replied. "One casualty."
Jonah's head snapped up. "He saved us. He held the knot so we could return. Do not turn him into a line in your report."
"Erase every corrupted frame," the commander said. "Clean every log that shows unusual behaviour. No speculation is allowed. This incident ends here."
Amira lowered her hands, her expression empty but cold.
"You are not afraid that he is gone. You are afraid of whatever took him."
Tessa spoke softly. "The collapse did not act like a collapse. It acted like something that chose a direction."
Several technicians froze.
The commander's face tightened slightly, but she said nothing.
Later, in the research wing, the four sat in silence while scanners passed over them. Soft lights traced the burnt fabric and warped plating of their suits.
The medic frowned at the readings.
"You are carrying temporal echoes," he said slowly. "And something else. Dust. It does not match the target era."
Jonah's voice was quiet but steady. "So where is it from?"
"We do not know," the medic said. "There is no match in any records we have. It should not exist."
Li closed her eyes.
"They will bury everything. They are not afraid of losing Rae. They are afraid of losing control of what happened."
Tessa looked at the others. Her voice was steady, but her hands trembled slightly.
"If they refuse to search for him… then we will."
No one argued.
They had already made up their minds.
—
Morning reached Rae quietly.
The darkness in the cave thinned until it became a soft grey. A faint line of light crept across the stone floor as if the world outside was testing the shape of the cave.
Rae opened his eyes and drew a slow, careful breath.
His body ached. The cold clung to him. His joints complained as he sat up. His hand still held the knife from the night before.
He did not remember gripping it so tightly.
He did not loosen his hold.
Outside, the river murmured in a steady flow.
A reminder.
A direction.
No one was coming for him.
If he wanted to live, he had to move.
Rae stood slowly.
The morning light waited at the cave mouth.
He stepped toward it without hesitation.