Chapter 3 - EPISODE 3:The First Echo

Series: Chronos Imperium

Episode 3: The First Echo

FADE IN:

INT. 'BYTE-BACK' COMPUTER REPAIR - NIGHT (1996)

The shop is a frantic nerve center. Wires connect modern computers to Kaelen's Wayfinder, which pulses with a soft violet light.

KAELEN stands before a wall covered in network diagrams. ARIS THORNE, looking energized, types furiously at a keyboard.

KAELEN > Think of Malakor's code not as a virus, but as a predator. It doesn't just infect a system. It studies it, learns its weaknesses, and then wears its identity like a skin.

She points to a name circled in red: "InterLink Data."

KAELEN > Nexus Dynamics is acquiring them in two days. If Malakor gets their fiber-optic hubs, he'll have a chokepoint on all internet traffic in North America.

ARIS > So we're not looking for a needle in a haystack. We're looking for a piece of hay that's pretending to be a needle. And we can't hack him, because his tech is four hundred years more advanced. We, my friend from the future, are stuck.

KAELEN > Which is why we will not fight him directly. We will plant a seed. A first echo. A piece of my own code inside InterLink's core server. It's a symbiotic diagnostic—designed to be invisible, but also to learn from its host. It will attach itself to his algorithm and show us what he sees.

ARIS > Plant it? Their systems will be locked down tight.

KAELEN > Which is why you, Dr. Thorne, are going to get me past the physical firewalls.

Aris begins assembling a bypass router. He rummages through a dusty box of his own old components, pushing aside a leather-bound journal filled with his grandfather's strange, handwritten notes and schematics. He barely gives it a glance.

ARIS > (Muttering to himself) > Grandad's old ravings...

He finds what he needs and gets to work, unaware of the secrets he just touched.

EXT. INTERLINK DATA CENTER - DAY

The building is a featureless concrete block. Aris pulls up in his van, wearing a fake technician's jumpsuit. He looks incredibly nervous.

ARIS > (into radio) > I'm here. This is a terrible plan. I want that on the record.

KAELEN (V.O.) > (over radio) > Your confidence is inspiring. Remember, you are a frustrated, underpaid technician. It is a role you were born to play.

INT. INTERLINK DATA CENTER - CONTINUOUS

Aris bluffs his way past the front desk and is escorted into the server room by a security chief named MR. SILAS (50s). Silas is calm, impeccably dressed, and his eyes miss nothing. He is not a typical corporate guard; he moves with the quiet confidence of a lifelong predator. He is a high-ranking member of the Analog Ghosts.

SILAS > A "sub-level power fluctuation"? That's a new one. Our systems are quite robust, Mr.... "Harris."

Silas's tone is polite, but his eyes are analytical, searching. He already knows Aris is lying. His organization detected the chronon field disturbance of Kaelen's arrival and has been on high alert for any unusual activity.

KAELEN (V.O.) > The firewall is stronger than I anticipated. And I'm detecting... analog countermeasures. Be careful, Aris. This is more than a standard corporate network.

Aris, trying to appear nonchalant under Silas's unnerving gaze, finds the server rack. He opens his toolbox. The port is a proprietary model.

ARIS > (through gritted teeth, into radio) > It's not working. The port's non-standard.

KAELEN (V.O.) > It's a physical lock-out. He's here. I need a distraction, Aris. A big one.

Aris's eyes dart around. He sees the emergency cooling shut-off. He "accidentally" drops a heavy wrench. It lands on the button.

Instantly, alarms blare. Red lights flash.

Silas doesn't flinch. He watches Aris with cold calculation. While other technicians rush to handle the alarm, Silas's attention is fixed on Aris, who uses the moment of chaos to force his bypass device into the port.

SILAS > (Quietly, to his cufflink) > We have a breach. Initiate digital isolation protocol. Trace the intruder.

INT. 'BYTE-BACK' COMPUTER REPAIR - CONTINUOUS

KAELEN (V.O.) > That's it! The channel is open! I'm going in!

Kaelen closes her eyes, soaring through a landscape of pure data. She feels Malakor's code—a cold, intelligent void. But as she races towards her target, she feels something else: a third presence. It's not futuristic. It's heavy, complex, and brutally efficient—like a steel trap closing. The Analog Ghosts' digital defenses.

She's caught between them. Malakor's code tries to consume her. The analog trap tries to crush her.

With a final, desperate push of will, she shoves her symbiotic echo code into the core server, hoping it will be mistaken for part of Malakor's algorithm by the system's defenders.

INT. INTERLINK DATA CENTER - CONTINUOUS

Aris is being firmly but politely escorted out of the building by Silas.

SILAS > Thank you for your time, Mr. Harris. We'll handle it from here. We'll be in touch.

The promise sounds more like a threat.

INT. 'BYTE-BACK' COMPUTER REPAIR - NIGHT

Aris bursts into the shop. Kaelen is pale, a trickle of blood coming from her nose from the psychic strain.

ARIS > Did it work?

Kaelen points to the main monitor. A single, violet pixel begins to blink. Their echo is active.

KAELEN > It's there. But we made a mistake. A terrible mistake.

ARIS > What? Malakor found you?

KAELEN > Worse. We weren't just walking into his trap. We were walking into someone else's. There's another power in this time, Aris. One that understands the fight we're in. And right now, they think we're the enemy.

The camera pushes in on the monitor. The violet dot blinks, a tiny beacon of hope. But now, unseen by them, a second dot—a cold, grey one—appears nearby, silently beginning to watch it.

FADE TO BLACK.

END OF EPISODE 3