Chapter 2: The Planet That Never Stopped

On S7, everything continued working. The structures were still standing, the systems remained active, and energy flowed as always. It was an empty planet… but it did not seem abandoned.

From the cities of S7, the sky was never the same twice.

There were cities protected by domes, gardens that took care of themselves, and rivers that never stopped moving. The lights were still on in every corner, as if someone were still there. Everything was in order. Too much in order.

We moved through those places carrying out our functions: maintain, repair, preserve. That was what we had been created for. We never stopped, never doubted, never asked questions.

But something started to change.

Some presences seemed to have been watching us for a very long time.

Because not everything was programmed.

Sometimes, in the least expected places, we saw small figures. They were not like us. They did not follow orders, and they did not seem to respond to any system. They appeared and disappeared, watched in silence, and moved without making a sound. And sometimes, it felt as if they knew more than we did.

At first, we thought they were failures. System errors. But they did not disappear. There were more and more of them.

And then we understood.

S7 was still working… but it was no longer alone.

Some things on S7 did not follow any rules.

We never knew who had created them or why they were still there. But one thing was certain: they were not part of the system. And that changed everything.