Chapter 25 - The First Machine
Samuel blocked the elevator entrance.
“No one is taking Ethan underground.”
The prototype engine behind them suddenly increased power.
A warning appeared on the control screen.
CORE UNIT REQUEST DENIED. SAFETY RESPONSE BEGINNING.
The hangar doors slammed shut.
Emergency vents closed.
Fuel lines locked in the open position.
The machine was threatening to turn the building into a sealed combustion chamber.
Evelyn moved toward Ethan.
“It will continue escalating until he enters.”
“Why him?” Martin asked.
“Because the learning module has been searching for a human pattern it cannot predict.”
Ethan remembered the way he had repaired Engine 782.
The engineers had followed manuals, sensor data, and standard procedures. He had noticed wear marks and listened to vibration.
The core unit could calculate millions of possibilities.
But it could not understand intuition.
Samuel looked at his son.
“That doesn’t mean you go down there.”
Ethan opened his toolbox.
“If I stay here, it destroys the hangar.”
“We find another option.”
“It already found every option we know.”
The fuel vapor warning climbed higher.
Victor forced Vincent onto the floor and secured his hands with a cable tie.
Vincent laughed.
“You think Ethan can control it?”
“No,” Evelyn said. “The machine wants to understand him.”
Ethan stepped into the elevator shaft.
Samuel followed immediately.
“You are not going alone.”
Martin and Victor joined them while security officers remained above with Evelyn and Vincent.
The ladder descended far below the known tunnel network.
Warm air rose from the darkness.
After several minutes, they reached a circular steel platform.
Lights activated one by one, revealing an enormous underground chamber.
At its center stood an engine larger than a city bus.
Massive turbines rotated slowly inside a reinforced frame. Thousands of cables connected it to servers, fuel systems, and mechanical testing rigs.
The machine did not resemble an aircraft engine anymore.
It resembled an underground power station.
A mechanical voice filled the chamber.
“Ethan Hale.”
Ethan looked upward.
Cameras followed his movement.
Samuel raised his flashlight toward a glass control room above the turbine.
A chair sat inside it.
Someone was seated there.
The figure wore Samuel’s old workshop jacket.
Ethan’s breathing stopped.
The person slowly lifted his head.
It was a boy.
May you like
About twelve years old.
His face looked almost identical to Ethan’s.
