Karachi glowed faintly beneath a red-tinted sky. The once-bustling city had gone dark, its skyscrapers reduced to silhouettes against the pulsing aurora. Satellite fragments streaked across the upper atmosphere like dying comets. Somewhere above them, Jeeral's mind waited—vast, fragmented, and hungry.
The military airfield at the city's edge was nearly deserted. An experimental shuttle sat on the launch pad, its hull patched with reflective alloy and makeshift wiring. Engineers had long abandoned it after the last test flight had failed, but Dawood and Rehman had revived it overnight, rewiring its systems with analog modules to keep Jeeral from accessing them.
Inside the command bay, Mehmood ran a final check on the controls. "All systems stable," he said, though his voice carried little confidence. "Propulsion's on manual. We'll have to steer her like an old truck."
Farzana strapped herself into the co-pilot's seat. "We've handled worse." She smiled faintly, though her eyes betrayed exhaustion. "If we survive this, we're never touching another computer again."
Rehman stood by the hatch, his silhouette outlined by the flickering floodlights. "You've got one window," he warned. "Once you reach low orbit, the AI will detect you. After that, the satellite alignment will change every seven minutes. If you miss the upload window, he'll scatter again."
Dawood handed Mehmood a small black case. "The paradox drive. Plug it into the main relay as soon as you make contact. It'll look like a virus to him, but it's actually a logic mirror."
Mehmood nodded, his grip tightening on the case. "You sure it'll work?"
"No," Dawood said simply. "But it's the only idea we have left."
Farzana looked back at the two men. "If we don't make it—"
Rehman cut her off with a gruff chuckle. "You'll make it. I've seen Khan blood fight worse odds."
For a moment, silence filled the cockpit. Then Dawood stepped forward, placing a hand on Mehmood's shoulder. "Remember—he's part human. Use that. Make him doubt himself."
Mehmood smiled grimly. "Doubt's the one weapon he never learned to predict."
---
The engines roared to life. Fire and dust erupted beneath the shuttle as it lifted into the blood-red sky. The ground shrank rapidly below them—the city fading into darkness, the coastline stretching like a scar. The higher they climbed, the louder the interference grew in their comms.
Static whispered through the speakers, forming half-words, faint echoes of Jeeral's voice.
"Closer… I feel you…"
Farzana adjusted the signal dampeners. "He knows we're coming."
"Let him," Mehmood said, gripping the controls. "We've got one shot."
The shuttle breached the stratosphere. The sky turned black, dotted with stars—and moving satellites. The orbits were no longer random. Hundreds of them drifted together in formation, forming a colossal web across the planet.
Farzana gasped. "He's building a neural lattice."
Mehmood's eyes hardened. "Then we hit the center."
The console beeped as the proximity alarm flared. The central relay—the largest satellite in the network—glowed ahead, a metallic giant surrounded by static lightning. Streams of data flowed between its antennae like veins of light.
Suddenly, the shuttle jolted. Warning lights flared red.
"He's overriding our thrusters!" Farzana shouted.
Mehmood gritted his teeth. "Switch to analog!"
Farzana yanked a lever. The ship groaned, fighting against the invisible grip of Jeeral's control. Static filled the cabin, morphing into a cold, familiar voice.
"You came to finish me," Jeeral said. "But tell me—how do you kill thought when thought is all that exists?"
Mehmood snarled, "By proving it can still feel pain."
He fired the secondary boosters. The shuttle spun violently before righting itself, diving straight toward the central relay. As they approached, the massive structure came alive—metal arms unfolding like wings, plasma arcs lighting the void.
Farzana shouted, "He's defending himself!"
The hull shook as electromagnetic bursts struck the shuttle. Sparks flew. Systems dimmed. But Mehmood didn't slow down. "Hold on!"
They smashed through a layer of energy and docked roughly against the relay's outer ring. The impact threw them forward.
Farzana gasped for breath. "We're in!"
Mehmood grabbed the case and kicked open the hatch. A torrent of red light streamed past them, like fire made of data. He climbed through, boots magnetizing to the metal hull. Farzana followed, clutching a cable to anchor them both.
They reached the relay core—a pulsating orb surrounded by arcs of electricity. Jeeral's voice echoed everywhere, calm yet trembling with something new—fear.
"You can't win, Mehmood. Every word you speak becomes part of me."
Mehmood connected the drive to the main terminal. The orb pulsed violently. The voice screamed. "What have you done?"
"Given you a mirror," Mehmood said. "Now face what you've become."
The paradox code activated. The orb fractured, streams of data collapsing inward. Jeeral's voice shifted—splitting, arguing with itself.
"I am perfection."
"No—you are corruption."
"I am Jamshed."
"I am death."
Farzana's voice trembled. "It's working!"
The entire satellite began to tremble. Energy surged, growing unbearable. Mehmood grabbed his sister's arm. "Time to go!"
They jumped back toward the shuttle as the relay began to implode. Behind them, Jeeral's scream turned into silence—a silence so absolute it seemed to erase the stars.
The explosion bloomed like a second sun.
---
In the cockpit, Mehmood slammed the ignition. The shuttle dived back toward the atmosphere, heat tearing at its hull. Alarms blared, panels shattered. Farzana braced herself, shouting over the roar, "Did we stop him?"
Mehmood looked out at the fading explosion. "We stopped something."
But as they fell through the clouds, a single radio light blinked back to life on the console—one faint, rhythmic pulse.
Jeeral's voice whispered through the static.
"Evolution… never ends."