![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Morty-and-the-rain-forest-300x200.png\")
<\/p>\nMorty\u2019s boots echoed in the corridor. Emergency lights washed the walls in dull red strips, shadows stretching into the dark. The silence pressed in until the airlock hissed open. Relief hit him like a wave as the doors sealed shut behind.<\/p>\n
The inter-ship transport car waited in the tube. Morty tossed his helmet onto a seat, peeled off the air pack, and tapped Dome Forty-Four into the console. The car surged forward, smooth as thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cOmega, status of the others?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShava and Garth have succeeded at Dome Twenty-Two. Beck\u2019s group is still attempting Dome Fifty-One.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one usually worked alone. Too dangerous. But Domes Thirty-Nine and Forty-Four could be patched into comms, and Omega was always watching. Morty liked it that way. People called him odd; he thought the same of them.<\/p>\n
The car slowed. Morty gathered his gear, checked the telltales, and stepped onto the platform. He slipped through the maintenance shack to the comm panel. No burns. No cracks. No impact marks. Just silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cOmega, what do you see?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRecords show failure one day after the Catastrophe. Probability of connection: eighty-two point seven percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morty swung the panel open\u2014and froze. The cables weren\u2019t burned. Not cut. They had been disconnected. Neatly coiled. Tucked aside.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour call,\u201d he muttered. \u201cReconnect?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. Restoring comms will reestablish system access. Risk: anyone inside will notice the activation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morty hesitated. Someone had wanted this dome dark. His hands hovered, then moved. Ribbons first. Then power. The panel hummed, lights flickering alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cSystem initializing,\u201d Omega said\u2014then silence.<\/p>\n
Morty stared at the blinking lights. \u201cOmega?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStand by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seven seconds. Later, he checked the log. Seven. It had felt like forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cConnection restored. Dome operational. Human presence: none. Ecosystems thriving, some uncontrolled. Stand by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause. Then: \u201cI am in contact with Echo-Forty-Four. Reviewing four centuries of logs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEcho-Forty-Four?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEach dome has a subordinate AI\u2014an Echo. A fragment of my processes. Normally interconnected. Reviewing complete. You may enter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morty cracked the hatch. Expecting dust. Expecting ruin. Instead: a wall of green. Moist air poured out, heavy with scent\u2014soil, flowers, growth. Noise surged in. Birds. Insects. Life. Unstoppable.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He staggered back. \u201cWhat the hell is this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA rainforest. Abundant pharmaceuticals, food, consumables. Recommendation: close the hatch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morty grinned. \u201cI was just starting to enjoy the smell.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWarning. Apex predator approaching. Vector two-nine-two point five degrees. Range: two hundred meters and closing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morty slammed the hatch. \u201cDefine apex predator.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTop of the food chain. This specimen: Panthera onca<\/em>. Male. Seventy kilograms. Jaguar. Likely drawn by sound or scent. Best to remain cautious.\u201d<\/p>\n Morty exhaled, shaking his head. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need a full team to cut through this. Just getting inside will be a chore.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCargo Access number six is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA cargo tube!\u201d Morty laughed. \u201cOh, they\u2019re going to love that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDylan has used them before. He found the experience\u2026 invigorating.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ark\u2019s builders had carved out passageways for ship cars, walkways, and cargo. The cargo tubes used anti-gravity drives to fling materials across the Ark. When Dylan first fled Cypress Corners, one had hurled him fourteen klicks to a main junction. He swore he hadn\u2019t screamed\u2014at least not after the first minute.<\/p>\n Morty chuckled. \u201cOmega, buddy\u2026 that was actually funny.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHmm. Noted. You have been requested by Beck to join her at Dome Fifty-One.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo rest for the weary,\u201d Morty muttered. \u201cHeading over now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Morty\u2019s boots echoed in the corridor. Emergency lights washed the walls in dull red strips, shadows stretching into the dark. The silence pressed in until the airlock hissed open. Relief hit him like a wave as the doors sealed shut behind. The inter-ship transport car waited in the tube. Morty tossed his helmet onto a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":179,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-257","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/257\/revisions\/263"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaeddy.com\/TheStarlost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}