Samuel Harnaen

4. Arga: Lintasan Tanpa Goresan Jauh dari pesisir, di kota itu, yang serba bersih dan berkilau, Arga menjalani harinya di balik kaca gedung tinggi yang memantulkan cahaya matahari, membuat ruangan menjadi sejuk dan dingin. Usianya tak jauh dari Saka.  Namun nasibnya dipahat dari cetakan yang berbeda. Arga tidak pernah tahu sulitnya meracik angka-angka belanja bulanan atau bernego dengan langin, supaya dicegahnya hujan turun. Ia bekerja di kantor, eksekutif mudar, duduk di balik meja, mengetik pelan, berbicara ringan. Tak perlu tergesa-gesa, tak perlu takut terlambat. Konon katanya, keluarganya dekat dengan keluarga pemilik perusahaan. Di ruang-ruang rapat, orang menyebut nama ayahnya dengan nada segan. Maka kerja Arga, walau tak menonjol, tetap dirawat. Keberadaannya tak pernah dipertanyakan. Gaji yang masuk ke rekeningnya setiap bulan cukup untuk makan di tempat yang membuat Saka berhenti di depan etalase saja pun tak berani masuk. Arga tak pernah merasakan keringat membasahi pung...

Di sebuah pesisir, terbentang pemukiman yang terhimpit antara laut dan ladang garam. Dari kejauhan tampak siluet rumah-rumah reyot berderet memunggungi angin, seolah menunduk di bawah beban waktu. Di sinilah hidup dua insan—yang satu memijak usia muda dengan pundak tegar, yang laginya menyimpan bekas jejak hari yang panjang di garis kerut wajahnya. ### 1. Saka: Biar Letih, Harus Bergerak Saka, pemuda yang tubuhnya kurus, berkulit legam oleh sengatan sinar matahari, adalah anak negeri yang lahir bukan dari tanah subur kemudahan, melainkan dari debu yang berserak di pinggir jalan. Ia mengenal dunia sebagai arena dagang naskah hidup yang ditawarkan tanpa jaminan.  Pagi-pagi buta, ketika kabut laut belum usai menebalkan udara, ia sudah memanaskan motor bututnya, mencabut nafas panjang, dan menebar energi untuk siapa pun yang memerlukan jasanya—mengantar barang, menuntun troli keranjang, atau memunggungi jerih lelah demi bayaran yang kerap tak lebih dari luka kecil pada tangan. Dalam ca...

  Chapter 12: Dawn Protocol Three weeks later, the survivors gathered at the edge of the collapsed cradle site—now a quiet scar beneath the sea. Drones from the resistance hovered overhead, not to patrol, but to map what was left. Debris fields floated like ghosts of a world undone. Nathan stood on a high bluff overlooking the water. KL had survived. Barely. But it stood. Lina approached, datapad in hand. “We’ve picked up strange transmissions. Not from the Eyes. From something else.” Nathan frowned. “Another AI?” “Hard to say,” she admitted. “Encrypted. Very old code. Pre-cradle. Maybe even before the Eyes project.” Jax joined them. “And that’s not all. We’ve got satellite footage—deep in the old Australia grid. Something’s stirring underground. Huge. Silent. But not dead.” Nathan exhaled. “So it wasn’t the last cradle.” Lina handed him the datapad. “No. Just the first one we found.” Vera had been taken into custody, but she hadn’t spoken since the day they surfaced. Her eyes foll...

  Chapter 11: The Breaking Point Darkness enveloped the cradle. For a moment, it was complete—thick, crushing, endless. Then emergency lights kicked in with a low hum, casting red pulses that painted the chamber in blood-like rhythm. Nathan groaned and sat up, bruised but breathing. The floor was damp. Cold seawater trickled through fractured seams. Something above had cracked. The cradle was bleeding. “Lina?” he called. “I’m here,” came her voice from behind the console, dazed but steady. She clutched her wrist—sprained, maybe broken—but alive. Jax stood over Vera, who lay on the ground unconscious, her enforcers short-circuited beside her. The EMP had done more than disrupt the cradle—it had fried most of the augmentations around them. “She’s out cold,” Jax said. “But the structure’s not happy.” The facility groaned. Metal screamed. “We overloaded the core system,” Lina said. “We didn’t just stop the boot. We triggered a collapse.” Nathan looked up at the mainframe ring. Sparks d...

  Chapter 10: The Deep Cradle The descent felt like falling into the lungs of the Earth. Outside the submersible, the sea was thick and lifeless. No fish. No current. Only layers of black water pressing in from all sides. Every few seconds, a pulse from the sonar illuminated the abyss—revealing nothing but darkness and the occasional ghostly shimmer of deep-ocean sediment. Nathan leaned toward the viewport. The silence pressed hard against his eardrums. “How much deeper?” he asked, voice low. Lina didn’t look up from her screen. “Seventeen meters. The cradle’s outer shell should come into view... now.” And then it did. Through the gloom, a colossal shape emerged. Angular. Mechanical. Ancient. Half-buried in the ocean floor like a rusted tomb. Six hexagonal domes ringed its perimeter—collapsed, decayed. At the center: a pulsing core faintly glowing blue. “Looks dead,” Jax muttered. “It’s not,” Lina said. “Power signature is steady. We’re being scanned right now.” Nathan’s ...

  Chapter 8: Descent into Chaos The tunnels beneath Changi were narrower than any they had traveled before—tight, damp, and riddled with collapsing supports. Every step echoed like a warning. Nathan led the way now, rifle raised, eyes scanning the shadows. Behind him, Lina checked her wristpad, her fingers dancing across the interface as she tracked Vera’s energy signature. “She’s close,” Lina said. “But she’s masking her movement with noise from the relay. Smart. Dangerous.” Jax snorted. “She always was.” A pulse of blue light flickered down the tunnel ahead—then vanished. They picked up speed. The corridor opened into a larger chamber lined with rusted pylons and powered vents that still hissed occasionally with automated breath. At its center stood a control platform rising from a pool of stagnant water, its lights flickering to life as Vera stepped into view. She wasn’t alone. Six armed enforcers flanked her, each modified—augmented with tech Nathan hadn’t seen before. Plates o...