Whispers from the Abyss

In the year 2237 by Earth's calendar, human civilization detected a stream of signals deep within the Laniakea Supercluster that defied the laws of physics. The event was named “Abyssal Whispers.” Lin Qi, a soldier from the old era who had spent a century asleep after an accident during an “Consciousness Anchoring” experiment, awakens to find himself accused of being a potential “source of contamination” responsible for the disaster. To prove his innocence and uncover the truth, he volunteers to board humanity's most advanced starship, the Fuxi, and head for the heart of the event. But as the investigation deepens, a truth that overturns everything comes to light: humanity's “Spark” consciousness-uploading program is no evolutionary leap, but a targeted consciousness-contamination campaign against the entire universe, originating from a Level Four civilization. In the universe's dark forest, the deadliest weapon is not a planet-destroying cannon, but a fundamental axiom quietly altered. “When every civilization believes consciousness can exist apart from matter, they have already been imprisoned forever in a cage of energy.” And Lin Qi is both the key to that cage and the lock that opens it.