Chapter 4: The First Knock

Night in The Axiom was absolute. With the armored shutters sealed, there was no distinction between dusk and dawn, save for the chronometer on the holographic displays and the slow, circadian rhythm of the internal lighting. The air was cool, pure, and still. The distant, constant wail of the city's sirens was gone, blocked out by layers of steel and sound dampening. All was silent save for the faint, subliminal hum of the geothermal power converters deep beneath the foundation. It was a perfect, sterile peace.

Aris was reviewing the Level 2 diagnostic reports. Power consumption was nominal. Air filtration was operating at peak efficiency, scrubbing the recycled atmosphere of every stray particle. Water reclamation was a closed loop, losing less than 0.01% per cycle. The Axiom was a fortress, a self-contained world functioning with the flawless precision he had designed. His decision to seal himself off had been the correct one. The data was unequivocal.

"Alert," Oracle's voice broke the silence, devoid of urgency but impossible to ignore. "Proximity sensor triggered at the primary gate."

Aris froze. The primary gate was two miles away, at the bottom of the long, private road that wound its way up the cliffside. Nothing should be there. The access road was marked as private property, leading to a dead end. No sane person would venture up it, especially not now.

"Show me," he commanded.

A section of the wall opposite him dissolved into a high-resolution video feed. The camera was mounted on the gate itself, its infrared lens cutting through the deep night. A vehicle, a battered-looking electric sedan, was parked haphazardly before the thick steel bars. Its front end was damaged, and one of the headlights flickered erratically, strobing the scene in brief flashes of white light. The car's heat signature was strong, indicating it had been running hard. Inside, three smaller heat signatures huddled together.

"There are life signs," Aris stated, his voice a low monotone. He was observing a data anomaly, nothing more.

"Three human biologicals detected," Oracle confirmed. "One adult male, one adult female, one juvenile. Vital signs indicate elevated heart rate and stress levels. They are using the gate's intercom."

"Patch the audio through."

The sound that filled the room was a shocking intrusion. It was raw, ragged, and terrified.

"…please! Please, is anyone there? We saw the lights from the road before… before they went out. We just need shelter! Please, open the gate!"

It was the man's voice, hoarse with desperation. Aris watched, his expression unreadable, his posture unchanged. He zoomed the camera in on the man's face, illuminated by the dashboard lights. His eyes were wide with terror, his face slick with sweat. In the back seat, the woman was clutching the small child, trying to shield them from a horror they had already witnessed.

"The city… it's gone," the man sobbed into the intercom, his words tumbling over one another. "They're not people anymore. They're monsters… they hunt you. We barely got out. Please, for the love of God, we have a child! Just let us in! We won't be any trouble!"

Aris listened to the frantic plea not as a cry for help, but as an influx of new, chaotic variables. A child. Emotional instability. Unknown health status. He was processing, calculating.

He muted his end of the audio link, silencing the man's voice in his sanctum, though he continued to watch the frantic pantomime on the screen.

"Oracle," he said, his voice cold and steady. "Run a probability analysis. Scenario: introduction of the three biologicals into The Axiom's ecosystem. Calculate the impact on long-term mission survival."

"Calculating," Oracle replied instantly. Data streams scrolled through the air beside the video feed, numbers and percentages replacing the man's desperate words.

VARIABLE: RESOURCE DRAIN. PROJECTED INCREASE IN CONSUMPTION: WATER +11.3%, NUTRITION +13.8%, OXYGEN +9.6%.

VARIABLE: CONTAMINATION VECTOR. PROBABILITY OF UNDETECTED PATHOGEN INTRODUCTION (VIRAL, BACTERIAL, OR UNKNOWN): 42.7%.

VARIABLE: PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT. PROBABILITY OF INTRODUCED SUBJECTS COMPROMISING SYSTEM PROTOCOLS DUE TO IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR: 68.2%.

VARIABLE: SECURITY. BREACHING THE SEALED PERIMETER INTRODUCES A 100% CERTAINTY OF EXTERNAL ATMOSPHERIC EXPOSURE.

The final summary glowed in stark, red letters.

CONCLUSION: INTRODUCING EXTERNAL BIOLOGICALS PRESENTS AN UNACCEPTABLE RISK. PROBABILITY OF LONG-TERM MISSION SURVIVAL DECREASES BY A MEAN AVERAGE OF 34.5%

The logic was flawless. The numbers were absolute. To let them in was to invite chaos, contamination, and a statistically significant chance of total system failure. His own survival, the preservation of his work and the sanctuary he had built, was the prime directive. Their survival was not factored into the equation.

He looked back at the screen. The man was pounding a fist against his car's steering wheel in frustration. The woman was rocking the crying child. They were a portrait of human misery, a problem he had no logical reason to solve. They were signal noise at his gate.

"Oracle," Aris commanded, his gaze fixed on the screen. "Cut the external audio feed from the gate. Permanently."

"Acknowledged. Audio link terminated."

The room fell silent once more. The desperate pleas were gone, replaced by the familiar, comforting hum of The Axiom's life support. He continued to watch the silent video feed for another minute, observing the family's agitation with the detached curiosity of a biologist studying specimens under a microscope. Their fate was sealed, determined not by his cruelty, but by cold, hard numbers.

He turned away from the screen, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. The wall became seamless and solid again. He had been presented with a choice, and he had made the only rational one. He walked back to his workspace, the event already being filed away in his mind as a closed incident. A minor, external variable, successfully neutralized.