[SCENE — CATTO BUNKER / LYRA-9 UPPER STORM] [sound design: radio static, radar sweep, distant thunder] [LAIZER BEAM, female, controlled, analytical, slowly becoming unsettled] Catto Weather Radio, BEAM-1. LB-001 remains inside the unknown distortion. Visual confirmation unavailable. Tracking continues through aircraft telemetry. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE, male, pilot, strained] CATTO, we can't see the storm anymore. [LAIZER BEAM, female, focused] Correction. You can't see the distortion. The storm is still there. [sound design: radar pulse] [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Our instruments are losing the horizon. [LAIZER BEAM] Your beacon is still transmitting. Hold your heading. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] We're holding. But something is wrong. [LAIZER BEAM] Explain. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] The aircraft says we're moving straight. The outside world says we're turning. [sound design: electronic interference] [CATTO SYSTEM, synthetic] Telemetry confidence reduced. Position variance detected. [LAIZER BEAM] Beacon correction? [CATTO SYSTEM] Attempting recalculation. [LAIZER BEAM] Don't lose the signal. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Can you still see us? [LAIZER BEAM] No. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Radar? [LAIZER BEAM] No. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Then how are you tracking us? [LAIZER BEAM] Your position pings. They're distorted. But they're still inside your expected flight area. [sound design: rain impact, wind distortion] [LAIZER BEAM] I'm getting something else. [CATTO SYSTEM] Atmospheric flow anomaly detected. [LAIZER BEAM] Show me. [sound design: scanner rising] [LAIZER BEAM] Wind vectors are moving around the distortion. Not through it. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] What does that mean? [LAIZER BEAM] I don't know yet. [sound design: thunder] [LAIZER BEAM] Precipitation is forming around the boundary. [CATTO SYSTEM] Liquid accumulation detected. [LAIZER BEAM] A shell... [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] A shell? [LAIZER BEAM] Water droplets. Cloud particles. Wind. Everything is wrapping around it. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Around what? [silence] [LAIZER BEAM] That is the problem. I can't see the center. [sound design: radar distortion] [LAIZER BEAM] It behaves like a physical object. But the sensors can't find one. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] CATTO... The LIDAR is showing a tunnel. [LAIZER BEAM] A tunnel? [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] A path through the storm. But there's nothing inside it. [LAIZER BEAM] Nothing visible. Not nothing. [sound design: low cosmic hum] [CATTO SYSTEM] Radiation anomaly detected. [LAIZER BEAM] Source? [CATTO SYSTEM] Unresolved. [LAIZER BEAM] Again. [CATTO SYSTEM] Unresolved. Localized cosmic radiation signature moving with distortion. [sound design: static burst] [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Something is ahead of us. [LAIZER BEAM] Can you identify it? [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Negative. Only the distortion. [LAIZER BEAM] Stay with the beacon. Don't trust visual references. Don't trust radar. Trust the pings. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Understood. [LAIZER BEAM] Whatever this is... It's changing the storm around it. [sound design: storm intensifies] [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] CATTO? [LAIZER BEAM] Go ahead. [LIMA BRAVO ZERO ZERO ONE] Are we following it? [long pause] [LAIZER BEAM] I don't know. [sound design: radio echo] [LAIZER BEAM, quieter] But something is moving through Lyra-9... And the storm is making room for it. [sound design: cosmic hum, radar fade]
