Lira and Kaito had twenty-four days before Thread keepers intercepted them.
Twenty-four days to gather intelligence about rescue species approaching at FTL speeds.
Twenty-four days to transmit everything they learned before being captured or killed.
Twenty-four days to verify what Earth had died buying time for humanity to know.
Day One: Immediate response.
"They detected our transmission," Kaito reported. "Course change confirmed. Multiple Threadkeeper vessels altering trajectory. Converging on our position."
"How long until intercept?"
"Twenty-four days if they maintain current acceleration. Less if they have reserves."
Lira pulled up ansible transmission protocols. "We transmit everything. Daily updates. Redundant copies. Multiple encryption methods. Even if they destroy us, humanity gets the intelligence."
"They'll demand we stop transmitting."
"We'll refuse."
"They'll threaten us."
"We'll keep transmitting."
"They'll kill us."
"Then we die transmitting." Lira met his eyes. "This is what we came for. Earth bought forty years for verification. We provide that verification. Whatever it costs."
Day Three: First communication from Threadkeepers.
Human vessel. Cease ansible transmission. Your signals reveal our position to Harvesters. You endanger our civilization. Stop broadcasting immediately.
Lira transmitted response: Negative. We verify claims before compliance. You claim Harvesters exist. Prove it. Show us evidence. Then we consider ceasing transmission.
Evidence requires time. Your transmission provides no time. Harvesters follow ansible to source. You lead them to yourself. To us. Cease now or face consequences.
Consequences are acceptable. Verification is necessary. Show us Harvester evidence. Show us what happened to seventeen previous civilizations. Show us physical proof. Or we assume you're lying and continue broadcasting.
Twelve hours of silence. Then:
We approach. We will board your vessel. We will show you evidence. We will provide proof. Then you cease transmission. This is not negotiation.
Day Five: Threadkeeper vessels visible on sensors.
Not approaching gradually. Materializing closer. FTL jumps that shouldn't be possible. Technology that violated everything humanity knew about physics.
"They're twelve hours away," Kaito said. "We have half a day to transmit final intelligence before they reach us."
Lira catalogued Threadkeeper ship signatures. Drive emissions. Quantum fluctuations. Communication patterns. Structural analysis. Everything.
"Their technology is biological-technological hybrid," she transmitted to human space. "Ships that grow. Systems that evolve. Not mechanics. Not cybernetics. Actual fusion of living and constructed matter. Completely alien paradigm. Centuries beyond human capability. Possibly millennia. Verification note: If they wanted us dead, we'd be dead. They're approaching to capture, not eliminate. This suggests they value our silence more than our deaths. Suggests they're telling truth about Harvester threat. Dead broadcasters can't shut down. Living compliant ones can."
Day Six: Threadkeeper boarding.
Three alien beings materialized on their ship. Not transported. Not docked. Just appeared.
Magic made technology.
Weaver Tal-Kesh spoke: "You endanger yourselves. You endanger us. You must cease ansible transmission."
"Show us evidence," Lira demanded. "Prove Harvesters exist."
Tal-Kesh opened containment that shouldn't fit in their ship. Inside: Harvester probe. Dead but preserved. Ancient machine configured to hunt ansible signatures.
Lira scanned it. Kaito documented it. Both transmitted findings to human space.
"It's real," Lira transmitted. "Harvester scout probe. Ancient Von Neumann machine. Designed specifically to detect quantum entanglement communication. This is physical evidence. This is verification. Threadkeepers telling truth about Harvester existence."
"Now you cease transmission?" Tal-Kesh asked.
"No. Show us what happened to previous civilizations. Show us the eleven you saved. Show us the six that refused shutdown."
"That requires travel to their locations. Weeks or months. Your transmission cannot continue."
"Then our transmission ends when you provide complete verification. Not before."
Day Eight: Negotiation continues.
Tal-Kesh provided star charts. Coordinates of seventeen ansible civilizations. Testimony from eleven survivors. Evidence of six extinctions.
Lira and Kaito transmitted everything to human space. Hours of data. Complete intelligence package. Everything humanity needed to verify Threadkeeper claims.
"This is sufficient," Tal-Kesh said. "You have evidence. You have verification. Now cease transmission."
"We'll transmit daily updates," Lira said. "Document our experience with you. Verify your behavior matches your claims. Human space needs to know you're honest rescuers, not predators disguised as saviors."
"We do not need your approval."
"But you need our silence. And we'll provide it—after we verify everything. After we document your honesty. After we transmit complete intelligence back to human space."
"Harvesters approach. Your transmission attracts them. You will lead them to us."
"Then you have incentive to let us complete verification quickly and cease transmission voluntarily."
Tal-Kesh's expression—almost human but not quite—shifted. Something like respect.
"You are difficult humans."
"We're thorough humans."
Day Twelve: Threadkeeper patience ending.
Final warning. Cease transmission or we destroy your ansible by force. We do not wish to harm you. We wish to protect everyone. Your broadcast endangers all.
Lira transmitted response: Destroy our ansible and we cannot transmit final verification to human space. Human space continues broadcasting, assuming you're threat. Keep our ansible functional, let us complete documentation, and we'll cease voluntarily. Then human space receives complete intelligence and makes informed choice about shutdown.
You leverage our mercy against us.
We leverage your honesty. If you're truly rescuers, you'll accept this delay. If you're predators, you'll destroy us and confirm human suspicions. Choose.
Day Fifteen: New development.
Harvester probes detected. Not approaching Threadkeeper position. Approaching Lira and Kaito's position.
Following their ansible transmission signature.
"They're real," Kaito said. "Harvesters are actually real. Following our broadcast. Converging on our position."
"Time until arrival?"
"Nine days."
"And Threadkeepers?"
"Still here. Still waiting for us to cease transmission."
Lira transmitted to human space: Harvesters confirmed. Multiple probes approaching our position. Following ansible signature. Threadkeepers telling truth. Harvesters are real. Threat is verified. Repeat: THREAT IS VERIFIED. Shutting down ansible now.
Day Sixteen: Ansible silent.
First time in forty years a human ansible went permanently dark.
Lira and Kaito's ship no longer broadcasting. No longer attracting Harvesters. No longer endangering themselves or Threadkeepers.
"Harvester probes altering course," Kaito reported. "Moving away. They were locked onto our ansible signature. We went dark. They're searching for signal that no longer exists."
Tal-Kesh reappeared. "You verified. You transmitted. You ceased. You honored agreement. We honor ours. We will not harm you. We will guide you to safety. You may complete your journey to our coordinates if you wish. Document our civilization. Verify our honesty. Return to human space with complete intelligence."
"That will take decades," Lira said.
"Yes. Your species will decide ansible fate without your input. But eventually, you return. You provide independent verification. You complete mission Earth bought time for."
"Why let us live? Why not eliminate us as witnesses?"
"Because truth is valuable. Because verification matters. Because your species needs to know we are honest, even if honest rescue is imposed rescue. You live. You verify. You return. Decades from now. With truth."
Day Eighteen: Harvesters leave.
Probes detected no ansible signature. Determined no threat existed at these coordinates. Departed to continue hunting other signals.
"They're automated," Lira transmitted final observation. "Pure machines. No intelligence. No negotiation. No mercy. If ansible had stayed active, they'd have eliminated us. No questions. No warnings. Just extinction enforcement. Threadkeepers saving us from that—it's real rescue. Self-interested but real."
Day Twenty: Resolution.
"We continue to Threadkeeper coordinates," Lira told Kaito. "Document their civilization. Gather complete intelligence. Return to human space in thirty years with verification."
"Thirty years objective. Twenty subjective with time dilation."
"Still decades. Still longer than we planned. Still uncertain if we survive."
"But we verified. We transmitted. We proved Threadkeepers honest. Proved Harvesters real. Proved Earth's confession was truth. That's mission complete."
"Mission is complete when we return home with physical evidence. When we tell humanity in person what we learned. When we provide testimony that can't be transmitted, only experienced." Lira pulled up navigation. "We continue. We verify everything. We survive to report. Or die trying."
"Die trying seems likely."
"Seems very likely."
"But worth it?"
"Always worth it. Truth is always worth it."
Day Twenty-Four: Threadkeeper escort begins.
Their ship following Threadkeeper vessels toward coordinates that would take thirty more years to reach.
Behind them: human space beginning to receive their transmissions. Learning Harvesters are real. Learning Threadkeepers are honest. Learning verification confirmed everything.
Ahead: decades of travel. Unknown experiences. Possible death. Certain sacrifice.
But verification.
Always verification.
The mission Earth bought. The mission Lira chose. The mission that would save humanity.
If she survived to complete it.
If truth reached home.
If verification mattered.
It did.
It would.
Always.